Bleacher Report: Examining the Next Sports Droughts to End After American Pharoah's Triple Crown

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By Art Spander
Featured Columnist

Before Saturday, it had been 37 years since a horse won the Triple Crown—an extra carrot or two for you, American Pharoah. And now that Affirmed's 1978 win has essentially been removed from the minds of sports fans, we’re off to decide what improbability is next to be conquered.

Will it be someone hitting .400 in the majors, a college basketball or NFL team going undefeated or even Novak Djokovic winning the French Open after another disappointment?

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2015 Bleacher Report, Inc. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

S.F. Examiner: For Cleveland and St. Mary’s, 'Delly’ shuts down the MVP

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — He was hardly a surprise, this Matthew Dellavedova, who had a very large part in the Warriors' very large loss to the Cavaliers on Sunday night. He played his college ball maybe 20 miles from the Oracle, at St. Mary's, a gritty, talented kid who set scoring records and had his number retired.

That he went undrafted is yet another indication the guys who run the NBA are far from perfect. The man is physical and determined. In Game 2, his job was to slow down Stephen Curry, an assignment that left Dellavedova unfazed and Curry disenchanted.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Warriors history comes full circle, unites Bay

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

An Oakland cop roared past, a Warriors flag attached to the back of his motorcycle. Official merchandise in perhaps an unofficially approved location? Who's complaining?

Not city hall. Not any city hall — Oakland, Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Fremont, whatever. It's bliss by The Bay, a region in a Golden State of excitement.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Klay shakes rust after concussion

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — He missed his first three shots, which shouldn't have been a surprise since he was just cleared by doctors after a concussion and hadn't played in a basketball game for eight nights.

Then Klay Thompson made his next four, which also shouldn't have been a surprise. Such has been his offseason, finishing with 21 points in an up-and-down Game 1 in which he claimed to be feeling fine mentally and physically.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Mysterious Harden bows out with abysmal (13 turnovers) night

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — There they were, the MVP and the almost MVP, hugging. For one man, Stephen Curry, it was congratulatory, and for the other, James Harden, it was comforting. The end had arrived for Harden and the Houston Rockets. There were no more games to play.

The Warriors, led by Curry, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, had beaten the Rockets, 104-90, in the Western Conference Finals Wednesday night before a sellout crowd that sent cheers cascading down the tiers of Oracle Arena in ear-splitting glory. It is on to the finals for the golden men of Golden State. It is on to the summer, Houston.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Can Washington rescue the no-D, no-win A’s?

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — The old guy looks good in green and gold. To the A's, anyone who can show them how to pick up a moving ball looks good.

It's been Warriors fans chanting, "Defense, defense," but it's the Athletics' fans who needed to be shouting it. Which is the reason A's management brought back the old guy, Ron Washington, whose head is clear after personal issues prompted his resignation as manager of a Texas Rangers team that won two American League pennants on his watch.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Carson Raiders lack rhyme, reason

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

LOS ANGELES — The Raiders are not here. At least I could not find them. Neither are the Chargers. Nor the Rams. Nor a new stadium. What they have here, in the suburbs of Inglewood and Carson, is a battle to get an NFL franchise and a lot of talk about spending millions of dollars for a team which never might arrive.

They’re already planning for a Super Bowl. Not involving a local team, since one doesn’t exist, but a local stadium, although that doesn’t exist, either. They’ll have one, we’re told, but don’t book your seats yet. Don’t do anything until all an earthmover moves earth some place.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Powerball replaces smallball, and Warriors still survive the grind

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — It was everything NBA playoff basketball is supposed to be, two desperate teams crashing and colliding, scoring and rebounding, getting leads and losing them and, in the final frantic seconds, making a great defensive play to save a victory for the Warriors.

"You just want the win," said Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach. And they just got it, 99-98, over Houston on Thursday night at Oracle, to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NBA Western Conference final.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Warriors turning smallball into large difference in series

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

There's a phrase for everything in sports, isn't there? We had "Billy Ball" for the move-'em-along style of baseball the A's played in the early 1980s. We had "Hack-a-Shaq" for the way opponents repeatedly fouled Shaquille O'Neal, because he couldn't make free throws.

And now we have "smallball," which seems to be anything in the NBA involving athletes 6-foot-9 or shorter.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Kraft, Patriots take one for the league

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Deflategate is over, deflated. Robert Kraft fell on his sword, capitulating for the good of what matters most, the league.

Some called Kraft the new Al Davis, but Davis never would have conceded in this fight. Davis never would concede in anything — football, lawsuits, you name it, especially when it came to a joust with the NFL.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: These NFL meetings will be anything but ordinary

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

So the big boys from the NFL — the owners, not the players — come to The City by the Bay seeking peace and a new extra-point rule. Of course. Isn’t this the cool, gray city of love? Wasn’t the United Nations Charter signed in a hotel on Nob Hill?

Didn’t there used to be a pro football team playing in San Francisco?

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: At last, Warriors are the team in The City

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Eight years it’s been since the Warriors, finally out their funk and into the playoffs, passed out T-shirts with the slogan, “We Believe.” The phrase wasn’t wrong, just premature.

The Warriors are the new boys of winter and spring. They’re the Giants under a roof and under a full head of steam. They’ve got the indoor in crowd, sellouts every night, celebs from the A-list, including boxing champ Floyd Mayweather the other night.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F, Examiner: Deflategate won't diminish Brady's greatness

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

That’s enlightening, to find out the New England Patriots’ locker room guy, Jim McNally, was nicknamed “The Deflator” because he was trying to lose, no, not games, but weight.

Maybe Jenny Craig should have been the one checking the air pressure of the footballs.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Defense slows down Randolph

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

OAKLAND — It was a matter of adjusting, as it always is in the playoffs. A matter of cooling off the hot man, and for while there, the opening 3½ minutes of a game that was going in the wrong direction for the Warriors on Wednesday, that hot man was Zach Randolph of Memphis.

He’s 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, with mobility and a jump shot. Rebound, basket, rebound, rebound, basket, rebound, 25-footer. Unstoppable? Unimaginable. Eight and a half minutes into the game the Dubs almost had to win, they were down 11-4. And Randolph had nine of those points. And five rebounds.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Bonds shows side we’ve rarely seen

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

They had dined on steak. Then came the induction ceremony and Barry Bonds figuratively had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. But of course.

This was his city, San Francisco, where his game helped build a ballpark and a reputation. These were his people packed in the ballroom of the Westin St. Frances Hotel, across the cable car tracks from Union Square, for the annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame program Monday.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Erratic Giants leave no clue on whereabouts

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The problems remain — a worrisome lack of offense and some unnerving relief pitching, with the Los Angeles Dodgers showing no intent to fade. And yet games like the one Sunday, when the Giants win one they could have lost and probably should have lost, indicate that this season is destined to be as wild as any, if not as successful.

The 3-2 win over the Miami Marlins was an end to a series at home that might at the same time have been the beginning. We shall see.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Vogelsong the latest zero hero

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

He was the question mark, the pitcher who had everyone wondering or even doubting. Ryan Vogelsong hadn’t won a game this year, hadn’t looked very good. But on a chilly night at AT&T Park, it all changed.

Vogelsong, who gave up six runs a week ago to the Los Angeles Dodgers, didn’t give up a single run to the San Diego Padres in this one.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Bumgarner, Giants have old feeling back

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

A liner to left field by Justin Upton in the top of the seventh. A hit for the San Diego Padres. Their first hit Monday night. A gasp by the crowd at AT&T Park. Madison Bumgarner’s near perfection at an end, his dominance unending.

Two hits allowed on this evening by MadBum, but no runs. The Giants are back to .500 after a 2-0 win over the Padres, who came in as hot as the weather was cold. But at his best — and this was his best of the young season — Bumgarner chills them all.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: McIlroy sends Match Play out in style

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By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Sporting days by the Bay don’t come much better than this. Not for Tim Lincecum and the Giants. Not for Stephen Curry and the Warriors. Maybe most of all, not for Rory McIlroy and the game of golf, which again is a game that he is very much in control.

Oracle Arena in Oakland, AT&T Park in San Francisco and TPC Harding Park — in history and weather so much a part of the cool, gray city — offered us a Sunday beyond compare.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner