SF Examiner: Is it time to take pity on the LA Dodgers?

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Oh, how it’s changed. There are the Giants, wildly successful, in the standings and at the box office. And then there are the Dodgers, despised as much by their own fans as they once were by San Francisco — bankrupt, literally and emotionally. The applicable word is unbelievable.

L.A., where the stadium always was as full as Tommy Lasorda’s belly ...

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Dodgers: From Brilliance to Desperation

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — They were the great Dodgers, a sporting model, the franchise that once drew 93,000 for a game, the franchise of Koufax, Scully and Lasorda, the franchise of Frank Sinatra, the franchise that did everything right, while here in the city of faults the Giants seemed to do everything wrong.

The Dodgers made Northern California paranoid. The Dodgers made Northern California jealous. The chant, even to this day, is "Beat L.A.'' by people who'd practically rather have the Dodgers lose than the Giants win.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: A Sportswriter Without Decency

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers and Giants have carried grudges across the decades and across the country. It always has been baseball with an edge.

Now it has become baseball with a reminder.

"There is no room in this game,'' the Dodgers' Jamey Carroll had told a somber crowd Monday evening, "for hatred and violence.'

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Uribe's departure just part of game

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

There’s no crying in baseball. No permanence either. Wonder if those Dodger fans will get the hang of saying “Ooo-reebay”? Wonder if there’s any sort of chant that can be created out of “Tay-ha-dah”?

We blinked, and it’s all changed.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Things are looking up in NorCal

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

John Cook, who won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship on Sunday at Harding Park, was saying as a kid who grew up in Southern California — or “SoCal,” as he phrased it — how much he reveled in beating people and teams from Northern California.

Read the full story here.

C0pyright 2010 SF Newspaper Company