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Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ We won't ever know. The Sharks might have won the Stanley Cup this spring. They were so close last year. Their best players [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. _ The air quieted to a hush above the 18th green at Pebble Beach. Phil Mickelson prepared to putt. He reached down to repair [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. _ The rich and famous are not like you and me, except on the golf course. Then they are exactly like you and me. [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy JACKSONVILLE, Fla. _ They just keep coming. The machinery never stops. The New England Patriots are not so much professional athletes as they are a labor force [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy JACKSONVILLE, Fla. _ Welcome to the Super Bowl! Hey, Philadelphia Eagles center Hank Fraley! What do you think of the Jacksonville experience so far? 'I thought it [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Finally, a sports poll with no screaming involved. Finally, a poll that should unite red states and blue states, Auburn and the BCS, [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Nobody wants to play with Barry Bonds. Nobody with a marketing plan, anyhow. Nobody who wants to sell credit cards. Or soft drinks. [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Drove by the Shark Tank the other day. The marquee out front flashed Metallica. Flashed a Disney Ice Show. Flashed the Trans-Siberia Orchestra. [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Jerry Rice has his shorts in a knot. Rich Gannon has his neck in a brace. And even a blind zebra can see [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy OAKLAND, Calif. _ Best of three now. The A's and the Anaheim Angels are going to have a nice little hardball tournament this weekend. That's what the [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy ATHENS _ Justin Gatlin has given himself a mission tougher than a piece of Greek lamb jerky. How so? Gatlin wants to bring 'positivity' back to his [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ If the strategy is to lull the Calgary Flames into overconfidence, the Sharks are in magnificent shape. If the strategy is to win [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Bud Selig has never knowingly made a tough, uncompromising, wise decision. He'd better start. I would not want to be Selig, the baseball [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy Just four days earlier, Tom Brady beat down the Carolina Panthers. Thursday, he stared down a much, much thornier foe. A birdie putt. On the first day [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy OAKLAND _ Just one of these years, you'd like to write a different story. You would like the A's to be the ones with the sweet stinky [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy BOSTON _ Last weekend at the Boston Zoo, a 300-pound male gorilla escaped. He roamed the city streets for a few hours. Then he was shot with [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ I believe everyone. This is the best policy. That is what I have learned. Whenever a sports figure finds trouble with the law [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SPOKANE, Wash. _ For the Stanford basketball men, Saturday was fun while it lasted. Which was approximately 20 minutes. Then? Then the University of Connecticut became the [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN DIEGO _ There is no doubt in my mind. The most worthy team to win the Super Bowl on Sunday would be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The last time the Raiders played in a Super Bowl, in 1984, Barry Manilow sang the national anthem. My prediction: Next Sunday in [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Do you know anyone who was born Jan. 22, 1984? That was the last day the Raiders played in the Super Bowl. A [...]

Byline: Mark Purdy STANFORD, Calif. _ Mike Montgomery rejected the entry pass Monday morning. He asked to delay the interview. The Stanford basketball coach preferred not to talk about his [...]

OAKLAND, Calif. _ It is astounding. Somehow, the Raiders have made the month of October disappear. Happened again Sunday, for the second time in seven nights. In September, the Raiders [...]

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ A week ago Sunday, the 49ers were finishing warm-ups at the Network Associates Coliseum. Raiders fans were surrounding them on three sides. We all know what [...]

ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Look at the bright side, Giants' fans. No, forget about that. There is no bright side. That is, unless you include the fact that no batboys were [...]

ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Monkeys? The Giants don't need no stinking monkeys. Not when they have someone who hits more home runs than King Kong. That would be Barry Bonds, of [...]

It was a magically confusing moment the other night. The Giants had clinched the National League pennant. The crowd at Pacific Bell Park was in a perplexed frenzy, knowing the [...]

SAN FRANCISCO _ So it turns out the critics were right. The 49ers' offense really was sick. And it really did need some Pepto-Bismol. Before kickoff Sunday, General Manager Terry [...]

PITTSBURGH _ The Raiders were a machine Sunday night. They weren't always a flawless, smooth running, beautiful machine. But they didn't need to be called back for warranty repairs, either. [...]

SAN JOSE _ So now, after a summer of blather and bile, they want us to fall back in love with them. The baseball guys, I mean. The pitchers. The [...]

SAN JOSE _ The Compaq Center at San Jose has a new name this morning: The Big 12 Big Victory Big Midwestern Fun Barn. All right, so it might be [...]