Thursday, September 2nd, 2010SF Examiner: A’s having a tough time in the Big AppleBy Art Spander SAN FRANCISCO — ‘They crawl, they baffle, they bite,” was the headline in the New York Times. No, not the Yankees. Bed bugs, although to the A’s, it may be hard to distinguish. New York has been hit by an infestation. The A’s merely are being eaten up by Yankee hitting. Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company |
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Wednesday, August 25th, 2010RealClearSports: Leaking Baseball’s Worst-Kept SecretBy Art Spander You mean it took secret information to confirm the Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t spent for talent? No one could figure that out when the Buccos are waddling through an 18th consecutive losing season? We needed a leak from the inner sanctums about the financial statements of this team and other teams? Sure. And please put a video on YouTube. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Wednesday, August 18th, 2010SF Examiner: Thomson will live forever in Giants loreBy Art Spander SAN FRANCISCO — The hero passes, the moment lives. In photos on the club level of AT&T Park. In recordings played a thousand times. “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” One swing of the bat, and ecstasy. And agony. Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company |
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Friday, August 6th, 2010RealClearSports: Aubrey Huff Finds Home in San FranciscoBy Art Spander Funny how life treats us. And how we treat life. Aubrey Huff was the man nobody wanted, the man of whom it was written in one of those blogs, “he cannot perform at the dish.” For someone whose baseball reputation was as a hitter, that’s about as bad as it gets. His career had been spent with bad teams, Tampa Bay in the early 2000s, the Orioles in the late 2000s. He had publicly called Baltimore a horsespit town, or something close to that. He was known as only an ordinary defensive player. And in the opening days of January 2010, he was a free agent. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Wednesday, July 28th, 2010SF Examiner: Giants rookie busting out in a big wayBy Art Spander SAN FRANCISCO — We’re already down to a first-name only basis: “Buster.” That’s enough. For the Giants, for their fans, that’s plenty. They’ve been waiting for this, waiting for a player like Buster Posey, a player who’s their own, a player who evokes memories even as he presents possibilities. Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company |
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Friday, June 4th, 2010RealClearSports: Imperfect Baseball Showed Its Best FaceBy Art Spander Sporting America is at a better place today. The principles so often promoted as the real values of our games, respect, acceptance, moving beyond issues over which we have no control, have been placed out there before us. And we responded like champions. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010SF Examiner: Giants need Lincecum to right shipBy Art Spander SAN FRANCISCO — It’s his feet. Or his arm. Or his head. Or all of them together. Tim Lincecum is a mess — figuratively, that is. Thus, the Giants are a mess: A team without a leader, without an anchor — dare we say, if any sort of championship is to be discussed, a team without a chance. Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company |
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2010SF Examiner: Spring unkind to Bay Area teamsBy Art Spander The San Jose Sharks — they’re not to be confused with the San Jose A’s. The A’s still are playing. So are the San Francisco Giants, unfortunately. If it weren’t for the Houston Astros, the Giants would have a losing record. If it weren’t for the Giants, the A’s would have a losing record. If it weren’t for the Sharks, we’d have to rely on the Warriors’ lottery selection for the story that never ends. Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company |
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Sunday, May 9th, 2010Newsday (N.Y.): Braden says feud with A-Rod is “a done deal, a dead topic”By Art Spander OAKLAND, Calif. — In the clubhouse Saturday before the Athletics hosted the Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden signed a couple of dozen photo cards as requested by the team public relations department. A couple of hours later, he figuratively signed off over his verbal battle with the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez. “It’s a done deal,” Braden insisted, “a dead topic.” A few days earlier, Braden again took some verbal pokes at A-Rod and - responding to an interviewer’s question - implied that he might want to take a few actual ones the next time they meet. It all stemmed from the April 22 game at Oakland. Almost all the way to third after a foul ball by Robinson Cano, Rodriguez returned to first by cutting directly across the diamond, stepping on the mound and breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules — at least in Braden’s mind. Braden — who grew up in Stockton, maybe 80 miles east of the Bay Area, where he ran with a tough crowd — yelled at A-Rod and later told the media, “That’s my pitcher’s mound. If he wants to run across the mound, tell him to do laps in the bullpen.” Rodriguez said he wasn’t aware of the unwritten rule and was surprised that someone with so few career victories (17-23 in his fourth major-league season) would challenge him. Braden, 26, received a supportive text message from the Blue Jays’ Dana Eveland, a former A’s teammate, and when Braden walked onto the field a week ago in St. Petersburg, Fla., several Rays pitchers applauded the lefthander. When asked Wednesday about Rodriguez’s put-down, Braden said, “I was always told if you give a fool enough rope, he’ll hang himself, and with those comments, he had all the rope that was needed. No. 2, I didn’t know there was a criteria in order to compete against A-Rod.” “It was nothing I didn’t say the first day,” Braden said Saturday. “It just happened to come out two weeks later, so it just sort of rekindled everything.” On Wednesday, when asked if he would throw punches next time, Braden said: “There are things that are going to have to happen. Out of respect to my teammates. Out of respect to the game. We don’t do much talking in the 209 [Stockton's area code].” - - - - - - http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/braden-says-feud-with-a-rod-is-a-done-deal-a-dead-topic-1.1902330 |
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