For Giants, a markdown on Panik items, loss on the field

in ,

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — They reacted quickly at the Giants Dugout Store, the one at Oracle Park. Joe Panik was dropped, or in baseball-ese “designated for assignment,” and within hours of the announcement there was a 40 percent markdown on all Panik merchandise.

Cruel, but strictly business, a term you hear quite often about baseball, an activity some think of as a game. What makes the jersey valuable, and thus sellable, is fans identifying with the player who wears it. He’s their guy.

But now their guy, if it was Panik, is no longer a Giant. He’s gone.

DFA-ed.

Then, not long after Panik was released Tuesday — he could have joined Sacramento, the Giants Triple A team, but chose to deal for himself — San Francisco’s chance for a wild card were all but gone.

Completely unrelated, unless there was lingering shock over the departure of a longtime teammate, the Giants on Tuesday evening were whipped by the Washington Nationals, 5-3.

It was a third straight defeat for the Giants, who fell two games below .500. That rollicking July, when San Francisco was 19-6, has turned into a stumbling August, so far 1-5.

“We’re not going to be putting up numbers like we did,” Bruce Bochy, the Giants' manager, pointed out to those who don’t understand the sport’s historical balance. “It was going to be hard to keep that pace.”

At least on Tuesday the Giants made it exciting, contrary to the 2-0 loss to the Nats on Monday, a dreadful game for San Francisco. On Tuesday, they had a runner on in the bottom of the ninth and at bat Pablo Sandoval, who already had two doubles in the game. But like Casey in the famous poem, Sandoval struck out.

This had a to be tough emotional day for the Giants' personnel. Panik may not have been Buster Posey or Barry Bonds, MVPs, superstars. But Panik made a load of big plays, and he was both an All-Star and at second base a Gold Glove award winner.

We’ve been taught there’s no sentiment in baseball, or sports in general. Just as in life, everything is temporary. And as Barry Bonds’ late father, Bobby, a great player in his own right, used to say about the unpredictability, “They traded Willie Mays, didn’t they?”

Indeed. And Babe Ruth, although not Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron or Carl Yastrzemski, whose grandson is on the Giants and, apropos of nothing but pertinent to a great deal, went 0-for-4 Tuesday against the Nats.

Bochy didn’t believe the players were affected by the departure of Panik, which may or may not have been considered a surprise. A few days ago the Giants traded for Scooter Gennett, a second baseman (he had a double in three at bats on Tuesday).

He wasn’t going to be on the bench. Which meant after six-plus seasons with the Giants, who took him in the first round of the 2011 draft, Panik was.

The Giants' head of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, was brought in to change the team’s direction. That had to mean a change in personnel.

The axiom is it’s better to trade a player a year early then a year late. Panik wasn’t traded literally but was symbolically. He’s a part of the past, not the future — ironic for someone only 28 years old. 

Bochy said telling Panik he had to be released was one of the most difficult things in a managerial career that’s lasted for years and is nearing an end with his retirement at the end of this season.

“He’s a Giant,” Bochy said about Panik. “He’s done so many good things for us, helped us win a (2014 World Series) championship here.”

And now he’s been dispatched, as the Giants seek a way to win another.

Newsday (N.Y.): American Tony Finau continues improvement at major tournaments

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Tony Finau is the baggage handler’s son from Salt Lake City who turned down a college basketball scholarship — he was a great rebounder in high school — to become a golf pro and play on the mini-tours. He got his education on the greens instead of the classrooms.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Newsday (N.Y.): Shane Lowry wins British Open in its celebrated return to Emerald Isle

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — It was a triumph for a man, and no less for a land. Irishman Shane Lowry on Sunday won the first British Open played in Ireland in 68 years, clutching the famed claret jug for himself while sharing joy with his elated countrymen.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Newsday (N.Y.): Irishman Shane Lowry leads British Open after brilliant 63 in third round

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The chants rolled across the fairways and down to the sea. “Ole, ole, ole, oh-lay.” An Irishman was leading the British Open, the first one held on Irish soil in 68 years. Shane Lowry’s countrymen were shouting their glee.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Newsday (N.Y.): J.B. Holmes, Shane Lowry share British Open lead after 36 holes

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — This is what the Open Championship, the British Open, is supposed to be: Birdies and bogeys, big names and no-names, and halfway through practically everybody in contention.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Newsday (N.Y.): Rory McIlroy off to a disastrous start at British Open

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The anticipation was great for Rory McIlroy. The British Open was being held at a course, Royal Portrush, he has played since he was 10 years old,  an hour’s drive from his home.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Newsday (N.Y.): J.B. Holmes leads historic British Open at Royal Portrush

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The opening round of an historic British Open began in the early morning Thursday with an emotional tee shot by Darren Clarke and finished in the early evening with J.B. Holmes in the lead by a stroke.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

At Portrush, Rory returns to his roots and memories

in ,

By Art Spander

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — So little has changed, on the course at least where, despite a remodeling and some new bunkers, it all seemed familiar to Rory McIlroy. Then again, so much has changed.

McIlroy is a star now, a home country hero, a major golf champion. Then again, he still he remains the kid from next door — or, more literally, 60 miles away — returning to his roots and his records. 

A British Open in Northern Ireland, which once seemed unlikely. A British Open, the 148th Open Championship, at Royal Portrush, which you might say like the nation itself, ripped apart by sectarian fighting known as the Troubles, has undergone restoration.

Three golfing greats emerged from the region, three major champs who directly or indirectly helped bring back the Open, Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell and McIlroy. 

There will be pressure for each, when play begins Thursday, so many expectations. So much attention. Friends and family almost everywhere. There will be pleasure for each. If it’s not once in a lifetime, and who knows when the Open will return to Portrush, it’s distinctive.

“Portrush has been a very big — at least the golf club has been — a very big part of my upbringing,” said McIlroy. “It’s sort of surreal.”

He was born and raised in Holywood (pronounced Hollywood, like the movie city), a suburb of Belfast about an hour’s drive south of Portrush.

“I think my history maybe isn’t quite as long here at Portrush than, say Darren or G-Mac (McDowell), but my first memories are coming up here to watch my dad play in the North of Ireland (golf championship).

“I remember chipping and putting, being 7 or 8, my dad playing. My summer, and I got to the stage where I was playing North of Ireland ... My dad brought me to Portrush for my 10th birthday to play, which was my birthday present. I actually met Darren Clarke for the first time, which was really cool.”

McIlroy is 30 now, Clarke 50.

“It shows you what we’ve done in terms of players,” said McIlroy of the Northern Irish. “G-Mac winning the U.S. Open, Darren the Open and some of the success I’ve had.” Some!? McIlroy has won the U.S. Open, the British Open and (twice) the PGA Championship.

“And how Northern Ireland has come on as a country and that we’re able to host such a big event again.”

The only other time was 1951. Plans for a subsequent Open were shelved because of the violence among the Catholic minority and Protestant, government-supported majority that wanted to keep Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, as opposed to uniting it with the Republic of Ireland.

The fighting, responsible for the deaths of 3,500, lased from the 1960s until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. McIlroy was born in 1989.

“Sport has an unbelievable ability to bring people together,” said McIlroy. “We all know that this country sometimes needs that. This has the ability to do that. Talking of legacy, that could be the biggest impact this tournament has outside of sport.

“Outside of everything else is the fact that people are coming here to enjoy it and have a good time and sort of forget everything else that goes on.”

Including the tragedy of the Troubles. 

“I just think it just means people have moved on,” said McIlroy. ”It’s a different time. It’s a prosperous time. I was very fortunate. I grew up outside Belfast and never saw anything. I was oblivious to it. 

“I watched a movie a couple of years ago called ’71, about a British soldier stationed at the Palace Barracks in Holywood, which is literally 500 yards from where I grew up. I remember asking my mom and dad, ‘Is this actually what happened?’ It’s amazing 40 years on it’s such a great place. No one cares who they are, where they’re from, their background. You can have a great time, and it doesn’t matter what side of the street you come from.”

The next few days, all that will matter is that the Open is back at Portrush.

After ‘the Troubles,’ an Open returns to Portrush

in ,

By Art Spander

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — A wonderful golf course. Tiger Woods said that about Royal Portrush. Of course it is, which is why a British Open is being played here, after a long lapse.

What Tiger Woods also said Tuesday about The Open and the course was, “It’s amazing it hasn’t been held here in such a long period of time.”

Not really. As Tiger, very up on history, inside and outside golf, surely knows. And if he doesn’t, all he needs to do is travel the 60 miles south to Belfast, where the brick walls are painted with slogans that have not faded even though the reason for their existence may have.

It was known as “the Troubles,” a euphemism for the conflict — war, if you choose — at the end of the 20th century between the Catholic nationalist minority and the Protestant/unionist government. They tell stories of neighbors playing golf with each other by day and then shooting at each other after dark.

The fighting, in effect, came to a halt with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, although some bitterness goes on. The Royal and Ancient Golf Association wanted to return the Open to Portrush, the Dunluce Links, where it was held in 1951, but needed a guarantee of calm for its premier event.

And shifting the Open to Ireland from the British island was no easy task logistically. All the equipment, the electronic scoreboards, the bleachers, had to be shipped across the Irish Sea.

But here we are and here is Tiger, literally at the most northeastern point of Ireland, where cliffs and linksland meet and the 148th Open Championship begins Thursday.

“The difference between this layout versus most of the Open rota layouts,” said Woods, “is that the ball seems to repel around the greens. You’re going to have a lot of bump and run chips or quite slow putts coming up the hills. But it’s an unbelievable golf course.”

A year ago, at Carnoustie in Scotland, Tiger had a resurgence, a verification that he still was a contender after the back surgery, after the rehab. He took the Open lead and, although he did not win, the thought was that sometime, somewhere he would.

And he did, at the Tour Champion and even more dramatically and emphatically earlier this year at the Masters. Old guys rule.

It was 10 years ago when Tom Watson, then 59, was in front for 71 holes at the Open at Turnberry. He lost in a playoff to Stewart Cink, but he proved that especially on linksland courses, where the ball rolls and rolls, that a veteran has a chance against the kids who hit it miles.

“Getting myself into position to win the Masters,” said Woods, “took a lot out of me.”

It didn’t take away the self-belief.  

“The great thing about playing in an Open championship,” said Woods, “is you can do it.”

Woods is 43. He said his game is not where he would like it. “Right now,” although his touch around the greens is good enough and that part of golf always is the most important. It is a fact a one-foot putt and a 300-yard drive each count one stroke.

“I still need to get the shape of the golf ball a little bit better than I am right now,” said Tiger, “especially with the weather coming in and the winds are going to be changing.”

Oh yes, the weather, often the determining factor in the Open. It was pleasant Tuesday, some sunshine, but the forecast is for rain and wind. Depending on the severity, a golfer could be punished by what is beyond his control.

“I’m going to have to be able to cut the ball, draw the ball, hit at different heights and move it all around. (Tuesday) it was a good range session. I need another one tomorrow. And hopefully that will be enough to be ready."

He will find out quickly enough or endure troubles of his own.

Newsday (N.Y.): Halep wins Wimbledon, stops Williams' bid for 24th Slam

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

WIMBLEDON, England — Simona Halep needed less than an hour to stun Serena Williams — and maybe the entire tennis world — while winning the Wimbledon women’s final, 6-2, 6-2, Saturday on Centre Court.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved.

Another Federer masterpiece at the theater of Wimbledon

in ,

By Art Spander

WIMBLEDON, England — This is his stage, if not quite his masterpiece theater then his theater of masterpieces, Wimbledon, Centre Court.

Others have made appearances, but somehow as Friday, invariably the place is Roger Federer’s.

Rafael Nadal, a bit younger, seemingly a bit stronger, was supposed to win that semifinal, wasn’t he? But when the guy on the other side of the net is Roger Federer, and the match is at Wimbledon, as we learned again, predictions go wrong.

Federer took Nadal out of his game and with a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory took himself into a Wimbledon final for a 12th time. He’s won eight of those finals and Sunday has the opportunity make it nine.

His opponent will be Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, the top player in the ATP rankings and a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over Roberto Bautista Agut in the other semi.

“It will be difficult,” said Federer. “He’s not No. 1 by chance. But I’m very excited.”

As were the screaming fans at Wimbledon, whether in the high-priced seats where, like Lakers and Warriors games back in the states, royalty gathers — there figurative, here genuine — and up on “Henman Hill,” where the masses watch on giant screen TV, the action happening a few yards away.

Federer may be Swiss, but the Brits have come to embrace him because of the classy, graceful way he’s performed at the their tournament, the world’s oldest, the All-England Lawn Tennis championships.

He is 37, almost 38, but the elegantly way he plays, those one-handed backhands, those huge serves — he opened with an ace — is ageless. “I’m exhausted,” he told the BBC, moments after leaving the court.

Just four sets and just 3 hours and 2 minutes, compared to that five-set, 4 hour and 48 minute epic final between Roger and Rafa in 2008, but he was 11 years younger.

And of course, he had 11 fewer years experience.

“It was tough at the end,” said Federer of Nadal almost forcing a fifth set. “He played some unbelievable shots in the match. I think the match was played at a very high level.”

Which one would suppose when the two of the three players acknowledged to be the best of their era go at it, Federer with his 20 Grand Slam victories, the 33-year-old Nadal with his 18.

“The first set was huge,” said Federer. Indeed, Federer had won only two of the previous 18 matches when Nadal took the first set. Now, overall, against each other, Nadal has 25 wins, Federer 16.

To Nadal, the outcome could be explained easily. “I think his return (game) was better than my one,” he said.

As you know, Rafa, a Spaniard who came to English after he came to the tennis tour, sometimes has problems with the language. That bothers him less than the problems he had with Federer. And with his own game. “I didn’t receive well,” said Nadal, meaning returning serve, not going out for a sideline pass.

“When that happens,” Nadal said, “(Federer’s) at an advantage. He’s in control of the match because you feel a little bit more under pressure than him.”

Rafa had problems with his own backhand. Those could be overcome against most players, but not against the other members of the Big Three, Federer or Djokovic.

“I was a little bit too worried about the backhand,” said Nadal, sounding very much like a weekend muni court player, “so I was not able to move with the freedom in the forehand. When that happens against a player like him, is so difficult.”

As the years pass, to Federer and to the public, each victory in a Grand Slam becomes bigger and bigger. When he didn’t even make the semis in 2018, the talk was he was in full decline. So much for talk.

"Yeah, I mean, obviously extremely high,” Federer said when asked where the win ranks among the dozens he’s earned. “It's always very, very cool to play against Rafa here, especially when I haven't played in so long. It lived up to the hype, especially from coming out of the gates; we were both playing very well. Then the climax at the end with the crazy last game, some tough rallies there.

“But it's definitely, definitely going to go down as one of my favorite matches to look back at, again, because it's Rafa, it's at Wimbledon, the crowds were into it, great weather.”

What else need be said?

Wins for tennis's Big Three and farewell to Andy and Serena

in ,

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

WIMBLEDON, England — It’s their tournament, isn’t it? I mean, they do call it the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships. So if a Brit who isn’t even entered in the singles gets the same attention as Roger, Novak and Rafa — please, you don’t need last names — then fine.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 The Maven 

Newsday (N.Y.): Serena Williams beats Julia Goerges, reaches fourth round at Wimbledon

in ,

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

WIMBLEDON, England — Serena Williams scored a quick, tidy third-round victory Saturday, leaving plenty of time in her post-match interview to discuss playing mixed doubles with Andy Murray — seemingly all that Britain cares about — and the stunning success of 15-year-old American Cori “Coco” Gauff.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2019 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Gauff’s Wimbledon tale could have ended — but it didn’t

in ,

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

WIMBLEDON, England — She has what all great athletes have, no matter their sport, no matter their age, the belief that even when even you’re making the bad shots, getting the bad breaks, somehow you’ll find a way to win — which is exactly what Cori Gauff did.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 The Maven

Serena rallies — and now it’s mixed doubles with Andy

in ,

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

WIMBLEDON, England — The defending champion, Angelique Kerber, had been beaten an hour earlier. And now Serena Williams was getting pummeled in the first set of her match by an 18-year-old qualifier. You wondered if this Wimbledon, having already lost Naomi Osaka and Venus Williams, was about to go off the rails.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019 The Maven