By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — Someone asked about payrolls, and the question was legitimate. The contention long has been that in cars, wine and ballplayers you mostly get what you pay for.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — So DeMarcus Cousins was bounced for the violation of one of those only-in-the-NBA calls, a flagrant foul 2, which required a video review almost as long as the first half — OK, that’s an exaggeration, although not by much.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND, Calif. — This is way things are going for the Oakland A’s: The guy (Robbie Grossman) they signed as a free agent six weeks ago had two hits, scored a run and made a great catch.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — The team president has been suspended. The new scoreboard remains unfinished, as presumably is the roster.
And the Giants completed a losing spring getting swept by the other team in town — well, team from the city across the Bay that has labeled itself “The Town.”
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — The great thing when the game doesn’t count, because when the A’s play the Giants, even in an exhibition it very much counts, is each team finds a reason to feel good.
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND, Calif. — At least it wasn’t in the playoffs. Truth tell, if the Warriors played as indifferently through the season as they did Saturday night, there wouldn’t be any playoffs.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN JOSE — The nickname is out of a comic strip. The roster is packed with the offspring of NBA stars. We’re talking about UC Irvine, out there in Orange County, not too far from Disneyland, an institution jokingly referred to as the “University of Caucasian Isolation.”
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The description, “Lucky Loser,” seems an oxymoron; army intelligence, jumbo shrimp, lucky loser. Except this is tennis, not the military or crustaceans.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — That was more like it. Indian Wells, the elite suburb of Palm Springs — which is pretty elite its ownself — was what we expect this time of year, beautiful weather. And Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal also were what we expect this time of year, playing beautiful tennis.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Rafael Nadal was sitting there after a win trying to explain a defeat. That’s the way it is in tennis. Maybe in all sports.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — She is the protective one, the careful one, because after all Venus Williams is the older sister. Serena might toss out wisecracks, might wear a T-shirt to the press conference after one Wimbledon victory embellished by a double-entendre. Not Venus.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — It was going perfectly. For Serena Williams, who won the first three games leading up to her match against two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — There’s no real explanation, other than the fact that what Venus Williams did Saturday evening, in her case not unique but still very special, is the reason she is a champion — and apparently intends to remain one until the Twelfth of Never.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the first American woman in 20 years not named Venus or Serena to win the U.S. Open, the national tennis championship.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — You know his nickname, “Joker,” a word play on Novak Djokovic’s last name — by now, even non-tennis people know the “D” is silent. But a year ago, the Joker wasn’t laughing. Or smiling. Or, worst of all, winning.
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — For all the athletic skill, the records, the career that seems endless, maybe what is most appealing about Roger Federer, the finest male tennis player ever — anyone disagree? — is his sense of self.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
Special for Newsday
PEORIA, Ariz. — He was out of the game but still in uniform. Manny Machado, one of baseball’s new $300 million men, had taken his first two at-bats of spring training and now was so preoccupied, first with interviews for the media and then with autographs for pleading fans, that he still hadn’t gone to the clubhouse to change.
Copyright © 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
MESA, Ariz. — They’ve been at it for weeks, as Bob Melvin reminded. But with the temperature rising, the stands filling and the mood as perfect as the weather, for the Oakland A’s this glorious Friday, March 1, was the first day that spring training 2019 felt like spring training.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
MESA, Ariz. — The game meant little. At least the game on the field. The other game, the battle for Bryce Harper, might mean a great deal. Then again...
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
MESA, Ariz. — The oft-repeated idea is that the final score of spring training games is irrelevant. The late Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver said what happens in Florida in March — where the Orioles played their exhibition games — didn’t mean anything at Fenway Park in July.
Copyright 2019, The Maven