By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
PHOENIX – Everyone is saying the right things, of course. Why wouldn’t they?
The right things from Many Ramirez, trying to escape what he did to himself, to baseball and to his wife.
The right things from the Oakland Athletics, who out of desperation are taking a chance on Manny.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
PHOENIX -- Green-collar baseball? When Manny Ramirez is in camp for the A’s, it’s green do-rag baseball. It’s “Guess who’s in the cage?” baseball. It’s “Can he still do it?” baseball.
It hasn’t been like this for a while at Papago Park, the A’s training complex, a ball player who has to be watched, if even to find out whether he still deserves to be watched.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
MARANA, Ariz. -- Enthronement will have to wait. Hunter Mahan, who is down the scale of fame, Sunday kept Rory McIlroy from winning both the Accenture WGC Match Play Championship and climbing to the No. 1 world ranking.
Was there motivation because the fans early on were chanting for McIlroy, the Northern Irishman, instead of Mahan, an American?
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
MARANA, Ariz. -- The glamour is one side of the draw, where Rory McIlroy will face Lee Westwood, with a place at the top of golf's world rankings a possibility for the winner. The national interest is on the other side, the American side.
The marathon called the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship has reached today's final two rounds at the Ritz-Carlton Club on Dove Mountain north of Tucson, semifinals in the morning,McIlroy against Westwood, and Hunter Mahan against Mark Wilson.
The final between the winners...
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
MARANA, Ariz. -- It's strange territory for Lee Westwood. He's played this tournament before, played the desert course at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club. What he hadn't done in the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship in his 11 attempts was get past the second round.
Westwood, a 3-and-2 third-round winner Friday over Nick Watney, the man who bounced Tiger Woods, said he "had a little chuckle'' a couple of days ago about pre-tournament predictions on The Golf Channel.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
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