By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Chicago White Sox have two young pitchers who have thrown baseballs at least 100 mph, one of whom, Lucas Giolito, is the son of a Hollywood actress.
The White Sox have a Cuban infielder, Yoan Moncada, described as the No. 1 prospect in the game.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Eight in a row for the Giants, the wrong way. True, they don’t count, but going a week without a win, even in the exhibition season brings back haunting memories of the second half of the 2016 regular season, when those losses did count, when San Francisco plunged from first place.
Madison Bumgarner pitched beautifully on a 72-degree Sunday afternoon, and that is what we should take from yet another Cactus League defeat for the Giants, this one to the Kansas City Royals, 4-3.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
MESA, Ariz. — This is familiar territory to Joe Maddon. Not being manager of a World Series champion — “Kind of nice,” he understated — but Arizona, where he spent much of his career as part of the Angels’ organization.
For 30 years he was a part of the Angels, from playing for them in the minors to being a scout and a coach and on occasion an interim manager.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Exhibition games are baseball in reverse. “You get the starters their work,” said Bob Melvin, the A’s manager, “and then it’s time for the young guys to finish and get the win.”
Which is exactly what happened Monday for Oakland. Against the Giants
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
GOODYEAR, Ariz. – A manager’s dream. “I’m enjoying seeing those guys,” said Bruce Bochy. So are the rest of us. Not just the Giants, who Sunday out here on the desert among the scrub vegetation and abandoned jet planes, won another game.
Also the fans, few as showed up at Goodyear ballpark, seemingly halfway to California, which the Reds and Indians share each spring. It’s their time in the sun — and, yes, the sun was bright, if the temperature, 65, wasn’t that warm.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The eyes aren’t what they used to be, which is understandable, and to Willie Mays understandably frustrating. “I can’t see the ball,” he said when watching baseball. Then as if to remind us of skills once magical, he adds, “but I know where it’s going.”
Where Mays, 85, goes down here late mornings is to a table near a doorway in the San Francisco Giants spring training clubhouse. He can be found, bundled in a warm-up jacket, sitting, signing and ruminating.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — So many negatives for Dustin Johnson, the collapse at the 2010 U.S. Open, the six months away from golf for "personal issues" — was it a suspension for cocaine? — the three-putt bogey at the 72nd hole that kept him out of a playoff for the 2015 U.S. Open.
What was wrong with the guy? So much talent. So many near misses. So much criticism about his personal life.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The men who play the PGA Tour do some remarkable things.
You know the slogan: "These guys are good."
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Tree limbs were falling as well as putts. What was being called "The storm of the decade" hit the Genesis Open just before noon local time Friday, forcing officials to call off play without first-round leader Sam Saunders — Arnold Palmer's grandson -- even hitting a single shot.
Jhonattan Vegas did play 14 holes, went 3 under par, and with his 4-under 67 Thursday at Riviera Country Club was at 7 under, moving into a tie with Saunders, who on Thursday had a 7-under 64.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — He's Arnold Palmer's grandson, and that would be difficult enough — the attention, the questions — had Sam Saunders not become a professional golfer.
But Saunders, 29, who Thursday took the first-day lead of the Genesis Open (the former L.A, Open) handled himself beautifully, appreciative of his heritage, someone who not only accepts who he is but relishes it.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — This is a place of stars, Riviera, far out Sunset Boulevard, a country club where Hollywood's greatest stars would hang out and play, Humphrey Bogart, Howard Hughes, Dean Martin, Katharine Hepburn.
A place a golfing star named Jordan Spieth understands and appreciates.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
PEBBLE BEACH — It’s a party, a picnic, a weather forecast, a comedy routine, a study in history and — not incidentally — a golf tournament. One, that thanks to a man’s love of the game and a bit of property described as “the most felicitous meeting of land and water in creation,” is one of a kind.
The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the derivative of the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, has been raising umbrellas and money for about a zillion charities on the Monterey Peninsula ever since Bing Crosby hauled it up the coast in 1947, probably before many of you were born. Golf, of course, was born 600 years ago, give or take a century.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The 12th hole at Augusta? The two balls in the creek last April? Ancient history now. For Jordan Spieth, for his fans, and not the least for golf.
He may have lost on one of the sport's biggest stages, but Sunday, in the sunshine, alongside the crashing surf, he won on another big stage.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — It's a cliche, but also an unavoidable fact of the game, that in golf one drives for show and, yes, putts for dough. A two-foot miss counts as much — if not more psychologically — as a 300-yard tee shot, one stroke.
So when Jordan Spieth, who even at the young age of 23 is one of golf's brilliant putters, said his game on the greens hadn't met expectations, others could only shake their heads.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif -- Bad weather struck the Monterey Peninsula on Thursday midway through the opening round of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, turning some putting greens into small lakes and forcing officials to suspend play.
Rich Lamb, Seung-Yul Noh and Joel Dahman were among a few golfers to finish before the rainstorm arrived, each shooting a 4-under-par 68 at Spyglass Hill, one of the three courses used the first three days -- along with Monterey Peninsula, and Pebble Beach.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
HOUSTON -- It was nearly a perfect ending for Kyle Shanahan. The offense that he developed as coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons couldn't be stopped, and the defense was no less impressive.
Shanahan's final game with the Falcons, Super Bowl LI on Sunday night before he stepped away to become the presumptive head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was everything the Falcons and their fans -- and the Niners -- could have wanted.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — He came from Seattle with a well-earned reputation. Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator of the Seahawks, curator of the so-called “Legion of Boom.” Seattle won one Super Bowl and almost won another.
The Atlanta Falcons made Quinn their head coach before the 2015 season, and with his strategy and tactics — and draft picks — he made them the 2016 NFC champion.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
HOUSTON — The question is what will happen if the New England Patriots win Super Bowl LI on Sunday and — a laugh is permitted — quarterback Tom Brady and team owner Robert Kraft receive the trophy from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
Nothing out of the ordinary, if history means much. It would be an old production with new performers.
Copyright © 2017 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
SportsXchange
HOUSTON — Has the prelude to the Super Bowl gone off the rails? Hasn't the prelude to every Super Bowl?
Of course, rarely was there such a mixture of, pardon the reference, politics and Patriots. However, that is to be expected given current events.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
By Art Spander
SportsXchange.com
HOUSTON — The Raiders still are in Oakland and may be for a while despite attempts to move to Las Vegas, San Diego or Los Angeles. That is one way to interpret the words of the man in charge, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, at his annual Super Bowl news conference.
Goodell, for the first time tieless but certainly not clueless, at a session held on Wednesday instead the traditional Friday, said there is work to be done before the Raiders plan to shift from the East Bay to Vegas could become a reality.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange