By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
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?
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
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.
Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Olympic Club, U.S. Open Email Article By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
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.
© RealClearSports 2012
Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Raiders Email Article 