RealClearSports: Cespedes a Star in Any Language

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. — He still needs a translator, which is our problem, not his. That so far Yoenis Cespedes is limited to Spanish in his conversations or interviews doesn't matter when he steps to the plate. The bat proves multilingual and very effective.

Cespedes is the Cuban defector whom the Oakland Athletics signed to a four-year, $36 million contract in February. He has had a strained hand muscle and a strained hamstring, which made some people wonder about his body. They don't have to worry about his baseball.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Time for Timmy to just pitch

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It has to end sometime, doesn’t it, this Tim Lincecum agony? There have been pitchers who mysteriously lost their accuracy or their speed, Steve Blass back in the ’70s, Rick Ankiel not so long ago, but they didn’t win two Cy Young Awards. Then again ...

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Clemens' Attorney Throws High, Hard Ones

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Maybe the federal government will figure it out now. Lawsuits are like sporting events. The team with the talent, the high-priced guys, invariably wins. Meaning in this situation, the opposition.

Author and onetime sports writer Paul Gallico told us long ago that while the battle isn't always to the strong and the race to the swift, it's still a good way to bet.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

The Oregonian: Casey Martin narrowly misses cut, turns attention toward former teammate Tiger Woods

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By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian

SAN FRANCISCO -- His round and tournament were over, so Casey Martin shifted from player to spectator.

An hour and a half after completing the second round of the U.S. Open, he walked to Olympic Club's first hole, the one atop the San Andreas Fault, and stood nearby as Tiger Woods began his round.

Read the full story here.

© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved

RealClearSports: Bubba, Phil Bit Players to Tiger

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Phil and Bubba? Bit players in this drama. Cameo roles. The Magnificent Three was in truth a Majority of One. The first round of the 2012 U.S. Open on Thursday became the domain of Tiger Woods.

In three days the whole tournament may belong to Tiger Woods.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: 'Old Tiger' on the prowl, brings thrill to Olympic

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The guy with him, the Masters champ, the one who shot a — heh, heh — cool 8-over 78, said after getting up close, if not personal, “That was the old Tiger. That was beautiful to watch.”

Still an endorsement from Bubba Watson, while not unappreciated, didn’t have Tiger Woods enthralled.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

The Oregonian: 'Nervous' Casey Martin enjoys warm welcome in first round

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By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian

SAN FRANCISCO -- The description from Casey Martin was "pretty loud." The reference was to the electric green golf shirt he wore Thursday in the first round of the U.S. Open. It could have applied to the gallery response at every hole.

"I thought the galleries were great in '98," he said of the previous Open at Olympic Club, when he made history by riding his golf cart through four rounds. "And they were really wonderful today. Really supportive. So it was a special day. I'm thankful I played decently, but man it's a stress out there."

Read the full story here.

© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved

SF Examiner: Lake course has seen many broken dreams

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The U.S. Open is a movable feast, shifting from the old golf world to the new and then back again. It is a carnival of emotion and tradition that is both a national championship and regional reflection.

The Super Bowl and World Series are big-city spectaculars. The Masters never wanders from the red-clay country of southeast Georgia. But the Open has been played in the middle of Ohio and along the Gulf Coast of Texas, on the eastern edge of Long Island and now once more on the headlands above the Pacific, in the golden city by the Golden Gate.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

The Oregonian: For Casey Martin, the course, the practice partner and the hoopla are familiar

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By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's different now, but it's very much the same. Casey Martin is back at the Olympic Club, back in the Open, back playing practice rounds with Tiger Woods. Fourteen years have passed, and yet it seems time has stood still.

Another U.S. Open at Olympic, the place known as the graveyard of legends, because it is where Ben Hogan lost to Jack Fleck and Arnold Palmer lost to Billy Casper.

Read the full story here.

© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved

RealClearSports: Phil Playing with Tiger? Fabulous

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO – We’ve been waiting for this, waiting for the matchup of Tiger, Phil and Bubba, waiting for golf’s great examination coming once more to America’s favorite city, waiting for birdies and bogeys by the Golden Gate.

The U.S. Open, a magical tournament, to be played starting Thursday at a course, fascinating, Olympic Club, where magic is always in the air, wafting like the afternoon breeze, engulfing like the fog off the Pacific.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Miller regrets missing Olympic in his prime

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was the kid from The City, 19 years old and confident in his golf. But when the 1966 U.S. Open was set for his home course, the Olympic Club, he was so pessimistic about his chances of qualifying he didn’t even sign up a caddy.

In the end, the only bag Johnny Miller carried was his own, from the car to the rack outside the pro shop. A BYU student at the time, Miller managed to grab the last qualifying spot for the Open during an event in Utah. The legend had started.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Does McIlroy have what it takes to go Back-to-Back?

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

There’s always someone emphasizing the negative, someone reluctant to acknowledge success, someone who looks at what Rory McIlroy did in last year’s U.S. Open, lapping the field as it were, and suggests the course wasn’t that difficult or the other golfers went about things improperly.

Who cares? Maybe Congressional Country Club outside Washington, D.C., was too wet and too wide to provide a perfect Open test. Maybe the rest of the pros ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

PGATour.com: Fabled Olympic Club boasts mist, myths and memories

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By Art Spander
Special to PGATour.com

It is a place of mist, myth and memories, some wonderful, some not. The Olympic Club was where Ben Hogan walked away in defeat, Ty Cobb stomped off in anger and numerous people less famous but no less fortunate spend hours stacking up dominoes, knocking in putts and tossing down drinks.

Olympic, where for a fifth time America’s golfing championship, the U.S. Open, will be played June 14-17, represents San Francisco in the extreme, with plenty of history and humor compressed into a magnificent Spanish-style clubhouse and onto two wonderful courses.

Read the full story here.

©2003-2012 PGA/Turner Sports Interactive. All rights reserved.

RealClearSports: Golf's Big 3 and Memories of Ty Cobb

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The word was out, drifting across Olympic Club, like the fog that was coming in off the Pacific: Tiger, Bubba and Phil in the same grouping for the U.S. Open. The huge merchandise tent had been unlocked about 10 a.m. Thursday. And now so was the secret.

They've figured it out at the U.S. Golf Association. Blind draw? Tiger Woods here, Phil Mickelson there? That was the old days, when the USGA wanted some pretense of equality and fairness.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Truly open tournament gives everyone a shot

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Fourteen years ago, Willie Brown, then the mayor, was saying, “The U.S. Open is wonderful. It’s a $150 million boon to San Francisco, and being the center of golf worldwide for a week — that can’t hurt.”

Fourteen years ago, Phil Mickelson was tying for 10th and Tiger Woods for 18th.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: 2 Golfers Find Their Dreams

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- James Hahn was playing on adrenaline. Michael Allen was working on a 30-year-old dream. In that all-day ordeal called U.S. Open sectional qualifying, each found success and a place in America's golf championship.

A total of 130 players competed for seven places over 36 holes, 18 apiece at Lake Merced and Harding Park, both within view of Olympic Club, up a low hill, where the 112th Open will be held next week.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Reasons for Skepticism in Sports

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

"Go ahead and say it,'' advised the commissioner of the NBA, David Stern. "Conspiracy theory."

But why? We already believe it, so we'd be preaching to the choir, ourselves, the biggest group of skeptics this side of the Facebook IPO underwriters.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: Giants on right trajectory

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By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The season is far from ideal. There’s that Timmy thing, and the Los Angeles Dodgers are still in front of the division. But now the Giants have hitting and speed, and with the season still four months from conclusion, they very well could finish where everyone thought they would: in first.

Melky Cabrera breaking a record by Willie Mays — and who ever imagined those names would be linked?

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company