By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — These are unnerving times. One minute you’re worried about virus droplets, the next about everything going up in flames. If the Oakland Athletics on Saturday seemed to have more on their minds than picking up a ground ball, well, even good teams have their bad games.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
This isn’t like 1969, when the first pick in the NBA draft was Lew Alcindor, who soon would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the second pick was Neal Walk.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — Not a bad weekend for the old bay. On one, side Collin Morikawa was sinking putts. On the other, members of the A’s and Astros threatened to sink a few punches.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — The finish was acceptable, an under-par round, even if didn’t mean much except to the man himself, Tiger Woods, and his fans.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — He wears a hat promoting a messaging service that President Trump is determined to ban. He once flung a putter into a lake in France, and his mother retrieved it, only to discover the club was broken.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — As the late great Herb Caen, Mr. San Francisco, used to write, “You had to be there.” Except because of restrictions imposed for the COVID-19 epidemic, you couldn’t be there.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — It would be better if things were normal. Shane Lowry, the Open winner, “the champion golfer of year,“ told us that.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — The marine layer, a bewitching description of weather that takes yardage from a golf shot and adds extra clothing to a golfer. Brrr.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — So it’s the Yankees and Dodgers in the World Series, right? As the networks would have it. You think that, like in 1951, the Giants are going to fall 13½ games behind before becoming a contender? No chance.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — The bad news was more than 2,000 miles away, yet as near as next door.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — It wasn’t as strange as you might have imagined, this exhibition game in the middle of summer with photos on cardboard in the seats instead of real, live fans.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
Jack Nicklaus was on the air. Tiger Woods was just off the green. Just like forever.
Except that golf had seemed less important than what it, and virtually every sport, lacked: fans.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — Oh yes, center field. John Fogerty sang about it: “Put me in, coach, I’m ready to play.” Willie Mays virtually owned it. Now Mauricio Dubón is trying to prove he belongs there.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — So the plumbing is bad, but one thing about the Oakland Coliseum, the sound system is world-class. And can be played loudly. Very loudly.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SAN FRANCISCO — There they were, in a stadium that had become a practice field, getting ready for a season that has become a question mark.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
Is the name Masters racist? Someone such as the late Lucius Bateman might be better qualified to offer an opinion. Or Lee Elder, whose travails, unlike Bateman’s, resulted in a degree of fame.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
A symbol, a noose, was found in the track garage of the only African-American NASCAR driver. A PGA Tour golfer and two world-class tennis players were stricken with COVID-19.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
He is the man to credit. Or blame. For Tommie Smith and John Carlos and their black-gloved salute. For Colin Kaepernick coming to his knees. For the willingness of African-American athletes over the past half century to let us know a system’s imperfections.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
You’re alone in golf. So, virtually, was Tiger Woods as the game’s spokesman.
Copyright 2020, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
There’s a world out there in which a young man in Minneapolis died in police captivity, millions have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus and many thousands more have lost their lives.
Copyright 2020, The Maven