Will Giants be end of Ricky Romero’s long road?

By Art Spander

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — There were days when Ricky Romero would sit and wonder, “Why me?” Why someone in his prime, someone so skilled, someone “so dedicated and passionate about the game of baseball,” as he described himself, would suddenly have his body fail him and send him crashing not just out of the majors but out of the game.

He was the sixth overall pick in the 2005 draft, from Cal State Fullerton, and in six years an All-Star for the Toronto Blue Jays. So perfect an arc for anyone, especially a kid from the barrio, from East Los Angeles. A lefthanded pitcher, and you know how valuable they are.

In his late 20s the value diminished. An elbow ache. He compensated by trying to drive harder off the mound, and both knees — sore from running the stadium steps to get in shape — went bad.       

As did his ERA, ballooning to 5.77 in 2012 from 2.92 the previous year. He underwent surgery on each knee. And struggled. Although he had $8 million coming, in 2014 the Jays sent him to Triple A Buffalo. He was pounded in two starts and cut.

“I asked myself, am I just going to sit here and feel sorry for myself or am I going to go to work and do what I have to do?” Romero remembered. “There were a lot of rehab days where I said, ‘This is it. I’m just tired of being in pain.’ Then finally the Giants called. They said, ‘We don’t want you ready for this year (2015). We want you ready for next year.’ I thought, let’s do it.”

Next year arrived on a humid, 84-degree afternoon Saturday at Scottsdale Stadium. For the first time in two years Romero pitched against major leaguers. He started the Giants’ Cactus League game against the Texas Rangers, went 1 2/3 innings and although allowing a hit and two walks didn’t give up a run.

Eventually the Giants would be beaten by Texas, 7-5, before a sellout crowd of 11,351. Yet that seemed unimportant. Romero was not. “This was a big day for him,” affirmed Bruce Bochy, the Giants’ manager.

“This,” said Bochy, “has been a long road for him.”

Where it leads is impossible to suggest. Does Romero regain the dominance of the past, at the least find a spot in the rotation of the Giants’ AAA affiliate in Sacramento and then, when and if someone on the San Francisco staff falters or is hurt, move up to the big club? Or does he never make it back to the majors?

“Look at his track record,” said Bochy, an unrelenting optimist. “You can tell he’s got experience just by his poise and how he pitches.”

This comeback hardly is a lark for Romero. He misses the game, misses the clubhouse, misses the feeling of making a contribution. At 31, he doesn’t need the money. He needs the acceptance.

“At this point in my career,” said Romero,” there’s no pressure. I’ve been through it with injuries. Whatever happens, happens because of the work that I put in. I think I did a pretty good job of that. Just to be part of this team, with a coaching staff like this, is pretty cool.”

The knee is healthy. The outlook is healthy. Time and patience were necessary. Obviously a team like the Giants, with pitching depth, a perceptive front office and a large budget, had the smarts and wherewithal to go about it in a proper manner.

“I’m being smart about certain things,” said Romero. “I’m not 23 years old anymore. It’s been a process. After I signed here, I still was rehabbing. I showed up on the minor league side. They saw me play catch for the first time. They’re like, you’re not going on any mound yet, even though I had thrown live batting practice in Toronto.

“So I took a step back. This ain’t a race I had to get back into the year I signed.”

Now the race is underway again.

“My agent asked me over the winter if I wanted to go back with the Giants,” said Romero. “I said, 'If they want me back.' They did the job helping me get healthy. If I can help them in whatever way, I will help them. You might be the guy they call up. These guys are winning for a reason.”

Ricky Romero can only wish he’s part of that reason.

Greatness of the A's lives on in Mesa

By Art Spander

MESA, Ariz. — Spring training is supposed to be about the future, about preparation for the season ahead. And while the Oakland Athletics are no less diligent than any other major league team in that assignment, so much here at their home ballpark, Hohokam Stadium, is about a glorious past.

Along the main concourse that leads from the entrance to the stands are posted huge photo murals of former A’s greats, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, the late Catfish Hunter and others, memories of the championship years, of the last franchise in baseball to win three World Series in succession.

So far away, and these days apparently so unattainable. In 2015, the A’s had the worst record in the American League. Such a contrast to the success reflected in the photos. Still, this is the time of hope and optimism in baseball. And on Friday afternoon, with the A's 9-4 winners over the Colorado Rockies, there was a great deal of both.

Now in his sixth year as manager of the A’s, Bob Melvin sees last year as an aberration, a failure unusual for the organization, a failure created by an obscenely high number of injuries.

“We were in the postseason three years in a row, so last year did not sit well with anybody who’s still here,” said Melvin. “Look at the injuries we had to the guys who were performing well. We’re completely redoing our bullpen, which was a big issue for us. So we didn’t feel like we were that far off.”

Melvin is 54, a onetime catcher from Cal whose career began with Detroit and continued with the Giants. “My first day at Candlestick Park in 1986,” recalled Melvin, “and Willie Mays (coaching) and Willie McCovey have the lockers on either side of me.” If that wouldn’t intimidate a young player, nothing would.

The trades by A’s GM Billy Beane are just another issue, part of the job. Melvin managed the Diamondbacks to first place in the National League West in 2006, then did the same thing with the A’s in the AL West in 2012 and 2013.

“We didn’t feel we were that far off,” said Melvin about the current A’s. “Shore up a couple areas, and we feel we’ll be a lot better.”

The area where the A’s were supreme was pitching, and Melvin, hardly alone in the dugout or the clubhouse, was enthralled with the performance of Sean Manaea, the lefthander Oakland obtained last July from Kansas City who was making his first start. It was impressive.

Manaea went two innings, allowed one hit and struck out four.

“Up to 97,” said Melvin, “throwing four changeups in a row, which is kind of his work-on pitch to get a strikeout, breaking balls, two-seamer (fastball), four-seamer. We were impressed with him before, but even more so right now.”

Manaea is from Indiana State, Larry Bird’s school. Maybe he can’t hit 20-foot jumpers, but he can hit the corners of the plate. He did miss the first baseman on a pickoff, but that didn’t bother Melvin, who said, “He likes to throw over, and he had him off balance, he would have picked him off.

“When you see a young kid like that trying to perfect his game, something we talked about early in camp, the little things to get yourself ready, get better every day, it’s definitely impressive.”

So the A’s have pitching, they believe. They also have hitting. Franklin Barreto, who was with Stockton in the Cal League last season, homered as a pinch hitter. “Didn’t take him time to get going,” said Melvin.

Asked if it were a surprise, Melvin said, “No. When you watch him take batting practice, watch him go about his business here, he knows what he’s doing. When he steps up like that, first time up, that was...”

That was what's making the A’s impatient for this season and beyond. Khris Davis, picked up only a couple weeks ago in a trade, had a double and three runs batted in.

“We’re always optimistic here,” said Melvin.

Just keep looking at those photos of the good old days. If the A’s could do it then, certainly they could do it now.

Peavy: No reason to be embarrassed or disgusted

By Art Spander

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The question didn’t seem to bother Jake Peavy as much as it surprised him. The Giants pitcher had given up six runs and nine hits in under two innings, in his first start of spring training. The Milwaukee Brewers had gone whap, whap and, with Chris Carter’s homer, whump.

And so someone (blush!) had the temerity to ask Peavy whether he was embarrassed or disgusted. Peavey almost couldn’t believe what he had heard.

“I’m not embarrassed or disgusted,” he said. “There’s no reason to be. I gave up six runs in a spring training game. There were some balls hit hard, and a ball that was almost an out. The results weren’t good, but that’s part of spring training.”

A glorious time of year, spring training, part myth, part standing in line at Don & Charlie’s restaurant. The next year we’ve waited for has arrived, if only as Baseball Light, when the games don’t count and even after his team gets whipped 8-7, as happened to the Giants on Thursday, the manager can offer a few virtual shrugs and a couple of casual comments.

“In Arizona,” said Bruce Bochy of the Giants, “if you don’t get the ball where you want it, you’re in trouble.”

Jake Peavy, although fully healthy, did not and was. Well, was in trouble if you consider getting hammered, those six runs, nine hits in 1 2/3 innings, trouble. And neither Peavy, two months from his 35th birthday, or Bochy tended to think along those lines.

Maybe in 20 games, maybe when April is close, it will be different. But, insisted Peavy, not the first game, when you’re trying to get your fastball over and nothing else matters. Which is why they’re called exhibition games, even dolled up with the Cactus League label (in Florida, it's the Grapefruit League).

Peavy, in the bigs since 2002, came to the Giants in 2014 by way of, in chronological order, the Padres, White Sox and Red Sox. He helped San Francisco win a pennant and World Series, but he had hip and back problems early in 2015 and didn’t do much until late in the season. He wasn’t going to overwork himself in the winter and reinjure himself. This February and March is for getting into shape and getting into the groove. If possible.

“Because I’m experienced,” said Peavy, “I was excited to get to pitch today.” It was only the Giants' second game of the spring, and a home game, before a heavily partisan crowd of 8,355 at Scottsdale Stadium.

 “But it wasn’t like I was trying to win the seventh game of the World Series.”

What he was trying to do, unsuccessfully, was find out what was wrong with his basic pitch, the one on which his whole repertoire depends, the fastball. Everything seemed fine in bullpen sessions, but against the Brewers, against batters, Peavy couldn’t throw the thing where he wanted.

“My fastball is everything,” he explained. “If I’m not throwing the fastball where I want to throw it — well, everything works off my fastball, the cutter (cut-fastball), curves, changeups. So I kept throwing it.” And from the first batter in the box for Milwaukee, Eric Young, who singled to right, the Brewers kept hitting it.

Pitching is where the Giants live, although they did hit well in 2015. Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija — the last two signed as free agents in December — Matt Cain and Peavy are supposed to keep the opponents off the bases and San Francisco in race. So even in exhibitions, even in early March, even the least important situation becomes very important. Or one would surmise.

“I love our rotation,” said Peavy, unsure where he’ll fit in that rotation, but pointing out that depth cannot be underestimated. Peavy’s reputation is that of a man dominant in the early innings, then fading in the seventh or eighth.

“I feel quite a bit stronger all over,” said Peavy. “I’m refreshed. If you plan on playing a full season you’ve got to be smarter. I’m not going look today like I will at the end of the month.”

There are no scouting reports for exhibition games. The pitcher throws, the batter swings. And each keeps in mind what might happen if and when they face each other in the regular season.

In the top of the first, Carter came up with two runs in and a runner on third. He drove the ball over the right centerfield fence.

“I’m not going to throw Chris Carter a breaking ball,” said Peavy. “I may have to face him in a huge situation this year. You try to get ahead of a hitter. If you don’t, you better spot the ball. Arizona (with the elevation and dry air) is not the most fun place to do that, but it makes you a better pitcher.”

Better, one would think, than he was on Thursday.

Football made Samardzija appreciate baseball

By Art Spander

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — He was a football player, a very good one too, a receiver who set records at that most famous of football schools, Notre Dame. But Jeff Samardzija also played baseball, and he said perhaps the sport everyone thought he would choose as a pro provided the reason for the one he actually selected.

“Maybe playing football,” said Samardzija, “gave me an appreciation for pitching.”

He is a thinker, Samardzija, a fireballer. And Wednesday, in the Cactus League opener for the Giants, with whom last December he signed a $90 million, five-year contract, he did both, thinking and throwing.

Then, after the Giants’ 4-1 win over the Angels, Samardzija did a great deal of talking.

He threw 32 pitches in two innings, allowed a run and a hit, walked four.

Exactly as he would have wanted, a game in which he had to work, had to use his guile as well as his power.

“Trying not to do anything stupid,” said Samardzija, who didn’t.

An exhibition but hardly meaningless, at least not to Samardzija. Or to the Giants’ main man, Buster Posey, who insisted upon starting so he could get in synch with the new guy — and vice versa. An exhibition, but also an opportunity to learn.

“Buster is so cerebral,” said Samardzija. “He took the load off my shoulders. This was a great first day.”

Great because after four to five months of inactivity, the 31-year-old Samardzija was on a mound. And, in a way, on a soapbox. “I was OK putting the first guy on,” he said. “Even the second guy. I had to work out of something.”

Which he didn’t, since Angels catcher Carlos Perez, who led off with a double, eventually scored on a sacrifice fly after two walks. But Samardzija said he’ll get the ball down in the next game.

“I didn’t mind the first walk,” he said. “Didn’t want to walk the second one. Like pitching in the late innings, I had work out a situation there. It was good to get this one out of the way.”

Spring baseball is viewed differently from the dugout or clubhouse than it is from the stands, where more than 8,000 were crowded, dining, drinking, laughing and, when San Francisco got a home run from Conor Gillaspie in the third and then three fours in the sixth, cheering. 

When someone told Posey, who had one swing, one single and two innings behind the plate, that Samardzija wasn’t “just going through the motions,” Buster was happy. “Glad to hear him say that,” offered Posey of Samardzija. “Otherwise it’s a waste of time.”

Posey had faced Samardzija infrequently when Jeff was with the Cubs, Athletics and White Sox. The Cubs, who sent him to Oakland for young shortstop Addison Russell, tried to sign him again as a free agent last winter, but Samardzija decided on the Giants.

He spoke of the great charge-and-throw defensive play made by Kelby Tomlinson on the Angels with runners on in the top of the second. Tomlinson was at short, in place of All-Star Brandon Crawford, who was the Giants’ designated hitter. And Tomlinson is a second baseman, although he was a shortstop in this game.

“It’s not a coincidence they have a guy like Tomlinson who can step in,” said Samardzija. “That’s because of the organization. You understand why they’ve won.”

Samardzija didn’t dislike football. He simply enjoys the day-to-day pace of baseball. In football, he said, there’s a week between games. In baseball, there’s 24 hours.

Some time ago, in the late 1950s, Pat Richter was a multi-sport letterman for the University of Wisconsin and faced the same choice as Samardzija. The general manager of the Dodgers, trying to persuade Richter to sign with them, reportedly asked him, “What do you want, kid? A bonus or a limp?” Richter went to the NFL.

Unlike Samardzija.

“I love baseball,” said Samardzija. “I like talking about it. I like playing it.”

Assuming he plays it well, the Giants will love Samardzija. Maybe they already do.

Newsday (N.Y.): Dodgers coach Bob Geren looks at Chase Utley slide from other side now

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

GLENDALE, Ariz. — This wasn’t exactly joining the enemy. Baseball people change teams and uniforms all the time. And yet ... “Yes,” acknowledged Bob Geren, “one of the players said to me, ‘Now that you’re on the other side ... ’ ’’

Neither the player nor Geren had to finish. He knew. Everybody knows.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Joe Maddon’s Cubs have score to settle with Mets

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

MESA, Ariz. — Joe Maddon believes in time-tested methods and items. His transportation is a ’76 Dodge Tradesman van. His spectacles are horn-rimmed, popularized in the 1960s. And, not unlike most major-league manager, he understands great pitching is the essence of baseball.

As was confirmed in last year’s National League Championship Series by the Mets against Maddon’s Cubs.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

The Sports Xchange: Watson wins Northern Trust with two late birdies

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — For Bubba Watson, it was two weeks filled with trouble, with joy and finally with yet another victory in the Northern Trust Open, his second in the Los Angeles-area event in three years.

With birdies Sunday on the 16th and 17th holes at Riviera Country Club, Watson overcame a one-shot deficit to win by one stroke.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Bubba leads by 1 at Riviera

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — One moment Jason Kokrak was in front of the Northern Trust Open. Then it was Chez Reavie. When the third round came to a close, it was Bubba Watson.

Two-time Masters champion Watson, who won this tournament in 2014, shot a 4-under par 67 on Saturday at Riviera Country Club to take a one-stroke lead over Kokrak (70), Reavie (69) and Dustin Johnson (68) with a 54-hole total of 12-under 201.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Kokrak leads Northern Trust after two rounds

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The PGA Tour chooses to describe golfers' skills with a tidy phrase: These guys are good.

That might be an understatement. As the leaderboard of the Northern Trust Open verifies, these guys are fantastic.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Villegas shoots 63, leads Northern Trust by three

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Bubba Watson warned of the dangers that can befall a golfer at Riviera Country Club. 

"This place will bite you," Watson said. 

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2016 The Sports Xchange 

Global Golf Post: Young Players, Celebs Revive Pebble Beach

By Art Spander
Global Golf Post

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA — His legacy lives on the bluffs above Carmel Bay, flourishes in the comfortable tavern called the Tap Room. Bing Crosby is a name out of the past and yet into the future. The new kids on the block, the millenials, may know know of the man, but they do know his golf tournament.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2016 Global Golf Post

The Sports Xchange: Taylor gets 'magical' win at Pebble Beach

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It would have been a great story if Phil Mickelson had won. It might be an even better story because Vaughn Taylor did win.

Golf, as tennis, is built on personality, recognition, and certainly, success. Mickelson is famous, beloved even, and at 45 is in the final stages of an excellent career. He hadn't finished first in two-and-a-half years, and after he came so close in this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, just missing a five-foot putt on the final green which would have forced a playoff, you can wonder if he'll ever again finish first.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Mickelson up 2 at Pebble after 66

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — Phil Mickelson always was the most cooperative man on the PGA Tour, amiable, informative.

When Mickelson was called "Lefty," it wasn't only because of the manner he swung a golf club but a term of endearment, an appreciation of his style, easy going, helpful, a nicknamed you'd give your best friend.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Mickelson one behind Kang, Iwata at Pebble Beach

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's not exactly Augusta National. Or the neighbor around the bend, Pebble Beach. Rather, Monterey Peninsula Country Club, one of the three courses used for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, is just exactly what the name implies, a club course, but it's an appealing one that curls around the edge of Monterey Bay and wists through shore-side dunes.

There are great views of water and mountains, and holes that mid-to-high handicappers are able to enjoy. Holes that the pros, when they're on their games as Sung Kang and Phil Mickelson definitely were Friday in the second round, take apart.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

The Sports Xchange: Reavie claims lead at Pebble Beach

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The words hit Chez Reavie as hard as he might hit a five-iron.

For weeks, he continued to play the PGA Tour, absorbing the pain in his left wrist and, to use a cliche, gutting it out.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2016 The Sports Xchange

Jordan Spieth fills the room

By Art Spander

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The room, the interview room for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, had been chock-a-block full. Then Jordan Spieth was finished, and even though another major champion was ready to sit down, most of the media also were finished. Jason Day, the new guy, only shrugged at what at best was disregard and at worst an insult.

But first Day showed he had a sense of humor. “I think Jake Owen pulled most of those people in here,” said Day about Spieth’s amateur partner, the country and western singer — and two handicap golfer. Then after a pause, Day added a rhetorical, “Didn’t he?”

Certain performers, athletes, entertainers and politicians have the “it factor," charisma, a quality that, well, fills rooms, TV screens, front pages and their bank accounts. Not that Jason Day, one of the top three in the World Golf Rankings, hasn’t made the big bucks. What he and many others haven’t made is the big splash.

Arnold Palmer was the first and perhaps still the most memorable. Arnie was just a guy who liked people and could hit a ball a mile. And that’s what golf needed, still needs, because golf has no team loyalty.

Thousands of people can make birdies. Arnie made us pay attention, pay homage. So did Jack Nicklaus. And certainly Tiger Woods. And now Jordan Spieth.

And if Spieth isn't yet Tiger as far as history — Woods has more wins than anybody besides Sam Snead, more majors than anybody besides Nicklaus — or in personality, Jordan is heading in the right direction as far as results. His personality always has been sunnier than Tiger's.

Two majors in 2015 for Spieth, seven victories before age 25. But no less important, confidence without a scintilla of arrogance and an ability to give long, thoughtful answers to questions, a rare virtue in a hurried, impatient world.

“It doesn’t worry me,” said Day of the people fleeing before his interview. “It just needs, it just shows I need to work harder, and hopefully a couple more people will fill the room after that.” Unfortunately, it’s not so easy. Or understandable.

A star isn’t always born or developed. The progression begins with talent. Lady Gaga’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner to open the Super Bowl was an event unto itself. She already had a reputation, a career, then left us with a memory. Perfect timing, the biggest event of any year in the United States and wham, she left us gasping. Wow.

As did Spieth, already heading toward greatness by becoming only the third in a half-century, next to Arnie and Jack, to start the year with wins in both the Masters and the U.S. Open. He gave the Grand Slam a run, just missing a playoff in the British. Wow.

We used to call Tiger “The Man.” Spieth, then, is “The Man II.” Although he appears embarrassed by the comparison. To Spieth, at 22, fundamentally half as old as the 40-year-old Tiger, Woods is an inspiration, not an association.

His climb into the No. 1 place in the rankings, a position long held by Woods and more recently by Rory McIlroy and Day, is seen by Spieth as an opportunity rather than verification.

It isn’t “Hey, look at me,” it’s “You know what I’ve been able to do?”

Such as play against Woods, and even shoot 63 on the North Course at Torrey Pines, in 2014. Such as being introduced to one man he long has admired from his hometown Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki.

“I grew up living half a mile from him,” said Spieth of the 2007 NBA most valuable player, “and he was my hero growing up in Dallas. I never met him. The other day I got to take pictures and hang out with him. And I thought that was pretty awesome. I wouldn’t say that’s probably an advantage to the position we’re in, but with (the No.1 ranking) it becomes a responsibility for sure.”

The key in life, we’re told, is to take your job and responsibilities seriously, but not yourself. Spieth has full comprehension. He can needle and joke with others, unworried what they might say in response.

Owen, the singer, sitting next to Spieth, said Colt Knost, another Texas pro — and winner of the 2007 U.S. Amateur at San Francisco’s Olympic Club — told him, “When Jordan talks to the ball, the ball listens to him.”

In Singapore, Spieth hits a ball to the edge of a bunker, yells, “Just give me a normal bounce,” and the shot ends up in the middle of the fairway. “That’s a normal bounce?” questioned Owen.

Nothing’s normal for Jordan Spieth. “But you haven’t changed in the four years I’ve known you,” said Owen to Spieth, “as far as your graciousness to the people around you and the way you handle yourself ... I really admire that.”

Who wouldn’t?

S.F. Examiner: Broncos win for Manning, send bouquet to Bowlen

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

“The best laid plans …” You know the rest, words from a poem by Bobby Burns, the Scot who more than a century ago wrote words of warning, words telling us that our hopes and dreams more often do not work out. Or as Burns wrote, “ ..gang oft a-gley,” or as we would say, go often astray.

But not the plans of John Elway. Or the hopes of Peyton Manning. Or the long-ago dreams of the family of Pat Bowlen.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Big night for Eddie D, Stabler, Boldin

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

He was the stranger from Youngstown, the little guy who had to earn his spurs and, more importantly after some missteps owning the 49ers — “This team is not a toy,” he grumbled at the media so critical of his mismanagement — earn the cheers. They were there at Super Bowls in past years. And they were there Saturday night, when Eddie DeBartolo was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So timely. So appropriate that DeBartolo, now 69 and far away in time and distance, having moved to Tampa, Fla., would be one of the chosen few when the Super Bowl, the Half-Century Super Bowl, No. 50, would be played in the area where he built a champion in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Read the ful story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Defense, ball control can send Manning off in glory

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It’s as if the game already has been played. As if the Carolina Panthers won the Super Bowl. When, in fact, the Denver Broncos will win it. Win it ugly, the way underdogs usually do. Win it by keeping the Panthers from winning it, with defense, with ball control, with the sort of breaks teams like Denver inevitably get in games like this, and thus are described as lucky rather than good.

But in football, luck is not so much bestowed as created.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Broncos forced to overcome tumultuous upbringings

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

A letter from the president. So few are sent. Katrina Smith had to be special, and in a way she was, holding the letter from President Barack Obama that commuted an excessively severe prison sentence which had taken her away from society, away from a son who was to become a football star while she had become an inmate.

Demaryius Thomas was a sixth grader, 11 years old, when Smith and her own mother, Minnie Thomas, were convicted and incarcerated 16 years ago for making and selling crack cocaine in Georgia.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner