OAKLAND, Calif. -- He's not far away, about 90 miles up Interstate 80 in Sacramento. That doesn't seem like much, but the distance Manny Ramirez still has to cover until he's back in the majors -- if, indeed, he ever gets there -- is greater than it appears.

Ramirez is playing for the Triple-A River Cats, the top farm team of the Oakland Athletics, as he regains his timing and waits for Wednesday -- his 40th birthday, by the way -- which will represent the end of a second 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs.

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Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- It wasn't as if the whole city was here. Vallejo's population is about 116,000. But CC Sabathia had purchased enough tickets -- 200 for family and friends from his hometown, a half-hour northeast of O.co Coliseum -- to fill an area of the rightfield stands.

His own rooting section, if you will, and once Sabathia was able to control his pitches Saturday, he gave them a show and helped the Yankees earn a 9-2 victory over the A's.

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Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.

On the front sports page of Thursday's USA Today, three headlines: "NBA Suspends Heat's Haslem for Game 6,'' "The Problem of Slow Play'' and "Players Sue NFL, Claim Collusion Over Cap."

This is the toy department of life?

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© RealClearSports 2012

The U.S. Open places a premium on emotion and psychology. “A lot of players,” said four-time Open champion Jack Nicklaus, “are eliminated the moment the tournament starts.” Nicklaus, certainly, wasn’t in that category. Neither were Lee Janzen or the late Payne Stewart.

The Open comes to San Francisco’s Olympic Club next month for a fifth time, and for a while now, we’ve been told how in those other four the wrong man won and Olympic, out there across the Great Highway from the Pacific, is the graveyard of champions.

OAKLAND — Down in Los Angeles the only thing the Lakers and Clippers lost were games, albeit important games. Up here in Greedsville-by-the-Bay, Oakland is losing its team. To San Francisco.

This is the way it works in the lawless, wild west, where you check your firearms at the turnstile but hold on to your ego: Santa Clara steals San Francisco’s pro football team, San Francisco steals Oakland’s pro basketball team, the one with an all-inclusive name, Golden State Warriors.

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© RealClearSports 2012

OAKLAND, Calif. — So where are they going? The Oakland Athletics, that is. Not to Portland. No way. And Major League Baseball has as much chance of succeeding in Las Vegas as Bud Selig would in a one-man revue at the Bellagio.

Selig, not trying to be funny, hinted the A's, the why-won't-the-Giants-give-us-San-Jose A's, might move away from the Bay, meaning the body of water separating San Francisco and its sellout crowds — more than 100 in a row to this point — from the sad turnouts in Oakland.

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© RealClearSports 2012

ALAMEDA, Calif. — A Matt Leinart bobblehead, with the likeness attired in an Arizona Cardinals uniform, can be found on the Internet at prices ranging from $28 to $80. Leinart may have been a disappointment — the word "bust'' is simply too harsh — but he has not gone unrecognized.

Or, once more, unwanted.

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© RealClearSports 2012

On one side of the family was a Hall of Fame first baseman, on the other an outfielder involved in one of the more famous plays in World Series lore. The baseball genes were there for Charlie Culberson.

“I guess you could say that,” Culberson agreed, “it’s neat to have that history.”

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Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

This headline was on ESPN.com: "Tiger Shoots 74 at Players.'' The subject was Tiger Woods, tied for 100th, and not either of the co-leaders, Ian Poulter or Martin Laird? Why, of course.

We're not selling results in journalism, and ESPN, for better or worse, is journalism in the 21st Century. We're selling celebrity.

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© RealClearSports 2012

“These are the major leagues,” insisted Vida Blue on Comcast SportsNet this week. “This has got to stop.” Not the way the Giants are fielding. Or fumbling.

Who knew the Bad News Bears would be resurrected in orange and black? It was one thing when the Giants couldn’t hit a moving ball. It’s another when they can’t catch one.

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Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company