RealClearSports.com: Patriots Restored Stability to a Shaky Sporting World

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

That Patriots win over the Bills on Monday night was reassuring, no matter what your rooting interests. We needed a favorite to do something, just to prove there's a reason to call them a favorite.

It had been a bad few weeks for the big guys, Tiger Woods going head-to-head the final round of a major, the PGA, with Y.E. Yang, the great nobody who became somebody, and finishing second.

Not too long after, Roger Federer, supposedly unbeatable, lost the U.S. Open final to Juan Martin del Potro, who fell flat on his back after the final point. There was some symbolism, tennis having been flipped upside down.

Upsets are supposed to be the lifeblood of sports, and society. They give us hope that anything can happen, keep us from getting bored, complacent or giving up. As kids we're preached the legend ofThe Little Engine That Could.

Hey, if a guy who by all rights should be playing basketball, the 6-foot-6, del Potro of Argentina, can drop the first set to the best tennis player in history and come back to beat him, anything's possible. Right?

Wrong. But it has the ring of authenticity.

Del Potro called his win a dream. We'll accept the proposal, but the reality is that even before his upcoming 21st birthday, he was already rated one of tennis' very best.

One of these days, the experts predicted, he was going to win a Grand Slam tournament. The day came Sunday. He wasn't dreaming.

It wasn't as if Walter Mitty, the fictional character of secret life who resided in reverie, stepped out of a cloud onto the court and stunned Mr. Federer. Del Potro had battled Roger to a fifth set in the French Open. The kid can play.

Still, as in the case of Yang v. Woods, the del Potro result was unexpected. Not impossible. Unexpected.

That's why they play the game, we've been told, because we don't know who's going to win, even though most of the time we do know.

As the late author Paul Gallico wrote, "The battle isn't always to the strong or the race to the swift, but that's the way to bet.''

A stunner is permitted now and then to keep us off-balance, but mainly sports demand a large dose of stability. We can't continually have Central Michigan upsetting Michigan State, although that was a spectacular onside kick. Or have Y.E. Yang overtaking Tiger Woods. It's too confusing.

How are judgments to be made? No less significantly, how are commercials to be made? Gillette is selling celebrity even more than it is close shaves, which is why Tiger, Federer and Derek Jeter are the chosen ones connected with the Fusion razor ads.

Sponsors want winners. Sponsors want recognition. They don't people who drop fly balls or lose five-set matches.

The New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Steelers provide a yardstick for excellence and fame, as compared at the moment to the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Pirates, although the Jets have this quarterback from Hollywood, or nearby, Mark Sanchez, who's already getting Namath-type attention.

Love the Yankees, hate the Yankees. There's not much difference as far as advertisers or television networks are concerned. The only trouble is if we ignore the Yankees, which virtually is impossible.

Because the Yankees won't allow themselves to be ignored.

Neither will the Dallas Cowboys. Or the Patriots. Or USC or Notre Dame. Or Tiger Woods or Roger Federer.

Sure we get excited about a Melanie Oudin or Kendry Morales, new faces, but it's familiar faces and familiar teams that hold our interest.

It isn't going to happen, not on our watch, but if, say, the Yankees and Red Sox, Tiger and Phil Mickelson, Serena Williams and Roger Federer all slipped into mediocrity the whole sporting scene would be a mess. We'd be clueless.

You sensed our bewilderment just when first Tiger, who never had lost a lead in a major, tumbled. And then a month later, Federer allows his streak of five straight Opens to be snatched away.

Oudin, the kid from Georgia, had "Believe'' on her shoes. But after Woods and Federer both fell on their faces, as opposed to del Potro who was on his back in celebration, we were wondering what to believe.

The Patriots provided the answer. They showed the way. They were favored, and they won, Not by much, a field goal, but they won. As they were supposed to win. Heartwarming.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/15/patriots_restored_stability_to_a_shaky_sporting_world_96485.html© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports.com: Captain and the Queen Capture NY

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

NEW YORK -- There are 18 million people here, 18 million different stories. But only two matter. Two people, Melanie Oudin and Derek Jeter. Two stories, how one does on a tennis court, how the other does in the batter's box.

Front page, back page. It's Jeter, the Yankees' captain, and Oudin, the U.S. Open's queen. He's chasing the immortal Lou Gehrig. She's trying to go farther into a Grand Slam tournament than anybody could have imagined.

"SWEEP & SOUR'' was the headline in the Post. The Yanks had taken two from Tampa Bay, but Jeter had taken the collar, gone hitless. And above that was "'OU' GO GIRL! Magical Melanie reaches quarters."

A 17-year-old from Georgia. A 35-year-old from the Bronx Bombers. Tale after tale in the Big Town, and if you can make it here, we've been told, you can make it anywhere.

After 15 years and more than 2,700 hits, Jeter has made it. After 10 days and four straight wins over Russians, three of whom were heavily favored, Melanie has made it.

It's been steady progress for Jeter. That's the way career records work in baseball. Derek went hitless his first game in a Yankee uniform, in 1995, but after this Labor Day, even after going 0-for-8 in the doubleheader, he had 2,718 hits. That was four less than Gehrig's Yankee mark.

"It's not like I'm trying to do anything different," said Jeter. He's being watched, being scrutinized. There's not much else of interest in New York at the moment.

The Yanks are safely in front of the American League East. The Mets are dreadful. The football Giants and Jets don't begin until Sunday. Nothing else.

Except Melanie, the 5-foot-6 blend of hustle and heart.

"I just try to focus on what I do that day and not look back," said Jeter. His philosophy, if not his words, is exactly that of Melanie Oudin.

Even as pro for only two years, even ranked 70th in the world, she has figured out what all great athletes understand. You live in the moment.

For Jeter, that's the next pitch. For Oudin, that's the next ball over the net. His last at bat is irrelevant. Her last set is the same. He won't be thinking of 0-for-8. She said she wasn't thinking of losing the first set to Nadia Petrova, 6-1, on Monday. Melanie won the next two sets, 7-6, 6-3.

Jeter's been through this before, if not specifically in the quest for a record held by a man as famous and revered as Gehrig. Jeter has played in World Series, All-Star Games. He's dealt with the New York media more than a third of his life. The attention, the questions, they are part of the job, especially in a city with four dailies, three of them tabloids.

It's new for Oudin. In a way, it's frightening for Oudin. On Sunday, an off day, she went to Times Square for a photo shoot. The girl who used to gawk at celebrities, who found idols in Justine Henin (who's an inch shorter) or Serena or Venus Williams (who are the best in America), was now herself a celebrity. Photos and fans pushed closer, resulting in a free-for-all.

"Melanie is not used to that,'' said John Oudin, her father. "She said to me, ‘This is going to take some getting used to.' She's not used to being recognized all over."

Jeter is. It comes with the territory. The Daily News gave Jeter five inside pages, including page two, and also the back cover on Tuesday. Then again, it gave Melanie two pages. "COMEBACK KID DOES IT AGAIN'' was a headline spread across those pages.

Oudin made it to the quarterfinals. In the second round, she lost the first set to No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to 2007 champion Maria Sharapova but won the match. In the third round, she lost the first set to Petrova but won the match.

"I don't actually mean to lose the first set," said Oudin. Her innocence is part of the charm. "Maybe I'm a little nervous and all this stuff."

But when the pressure is on, there are no nerves, just nerve.

"She gets pretty much in her own zone," said John Oudin. "Nothing breaks her focus. I don't know where she gets it from."

Wherever, mental toughness is perhaps an athlete's most important asset. Hang in there, coaches tell players. Don't quit. It's obvious Oudin never quits.

"It's just mentally, I'm staying in there with them the whole time and not giving up at all," Oudin said. "So they're going to have to beat me, because I'm not going anywhere."

Except to join Derek Jeter as one of the two brightest stars in New York City.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.

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http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/09/08/captain_and_the_queen_capture_ny_96476.html
© RealClearSports 2009

RealClearSports: A Volume on A-Rod Is a Yawn

By Art Spander

Another book about another baseball player whose lifestyle was something other than visiting orphans and signing autographs. Once again, America turns out to be the land of the free and the home of the disgraced athlete.

Anyone care?

Alex Rodriguez maybe was feeling a bit rejected, what with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens the only ones to have volumes about their off-field activities. Not any more. Alex gets his own pages of accusations and intimations.

Selena Roberts, formerly of the New York Times, currently of Sports Illustrated – and are there any two more impressive journalistic connections? – has produced “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez.” She was allowed.

Just as we are allowed to shrug.

The problem with books about athletes used to be they made every subject sound like a blending of St. Francis of Assisi and Sir Francis Drake. Even Ty Cobb was made to appear charming and kindly in a first biography. Then a second showed him to be the louse he truly was – not that he couldn’t hit a fastball.

We do the full 180. Now the books detail everything from a man’s immoralities to his phobias and fantasies. In a world full of Dr. Phils and Jerry Springers, it’s the only way to sell. You are obligated to offer something more appalling, and presumably compelling, than seen on TV.

So, “Game of Shadows,” created after brilliant investigative reporting by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, hit the stands and whacked Bonds. For about 10 minutes there was outrage. Then we returned to our normal programming. Hey, who’s batting third?

A book on A-Rod’s contretemps was inevitable. Virtually all the publishing houses are in New York. A-Rod, when he’s not rehabbing, is in New York. Something like 15 million people are in New York. The tabloids are in New York. Was there ever a more likely scenario for several hundred pages on performance-enhancing steroids, performance-enhanced Madonna and a ball player reputed to not perform when it matters?

Interestingly enough, in a town where journalists usually jump onto a scandal without caution or question, some of the sporting writers, while not doubting their colleague Roberts, have asked about a few details in the book.

Neil Best of Newsday reminds that Roberts in an interview said much of her evidence of A-Rod after 2003 is circumstantial.

It’s been a fine few months for those (see reference to New York’s 15 millions) who find fulfillment reading about the woes of the Yankees. Tom Verducci and Joe Torre combined to knock the team the tabs call The Bombers. Then there’s the book about Roger Clemens, “American Icon.” And now – please don’t doze off – A-Rod.

Who’s next, Nick Swisher?

Not that we don’t believe in fair play, the so-called level field, but we’ve reached our quotient of shock and awe. And probably of interest. Every day brings a new allegation. Bud Selig seems to be the only one surprised, and you’ve seen how he’s responded.

Sport is supposed to be the last place in society where people must follow the rules. Three strikes, you’re out. A game goes nine innings. No matter what a defense lawyer argues. That’s why the use of steroids finally became an issue no one could ignore.

But we’re in the Commissioner-Who-Didn’t-Cry-Wolf stage of the situation. No matter what we hear or read, or even see, we’re numb. A-Rod on drugs? Well, then we'll have to idolize Albert Pujols.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi, saying exactly what we’d expect him to say, explained, “I don’t want this Alex thing to be a target because I have some issues with it. It’s interesting how the book date got moved up, and I get tired of answering these questions. I don’t understand why somebody would write a book like this anyway.”

Girardi understands. You write a book because (a) you have a story to tell and (b) because you want to make money from the book. Nothing wrong in either case. Nothing right – or write – either.

Terry Francona, the manager of the Red Sox, who have been embarrassing the Yankees of late more than any book possibly could, naturally was asked if he had thoughts on the volume.

“What I care about,’’ Francona responded, “is when (Alex) comes back, I hope he makes outs against us.”

If that is the case, it will disturb Yankee partisans more than anything in any book. Fans never are into ethics and principles as much as they are into winning and losing.

As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award -- given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football -- he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.  

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http://www.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/05/volume-on-a-rod-a-yawn.html
© RealClearSports 2009