RealClearSports: America's Infatuation with Hockey Is Over

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

We've had this infatuation before, after the World Cup was held in the United States in 1994, maybe after the women's World Cup win, in the same stadium where the '99 final was played, the Rose Bowl. America was soccer mad, like Europe and South America, was the wild proclamation.

Not at all. America was merely being America, a nation excited for a time about a special event, a competition that for that day was must-see, like a Super Bowl or a Kentucky Derby. Make it seem important enough and you can sell out anything from log rolling to curling.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010

SF Examiner: Zito anxious to reclaim top role

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. — The Z Man. That’s the label. At least the most positive one. Barry Zito has been called a lot of things the last three years, many of them unpleasant, which is the nature of failed expectations.

But in this, his fourth season with the Giants, who knows what to expect from Zito?

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: A's deflect distractions to concentrate on baseball

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

SAN FRANCISCO — This is about the other team from the Bay — the one which chooses to put faded tarps on a third of the seats of its stadium, the one which makes us remember the way it was and causes us to think it never will be that way again.

This is about the would-be-San-Jose-but-shouldn’t-leave-Oakland A’s.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

Global Golf Post: Say Hey, Mays Thinks Tiger Should Come Back Soon

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. --  Some 15 miles from the Tournament Players Club, Willie Mays sat in the clubhouse of the San Francisco Giants' spring training facility, asking questions and giving opinions about Tiger Woods.

"When's he coming back?" wondered Mays, the baseball Hall of Famer, echoing everyone else.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post

Global Golf Post: Tour Leaves Wild, Wild West in Rear View Mirror

By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. -- And now back to our regular programming. Back to tournaments when marshals hold up one of those "QUIET!" signs and there's a chance somebody might respond. To tournaments when the sun goes down fans start to leave, not continue to arrive.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 Global Golf Post