A place for me to talk about San Francisco Bay Area sports.

Wednesday, June 09, 2021

My Thoughts on Trey Lance and the Forty-Niners

One of the more controversial moves by Shanalynch was the big trade up from their 12th draft pick overall position to the 3rd pick overall, giving up a bundle of future picks, including two first round picks, and then picking Trey Lance. Many were upset about the picks traded, viewing that as too much draft capital being giving up. Others did not care for Lance as much as they did for Justin Fields.

I wanted to share my thoughts and research.

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Sunday, March 21, 2021

My Thoughts on Wiseman and the future of the Warriors

I admit no strong knowledge of basketball, but as a fan, I have opinions on the Warriors and the question of James Wiseman. As usual, I'm driven by the writing of a newspaper columnist, whose take is that the Warriors should not waste a prime season of Steph Curry by drafting a project like James Wiseman, and should have selected someone like Tyrese Haliburton, who has been extremely valuable, even better than the whipping horse example of LaMelo Ball.

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Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Congrats to Warriors for 2 Championships in 3: Start of Dynasty That Needed Durant

The Warriors closed it out this season, when they were 3-1, instead of setting an all-time worse of losing a series after leading 3-0.  And with the Warriors 16-1 run through the playoffs, the complaints came out again.

About the Warriors being too good.  About Durant joining a really good team in the first place.  About Durant being soft for joining the team that beat him the year before.  But here is the reality:  they needed Durant to get over the hump.

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Thursday, June 01, 2017

Three-Match: Thoughts on the Warriors and Dominance

Lots of people are unhappy with the 2017 NBA Finals.  Some because it's the same two teams for the first time in NBA history.  More because the dominance of the two teams make the season a joke for all the other NBA teams.  Some because Kevin Durant (what a coup!) joined the Warriors, making the so-called Three-Match more of a mis-match than a re-match, since he is such a great improvement over Harrison Barnes.

Obviously, as a Warriors fan, I'm happy about things.  Don't have a problem with any of this, clearly.  And for all the complaints about the Warriors, I think some key things are being overlooked.


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Friday, November 27, 2015

Giving Thanks on Bay Area Sports, 2015 Holiday Period

Wow, just haven't been able to keep up with an annual pace.  But the Warriors setting a record start to an NBA season by winning their first 16 games got me feeling thankful.  Here are some thoughts, from a long time Bay Area sports fan, random, and probably missing some points, but here goes nothing.  Again, not an expert, mainly a long-time fan, letting off some steam.

World Champion Warriors 

Wow!  Never thought I would ever say that again!  Not that long ago I was joking that GSW stands for gun shot wound, which is what the Cohan ownership was doing the club.

It was very exciting to follow the Warriors setting an NBA record by winning their first 16 games, even more exciting to see them finally win the NBA Championship in the 2014-2015 season, first time in 40 years.   Thank you to Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the new owners, Bob Meyers, the GM (with no experience other than being an agent, so from the other side of the aisle) and Jerry West, special advisor and the Logo himself, who I think has probably had a greater hand in this than most think, he's been a mentor to Meyers, I presume, plus a great eye for talent, you can hear it anytime he is interviewed, and especially to Steve Kerr and the team (of course!).   And a thanks to Mark Jackson for helping to set the team up for Kerr to take to greater heights.

Of course, the players we're especially thankful for.  Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were the lead guys, but Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes helped a lot, as their improvement in the season helped a lot, plus veteran presence of Andrew Bogut, and the leadership of David Lee (by giving up his starting spot without rancor when he returned off the DL, when the team had a special thing going) and Andre Igoudala (by giving up his starting spot and becoming the 6th man, at the start of the season, to allow Barnes to start).

I probably should have written on this when they won, but it didn't feel right since I was not that deeply into the team lately, and I missed a lot.  But as one of the fans who watched (really, listened, because back then the NBA was not worthy of prime-time TV real estate and I often had to watch the playoffs after midnight) them miraculously win with Rick Barry and a bunch of nobodies (and I felt so bad because Nate Thurmond was just traded away and missed this; luckily, he's a part of the Warriors broadcasting team, so I think he gets a ring this time), I was excited enough to follow vicariously as they won and kept on winning, setting a franchise record for wins, beating out the 1975-76 team's 59 wins (as the 74-75 championship team raised their game, but unfortunately was unable to repeat) with 67 wins.

I was pretty amazed at all the naysaying about the Warriors during the playoffs given that they won 67 games.  I get that it was a huge jump from the 51 games they won in the previous season, but there are only 5 teams in NBA history with more wins:  95-96 Bulls with 72, 96-97 Bulls with 69, 71-72 Lakers with 69 (and they are ahead of the Warriors in terms of consecutive wins in a season with 33, accounting for nearly half their wins that season;  apparently the Warriors will be facing LeBron and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas Day for tying the record, which is historically nice, just like beating the Lakers to go 16-0 was historically nice too), 66-67 76ers with 68 and 72-73 Celtics with 68.  Only 5 teams with more wins!  This really reminded me of the 74-75 Championship team, only instead of Barry and the Warriors, it's Curry and the Warriors today, though I would think that eventually Thompson and Green will be considered pretty good players as well.   Clearly, though, with the Warriors today, the sum is greater than the total of the individual parts.

So I wasn't surprised by how well the Warriors are doing this season, though clearly I didn't think 16-0 well, as there were a lot of naysaying about their chances nationally.  Even in the Finals last season, they were viewed as the underdog against the LeBron Cavaliers, especially after how close the Cavs were to winning the title even after losing key players in Kylie Irving and Kevin Love.   While I understand why regular fans would think that, after seeing how the Warriors won during the season, then turned things around in the Cavs series by starting Igoudala, I have no doubt that Kerr and gang would have figured out how to win the series even if both of those players were available and not injured.

Just noticed the progression of championships for the Warriors, roughly 10 years between first and second, 20 years between second and third, and 40 years between third and fourth.  Luckily, I think that this group should have at least one more, if not multiple more, in the future.  They should join the great teams in history with a dynastic run, as most of their core players are young and still getting better - for example Curry this season already - and their success should draw key additional players (like it did with Igoudala) who want that ring.  I expect them to retain Barnes at whatever deal is offered.

World Champion Giants

I also missed noting the Giants winning their third Championship in five seasons in 2014.   Bumgarner was the headliner in this one, rampaging through the playoffs with a 1.03 ERA in 7 starts.  But people forgot that he can't do it all in the games he didn't pitch in, and he was the only starter to lose in the NLDS against the Nats.  It was nice seeing Hudson appreciating the championship that he had been desiring, and he earned this by pitching well up until the World Series.  It was also nice seeing Ishikawa playing a key role in getting the Giants to the championship, as he should have been the NLCS MVP, not Bumgarner, and probably would have been, had the vote been done after the game (and his game winning homer).

I thought that they could finally repeat in 2015, but injuries cost them the chance to repeat.  But the idea that they could repeat is supported by the Giants 34-17 record when Pence was in the lineup, that would have been more than enough to get into the playoffs and perhaps repeat.  Even with the injuries, they were still competing for a playoff spot until the end of August, and within spitting distance entering into the series against the Dodgers at the end of the season, going 12-8 into that series.

Everyone is clamoring for a bolt from the sky for the 2016 Giants to be competitive, demanding an ace or else.  While I would love to get a co-ace to go with Bumgarner, I think the Giants can win the division if they can at least sign back Leake, who I think is good enough to co-ace with Bumgarner.  His overall stats don't scream it, but his career 3.48 ERA on the road, 3.59 ERA in his last three seasons, and 3.30 ERA on the road in the last three seasons does.    Any of that, plus Peavy (3.58 ERA in 2015) and Heston (he had a 3.51 ERA with two starts to go in 2015) would give us four good starters plus Cain, who is a wildcard.

And, as I've shown with my analysis on obsessivegiantscompulsive,  the Giants were able to keep the opponents down from 2009 to 2012 having four good starters and a composite 5th starter.   As well, for all the complaints about the starting pitching, the 2015 team was 11th in ERA in the MLB with 3.95, which is around what they did in 2014, 16th with 3.74 ERA, and in 2012, 6th with 3.73 ERA.   And in 2014, the Giants starting pitching was 0.08 better than the average, whereas in the 2015 the Giants starting pitching was 0.15 better than average, so the 2015 starting pitching was better relative to the league in 2014.   Yes, the 2015 pitching staff was roughly the same as the championship teams of 2012 and 2014, not that far away in rank relative to the league and ERA.

On top of that, the lineup is loaded:  Posey, Belt, Panik, Duffy, Crawford, Pagan, and Pence, plus whoever they put in LF.  They averaged 4.30 runs scored per game and the average in the NL was 4.11.  That would get us from 81 wins to 84 wins, and that's without Pence (pitching also got us to 84 wins too, each adding 3 wins).  When Pence was in the lineup, the team averaged 5.18 runs scored per game (which means that the team only averaged 3.90 runs scored in games that he did not start).  If these are the extremes, the middle area would still be around 4.5-4.6 runs scored per game.  That would contribute roughly 4 more wins.

So while I would not mind getting Leake and another good pitcher, as I do love gilding the lily on occasion, but, for me, getting just Leake and Aoki back, if that is the minimal that gets done this off-season (plus perhaps Lincecum too), would not be the end of the world for me either.  We have a great young lineup, with Williamson and Arroyo probably ready to join the team sometime during the season (both had great AFL), and a good enough pitching staff, which will be that much better because young pitchers like Strickland and Osich will pitch the whole season with us, Heston should be better prepared to pitch a whole season and not peter out by August, plus Blackburn, Black, Law, and Okert should be ready to join the team, as well, during the season (not that they necessarily will join and contribute, just that all these young guys should be ready to join), I'm very optimistic about the 2016 season, as long as there is not injuries up and down the lineup and rotation, like what happened in 2015.

The Not Champions

Being an inherently positive person, I don't have a lot to say about the 49ers, Raiders, or Sharks (or the Earthquakes either).  But here goes.

I can't believe that the 49ers fired Harbaugh.  Not that he's the best coach around, or perfect, but the process that went about afterward, ending up hiring Tomsula showed me that this was just the owner asserting his authority.  And that's like a canary in the mine shaft for me regarding franchises, I'm joining all those who don't think much of Jed's handling of the team.  I was turned around when he hired Harbaugh, particularly with the linkage to Walsh through him, but I think he just shot himself in the foot firing Harbaugh in the manner that he did.

Too bad, given the new stadium, though I must say that it was great getting the opportunity to have my picture taken with all five Super Bowl trophies was pretty exciting, so I applaud them for doing that, in a tour leading up to the Super Bowl that they are hosting next year.

I've never been a Raiders fan, but growing up in the East Bay, can't help but read and hear about them.  Reminds me of Connie Mack and how the A's went from regular playoff teams to long-time losers.  I recently read about Al's son, and he seems to be a really nice normal guy, considering who his father was, but he's playing hardball again with Oakland, and I expected the team to leave once more, never to return, because I don't see how that could happen again.  I see fans in TV interviews saying that if they leave this time, they are done.

With the NFL thinking of charging any team hundreds of millions of dollars if that team moves to LA, I'm now more hopeful (not that I really hope, but hopefully you get what I mean) that they will work things out in Oakland, particularly since they look like they will lose the Warriors to SF in a few years, plus, as much as the A's are "their" team, clearly the Raiders have been the favored son, getting the Coliseum configured to accommodate the Raiders, with the A's trampled in their efforts to please the Raiders.

Never understood the rules of the game of hockey, other than you need to hit the puck into the goal, but been a Sharks fan since the beginning.  I thought for sure McClellan would bring a Stanley Cup to us, especially with the astute drafting that the team has done in the last decade, but it was always close but no cigar.  Hopefully the new coach (haven't learned his name yet...) can deliver, though I was shocked to see that Marleau was on the trading block.   Hopefully they can deliver one day, though at least they look closer to it than the 49ers or Raiders at the moment.

Oh, just realized that I left out the A's.  Beane really shot himself in the foot this time, he got into a fight with Donaldson (I think one writer called it a "feud") and had to trade him away.  Yes, he traded away the guy who became the MVP the very next season.  He got nice players in return but they will never measure up to what Donaldson did this last season.  He also traded away Addison Russell in order to try to win that season and he's going to be a long-term keeper for the Cubs.  I don't really care for the A's, really don't care for their fans, but it looks like they will be around still in Oakland because they can't move down to SJ.

So the Warriors brought home the trophy that I thought a few years back that either the 49ers or Sharks would do, but that was exciting nonetheless, perhaps more so, not only given the 40 years but also the levels of ineptitude we fans have been subjected to during the Cohan.  And I think the Giants and Warriors could win again in 2016, while I think it would take miracles for any of the other teams to get that trophy.  I thought a golden era was going to be upon the Bay Area in recent years, covering all the majors pro sports, baseball, football, hockey, maybe basketball, as Jackson was getting us into the playoffs, but I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with multiple trophies from the Giants and Warriors, a "sacrifice" I'm willing to make.  :^D

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Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Catching up on Bay Area Sports: 2013

I don't post that regularly, because while I'm a big baseball fan and know it enough to analyze, I'm not that knowledgeable about the other sports in the Bay Area.  Still, I'm a sports fan.  But people didn't like me bringing non-baseball into obsessivegiantscompulsive, so I created this blog to place my thoughts.  This is not meant to be thought provoking, but rather, as a fan of Bay Area sports, just a way to put my thoughts out there, since my last catch up post.  It is ending up to be an annual thing.

Giants Win Second World Championship in Three Seasons

Of course, this was the big news of the past year, the Giants winning the 2012 World Championship.  They did it in historic fashion again, whereas they won for the first time in 2010 with a ragtag band of misfits, in 2012, they won by coming back from almost dead twice, being one loss away from elimination in the NLDS and NLCS, and coming back and beating the Reds and Cards, then sweeping the Tigers, who was favored to beat the Giants.

I suppose the victories were symbolic and hark back to history.  The Giants have no history of playoff battles with the Reds, but given that they were the first NL team to have two world championships in 3 or less seasons since the Reds won in 1975 and 1976 (which was courtesy of the Giants giving away George Foster to them for a utility infielder, so that's another link), there was that symmetry.  In addition, Dusty Baker was the Reds manager, so there was that link as well.

The Cards, of course, we have a long and sordid history with.  From one-flap down, to getting beat by the Cards when we were one victory away from the World Series for the first time in forever, to beating them in 2002 to finally get into the World Series again, to Krukow getting injured in a classic rhubarb  long ago in a scrum with the Cards, to Ozzie Smith smashing in Will Clark's face, the Giants have had it in for the Cards for a long time.  So it was nice to put them away in the NLCS, especially when they had us on the ropes and especially after Holliday bulldozed over Scutaro at 2B.  And there was a link in the Reds series too, as their GM was the Cards former long-time GM.

The Giants have no history with the Tigers, so there was no symbolism there, so this was the start of one with them.  They have got to be hungry over that drubbing.

I'm excited that the Giants have a great head start at becoming the Team of the 2010 Decade.  And they look good to win at least one more before things are done.  This second championship moves them ahead of the Warriors in the Bay Area, as they have just the one.  The Niners lead with 5 championships while here, the A's have four, the Raiders have three (though technically only two in Oakland, one was in LA), and now the Giants have two.

49ers Finally Lose a Super Bowl

The Amazing 49ers, under amazing Coach Harbaugh - Who got it better than us? Nobody! - has been a revelation.  I was excited that he was named coach, if only because he was helping the Cards win a lot of football games, but mostly because he was the only logical link to the Bill Walsh era who could coach us with energy, and not as a re-run, as a number of former 49er coaches could have been named coach here.

He has won a lot faster and more than I had thought when he was named, but in hindsight, this made a lot of sense.  As much as the team has been a loser, they had a lot of good core pieces built up over the years. many through the draft, like Gore, Willis, Davis, but also through free agency as well.  And especially that great defense, hone well by two good defensive minded coaches, Nolan and Singletary.  They just needed an offense to back up that defense.

For as much as fans remember the Walsh era for the great offenses, with Montana, Rice, Young, I still credit the defense equally for all the championships they won, as it was when our great defensive backfield was getting all those interceptions and running back turnovers for touchdowns that got me excited about the 49ers chances of getting to the playoffs in 1981 (Dwight Hicks and his Hot Licks), and it was that great defensive stop against the Bengals that enabled Montana to weave his magic at the end, without that stop, he would have been historic only for getting us close, not for winning it all for us, finally, after all those frustrating losses to the Cowboys in the Nolan years.

Thus I was hoping for a good effort in this Super Bowl, but worrisome that because of Justin Smith's injury, the defense will not be up to the task.  His injury has greatly affected the defense, and we were not 100% in the Super Bowl.

And I realized that the Niners were just that bad enough to lose, looking back afterward.  Those turnovers, that run back for a touchdown, take any of them out of the equation, and the Niners would be celebrating their 6th Super Bowl victory, instead of congratulating Kap for his great comeback that just fell 5 yards short.  Had he completed the comeback, the 22 point deficit would have been the biggest overcome ever, and the best in Super Bowl history was 10 points.

About the Kapernick-Smith controversial decision by Coach Harbaugh, I didn't know what would happen (I know, easy to say in hindsight, but these were my thoughts), but I put my faith in Harbaugh.  I loved that he was willing to make a very controversial move like this in the middle of the season, good leaders make those tough decisions no matter the circumstances, and whether it worked or not, it endeared him to me even further.  Of course, it working for the most part really helped.  :^)

I find it ironic that most probably 99.999999% of the fans who were supporting Smith in this controversy, wanting him to get back his job, probably 18 months earlier were going ballistic that Harbaugh even wanted to not even keep Smith, but start him.  They valued him as much as a dried banana peel lying on the floor, but now they want him back?  I had been and was excited about how Kap would work out, even prior to this.  Of course, I didn't think it would happen so soon, it took a few seasons before Montana took over, after all.  I was envisioning Steve Young II, except that he had even more speed.  I was not disappointed.

That said, I thank Alex Smith in many ways.  I thank him for staying here and helping with the transition.  I admit that he benefited from working with Harbaugh, but nobody except for the toughest people would stay where the fans literally hated him, no matter how tempting it is to work with an offensive innovator like Harbaugh.  I thank him for playing very well for us for the time he did as a starter.  He had a great QB rating during his time as starter, he took the opportunity and, while he didn't literally run with it, he was very good at it and ran with it.  Lastly, I thank him for being the gentleman he has been during his entire 49er career, and particularly after he was demoted.  He could have been a cancer and wasn't.

That said, I hope the Niners get a good draft pick(s) in trade for him when that time comes and not release him as his agent has publicly asked for.  He is now very valuable because of what he was able to do for Harbaugh, and we should get full value for that.  Good QB's are hard to find,

So the 49er story does not turn out to be like Walsh or the Giants, there is no Cinderella championship for them.  And that story was actually told last season, when they came up short in the NFC Championship game.  And that story was repeated in the Super Bowl this year.  Their story appears to be more like many teams:  come up short, rise up conquer that to the next level.  That, of course, means they need to win the Super Bowl 48 next year.

I was thinking, however, how cool would be be if the Niners won Super Bowl 49?  If they win next year, though, then they would need to win two Super Bowls in a row, which is extremely hard, not sure how many times that has happened in history.  If I had to chose one, of course, I prefer 48.  :^)

Warriors Returns in Competitiveness and to San Francisco

The Warriors has had an eventful time since my last post.  Ended up with a losing season again, last season, but the season ended with momentum that carried through into this season's great play, plus another great draft pick, and Bogut hasn't even been part of the equation.  If he ever plays regularly for the Warriors, they could be a big factor in the playoffs, probably not the Champs, but they could knock off a lot of tough teams in the playoffs.

Still, in any case, great play by the team.  Curry has been much more healthier - though that ankle is still bothering him - and been the leader on the floor we hoped he would be, scoring 21.1 points per game with 6.5 assists and 1.6 steals.  David Lee has been who I expected, 19.4 points scoring, 11.1 rebound.  I have never understood why people viewed his contract as an bad one.  He also had 4.0 assists per game to boot. Klay Thompson has continued to blossom in the starting role, 16.7 points, 4.0 rebound, 2.5 assists, 0.9 steals.  And rookie Harrison Barnes has been good, 9.2 points, 4.4 rebound, 1.5 assists, 0.7 steals, while playing 25.7 minutes per game.  If he were playing starter's minutes, that's 13.8 points, 6.6 rebound, 2.3 rebounds, 1.0 steals, pretty good.

That's the bigger news, relevancy, because they haven't been in the playoffs or really competitive period for much of the last generation or two of fans.  But also big news is the Warriors return to San Francisco, with a new arena being built on the Piers (though not in a joint venture with the Giants across from AT&T, as some had thought).  Of course, the City of Oakland is not happy, as the A's has been plotting to leave for Fremont then San Jose, and the Raiders have never set anchor here either, the Warriors appeared to be the one most likely to stay, and here they are, the first to go.  Still, Oakland needs to remember that they stole the Warriors from SF in the first place, and at least they are staying in the Bay Area, we forget but they were originally from Philadelphia.

Insert Puck into Mouth

What is the NHL thinking?  Another strike not that long ago from the last one?  Do they recall at all what that did to baseball, and baseball was once the national pastime, not a sport exported from Canada?  Of course, it doesn't help that the architect of many of those baseball strikes is now leading the NHL Players Association, Fehr.  I guess he's hoping to drive another sport to the brink of extinction.

Still, the sport is back, and the Sharks have been good so far, before the recent two game losing streak.  And that's good because they disappointed again last season, coming up short again.  And not only that, but the LA Kings won with our prior former GM and long ago coach who we thought would lead us there long ago.  That makes it doubly bad.  Hopefully the Sharks can finally go all the way this season.

College Sports:  Stanford Suc..ceeds, Wins Rose Bowl

As a Cal alumni, it sticks in my craw to say this, but I must congratulate the Stanford Cardinals on their Rose Bowl victory.  Meanwhile, Cal fired their football coach and hired a new one.  Roll on You Beeears!!!

Cal basketball has continued to do well, but not great, under Coach Montgomery (I still find that weird, since he was Stanford's long time coach).  I know that Cal's rugby team has been doing well too, and recently drubbed the Cardinals by some huge score, like 167-0, or something like that.  I'm not really that big into college sports.

The Giants drafted Martin Agosta (me gusto Agosta!) out of local St. Mary's, and he looks like a good prospect, and perhaps will be part of the second generation rotation of this Giants dynasty Team of the 2010 Decade.


Oakland A's Had a Good Season

I must also congratulate the A's for their good season.  They had an amazing finish to win their division and get into the playoffs.  It was worth it to see the Angels come up short, after buying all their big money free agents, that must have hurt (though not as much as it hurt for them to win the 2002 World Series over the Giants).

I must note here that I have no love lost with the A's.  Or really, A's fans, who rarely hesitated to still shove a figurative shiv into my ribs whenever the topic of World Championships came up.  One advertises on Zito's page and talks about how "real" fans would prefer championships over high attendance and a nice park.  Another, while I was in line to view the Giants FIRST trophy, and enjoying that experience, yakked out loud to his Giants fan friend's son about how the A's had three of them at their park (which showed how big a fan he was, even I know that the A's had won four of them).  I couldn't help but notice that the tattered A's jacket he wore look like it came from the 70's.  The A's for years have placed a billboard ad on their side of the Bay Bridge pointing out the Giants lack of championships.  So I'm enjoying this period, this Giants Team of the 2010's Decade.

So some may view this as sour grapes, but Billy Beane has still not learned completely and the team is not properly built to compete.  While he has a great strikeout bullpen, the pitching rotation is full of low K/9 pitchers, which is what he built up previously in his last good run in the playoffs.  That is what the BP's study found, you need high strikeout pitchers in your staff.  And the A's were third from the bottom in the majors in K/9 on a team basis.  Of course, that's no guarantee either, but he's making it harder on himself, based on the latest research.  To boot, he traded away the high strikeout prospect to the Nats to get other pieces, he's been trading all around and constantly, and frankly, he has enough shortstops now to field one at each infield position, so I'm not sure what he's trying to do.

But they had to do all these moves to build upon 2012.  They were two games over Pythagorean last season - that would have left them out of the playoffs - and thus were lucky in that way.  They were also 7 games above .500 in one-run decisions, which is generally lucky for any manager not named Bochy, who has consistently been among the leaders in games above .500 in one-run games during his career.  Melvin has had some good years with the D-backs, but also some bad ones.  Still, he has 3 very good seasons out of 7, so he is close to what Bochy did in his career, which is a very good season in half of his seasons as manager, not so bad in the others.  But until he proves himself, one has to expect regression in that.  If you take away 7 wins, that would have put them behind the Angels.

But what is the use of making the team competitive enough to make the playoffs, but not competitive enough to win it all?

On top of that, the A's apparently is giving up on moving to San Jose, at least within Wolff's lifetime, as they just signed a 5 year extension of their lease with the Oakland Coliseum.  Wolff will be into his early 80's when that lease is over, and even if they can get the Giants to sell the rights, it will still take a number of years to built the stadium, and that's on top of all the environmental and traffic impact studies that will need to be done, public hearings from people who don't want the ballpark in their neighborhood, and so one.  Not that he can't live that long or longer, but the odds do not favor that, I would think.  Luckily for him, he's been prepping his son to take over things, at least that is what it seems like to me, so sonny boy can carry on should dad not make it.


Raiders Are Rank

The biggest news was that Al Davis passed away.  A true innovator in the game in his youth, the equivalent of Charlie O. Finley in thinking differently in Oakland, for their respective sports, unfortunately he fell into a caricature of himself in his latter years and the team has rarely been a presence, in a positive way, for many years.  His son appears to be carrying on his policies from the past, so I can't imagine a happy ending here:  at some point, the Raiders are going to raid another city's coffers for a nice new stadium, and Oakland will be left with only the A's, and only because they refuse to move anywhere else but the South Bay, else they could be in Portland or Las Vegas right now.

With a new coach and GM, much like the Niners a couple of years ago, they had no miracle, mainly because, unlike Harbaugh, who had a number of good players in hand, particularly on defense, giving him a great foundation that he could build on, that just needed a good offense to go with it, the Raiders have been screwing things up for years now, and the new guys are building upon scorched ground.   Their situation is closer to what Bill Walsh inherited when he took over the 49ers.  And thus it will take them a number of years to straighten things out and hopefully they can turn it around.  We will have to wait and see if the new owner decides to move the team, however, before that hope comes to fruition.

2013

Looks like it could be another good year for Bay Area sports.  The Giants and A's should be competitive again, and most likely make the playoffs.  49ers too, Raiders not so much.  The Warriors look like they should make the playoffs this season, and maybe get home advantage if they can get Bogut back.  The Sharks are sharp again, but will they finally win the Stanley Cup after so many years of near misses?  Stanford looks like they could come back to defend their Rose Bowl and Axe.  Cal is licking their wounds and hoping to get better.  That's football, and I think both are OK to good in basketball too, maybe Montgomery can finally do it with the Bears.

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Monday, June 04, 2012

OT: Great Article About a Great Person, Who Happens to be an NBA Player

Not about Bay Area athletes, but Paul Newberry of the Associated Press recently wrote a nice article about Jack Twyman, former NBA player and the great thing he did for a teammate, Maurice Strokes, who was the Michael Jordan of his times until a disabling injury he suffered.  Here is a link to the article (this is the one published by SI; I originally read it in the San Jose Mercury, but unfortunately their articles are put behind a wall eventually so I searched for and found).

Very heart warming story about a tragic situation.  There are few people in life who would do such an act for their co-worker.  Jack clearly was a very special person.  Surprised that it hasn't been made into a movie already, like Brian's Song.  Just wanted to share this story with others, as it is very moving.

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