SF Examiner: Fitting farewell for San Francisco Giants in season finale

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

This is the way it ends, with a lot of cheers, a few tears and, once again, if not an unused ticket in a ballpark sold out from first game to last, certainly a lot of unfulfilled hopes.

In this season of 2011, the year after the World Series, the Giants broke their all-time attendance record, luring 3,387,303 fans. Yet in their attempt to repeat as Series champions, they couldn’t even get to the playoffs, breaking a great many hearts.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Giants Push Out Man at the Top

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

About a week ago, the chief executive officer of Yahoo, Carol Bartz, was fired. In an email to more than 13,000 employees, she delightfully said exactly that, to wit: "I've just been fired.'' Not what we usually hear from people leaving a profession other than through their own choosing.

The normal response is what was provided by Bill Neukom, who will be removed as managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants - numerous, stately euphemisms, such as, "This is the right time to turn the reins over."

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

SF Examiner: Sun appears to be setting on Giants' season, Venus Williams’ career

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

It was here in the Big Apple 60 years ago that Chuck Dressen, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, declared in a statement that some English teachers defended on the grounds a team is a collective noun, “The Giants is dead.”

The New York Giants weren’t — coming back from a 13½-game August deficit to force a playoff with the Dodgers, which resulted in the “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” by Bobby Thomson.



Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

SF Examiner: Optimism remains for Giants despite season rife with issues

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

The headline wasn’t wrong. "Injuries Leave Big Holes for the Giants to Patch." That was in the New York Times. About the New York football Giants, not to be confused with the San Francisco baseball Giants, who have as many big holes because of injuries and virtually no time to patch them.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

RealClearSports: Phillies' Lee Leaves Giants Helpless

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

SAN FRANCISCO — This is what the San Francisco Giants do to the other team, what the Philadelphia Phillies did Thursday night to the Giants, leave them hopeless and helpless, leave them without a run and very few clues.

The breeze and chill swirled about AT&T Park, leaving the fans as cold as the Giants' bats. The 54th straight sellout crowd, 42,013, watched the home team get baffled by Cliff Lee, the man who got $120 million to try to make the Phils champions.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011