Spear
Sam Spear -- A Bay Area Treasure

3-11-19 - Sam Spear
Sam Spear (center) stands with Hall of Fame jockeys Johnny Longden (left) and Bill Shoemaker at Bay Meadows in San Mateo in the early 1980s.
Photo courtesy Vassar Photography.
3-11-19 - Sam Spear
Venerable horse-racing expert Sam Spear has been synonymous with Golden Gate Fields since the 1970s.
Photo courtesy Vassar Photography.

 


Andy Dolich -- 2015


Spearpedia

By Andy Dolich


When asked how he created the statue of David, Michelangelo replied, "David was inside the stone. I just chipped away all the pieces that weren't David."

He may not be Michelangelo's equal as a sculptor but we do have a true genius in our midst when it comes to IK (Institutional Knowledge). Sports, Music, Bay Area history, the lives of four-legged creatures who run for the roses and the two-legged creatures who feed them, muck them, ride them, train and own them.

Are you stuck on this question?  Name the baseball player who:
*  Won the Triple Crown for baseball players, not thoroughbreds
*  14 time All-Star
*  Was a Gold Glover
*  NL & AL MVP
*  Home Run hitter with 586 round-trippers
*  World Series MVP
*  Played for five teams and managed four
*  Tormented Krazy Crab
*  Manager of the Year

Or how about:
*  Where Joe DiMaggio liked to hang out and what the Yankee Clipper ate during
all the time  he spent in the Bay Area?
*  Best Bay Area musicians ever?
*  Places that all the VIPs liked to hang out at that no longer exist?
*  Best Bay Area sports writers...and so on!

Many of you will head to Google, Wikipedia, or maybe ask HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

No need. When I'm stumped or the Great Gary Radnich has no answer for listeners on his KNBR radio show, The Man with the Plan and the Answer, along with a story to go with each
and every factoid, is Sam.

I just use a highly developed new piece of multi-digital technology called the telephone. It's an amazing device soon to be in stores near you. From time to time I might default to a finger exercise and type in SPEARPEDIA.

Want the real skinny? Just get in touch with Sam Spear. He makes a Cray super computer
seem like a Playskool abacus.

Sam Spear started the telecast, At The Races, for Golden Gate Fields on Labor Day 41 years ago and hosted it as many as seven days a week and sold the advertising. Health issues forced him to cut down his schedule, but he continues as the track's director of media relations and as host of his Sunday morning radio show, At the Track, on KNBR 680, airing from 6 to 7 a.m.

There is no better man to call when you don't know up from down, from A to Z, 
in the Bay Area than Sam Spear.
                      
                                                        *          *          *          *

Andy Dolich has over five decades of leadership in the sports industry, including executive positions in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, pro soccer and lacrosse. Presently Dolich is COO of the Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL) and teaches sports business at Stanford's School of Continuing Studies. Dolich is also co-author of the new book:
Pops
3-6-17 - Pops

Michael King (left), with an associate from USF (center), and Karla Granadino-King, are pictured at the Olympic Club in San Francisco,  proudly sharing with the world their  Pops Premium Rumpopo. A King family secret, Pops Premium Rumpopo is a  delicious rum cream liqueur recipe brewed in the family tradition.  The award winning recipe is a Belizean family favorite and now available at all Total Wine & More stores in California and Bay Area retailers.
For more information, visit https://www.bzecheers.com/rumpopo

Pops - Original
Pops Back Label