RealClearSports: Halladay Outduels Struggling Lincecum

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — He gave up five runs, yet his ERA fell. Not much. It still is embarrassingly high, 10.54, but maybe Tim Lincecum has regained some of that edge with the slider and some of that swagger in his manner.

The possibility was enticing. Lincecum, the San Francisco Giants' two-time Cy Young Award winner, against Roy Halladay of the Phillies, also twice a winner of the Cy Young, if once in the American League.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

RealClearSports: Remembering Robinson's Number - and Skill

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

The number, 42, hangs in every major league ballpark, a reminder of a man who was as much a pioneer as an athlete -- a superb athlete -- talented, proud and courageous.

Sixty-five years now since that April day in 1947 when Jack Roosevelt Robinson integrated the majors.

When he became the correction to one of the game's great wrongs, one of America's great wrongs...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012

SF Examiner: The mystifying Mr. Barry Zito

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

In baseball, it was pointed out correctly, if not grammatically proper, by Hall of Famer Yogi Berra: You don’t know nothing. Or did you think Barry Zito would be a savior after Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Matt Cain would be, not disasters, but at least disappointments?

To the contrary, one thing we all know is no matter how the A’s do, and that was a brilliant 1-0 win Monday night, they can’t draw beans, not with the kicking and screaming involved in their desperate attempt to flee to San Jose.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Golf's Immovable Feast And A Guy Named Bubba

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

AUGUSTA, GEORGIA -- It always works, doesn't it? What they've got going at Augusta National, at The Masters -- and we'll cut to the chase and cut out the complaints -- somehow always produces a sporting event that seems more than a mere golf tournament. Mainly because as proved once more it isn't a mere golf tournament.

It's a festival, a fascinating concoction of flowery prose...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post

RealClearSports: Bubba Earns Cheers -- and Masters Win

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He's not exactly a good ol' boy. But Bubba Watson is from the South - Bagdad, Fla., to be exact. And he did go to the University of Georgia. And he does button his golf shirt to the top, for neatness. So if the fans at Augusta National late Sunday afternoon were acting as if they were at, say, a Georgia-Florida game, that was excusable.

"Bubba, Bubba, Bubba," they were chanting. He had just won a playoff for the Masters, and while he was crying, they were screaming, "Bubba, Bubba, Bubba."

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2012