RealClearSports: Roddick Surrenders to Father Time

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK — He was the kid who grew into a man, the guy with the big serve who never gave in or rarely gave out. Andy Roddick beat them all through the years except Father Time. And so for American tennis, it is now game, set and matchless.

On his 30th birthday, Thursday, Roddick announced he would retire after this U.S. Open. After he plays one more match, Friday night against Bernard Tomic of Australia. Or if he wins, and who wouldn’t hope he wins, a match or three after that.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Roddick Bids Farewell to His 20s

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- What does age matter in the great scheme? One day you're 29. The next you're 30. Maybe the brief step is difficult to accept psychologically, although for Andy Roddick that would seem improbable.

But it doesn't make much difference how you play the game, on the court or off.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Of Suspensions and Racing Yachts

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — What do expect? We've got Napa Valley to the north and Silicon Valley to the south. We've got a billionaire, Larry Ellison, who couldn't buy the Golden State Warriors, so he bought the Hawaiian island of Lanai.

Are you surprised it seems like virtually everybody who plays ball around here has been suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs?

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Augusta Makes The Inevitable Decision

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

At its core, golf is one of the clearest and fairest of sports. Each swing counts a stroke. No umpire is needed as in baseball, no referee as in football.

The problem wasn't the game but rather the surroundings, the bigotry, the exclusion at certain courses because of race or religion. Or, as at Augusta National, gender.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports.com: Giants Will Collapse Without Cabrera

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — Nobody died. The terse adage is offered frequently as perspective for sporting disappointment. And for the San Francisco Giants and their disillusioned fans, that's true.

If you don't count dreams. Or hopes, both of which have expired.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Debate Rages Over Strasburg Shutdown

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — So in a while, a couple of weeks probably, Stephen Strasburg won't be allowed to pitch. But that's the future. For the present, he's still active, and today he's going for the Nationals against the Giants.

That's why Tuesday night's win by the Giants over Washington was important. "Huge,'' said Bruce Bochy, San Francisco's manager. The Nats were 4-0 against the Giants. And Monday night, they crushed San Francisco, 14-2.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Global Golf Post: Raining, Snarling And Chomping

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA — It was a great PGA Championship if you liked traffic jams, thunderstorms and alligators eating CBS microphones.

Maybe not quite as great for those waiting for Tiger Woods to win that 15th major, but as Woods himself said even before the first weather warning was posted, he's got another 10 years or so to catch Jack Nicklaus.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: Daly: Memories, Regret and a 68

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — The name blows out of the past on the warm wind, whipping up memories and regret.

John Daly is high on a scoreboard in a major, and we are confronted with the joy and pain — mostly pain — of a career that spun out of control. Of a career that is a curiosity.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Phil Bought a Team, So Will Tiger?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Were those raindrops pounding down on the media tent, drowning out Tiger Woods' voice? Or, the way Woods rolled his eyes in bewilderment at the sound, were they coins of his realm, silver dollars, 50-cent pieces or quarters?

We had gone past Tiger’s monthly disappointments and possibilities, the same items invoked almost every time he sits down in front of the journalists and behind a microphone.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: When Baseball Teams Give Up

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

It's a business. That inescapable point has been drummed into us as long as there have been professional sports. At no time, however, does the idea become as apparent as that tidy little period at the end of July, baseball's trading deadline.

Teams in contention desperately go after the player or players they believe will make them champions. Teams out of contention basically throw up their arms and throw out their stars, although nobody involved ever would concede they, well, have conceded. Even though it's obvious they have.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Five Rings of Empty Seats, Empty Heads

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

There were empty seats in London, and as the world of Twitter would have it, empty heads at NBC.

A young female swimmer from China did what an American coach said is impossible, making us wonder whether she was on something illegal or he merely was on a vindictive crusade.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Angry at Paterno - and Ourselves

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

Are we angry at our own ignorance? Or at those who made us aware of what we didn't know?

It was Hollywood stuff, a paperback novel, the descent of the man whose statue has been carted away like that of a toppled dictator, the crash of a man who virtually had wings.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Did Adam Scott Really Choke?

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By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — The word was everywhere, making a bad situation worse, as if what happened to Adam Scott the final day of the British Open, the final holes of the British Open, could be worse.

Scott not only lost the Open, blew the Open, came in second to Ernie Els, but was being branded a “choke,’’ and there’s nothing more demeaning in sports, nothing more damaging.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

Global Golf Post: Amid What's Wrong, The Open Has It Right

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By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, ENGLAND -- Oh, woe is England. Pickpocketing and shoplifting are on the increase. "Shameful" -- that's what the headline said -- civil servants planned to strike Heathrow Airport as Olympic Games traffic reached a peak.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

Newsday (N.Y.): Triple bogey undoes Tiger Woods' hopes

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- The game plan, Tiger Woods said, was to shoot under par going out. Instead, with a triple-bogey 7 on the sixth hole after landing in one of Royal Lytham & St. Annes' steep and evil bunkers, he shot himself in the foot.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Brandt Snedeker charges to lead at British Open; Tiger Woods 4 back

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- Brandt Snedeker tied a British Open scoring record Friday, sat down in the media tent and true to his hang-loose character insisted, "I'm sure everybody in the room is in about as much shock as I am right now.''

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Adam Scott shoots 64, leads British Open

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By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England -- When the U.S. basketball team arrived for the Olympics, there was frequent use of the words "Dream Team'' in the British papers. That phrase also would be a proper description of the leader board after Thursday's first round of the 141st British Open.

Read the full story.

Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.