On Bay Area Sports Especially

Male Chauvinists Rear Their Ugly Masculine Heads With Wie

2012-01-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: I wrote this 5 years ago, to this day. It has been sitting in my draft since, just found it again recently. I decided to post it anyway, it may be old, and Wie may not have done much since, but I still think this bias would still be there if any other young woman decided to do this today and my points are still valid.)

Why all the controversy over Michelle Wie? Why not let the young, soon to be Stanford scholar, lady play? Are big boys' big egos getting bent out of shape? I think so, and its not just the golfers, but the writers too, who I find they like to slant their article against her.

Similar to Tiger

Tiger Woods had a similar problem starting out despite doing things during his teens that no one else had done before. The pros were openly dismissive of him and his skills but when he had done something no golfer in the long history of the U.S. Amateurs other than Jack Nicklaus, that should have told them that Tiger was special, so stand back and let him prove it. Or not, as the case may be.

Of course, Michelle Wie hasn't quite racked up the hardware that Tiger did when he won all those amateurs. And that's always mentioned when dismissing her attempts to make the cut in a PGA event. But lets examine her feats from a different perspective than the common sportswriter.

At age 14, she nearly made the cut at the Sony Open. At 14! First, forget that she is female, but how many boys that age can play well enough to make the cut? Ironically, Todd Fujikawa, a 16 year old also from Hawaii just made the cut where Michelle didn't, so the press has to denigrate Wie, but he's the youngest player in 50 years to make a cut on the PGA Tour. And Wie nearly did that when she was 14 years old. That tells me how special and unique her performances was previously.

Not that I knew this fact before, but I've followed golf since the Golden Bear, Tom Weiskoft, and Lee Trevino era, and I know that its a pretty rare event for anybody, male or female. So why not celebrate that feat and marvel at the fact that a 14 year old nearly made the cut?

Culture of Sports

I suppose part of it is the culture of sports: people who don't cut it, who don't "win" in some way, is not worthy of mention or praise. Thus the Buffalo Bills don't get credit for making the Super Bowl for four straight seasons, which no team had ever done, for example, or Greg Norman or Colin Montgomerie in golf, or even Phil Mickelson before he started winning Grand Slam events.

But golf is all about losing, except when there is a Tiger or Nicholas or Palmer or Byron Nelson or Sam Sneed or Ben Hogan. There's only one winner in each event and a whole bunch of losers and yet they can recognize that there is still some very good or even great players who just don't win but play well overall. And good players can make a lot of money even though they don't win any events.

Here's how I see it. Golf is a very hard sport to play. For me, I could play the short game (pee wee golf helped me :^) well enough but I just couldn't tee off if my life depended on it. So I admire those who can launch them like Tiger and Wie.

The sport is mainly dominated by mid-20's to mid-30's players, with the very best playing into their 40's. Very few (probably handful) teens can get on the field and be competitive enough to make the cut, thus far. Heck, even guys just out of college have a tough time of it and up to their 30's. So teens who are that good are few and far in-between, and thus it makes news when they do well and headlines should they ever win. But making the cut, while an accomplishment, does not seem to rate much more than a mention buried in the lead story, like Fujikawa.

But think about what you were doing when you were 14. Could you have come close to making the cut at a PGA event? Isn't it a huge accomplishment to do that when you are so young? And she was just a few strokes off from making it. I'm not even a few strokes away from breaking 3 digits, let alone making the cut at a PGA event.

Add in that she's female and that's an additional factor of difficulty. Historically, females don't have the strength to drive the ball as far as men - hence why there are the ladies' tee which is closer to the pin than the men's tee. And that makes her near making the cut such an accomplishment to me.

Catching up on Bay Area Sports, Part 2

2012-01-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

I thought I would catch up again after reading my last post, and still being sick (been about two weeks now). Plus the Niners are going well.

Warriors Still OK by Me

I still like the new ownership. Putting in the ex-agent as the assistant GM, to learn the business as the heir apparent, was a move that I really liked. So was recruiting Jerry West to their board of advisors/directors, I especially liked that one, that one was a long time coming, I thought, but Cohan didn't have the balls to do it back when we had a chance to get him (before Memphis did).

Putting in Mark Jackson as the coach, not so much, but at this point, I'm willing to try anything. I would have been OK with Rick Barry put in there, but that probably would have brought more backlash to the new ownership.

So far the team is flailing again on the courts. Doesn't help that Steph Curry is reinjuring his ankle over and over again. Especially don't help that they just spent $7M on Kwame Brown and he's already out for the season, but he was actually a good acquisition, good defensive presence in the middle, about 6 points, 6 rebounds per game averages.

I don't have a good feeling about the team right now, mainly because the Curry issues. The Warriors last season was actually OK: they were around .500 if you subtract out the losing skein when Lee was bit by another player then lost all those games due to a deep infection, then lost all those games while he tried to return to game playing shape. I assume the owners knew this, but fired Smart in spite of that, thinking that would give the new coach a "free" year this season to look good even while the team was basically like last season.

Best laid plans, first with Monte missing due to his Nana's passing, then Curry's recurring injury problems, then Brown's season ending injury. Well, Jackson got, what, a five year contract, so I don't see him getting fired for at least two seasons.

I'm still hopeful about Jackson. A point guard as good as he was during his career is like a coach on the court. He's also a minister, so he knows how to give inspirational speeches and how to motivate the audience to his view. I thought he had a gimme season to look like he's providing progress (when it was more of the same), but he's in the frying pan now, so I guess we'll see how he handles the heat sooner than later. I still think he'll be OK, and maybe after all these seasons, OK is good enough, but with other Bay Area franchises doing well and years of Cohan mis-management, as a Warrior's fan, I was hoping for more, I was hoping to Believe. But it looks like more years of hoping and wishing.

49ers Re-Birth, Indeed

When I wrote that title in my last post, I did not think that we would see the championship teams to be reborn, I just thought that they were headed in a great direction, and like Walsh, would need a year or two to get the team up to his speed, particularly with the lockout. But just like the start of the good 49ers teams with Montana and Lott, I bought into the new Niners early in this season. Both were very similar, to my mind, just 30 years apart.

My belief in the 1981 49ers kicked in with the Washington game when the defense scored two touchdowns, one on a fumble return, the other on an interception. I had been a fan from the Nolan days of getting into the playoffs only to be stopped by the Cowboys, then suffered through the horrible mid-70's teams, with the nadir of losing all those picks for the Juice, who by then was pretty squeezed out.

I wasn't a football expert, and I'm still not, but what I realized with the 1981 team is that no matter how good your offense may be, in football, you really need a good defense to be a big winner in the league. And Walsh's defensive additions that season, starting with Lott, was a big difference maker, that much was clear to me.

It clicked to me that a good defense brings a number of good benefits to the team. First of all, most games will be close enough that the offense is never that far out of it, keeping the pressure down to score big. Things can get very bad once you are down 21-0, but if you are only one TD away, you still have a lot of hope and less negativism. Second, a good defense keeps the ball closer to the goal, meaning that the offense didn't have to be that great to score. Less chains to move, makes it much more likely to at least score a field goal or three or more per game. Third, and perhaps most important, a good defense gets a lot of turnovers. Turnovers cut short long scoring drives of the other team, frustrating them, plus sometimes puts your team very close to the goal, easing the difficulty of scoring, and in any case, it means that the other team don't score and gives your team another chance.

I also saw that teams with great offenses, like Air Coryell, might run up scores, but could never seal the deal.

Both the 1981 and 2011 teams exhibit the great defensive abilities that winning teams need.

The 2011 team, however, while also benefiting from a rookie Wunderkind linebacker in Aldon Smith, already had a great defensive core built up over the past few seasons. Though Smith helped greatly, as did the signing of Carlos Rogers and Donte Whitner, it was not like they didn't have some help this season, as they did lose a number of defensive starters over the off-season.

The offense, meanwhile, had a great player in Frank Gore, and while many didn't think much of Alex Smith, I thought he showed some skill at the position when he had a QB mentor in Norv Turner and that he had stagnated due to the constant changes in offensive philosophies plus lack of talent in the offensive side. I was very hopeful with Harbaugh taking over, particularly given his Walsh influence.

One underrated Walsh talent was his ability to maximize the talents of his players. He would not make players do what they couldn't, he focused more on maximizing on their strengths. One great example of that was him letting Steve Young run, which was a great talent of his, instead of making him into another Joe Montana.

I think Harbaugh showed this talent with his handling of Alex Smith this season, he didn't give Smith a lot to do early on, other than focusing on not making mistakes that turn over the ball, while maximizing use of Frank Gore to move the chains and get a score. Then as Gore wore down, plus this was probably the plan since Smith had an abbreviated pre-season to learn the whole playbook, Smith did more and more, as he learned more and more, until he busted out in the game this weekend and led the team to victory (which he did many times this season in the fourth quarter, BTW), TWICE coming back to score the TD the Niners needed to take the lead, until taking it for good with little time left.

Now the team is perfectly lined up to make the Super Bowl again, a thought that hasn't passed through Niners' fans minds in what seems like forever. Not that the NY Giants are not a formidable opponent, but I think it is a huge difference getting to face the Giants in SF versus having to play Green Bay at Lambeau Field. I like the Niners chances of making the Super Bowl.

And wouldn't it be great if Harbaugh's brother leads the Ravens to the Super Bowl too? Then it would be brother vs. brother and their parents will have to be neutral again (they faced each other this season and he lost to his brother as the Ravens won that matchup), though I expect them to show up for the game and cheer for each team.

Cal Baseball Re-birth

Well, not quite a re-birth, but a reprieve, now that I think of it. Wealthy alumni and former players led the fundraising drive and established a fund to keep the team around indefinitely. Which was probably the plan by the Athletic Director in the first place, but until this happened, the AD had to put the team on the chopping block and scare everyone to move.

2012 Giants

As we all know, the Giants did not defend their title, heck, they didn't even make the playoffs. But unlike most other Giants fans, I give the Giants a break, most teams do not recover from losing their best position player, which they experienced by losing Buster Posey, and not only that, but it is a huge drop from Posey to Whiteside/Stewart offensively, making the loss that much greater. Had they lost a player at a more offensively minded position, like the corners, they probably could have replaced that production much easier and at lesser asking price from other teams, but most teams do not recover from losing a great hitting catcher.

So I give the 2011 Giants credit (mostly to Bochy for his management) for staying close to playoff action most of the season (and returning to it with a great run in September). It look an Arizona team that played above its head for the season (6 games over Pythagorean) to keep the Giants out of the playoffs.

I like the 2012 Giants, I like the Giants makeup for the next half decade, assuming Giants ownership don't screw it up. Dumping Neukom did not make me happy, but if he was expecting a big paycheck for his work (reportedly $10M!), well, I would rather have Baer in charge. But they better not screw up signing Lincecum and Cain to 4-6 year extensions this off-season. Those are my main goals for this off-season.

With the current offense, the Giants should win 90-95 games due to our great pitching and fielding. That should be good enough to make the playoffs and then we will be set up to make hay in the playoffs again, with four great starters in Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, and Vogelsong.

Go Giants!

Sharks Still Impressing Me, But This is Taking Too Long

The Sharks again impressed me with their off-season moves to add good young players to the mix, while older players leave/move on. But win the Stanley Cup already, they have been like the Giants of the 60's, always coming close but never good enough that particular season to beat out the team of that season.

Still, I stand behind Doug Wilson and his handling, plus the coach, McClellan, so I will try to patiently wait for them to put it all together. Finally...

Raiders: Still Meh!

The best move was a non-move: the passing of Al Davis. He was a football great, but he didn't learn from Bill Walsh's example and step out a year or two before his decline, he stayed to the bitter end. They were still being run like it was in the 60's and 70's but that model doesn't really work anymore, heck, the Niners model of the 80's and 90's don't work today either. And the constant changes in coaching personnel, plus the players' understanding that Al had all the authority, not the coaches, made coaching the team that much harder, undermining their authority, making the players more in command than the coaches, really.

But I don't know about their new GM that they just hired from Green Bay. His background sounds great, I especially like that he comes highly recommended by Ron Wolf, but I was not terribly impressed with him at his first press conference. He clearly lacked skill in speaking to the press. He was very hesitant, I found it hard to understand him, and he flubbed his first chance in handling hot potatoes, with regard to the firing of Hue Jackson. He hemmed and hawed, unsure of his wording, until he finally said that it basically came down to him wanting to move on, wanting his own man in there. Well, he could have said that first thing and it would have been over, why did it take him that long to spit that out, unless, that is, he was just making it up, that Mark Davis had decided that and had the new GM own that decision. Perhaps, like father, like son?

In any case, that can be fixed with training and tutoring, so to me the biggest news out of that press conference was that the Raiders are still looking to move, LA, anywhere, so the changing of the guard didn't change the owner's sentiment towards staying in Oakland, where they are loved by many, they still would rather seek the filthy lucre that are available elsewhere. I don't see how Oakland can keep them around long-term, they have larger municipal problems that they need to take care of first.

A's: Still Double Meh!

One year after getting touted as the second coming of the 2010 Giants, that era is already over as Billy Beane dismantled the team, trading off two good starting pitchers and their closer, basically because of poor choices he had made previously, including signing Eric Chavez while letting go of Giambi and Tejada for basically nothing, trading Andre Ethier, trading Tim Hudson away for nothing, trading Carlos Gonzalez, trading for Matt Holliday and ending with nothing, signing Ben Sheets for $10M, and not taking a real go at rebuilding the team by losing big time, he has been waffling between competing and rebuilding, unsuccessfully and ruinously for the team. Teams consistently in the middle end up being mediocre (see the Giants in the 70's and 80's).

They cry about being poor, but then are pocketing roughly $20M each season for the past 6 seasons, which would have bought a lot of competitiveness had they decided to use that money.

I now suspect that the delay by Selig to make a decision had nothing to do with the blue ribbon committee created to study this situation but more with Wolff wanting more time to drain money from the A's in order to fund the move to San Jose. As a Giants fan, I'm hoping a large portion of that $120M ends up going to the Giants as reparation for moving into their territory in the South Bay.

The A's moving to the Bay Area really cost the Giants big time, and they had never paid for that intrusion into the region. Them paying the Giants something along the lines of what the Nationals paid the Orioles would be great (I'm hoping that these payments help the Giants fund signing extensions with Lincecum and Cain).

Here are some of the inaccuracies supporters of the A's moving to San Jose have been spouting:

A's gave the territory to the Giants long ago, so the Giants really should just give it back: the Giants should have owned this territory without any doubts once they moved to SF. The A's paid nothing to move into their territory. Them paying to move to San Jose would right a historical wrong.
A's are moving further away from the Giants, opening up a closer territory for them to draw fans from: this is the same city where fans still pined for the LA Raiders and still traveled to games down in LA, so I think this is overhyped as a benefit. I think that mainly the only fans the Giants would get are the same fans they have had for years now, those fans wearing the split Giants/A's caps, those fans were probably Giants fans when the A's moved in, and they kept their allegiance to both teams. And maybe the south bay fans will do the same and wear those caps. But I don't see many A's fans changing to Giants fans just because they move to San Jose, they would just go to less games (which, by the way, they have already done in recent years, while they are still in Oakland). In any case, this all just obscures the fact that the Giants have the rights to the South Bay, and the A's need to pay for that.
The A's are poor ...: they are crying poor but have been pulling in over $20M in EBITDA for the past 6 seasons (roughly average), which is roughly 30% higher than the average $62M their payroll has been the past few years. That would have bought a lot more competitiveness the past few years. Heck, they could have afforded to sign CC or Cliff Lee to a contract at that level of money (though they probably would not have signed with them; the point is that they had enough money to do that).
... and need to move to a better city: That's debatable. If they were spending that extra $20M, they would have been roughly 15th (potential tie with 3 other teams), in the middle somewhere, in total payroll (roughly $82-84M). Even if they spent a little more than $10M of that, they still would be in the middle third of payrolls in the majors. They just chose not to be in the middle, so they ended up near the bottom in payroll. Plus, I don't see how tarping the top level in order to have less seats available to sell is a good way of marketing the team. Plus, sure, moving to SJ is better financially for the team, but they are well off enough financially where they are now, they are just choosing not to do better.
Wolff never wanted to stay in Oakland: There is probably some truth to this one. He grew up in the South Bay and has been a part of other schemes to move a major league team to San Jose. But the fact is that the prior owner did want to stay in Oakland, and as this Mark Purdy column showed (sorry but the Merc's links often expire), the City of Oakland, time after time, showed the A's no love, no concern for losing them as a team. Why would Wolff waste his valuable time trying to convince Oakland to ante up, when the prior owner wasted a lot of time and money trying to do the same and got nowhere? At that point of ownership change, it was up to Oakland to make the first moves to keep the A's. And they whiffed on that one. Sure, the Giants owners wooed the public to get AT&T Park built, but that was with backing from the political powers that be. In fact, the Giants were sold to move to Tampa Bay and SF politicos rallied the rich folks and got a new ownership together for the express purpose of keeping the Giants in SF. The goal of that group was always to keep the Giants in SF. Oakland could have done likewise, as Schott must clearly have been frustrated dealing with trying to do something in Oakland and was ready to sell, much like Lurie was. As noted, the powers that be in Oakland were more concerned about getting the Raiders (spending $190M on bonds which they are still paying $20M per year on; and by the way, the Raiders are already looking to leave) and keeping the Warriors (authorizing $100M in bonds to renovate Oracle Arena) than about keeping the A's. And when the A's went to Oakland for help, instead of putting out $100M in bonds to help the A's build something, the A's owners were told to propose something. The Oakland politicos basically told the A's owners to take a walk, they couldn't even be bothered to rally financial support for owners who wanted to keep the A's in Oakland, it was clear from the beginning to me that Wolff was eventually going to bring the A's to San Jose if nothing was done to persuade him otherwise. Nothing was done to try to keep the A's. Poole also noted that there is a southern portion of the parking lot that Wolff conveniently ignores, but if that lot was that good, why doesn't the City of Oakland publicly announce how they would use that southern property to build something for the A's? If it were that good, that is. There must be something wrong with it if even the City cannot muster up any economic enthusiasm over that site.
Wolff could have stayed in Alameda County: Another complaint is that if he really wanted to stay in Alameda County, he would have considered building near Dublin, where there is freeway access to two major interstates (Monte Poole column, covered southern parking lot noted above). Really? Dublin? I've lived around the Bay Area (SF, East Bay, San Jose) and frankly, cities to the East of those hills are like they are in another state, another land. Also, have they ever travelled there on 238? It is a horror getting into and out of there on weekends, adding a park in Dublin would not improve that, and the state has made numerous improvements to that route over the past and it has stayed bad no matter what they did. And expansion would be nigh impossible or very expensive, as it would require adding lanes where there is no land to add lanes, making the cost to fix up very high. And I doubt that Dublin and the region have the monetary and political muscles to help get a stadium built there. Fremont, a much larger city with more businesses, couldn't, even with Cisco backing the stadium project.

Of course, it doesn't help that the City Of Oakland counts them third on their priority list, after the Raiders (getting them back ruined a good baseball venue, and they are still looking at LA) and the Warriors (improved their venue and still they want to move back to SF). If Oakland does not watch out, they can go from three major league teams to none within 2-3 years.

With Selig moving on the Oakland to San Jose issue now on the burner, per all the great reporting by Mark Purdy on the situation, there will probably be a resolution before the start of the 2012 season. It is just a matter of negotiating the terms of relinquishing the Giants South Bay rights.

And by the way, what happens to the East Bay rights then? Do the A's keep it? Most probably, because giving it to the Giants would reduce the money they get, which I don't see the Giants wanting to do. So the Giants might get more fans there in the East Bay, but the A's will be the ones with stores there in that territory, supporting the A's fanbase there, as it would be their territory.

What also could happen is that the Giants and A's might agree to split Santa Clara County, giving the A's San Jose and most of the east cities, while the Giants keep rights to the peninsula part of the county, down to maybe Mountain View/Cupertino/Los Altos. That would also reduce the payment, but perhaps such a symbolic territory ownership might be valuable in the minds of the Giants ownership.

I also wonder what happens to the San Jose Giants as well. They have a long history here, and they will be pushed out, much like the Phoenix Giants were pushed out when the D-backs moved into Arizona. They could move to Oakland and be the Oakland Giants but that would just seem weird. Not sure what historic name that can be used by a minor league team in Oakland, but there must have been one. I suppose they could also move to Hayward, they have a university there in the hills and presumably a baseball field that the baby Giants could use. Chabot has a field, but that would probably require a lot of renovation to make it usable (I first got to hit regularly on a hitting machine there, learned so much about hitting via that summer class, so I'll always have fond memories of Chabot).

Maybe they can follow up on that Dublin idea and add the Giants A-ball team somewhere in the region (Livermore?). That might build up interest in baseball in that region and get more fans going to the A's in San Jose or Giants in SF.

Catching up on Bay Area Sports

2011-03-07T23:42:00.000-08:00

Long neglected, I felt compelled to write finally.

Warriors OK By Me
First off, there is a local columnist's rant, which is just a continuation of the rant he began in an earlier column, about how the Warrior's Lacob is falling down on the job as new owner because there was no deal done by the deadline, this drive me to write.

That is the problem with the media sometimes (probably more oftentimes), it is this short-term, what have you done for me lately type of mentality that would drive any franchise into the ground if they followed everything the columnist advised (for example, as a hint, he wanted the Giants to trade Lincecum for Rios, which would have killed the Giants franchise and Sabean would have surely been fired by Nuekom if he had done that one).

I'm glad Lacob isn't doing deals just to do deals. I hope he is forcing the GM to bring all deals to him for approval and using that as a way to evaluate how good the GM is. When a franchise has been down for so long, you are not going to change the franchise with one deal or by doing something just to demonstrate you are doing something. He said he wanted to evaluate the GM, and that will take a year to do.

My guess is that he has already made his evaluation based on prior deals made - all public record plus internal discussions - and, while not liking what the GM has done, decided that it was better to just keep the guy in charge until he can find a GM more to his liking. So you keep him on a short leash under the public impression that he's being evaluated, and if Lacob likes any particular deal, he'll approve it. And, who knows, maybe the GM could impress him somehow (so far, no though).

Nelson clearly was messing with young player minds, plus was at an age where he's going to go at some point soon, so may as well eat his contract and let Smart have a try at it. Nelson would have driven away Monte Ellis at minimum, and would have worked on the nerves of other players while he was at it. It was best that he left, so why not give Smart a tryout at the same time, he had earned that. But this also leaves open, at no extra cost, the possibility of a new GM after the season with a new coach brought in by the new GM, while doing something nice for Smart, who seems to be a genuinely nice guy plus, who knows, maybe Smart earns the job by doing well.

49ers Re-birth
Finally, someone embracing the Bill Walsh heritage, and not only that, is going whole hog into it. Prior coaches have avoided that connection, and I don't understand why: Walsh was one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game, why not pick his brains and have him available as a consultant on speed dial? The only reason to avoid it is out of ego and fear of being in Walsh's shadow.

Hello? No matter what they did, they would always be in his shadow, it is that large and deep. May as well embrace it, like Harbaugh has. And even though he was not a QB in Walsh's system, he has a true lineage in that Walsh and Harbaugh connected while at Stanford before Walsh's death, and he's pursuing all of Walsh's old 49er's notes and videos and stuff, so I'm extremely hopeful that the 49ers offense will be re-born under Harbaugh's tutelage.

Now they just need somebody in the GM spot who can spot talent and pull it in during the draft like Walsh did. Hopefully the new guy Trent Bialke is up to the task, but if not, I hope they make the move fast once they figure out who is up to the task.

Cal's Baseball
I think it is a crying shame that they are ending so many years - over 100 - of tradition like this. I'm hoping they are just playing chicken with the alumni in hopes that the alumni will create a self-funding foundation of funds that will keep baseball at Cal. It would be nice if former ballplayers like Jeff Kent and Xavier Nady would get something started together, but so far the only quote I've heard is Kent saying that he's willing to do something once the AD is serious, or something like that.

2010 Giants are World Champions!
Of course, that is the big news since my last post. Never gets old saying it.

I'll repeat my prediction I made a couple of years ago: The 2010's will be known as the Decade of the Giants when it is all over.

With the Giants young pitching, and now young hitting with Belt, Posey, Sandoval (probably in that order) in the middle supporting that pitching, the key will be Neukom backing up his promise to keep the team together as long as he can via decisions made for baseball reasons and not financial and marketing ones, which bothered fans in the 2000's - punting draft picks, trading off players to save money (Ortiz for example), letting go of players to save money (Kent), signing players for marketing (Zito and Rowand).

I'm hoping the A's will eventually see the light and give the Giants $50-100M for the rights to the South Bay, which will help the Giants keep more of their young players longer. I'm also hoping that Neukom is actively recruiting his successor as managing owner by pulling in somebody worth billions of dollars who could afford to run the Giants at a loss for a few years to enable the team to hold onto more of their young stars, much like how the Angel's billionaire has been running things down there.

Sharks Are Getting White HOT!
The Sharks are starting to peak and frankly none of their star players have really been carrying the team in any way, so that is very encouraging. Hopefully they can join the Giants as SF Bay Area champions by winning the Stanley Cup this season.

Raiders: Meh!
Never really cared about the Raiders, but at least I would pay attention to what they did. But Davis has been a caricature of his former self for so many years now, that even I have to turn my head away and wait for the post-Davis era to begin. I'm very pavlavian, I used to watch bowling and golf to get my sports fix when I was younger, it takes a lot to turn me off.

A's: Double Meh!

Amazing how much media is behind them after they picked up some marginal players, good, yes, but hardly stars nor even difference makers, and yet because Billy Beane got them, they must be a great team headed for better days. If the Giants or more to the point Sabean had gotten these same players, he would have been excoriated for obtaining over the hill players on the wrong side of 30 who aren't really that good, and how they should trade away some of their good young pitching to get a similarly marginal good player, but, you know, at least they gave up a good pitcher to do that instead, because these fans think that is the better way to do it. Some equate 2011 A's = 2010 Giants.

Let me puncture that balloon: they don't have a reigning two-time Cy Young winner heading up their staff, heck, they don't even have a Matt Cain heading up their staff, they got young guns who, while good, still have to prove themselves long term. They are more like the 2008 Giants than 2010 Giants, hoping the young guys are as good as advertise, hoping the old guys hold up and produce like they used to.

In any case, I'm waiting for their owner to realize that they are not getting the South Bay territory until they pay a big pot o' money to the Giants for those rights, much like the Nats paying off the Orioles. Either that or they move away, I don't really care either way.

I like the team, but it is the fans who make me just as equally OK if the team leaves the area. I was at a recent Trophy viewing where my wife and I got my picture taken with the trophy, and while waiting in line, this really old guy wearing a very faded A's jacket boomed out in answer to a question by his Giants' fan buddy about the trophy: "You mean like the THREE TROPHIES the A's have in their stadium?"

My first thought was "Dumb-ass, the A's have won four trophies while in the Bay Area" but that comment just brought up all the pain and mean statements A's fans have made to me and Giants fans in general over the years, so I honestly don't care if they go, their fans can pine after their team like the Raiders fans did when they moved to LA, only if the A's move from the Bay Area, they ain't coming back ever, the Giants would not allow such a thing to happen once they get the Bay Area for themselves, without even bigger concessions on the part of the A's.

The thing is that the A's and Beane don't really understand how stacked the deck is against competitive teams in the draft, so their bouncing between good and just bad enough just prevents them from gaining the true difference makers like Buster Posey or Evan Longoria or Chipper Jones, with a high pick, you just have to take your chances with your pick after the 5th pick overall. Until he recognizes that, he will either have to get really lucky with his prospects or draft picks, or the A's in the 2010's will resemble the Giants in the 1970's, when they were never quite good enough, nor quite bad enough. And it would be worse than the A's of the 2000's.

RIP John Wooden

2010-06-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

Though not a Bay Area great, he dominated the world of college basketball like no other coach did, so it had a great affect on Bay Area universities. May he rest in peace.

Warrior's Sale: Ellison No Lock to Buy? I Disagree

2010-06-05T00:32:00.000-07:00

Monte Poole, who I used to read when I was in the East Bay reading the Oakland Tribune, wrote a column on Wednesday about how Ellison is no lock to buy the Warriors. I've always liked Monte's writing but I would have to disagree with his column.

I think this shows that sports columnists don't always understand business well enough. According to news, Ellison is one of four bidders that the Warriors had winnowed the down the list (13 originally I think), and according to "one informed source" (Cohan or Rowell :^), Ellison's bid is beat by at least one if not more bids. Based on that and other factors, Poole thinks that Ellison is no lock to buy, because if he wanted to buy the franchise, he could just write a check for $450M, click the eBay "Buy Now!" feature and walk off with the Warriors.

Smart Business Minds Don't Offer Top Bid Immediately

Well, Ellison didn't become one of the richest people on earth buying things willy-nilly and offering top price. That is not how you run a business negotiation. You start with what you think is a fair price, but bid slightly under and start the bidding from there. Just because he hasn't outbid everyone yet - and everyone knows he can - doesn't mean that he won't outlast the competition in the bidding eventually.

It is kind of like the scene you see in the movies when an auction is being held. It starts low then works it's way up. Nobody shrewd is going to offer top dollar immediately, they are going to hope that they can buy the item at a lower price. But if that person really wants something and has the most money, he or she can keep chipping away until the final competing bidders fall out of the race, and claim the "prize".

The Opportunities to Own Are Few and Infrequent

Ellison has been wanting to be a sports owner for a while now. He has been rumored around the 49ers as well as the LA football franchise. He can buy a franchise in any sport and still have money left over to buy 10-20 more. Heck, he could buy the whole NHL league with the money he has and if the league was willing, and probably could swing the deal with the other leagues with some loans tied to his Oracle stock holdings.

The Warriors make a lot of sense. It is local. Their stadium already has the Oracle name on it. More importantly, it is for sale. These opportunities are not going to come around every year:

The 49ers look to be Jed York plaything for many more years, he's still very young.
Al Davis will probably work out a deal with the Devil and own the Raiders in his afterlife, or at least through his family.
The Giants just had a new owner and I doubt Neukom is looking to relinquish his reins so soon, I'm thinking he's going to last at least to the end of the mortgage in 2008.
The A's is owned by an owner working to get them into the south bay, where he grew up, came from, and made his money, so he's not looking to sell right now, as he has the real estate connections and baseball connections (hey, can't do better than being Bud Selig's college roommate for connections) to make the south bay happen eventually.
The Sharks are trying to win it all and soon, the owners are not going to sell and watch the team finally win the Stanley Cup.

That leaves the Warriors, which happens to be up for sale right now.

Only Foreseeable Chance for Local Team

Look, if he really wanted to just be a sports owner, he could have just plunked down enough cash (out of his back pocket) to buy the LA franchise already. The NFL would love to have him as an owner, if they can accept that AOL guy owning the Redskins, they can handle Ellison. That this hasn't happened - and it has been a number of years now and I don't see that rumor around anymore - means that he wants to stay local.

And the Warriors is the only team that looks to be for sale in the next 5 years (unless he knows something about Al Davis's health that most people don't). Most of the other franchises have had recent ownership changes and most owners don't take over just to sell out in a few years. The other franchises have situations that preclude them selling out soon to Ellison, and only Al Davis is old enough to think realistically that death might make the franchise available (perhaps after the Russell debacle and now lawsuit to get $9-10M back; good luck with that).

The Warriors is it for the foreseeable future, so I would expect the bidding process to be long and drawn out, because the NBA will want top dollar for the franchise. And much like how Russell wanted $1 more in salary in his contract over Wilt Chamberlain's contract, I expect Ellison's winning bid to not be significantly more than the next highest bid eventually, the way the bidding is being done right now. This horse race is still early yet, we are not even in the middle, let alone the last stretch, where I expect Ellison to outlast everyone.

The only way Ellison would blow everyone away is if the Warriors eventually implemented a blind bid, winner takes all, like the owners of the Beatles song catalog did. Then this would push Ellison to bid what he thinks it would take to win the bid, not simply beat out the other bids. But the way the bidding is going, he just has to outlast everyone else. And he has the money to do that.

Finally: Chris Cohan Says He's Selling the Warriors; and Ellison is Interested

2010-03-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Finally, what Warrior's fans have been dreaming about almost from the moment they heard that Chris Cohan (who?) was exercising his option to buy the team away from the prior owners: he is not putting the team up for sale. Apparently some tax problems with the sale of his cable system, which provided the money to enable him to buy the team in the first place, costed him a chunk of money, and I'm not sure if he needs the money from the sale or just want to get out, but he has announced that he's selling the team.

Larry Ellison of Oracle, who has billions of dollars burning a hole in his yachting pants, has already announced his interest in buying the team and the rumor mill has it that he would hire Jerry West to run the operations. 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, that would probably be great news. But Jerry is pretty old now, so unless he has a protege that he's training to take over for him eventually, I'm not sure that is the best path.

But at this point, I'm just happy that Cohan is selling and Ellison wants to buy.

Ellison has expressed an interest in the 49ers before - but the Yorks are not selling, yet - and then there was talk about giving him the LA franchise but that never got anywhere. I've been saying that he should buy the Giants since the Vladimir Guerrero situation where we should have signed him but instead signed a bunch of mediocre veterans because we didn't have the money - and Larry has the money, just like that guy who bought the Angels got the money. I'm still hoping that Neukom would be open to having Ellison come in and be the money pockets for the team when it comes time to sign all our young stars like Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, Sandoval, Posey, Bumgarner, to long-term contracts, which will cost a lot of money, but could finally get us the World Series championship we all have been waiting for, all our lives.

R.I.P. Bill Walsh

2007-07-31T12:58:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say good-bye to Coach Walsh and to thank him for not only restoring the great 49er franchise to its former glory, but winning its first three Super Bowls and setting it up nicely to win its next two. Not only did he take one of worse teams in the NFL and turn it around the fastest to win a Super Bowl, but he beat our arch-nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys in doing it. As a fan of the 49ers during the frustrating years the Cowboys beat us out, that was almost as satisfying as winning the Super Bowl and, of course, the Catch will live in history (I still have a Dwight Clark signed poster somewhere, plus one of his model girlfriend at the time).

Thank you for all that you had done to add to, and made infinitely better, the illustrious history of the 49ers, and for giving us all those thrills, and yes, heartbreaks, for you have to take the bad with the good. Thank you for giving my Uncle Mike, a diehard 49er fan, the World Championships he deserves for he has been a great uncle. Ironically, the season the 49ers only lost one game, guess which game my uncle took me too? Yep, the Steelers won that day, but I had no regrets (well now :^) given how the season ended for the 49ers: Super Bowl victors.

My memory is getting bad, but with all the achievements Coach Walsh did as 49er coach, I think his most amazing achievement he ever did was in the draft, either 1984 or 1985 (as I said, memory getting bad), when he picked up starters - and not just average starters but there were a lot of good players found later in the rounds - seemingly with every pick he had that year. I'm no football expert, but I'm pretty sure that no other team has ever come close to matching that achievement.

Good bye Coach Walsh, I wish you all the best.

Congrats to the Warriors, Losers of the 2nd Round to Utah

2007-05-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

Despite losing 4-1 in the second round to Utah, particularly when they could have been up 3-2 instead with better free throw accuracy, still, the guys thrilled us with an uplifting first round win, the first taste of playoffs and playoff series win for too long a period, and gave us some great, if frustrating, games in the second round. It was quite a Cinderella break through season for Nelly's first season back with us.

I hope they can build upon their great play they had after the trade and Richmond got back into playing shape and not tease us like they did Baron's first (partial) season with us, winning all those games and then playing crappy again next season. They have a lot to look forward to.

Now the nucleus of the team, Davis, Richmond, Harrington, and Jackson has their first season together under their belt, and hopefully will do more next season. Biedrins and Ellis are now the clear long-term future of the club, and hopefully can also do more next season. Barnes had a breakout year that he too can build upon for next season, assuming we still have him, don't know his contract situation. But he's a pal of Baron's so I think he might stick around.

To everyone else, good luck to everyone who ends up with another team, thanks for your contributions to the Warriors, and for those who end up staying, I hope you get more playing time by doing very well.

Back Against the Wall: Warriors Throw Away Another Free One

2007-05-14T07:50:00.000-07:00

The Warriors are down 3-1 in their semi-final series and have their backs to the wall. The clock is ringing midnight and the fairy tale coach appears soon to revert back to a pumpkin. They need to win out now and sweep the final three games. And they only have themselves to blame.

They could have won Game 2 with just one timely made free throw instead of 3 misses, two by Pietrus. And this game, oy vey!, 13 (13!) misses, had they had made around 75% of their free throw up to the point they fell behind 7 point when Boozer completed a three-pointer on the line, they would have been mainly leading and at worse close to the Jazz instead. But no, these millionaires can not be bothered to learn how to make free throws because, basically, they don't care to win.

How hard is it to make free throws? Did Shaq make missing fashionable? Wilt the Stilt was known for clanging them but he was derided for that, but today it's no big deal.

Here's the sorry story from Game 4:

Harrington missed 2 of 6;
Biedrins missed 3 of 4;
Davis missed 3 of 4;
Pietrus missed all 3 of his.

Jackson missed one but he was a magnificent 11 for 12 from the line. I hope he gets in the other's grill for blowing this game by missing free throws, particularly Pietrus, whose two misses at the end of regulation costed them Game 2. He makes one, we win, but no, missed both of them. And I know they lost by 14, but had they had made just 75% of their free throws, they would not have to be desperate at the end and have to foul and take risks that costed them points given up, they would have been close and could have ran their regular offense instead of having to hurry up and try to score fast and get the ball back from Utah faster.

Another problem was that both Richardson and Pietrus came up small this game. Richardson only scored 7 points in 33 minutes, 3 of 12 from the field. Not that it excuses his poor play at a critical time but at least he's been contributing big all the other games, unlike Pietrus. In this game, Pietrus played 17 minutes in this one, had only 2 points though 3 rebounds and a assist.

He's not playing very well considering he's a free agent looking for a big contract. But, oh yeah, in the NBA they reward crappy play because they are the talents and we are just lucky they are willing to play for us for millions. Hopefully the Warriors can replace the "French Michael Jordan" with someone who can shoot free throws, you would have never seen Jordan missing key free throws at the end of games regularly.

Warriors Win Again At Home, Beating Utah; Now Down 1-2

2007-05-11T21:51:00.000-07:00

The Warriors had a great, in your face, win 125-105, after two tough losses in Utah, especially after basically giving away game 2 to Utah, a game they would have won with just one made free throw out of three misses in the final minute or so. After being so close to winning in Utah, one couldn't help but feel that the Warriors would take it to them playing at home, though I could see some feel that such a loss could demoralize a team.

But basically playing them to a standstill for two games in a row on their home court, in a sport build on home court advantage, had to give the Warrior players the confidence that they could take care of things at home. The only question was executing and doing it. And they did, in spades.

Now they have to do it again at home and tie up the series. As before, one game at a time, but if they can bum rush them again in game 4, and beat them soundly, that should give them enough momentum to finally win in Utah in game 5 and take care of things in game 6 at home. Make it so, Golden Ones.

Congrats to the Warriors on Their Stunning First Round Victory

2007-05-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

Shades of 1975!!! I don't remember much from that season other than Rick Barry willing the team to victory, much like Baron Davis willing the team to victory in this series, particularly on one leg in the second half of the clincher, after straining his hamstring in the first quarter. They are the first 8th seed to beat a 1st seed since they started having 7 games in the first round.

And the newest member of the Elite Eight still don't know who they will be facing, either 4th seed Utah or 5th seed Houston. They should have a good chance of making it to Final Four, at least better than being in the other bracket and facing the 2nd or 3rd seed. Neither of them scare me that much, but I'm really more a Warriors fan than a basketball fan, so I don't really know those teams that well.

The Warriors are 20-7 now since everyone was healthy and playing together, and clearly is a better team than their record, which was my point in a long ago post, that without JRich, we don't know how good the team could be, but if it was limping along the edge between playoffs and out without him and others, they clearly must be much better with one of the best players in the league back in the lineup, it only made sense. The good thing about him being out was that it gave Monta Ellis a lot of valuable time in the lineup and playing and improving, earning him his most improved player award.

Warrior are now 3-1 in the Best of 7 Series, One Win Away

2007-04-29T22:11:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the Warriors on pulling out a gutty win 103-99 over the Dallas Mavericks. They were still losing late in the game but then had something like a 20-11 run in the 4th to take over and hold onto the lead, which was precarious, due to Nowitski hitting 3's consecutively. Baron and Jackson again led the way, they have been great thus far.

But one game at a time Warriors, one game at a time, these are still the Mavericks who won 67 games during the season, and they just played a great game on the road, and now have two games at home. Fortunately the Warriors have been winning there recently so it is not a far stretch to think that they might pull one of the two games out of their hats. Game 5 will show what type of men the Mavericks are, will they fold after the hard fought game 4 or will they fight like the champions they were last season and beat up on the Warriors again? It will be good games.

Warriors First Playoff Win at Home in 15 Seasons

2007-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, Warriors beat Dallas again to take a 2-1 lead in the 7 game series. After self-imploding in game 2, with Baron Davis then Stephen Jackson getting ejected from the game, and losing ugly at Dallas, they came back and blew Dallas out in game 3. They led after the first quarter then extended the lead through the game, quarter by quarter.

Erick Dampier, the former Warrior lump on the log and current Maverick, showing how smart he is, said "They've scouted us. They know what we do." Well "Duh!", Don Nelson was your team's coach for years, shouldn't he "know" all his players' strengths and weaknesses?

One game at a time, Warriors, one game at a time.

Congrats to the Warriors!!!

2007-04-19T12:48:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the Warriors for making the playoffs! For the first time in 13 years, since 1994. KNBR was playing all sort of songs from that year to commemorate this achievement.

Now they have the uneviable task of taking on the Dallas Mavericks, owner of the best season's record since the Lakers in 1999-2000. While they are 3-0 against them this season, plus I believe they were 2-0 against them last season too, this is now the playoffs, it's different now, a different type of ball. Plus a number of the players - i.e. all the Warriors vets - have never played in the playoffs, that usually affects the play of some.

Wish them all the luck, hopefully they can win a couple of games, any more than that is hoping for too much and too unrealistic. And yet, I take hope from the good record for the past two seasons, that should at least count for something, even if the playoff environment is different.

Now That's a Good and Grateful Protege: Avery Johnson's Gift to Nelly

2007-04-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Two games to go, two wins necessary for the Warriors to ensure making the playoffs. They are facing the mighty Dallas Mavericks tonight, owner of the best record since Lakers in 99-00 season with 66 wins. They need every win because the Clippers are hot on their backs and also playing a tough team, though not as tough, in the Suns. And coach Avery basically gives the game to the Warriors by resting his best players and basically playing his bench.

Now that's a grateful protege! Some might not remember, but Avery Johnson wasn't considered much of an NBA player when he joined the Warriors during Nelly's first term, but Nelly gave him his chance and he took it with both hands and had a very nice career after that, plus winning some championships if I remember right. Then when his career was over, he joined Nelly on the bench before Nelly handed the talented Mavericks into his hands and he has again took the opportunity and capitalized on it.

By tanking his team tonight, he gave the Warriors the chance to make the playoffs for the first time since Nelly last led them there. The Warriors only have to beat Portland tomorrow, and with the shelacking they are giving Dallas, they can rest their regulars so that they are fresher for tomorrow's back-to-back game, normally a killer since they are on consecutive nights, but made easier by this gimme of a game from Nelly's former protege. The Clipper had a hard fought game with the Suns today, winning by a hair, and have a game tomorrow also, the New Orleans/Ohklahoma City team that just missed out on the playoffs and looking to drag another team down with them.

In addition, this gives Avery the chance to lock horns with the Master in the playoffs and show his former boss that he has learned well at his feet. Given that the Warriors are 5-0 in the past two seasons - assuming they win tonight's game which is a laugher in the 4th period now so it's pretty much done - they might be a bit tougher to roll over than the Clippers would have been had Avery took it to his former boss tonight.

This is why I didn't share Rod Brook's (KNBR host) feelings that the Mavericks wanted to play hard tonight to put the Warriors down so that they don't have to face them in the playoffs. If you are a good team, you don't look at past records and worry, you have a belief and confidence in your abilities and are willing to take on any challenge. Plus, I would think that most of the team are still people that Nelly put together and probably wouldn't mind giving their ex-boss a chance to make the playoffs and feel a little more prouder about his accomplishment this season, taking the ragged Warriors and getting them into the playoffs for the first time in, what, 14 seasons?

Plus, really, the Warriors as they are constituted right now, should be somewhere in the 4th to 6th seed. They were missing Jason Richardson for much of the season, then he was rusty for a while before returning to form. Then there is Baron's frequent health problems but he appears to be healthy now. Ellis and Biedrins are much improved over how they were early on, they are now "experienced" and have learned a lot during the season. Stephen Jackson and Harrington have been good additions as well, but only here for the second half of the season.

They won't necessarily win against the Mavs, that would be hoping for too much, but they should be able to make things interesting I think, and not just get swept away. But a talent deficit is a talent deficit, there's no shame in that, so they will probably be able to stretch it out to 5, maybe 6 games, should they make the playoffs.

But they are one step closer after this gimme of a game. Thanks Avery!

Warriors Can Still Make the Post Season

2007-03-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

I know, I look like a bandwagoneer, jumping on after two wins, but these two games make the point I made before, that once you get the whole team together, the team is actually pretty good.

That's one thing that has always bothered me about fans, whether on radio or on one of the boards, is that they beat up on the team when they are missing key personnel. Like a few years ago, fans were dumping on the Giants, but there were a lot of early key injuries and the fans were proclaiming themselves to be "foresighted" to have seen this to happen, and I said that things will change now that we got Schmidt back and it did, the Giants started winning a bunch of games.

The same here this season with the Warriors. KNBR's morning show was really ragging on the Warriors but, hey, you take a Jason Richardson or Baron Davis off anyone's team and you are pretty much screwed, you aren't going to win. And the Warriors had been dealing with that all season long. But now they are both playing and they are only 2.5 games behind the 8th place team (after briefly being that team a couple of weeks ago). With 19 games and 4 teams to climb over, the odds are long against them, but at least they have some chance. The key, obviously, is if the players can stay healthy, because even with limited time playing together, they have already won two games against teams who are competing for the playoffs (or in the playoffs probably).

Nelly's Rant

I was going to post but was too busy, but Nelly ranted last week about how the team's probably not going to make the playoffs (most media hung on his "not making playoffs" but forgot about that qualifier) and there were all sorts of theory on why he did that. I did not see anyone make my argument so here goes.

Nelly is very careful about what he says, he is no loose cannon. So this is not some frustration bubbling up. I think this was a calculated move.

First, this serves as a kick in the butt to the team. Does the team want it enough? The coach is publicly down, it is not like he spoke to the team about this, he broadcasted this to the media. He put them all very publicly on call: will they man up and push even harder to win?

Second, this acts as a sieve to see whether each player can have enough self respect to respectfully decline to agree with the coach and work even harder to prove him wrong or if they are so weak that they collapse in their work ethic. The latter players will be marked for removal by trade in the off-season. He wanted to see what each player is made up of, see how they react to this public challenge.

Third, he did say "probably" so if things change, then he'll say that he was hoping for that but the way things were going at the time, it wasn't likely. And there will be a few teams who remember the quote but not the winning afterward, so they might underestimate the Warriors in their subconscious because the opposing player might slack off, thinking "man, the team sucks bad if the coach says they can't make the playoffs with over 20 games to play and only a few games behind, so they are just being lucky here, we'll get them back."

Great Trade for the Warriors

2007-01-22T07:56:00.000-08:00

On January 18, 2007, the Warriors made the big trade Mullie's been wanting to do for some time now, which is to get Al Harrington. To be able to dump Troy Murphy's and Mike Dunleavy's contracts at the same time makes it seem like a masterstroke, until you realize that it was Mullie who signed them in the first place.

But I quibble. The Warriors traded away Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod, three players who either were not seeing significant time or facing the probability of lessened playing time, to the Indiana Pacers for the power forward they were trying to get all off-season in Al Harrington, plus Stephen Jackson (one of the brawl-ball incident participants plus other sordid situations post-brawl), Sarunas Jasikevicius (a Lithuanian highly praised by Don Nelson's son, but who has disappointed in Indiana, and Josh Powell. That clears out Murhpy's and Dunleavy's four year huge contracts that had been named as reasons for the Warriors to worry about losing their young core of Ellis and Biedrins when it is their turn to cash in.

This is a great trade for a number of reasons. First, Harrington is the type of power forward Nelson has been needing to go with his other players who are now the core of the team - Biedrins, Ellis, Davis, Richardson, Pietrus, and Barnes. Both Murphy and Diogu had been disappointing for one reason or another all season long, while Biedrins has broken out as the center of the future for the Warriors this season, as Biedrins start to show the potential that he exuded when the Warriors first drafted him. His emergence has also finally pushed Foyle to the background, where his talent belongs, despite the big money he signed for (never understood that signing, as much as I like Adonal personally, from the interviews I've heard with him. I thought, good for him, making the money, but what were the Warriors thinking?!? True, there was no better center out there but I think it would have been better to trash a season than to hogtie the future with his contract).

Second, as noted, Murphy and Dunleavy's contracts have been named as potential strangling points on the resigning of young players due big contracts, like Ellis, who has also come out in a big way this season as the next generation point guard for the Warriors, and Biedrins. So it is good to lose their contracts while getting Harrington, who does fit into the Warriors future. Plus Jackson is an established quality player who will help the Warriors while Richardson is still recovering and Pietrus is still sometimes inconsistent in his production, though he has been better lately.

However, both Harrington and Jackson still have 3 seasons left versus the 4 for the two traded players, so I don't see at the moment how much help that gives the Warriors, but will accept the writers' pronouncement that it has helped. I don't really understand the NBA's salary cap situation and rely on the media for help with that. I have to assume, though, that Jackson will probably be traded at some point, perhaps the off-season, to clear up more space.

On top of that, both Harrington and Jackson are considered much more athletic than Murphy and Dunleavy. That is more conducive to Nellie's up-tempo offense that has had its ups and downs this season. Plus, they should be additive to the defensive effort whereas the players the Warriors gave up were poorer defensive players.

And, at minimum, Baron Davis is buddies and/or off-season workout buddies with both Harrington and Jackson. That should translate into a much smoother integration of the new players into the offensive flow now that Baron has served his one-game suspension and will be in uniform for the next game. I think the Warriors showed how good they can be with their new players in the Cavaliers game, despite the loss.

Why Get on the Warriors?

And that's what I didn't get about the Merc's report on the Warriors about their loss to the Lebron-led Cavaliers. The writer was clearly negative about the Warriors loss. However, Baron was not playing due to the suspension for a swipe he reportedly took at another player (he says he was trying to get the ball) and yet the Warriors, with little practice time with their new players, forced the 23-16 Cavaliers into overtime and was still close enough to win or tie the game at the end (106-104), so I don't get the negativity.

The Cavaliers are among the top teams in the Eastern Conference, with Detroit and Washington. And only the Suns, Lakers, Jazz, Mavericks, and Wizards (only slightly, basically the same at .600) have a better winning percentage than Cleveland's .590, which would translate to basically 50 win campaign in an 82 game full-season. They are a good team led by a true superstar in Lebron James, so one would think that the Warriors pushing them to overtime with four new players and two new starters in tow was a good thing.

Warriors Looking Good for Second Half Run

I think the game bodes well for the future, with Baron coming back and Richardson chomping on the bit to get back and play with the new players. The Warriors now have a good starting five in Davis, Richardson, Jackson, Harrington, Biedrins, and a good set of players coming in after them in Jasikevicius, Ellis, Pietrus, Barnes, Foyle, and Azubuike. Still one or two too many swingmen, so perhaps another trade is brewing, but add another big man to the mix and the Warriors are looking pretty good at mid-season with a 19-22 record but in 10th place and only 2 games away from #8 Minnesota and 2.5 games away from #7 Nuggets. The Warriors look poised for a playoff push, despite these personnel problems, as the new players get integrated into the flow of the team, which is more in sync with their personal style of play than the Pacers slow-down offense.

I like their Direction: Warriors and 49ers

2006-12-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

I was going to post this earilier but both were doing well at the time so I thought it would look like I was just jumping on their bandwagon. Now that both are hitting a rough patch, I think it's safe enough to post without looking like a newbie riding the high of a win streak.

Warriors

Wow, Ellis and Biedrins have been a revelation this season. I had been hoping beyond hope that both of them could do it when their time came and, with Don Nelson now at the helm of the Golden State Warriors, they have been doing it, with Biedrins regularly getting double-doubles as the team's center - Foyle is now just a very expensive backup (but I guess that's OK, he's an erudite and worldly old soul, unlike most of the other spoiled and greedy mercenaries/sociopaths ruining the league).

The Warriors did well early with the favorable home schedule but has crashed down with more road games and poor play. They are, as critics have said, having a worse season than last year in terms of wins and losses. However, there is now the hope that Ellis and Biedrins brings to each game, a hope for the future of the franchise, a hope for 10-15 years (both are, like, 20 and 21 or something ridiculously young), after all these years of misery.

Unfortunately, now there is talk about trading away Ellis for Allen Iverson: NOOOOOO! I don't care about winning now, I would prefer seeing Monta and Andre grow with the team and lead us out of the hellhole that has been the Warriors for so many years. Trade away anybody else on the team, even Baron, but keep the core of Ellis and Biedrins and make sure they are signed for the long term. Unfortunately, there not much cap room and the Warriors are going to have to create room to keep the both of them. Hopefully they can.

49ers

The Niners have been down and up and down for the season. Sometimes Alex Smith looks like the #1 pick that he is; mosttimes he looks like the second year player that he is. That's OK with me. Fortunately, Gore is the running back the Niners thought he was and when the old running back was traded, it gave him a place to shine and he has, beating the 100 yard rushing mark almost every game, seemingly.

The defense was very porous earlier, then when defensive changes were made, suddenly they were like wall, stopping the other team cold. Then they haven't been as good again. Down, up, down, two steps forward, two steps back.

Again, that's OK. When a team has gone through the things that it has gone through, I'll take what this year represents: progress over last season. I don't think that I'll be as lenient next season, but the team is still relatively inexperienced and still growing. I'm looking forward to the future. I don't see a bright sunny future, like I do with the Warriors, who have two HUGE finds in Biedrins and Monta Ellis, but the Niners got Gore and the beginnings of a nice unit on both offense and defense, so things are still encouraging.

Congrats to John Madden!

2006-02-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Congratulation to John Madden for making the Football Hall of Fame! It was about time! He obviously was a great coach, despite the negatives outlined by some articles, but even if you took that away, his influence on the game since becoming an announcer is unparallelled. I hope he enjoys his tur-duc-ken in his mobile cruiser on his way home from the Super Bowl.

Warriors poised for a run? I say yes.

2006-01-19T12:49:00.000-08:00

After seeing the results of the Warriors 109-93 win over the Supersonics, it made me realize that the Warriors most probably will go on a nice run now and make the playoffs. I am not a huge basketball fan but as a sports addict, I do follow all sports (I used to watch the bowling shows that played on the weekends and stayed up past midnight for the NBA playoffs when no one cared to watch to the sport), so take my prognostication for what's its worth (that is, not much, that and $3.95 will get you a Venti Mocha Frappaccino at Starbucks).

But the Warriors are not far out of the 8th spot, occupied by Utah, only 1 game out, though with 3 teams to jump over, as New Orleans and Minnesota are tied for 9th as of Thursday, Jan. 19th. And 6th place is only 3 games away. So the Warriors don't have to play that much better in order to get into a playoff spot, there is plenty of time to make up just a few games.

Why Better Now: the French Connection

So why do I think the Warriors will do better going forward? The return of Mickael Pietrus. During all the talk of the Warriors poor play since the beginning of the season, I, and probably many other fans, forgot that an important piece of the Warrior's success at the end of last season was missing in Pietrus. That happens often with fans' interpretation of a season, like with the Giants, for all the carping on how poorly they did, they forgot about all the key injuries hampering their efforts.

The Warriors were 7-5 when Pietrus went out, then 10-13 while he was out, and now 1-1 with his return. Seeing the 19 points in 15 minutes scoring line in the victory over the Supersonics reminded me of how offensively juiced he was and is. His minutes were probably taken by Fisher and Dunleavy, both of whom do not score as well as Pietrus does. Plus it looks like Richardson and Davis are playing a lot more minutes than usual. Adding Pietrus will take a load off those two key players plus take away minutes from two offensively-challenged teammates.

That should allow Richardson and Davis to be better rested and therefore better able to take things over in the critical 4th quarter. Plus the score will be more to the Warriors advantage when the critical 4th quarter starts, because of Pietrus' pressence, making it either easier to overcome the deficit or easier to hold the lead. All this will lead to more wins.

May the Better Team Win

What fans and sportswriters forget is that when the Warriors had that great run last season, they were beating good and bad teams alike. While it is true that some teams early in the start of that run might have taken the Warriors lightly and that some of the winning teams might have been looking forward to playing in the playoffs instead of concentrating on the Warriors, I believe in the competitiveness of the professional players (generally) and no one wants to get beat by a loser team like the Warriors.

So while they may play lacksidaisical for the first quarter or half, at some point they are going to get that kick of adrenaline you get when you realize that, dang it all, we are losing to this lousy team, I'm not going to have that on my team's record. So I still consider their play of last season, while not totally representative of their true abilities and potential, it is still evidence that they can play well enough against the better teams of the NBA to compete for a playoff spot.

Reunited and It Feels So Good

Now that they have all the main cast of characters who led the charge to restoring the Warriors reputation last season, the Warriors should be able to make a run in the rest of the season to make the playoffs. In addition, Diogu has been a good addition to the mix and should only add to their capabilities. That, plus the nearness of the lower tier of playoff spots should equate to making the playoffs this season.

And perhaps they could even entertain thoughts of getting to the middle of the mix as Memphis has the 5th spot and the Clippers have the 6th spot and are only 5 and 3 games ahead of the Warriors, respectively. It won't be easy, but Pietrus will definitely make a huge impact on the team's dynamics and the team should look a lot different going forward. After all, after Baron Davis joined the team mid-last season, the player he took under his wing and had a lot of rapport with was Pietrus and now that he's back in the mix, Baron will probably play better as well, that should be elemental human nature.

49ers end season 4-12

2006-01-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

Mike Nolan, prodigal son of former Niner coach, Dick Nolan, returns to the 49ers as head coach, promising to restore the franchise to respectibility and did an OK job of that. Yes, there were misfires, like the Winborn situation, or the various mistakes in decision making on the sidelines handling timeouts and the like, but the Niners doubled their win output in his first year, which is more than what Bill Walsh could say in his first season at the helm (then again, Walsh didn't get the first pick of the draft in his first go around).

Lots of nice things came out of this season. Alex Smith did horribly, as any rookie QB would be expected to with a talent-deficient team but was starting to figure things out at the end of the season. Frank Gore showed a lot of grit and ability and other draft picks did well too, making a pretty good haul out of Nolan's first year draft. They ended with a two game win streak but had started the season with an encouraging win over the Rams so the fans went through the gamut of feelings and expectations this season. I found myself sucked into his proclamations of making the playoffs that started the season - the NFL has had a number of these total reversals in recent years - so I was not immune to his siren call either.

They still need a lot of talent at numerous positions and a number of key free agents will most probably leave the team but that also means that there is a lot of budget opened up that could be redistributed towards adding talent at key positions as Nolan rebuilds the Niners. Plus the poor record again means the Niners get a high draft pick, 7th, though not high enough to get one of the sure consensus impact picks - Bush, Leinhart, Young - and, ironically enough, the tied the Raiders in record and lost the coin flip so the Raiders will pick 6th. The 49ers look good for the future but there is still more to do. At least Nolan was perceptive enough to realize that he needs an experienced front office guy helping him out. However, York apparently did some things behind his back without, obviously, his knowledge - we'll see how that plays out over time.

Quickee: Thornton and Warriors

2005-12-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, the Sharks had a shocking trade, getting a Top 10 player in the league in Joe Thornton for Marco Sturm, Brad Stuart, and Wayne Primeau. I will miss Sturm and Stuart, but when you get the chance to get a premier player, plus he just signed a three year contract so we got him for the next three seasons, you have to go for the brass ring. On the heels of a 10 game losing streak where the offense was missing, the addition of Thorton turbo boosted the Sharks, as they have now won two in a row, scoring 5 goals each game. Excellent move.

Got to give props to the W-boys of the O-rena, they are 11-6, their best start since going 12-5 in 1991-92 (!!!), a 14 year lapse. And it was their winningest month since March 1992. Dunleavy's slow start after signing his mega-contract has finally given way to a number of good performances. Ike Diogu returned from the injuried to provide stout rebounding and scoring from the get-go, he has been a great acquisition and draft pick, and he should only get better. And this start was hampered by Baron Davis' injury in the first game, though he is now healthy. It appears their final run of the last season where they won all those games was not a fluke. Even Adonal Foyle has gotten into the act, scoring double-double in scoring and rebounds the last two games.

These two teams shows what a blockbuster trade for a disgruntled superstar can do for a team. Hopefully the Giants are taking notes.

What will Latrell's family do?

2005-11-22T15:38:00.000-08:00

I just reading in my latest Sporting News that our poor friend, Latrell Sprewell, is unemployed at the moment. It also notes that his agent is still employed, though if Latrell isn't making anything, can that really be called employed? Lastly, it noted that Latrell turned down a 3 year/$21M extension offer.

Bet he's kicking himself over that one now. Doesn't seem that bad anymore, I would think. He can take heart that the franchise he single-handedly demolished is doing well again, I hope he saved for a rainy day and didn't do business with agents who would steal his money, as he's going to have to live off that for the rest of his life. I don't think he has many skills for post-career stardom plus being known for choking a grown man and getting away with it usually severely reduces your chances for employment. Don't let the door hit ya!

Catching up...

2005-11-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

Probably nobody reading here, I've been remiss in not being better in posting here, but family, work and the Giants dominate my time. But here goes my thoughts of the moment...

49ers

Been wanting to say for about a month that I hope Dorsey gets a chance to play regularly but right when I was about to he gets injured in his first start. He didn't win in college for no reason, there must be talent there. Also, he's a local boy so I wanted him to enjoy the chance to lead the Niners. That said, I think Alex Smith is the future of the franchise, I don't see how someone with his intelligence and physique won't eventually put it all together and get it done for us. My ideal scenario is Dorsey buys Smith time to learn in the background and get comfortable with everything involved with being a professional athlete and getting used to the NFL style of play, which is much different than college ball. Dorsey will do well enough to get traded to a team needing a QB and give us either 1st round draft picks or a good player or two in return. OK, my ideal scenario is him winning the Super Bowl but that ain't gonna happen, I'm trying to be pragmatic and realistic here.

Raiders

Is Al on his deathbed? He settles two longstanding lawsuits, one concerning the ownership of the team (consolidating his power) and the other with the city of Oakland concerning the tickets and the whole marketing scheme. He eats lawsuits for breakfast and chase them down with another lawsuit when he is done with dinner. Not that I really care about them, I could care less, though I did hope that they would return to Oakland because devoted fans like that deserved it, I understand devotion like that. Hopefully they will finally take root and stay but I'm not holding my breath.

Franchise Moves

Speaking of which, this leads into my rant for the day, I'm really tired of sports franchises taking their teams and moving them to another city. I wish a city would have the balls enough to say enough's enough, if you want city and county and state money buying you a nice stadium, we get the right to the team name for that sport if there is ever a move. Has there been anybody who isn't a long term fan choke everytime they say "Phoenix Cardinals", "St. Louis Rams", "Los Angeles Raiders", or the worse one for me, the "Indianapolis Colts"? I will allow the new franchises the leeway that this clause only holds if the team stays at the location for at least 20 years but after one generation in one location, the area "owns" the nickname. I was glad that Cleveland was able to hold onto the Browns teamname, I would have seriously considered ignoring their sport if that happened.

Besides, the moving owners are missing the point: there is nothing about the name that really appeals to the new area anyway, they are just happy to have the team, but if any nationwide fans already have team caps and t-shirts and uniforms of the team, they won't buy any. But with a new team name, new fancy and inventive coloring and design, like how the Sharks did their their's with the teal, fans across the nation will buy the shirts and stuff.

Plus think of the connection with local fans by chosing a name that befits their locale. Think the Utah people really care about Jazz? They probably would have been happier with something related to their Mormon religion. Or even perhaps make it teach you something, like all those Mormon sermonette ads I used to see with my Saturday morning cartoon shows. Indianapolis probably would have been happier with something like "Indianapolis Racecars" or even a cross-promoting "Indianapolis 500's" though I guess the owner of that name would want something for sharing that with the football team. Might even get people who aren't even interested in the sport buying the stuff if it is linked into the local scene in a significant way.

Sharks

Too bad injuries have really affected their season thus far, especially losing their goalie, Nabakov. I think they will improve as the season progresses and push into playoff contention - they are currently 11th but only 5 points away from the last spot and 8 from the fourth spot, which would give them home advantage, at the quarter-season mark, with 19 games played. Plus almost every team ahead of them have played 1-4 games more, so if the Sharks are able to win in the extra games they have left relative to these teams, they would easily catch and pass these teams. Too early in the season to worry much, they are in the hunt, it's a long season.

Warriors

Too early to say anything definitively about them other than the obvious: when Baron Davis is healthy and playing to the best of his abilities, the Warriors are a serious playoff contender and when he is hobbled by an injury, they are a serious pretender, struggling to find an identify. Too bad Beidrins had an injury, I was hoping to see him play more, see him take his game up a notch now that he's had one year to absorb both a new culture and the NBA. Nice to see Jason Richardson continued his good play from last season into this season, he is earning his big contract, unlike other busts the GSW has had in the past, like Joe Barry Carroll, Billy Owens, etc. Todd Murphy is down a bit in rebounding and scoring but I like that he's shooting much better, the other stuff can wait for now if he is still hitting for a high percentage of his shots, he's also brought up his play with his big payday last season as well.

On the other hand, Dunleavy is looking like a bust after signing for big money, but I think he is probably trying to do too much to justify his big contract, vs. just being a lazy son-of-a-gun, so I expect him to turn it around and continue his nice career improvements this season once he gets over the money jitters. Luckily Pietrus has picked up his scoring a bit, along with his shooting percentage and other areas, so that helps make up for Dunleavy's drop in production. But as much as I like Adonal Foyle as a person, it still looks like the Warriors gave him too much, though at least he has pushed up his rebounds to more acceptable levels, but that's partly a function of increased playing time, the highest in his career thus far. I think his rebounds need to be near 9/game and his blocked shots near 3/game for him to justify his salary because he's not doing much offensively and thus his value is strictly in rebounding and affecting the other teams shots. However, I trust Mullie's decisions thus far and assume that Foyle is doing what Chris Mullin thought he would be doing as his stats appear to be approximately the same both pre- and post- contract signing.

Nice play from the rookies thus far, especially Chris Taft, he fell from a middle first rounder to a second rounder, but has been playing well and motivated (one of the big negatives on him, if I recall right, during the draft), and doing well in his role, both in scoring, rebounding, and blocking shots. I think he will prove to be a good find. Aaron Miles and Monta Ellis has only gotten garbage time, so nice play is stretching it, especially for Ellis with just one game he got into, but I think the two have played well given the limited time they have both been accorded thus far into the early season, my gut likes both acquisitions.

Earthquakes

Who cares, they might be moving soon to Houston. Besides after the league manipulated them out of losing Donavan Landon for nothing and allowing him to move to the LA Galaxy, the team he wanted to play for, I gave up what little interest I had in following them. They made the playoffs but eventually a loss to the Galaxy kicked them out of the playoffs. As I noted above, hopefully they will change the name in Houston to something appropriate to the area, can anyone really get into the "Houston Earthquakes"? That would as absurd as these choice names I created: "Utah Alcoholics" or "Seattle Sunshines" or "Peoria Oceans".

LPGA

Just have to give shout outs to a couple of local ladies, Paula Creamer and Christina Kim, Paula for taking on Sorenstam on rules of the game in the ADT Championship and Christina for winning the LPGA Tournament of Championship the previous week, her second career win, she had been struggling all this season. Too bad Paula faded after a nice first round, perhaps the confrontation with Sorenstam took her out of her game mentally as she had two bad middle rounds before finishing nicely with a 1-under 71 to finish tied for 6th at 288 (even) for $36,333. Christina ended up next, tied for 9th at 289 (+1) for $22,750 in the ADT Championship, for a nice two week money total of $160,750. She had played poorly the first three rounds but made up a lot of ground with a closing 67 (-5). Closing out, Julie Inkster, another local, finished 4th in the TOC and tied for 22nd in the ADT.

The Big Game

Last but not least, the piece de resistance, Cal and Jeff Tedford beat the Stanfurd Junior University Cardinals 27-3 on their home turf, which will be renovated soon because it is such a huge claptrap, in the 108th Big Game. This was Tedford's fourth consecutive Big Game win in his first four year tenure as Cal's head coach, a feat that hasn't been done at Cal since 1921, and the last time Cal has won four in a row since 1939. Steve Levy led the team as the starting QB, an improbable story that is often the mark of a Big Game: unable to find a niche anywhere on the team previously, whether as QB, fullback, or special teams, the junior returned to his original QB position as a third-stringer when the season started, he didn't start one game all season and won in his first start as QB on his father's birthday, with his mom and dad in attendance, with Cal's bowl chances hanging in the balance. As his reward, he will get to start the Bowl game. Defense ruled the day as Cal sacked Stanfurd QBs 9 times and held them to zero TDs again for the second consecutive year.

Go Bears! Roooooooll Ooooooooon Yoooooooou, Beeeeeeeears!

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20051120/capt.caps10811200349.california_stanford_caps108.jpg

The King is Dead

2005-10-18T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sad news to report but an true icon of Bay Area broadcasting, Bill King, passed away from complications of hip surgery; he had suffered the injury in spring training and been struggling with it all season. Unfortunately the adage "no surgery is minor" proved true for him. He was 78 years old.

He has (had) been a big part of the Bay Area sports broadcasting scene for many, many decades. He was announcing the Warriors when I first got into following sports in the early 1970's but I don't know how many years prior to that he had been working. I can still remember his rousing "Holy Toledo" punctuating the Warriors broadcasts back in the day. He has been the voice for many teams in the Bay Area, including the Raiders and, of course, the A's, his most recent gig. He even was an announcer for the Giants at one time, with the 49ers being the only major sport in the Bay Area to not have employed his one-of-a-kind voice and personality. An era has ended with his passing.

SI sucks even more now

2005-10-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Any fan of Barry Bonds must necessarily be a non-fan of Sports Illustrated because of all the anti-Barry Bonds articles that they have written over the years. They have ceased being a journalist in my eyes for a long time, they have been pushing their agenda with him constantly. And just because Barry snubbed one of their star journalists for an interview (a totally rude act that I don't forgive Barry for) does not give them license to go after any athlete and not give a balanced story. I was especially mad when they published their hate piece in the middle of our push to make the playoffs in 2002 and solicited comments from Jeff Kent, who showed that he was no team guy with his interview with them for that hit piece.

Now I'm mad at them for costing Michelle Wie her first professional paycheck. A "reporter" for them turns in Wie for a rules violation, which I can understand, but he waits a day to do it, when she could do nothing about it other than to be disqualified. Either speak up as soon as you have a problem or shut up. He claims that he was speaking for the "integrity" of the game. If that was his high-minded reason then he should have spoken up when HE WAS VIEWING THE PLAY HIMSELF.

He was there, he saw the whole thing, he even stepped it off after the play was done and it bothered him enough to speak with tour officials the next day. If he had any question about it then he should have spoken then. "I was in my reporter's mode," was his lame excuse for that. Then why talk about it the next day? Are you suddenly not a reporter anymore?

He is obviously just jealous of her, just like all the people who were jealous about Tiger Woods when he became pro. He wanted to take her down a notch and "teach" her. All it taught her is the Barry Bonds rule: don't speak with Sports Illustrated.

Does anyone who isn't interested in the SI Swimsuit issue care about SI anymore, anyhow? I was never a big fan before and after the Bonds stuff I really haven't touched them. I read a lot more Sporting News, though, to be fair, I somehow lucked into a free subscription with them and don't plan to renew when it is time. I mainly make use of all the free websites news feeds, especialy those available through My Yahoo, to get my news and articles, which does include some SI articles. If it wasn't for the Swimsuit issue, would SI be dead today?

He probably did this to pull up some publicity for his dying magazine. How do these cockroaches live with themselves? The same things that were done to Tiger are now being done to Wie.

Just as he showed them, I know that she will show them as well. She is just 16 and had already beaten some professional male golfers, let alone female golfers. In her first tournament ever, she came in fourth before the disqualification.

SI is not the only one to complain, though. Some have complained that she hasn't done anything that Tiger accomplished while he was a teenager. Some have also complained that she should have used this time to win something, like the Amateurs, which Tiger did for three years in a roll, like his hero, the Golden Bear did. But to me, she has done more than what Tiger did: she has beaten a lot of pros already in tournaments. Sure, she hasn't won any but, really, how many pros themselves win tournaments?

To me the more important thing is that she has been very competitive in the events that she has been in. In seven LPGA tournaments prior to turning pro, she was second three times and third once. In four majors, she was close enough to win three of them at some point late in the tournament, coming second in one, the LPGA Championship, something most golf professionals have never done during their career, let alone a 15 year old girl (I find it funny calling a 6 foot person that but she is that age).

The wins will come when someone has talent like that. And Woman's golf is wide open right now, there have been a number of teenagers who have joined the tour in the past year or two, like Paula Creamer, who is local to the Bay Area, and Brittany Lincicome, who is doing very well, and winning some tournaments. So Michelle had to start her career now or possibly be elipsed by these young women, especially Creamer, who has won twice this year, came in second 3 times, third 2 times, for a total of 7 times coming in the top 3 in 22 events, in the Top 10 in 10 of 22, and in the Top 20 in 16 of 22.

Keeping the Bay Area angle, there have also been a number of Bay Area products who have turned pro in recent years before finishing college and have been doing well, like Dorothy Delasin of SF and Christina Kim of San Jose. Christina has become quite a voice for the game, reporters like to interview her for her comments; she is insightful, funny, and speaks her mind, which got her in trouble before. And the Bay Area has contributed greatly to the LPGA for a long while, with Julie Inkster and Pat Hurst coming from the area. I am sure there are others but none come to mind immediately; my apologies to those.

Just like what Tiger did for men's gold, Michelle Wie and the other young stars will bring more attention (and larger prizes for tournaments) to their sport and raise the money level for everyone involved, not just the superstars. And I would not be surprised if Wie one day wins a men's event. Hopefully she can do it at Augusta by winning the Masters and show those old fogey men what women can do when given the chance.

The Alex Smith era has started

2005-10-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Due to Rattay's inept running of the offense, the 49ers have made the move to the future by announcing that Smith is starting the next game against Indianapolis. Seems like it is a desperate move by a desperate coach for a desperate team. Hopefully this will work out, else it will look like Nolan could be out in the same timetable as Erickson.

Random Thoughts and catching up

2005-09-24T11:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, has it been this long since my last post?!? I guess I got too involved with my fantasy baseball games plus my Giants blog...

Let's see, here are my thoughts off the top of my head:

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are in good hands with Nolan. I was not too happy that they didn't give Rice a chance to make the team nor that they have not given Bill Walsh some role with the team. However, he handled both the death of a player and the QB controversy well.

Especially with the QB situation. Even though most teams would have started Rattay with the first team in the pre-season - as the games showed, he was way ahead of Smith - Nolan gave Smith a chance to show off his stuff, or rather his lack of stuff, with the first team against other team's first team. But if he did the usual thing, Smith would have been on the second team and that would have invited some questions during the season about bringing Smith in, because, frankly, the team is not that good yet and Rattay was sure to look bad at points in the season. So this killed any idea on the part of the fans or the media of trying to start up a QB controversy because if Smith cannot do anything in the preseason, how is he going to do anything in the regular season.

Golden State Warriors

Warriors looking good still, no longer looking like the GSW that I made fun of in one of my first posts. No big free agent signing that I can remember, but I liked their draft picks of Ike Diogu, Monta Ellis, and Chris Taft. Taft was a great pick because a lot of the pre-draft talk had him going around the Warriors pick and thus a lot of pundits picked him as the Warriors first round draft pick. That the Warriors got Diogu - who sounds like a great inside force - plus Taft, who has great size, a missing element for the Warriors and a point guard project in 18 year old Monta Ellis, made it a great draft. They also have a $5.2M trade exception (which I think they picked up in a trade) which could allow them to pick up someone else.

Baron Davis is healthy, stronger, and raring to go, according to a recent article in the Contra Costa Times, and that just makes me drool: he did all the stuff he did for the Warriors, with the same players now as he had then to support him, while not totally healthy, so one could assume that things can only get better than the 18-10 record since he was traded to us and his 19.5 PPG and 8.3 APG that he averaged as a Warrior. And he seems like a very good guy, being one of the players taking over for Magic Johnson's charity stuff in LA and recently helping out with raising funds to help the people hurt by Hurricane Katrina (seems unfair to all Katrinas in the world to not add the "Hurricane" part), which I did too (and so should you) by contributing to the Red Cross.

San Jose Sharks

The most important thing is the strike/lockout is over and there will be a 2005-2006 season after the 2004/2005 season got cancelled. Not that anyone really noticed, unfortunately for the sport, lets see if they can recover from it. I think they are now broadcasting games on the Home and Garden cable channel or something crazy like that. Still in the preseason, the Division winner Sharks return with most of their key players, except for a key defenseman, whose name escapes me now, but I was impressed with the number of good defensemen (don't know the sport, but read all about the team in the newspaper) they had, so he probably won't be a huge loss, not that he wasn't very good, but I think the team has a number of players ready to step up, particularly a recent 1st round draft pick (dang, been away so long I've forgotten all their names except for Marleau and Nabakov). I think they should be in good shape to compete for the Stanley Cup this season.

San Jose Earthquakes

Sorry but I'm not a big soccer fan, even though I loved playing the sport when I was young (size and hand-eye coordination wasn't as necessary for a broomstick body like mine to do well, just desire to get down the field in as fast a time as you can). I don't really know anything about them. But I will give props to them for playing well down the stretch, from what I heard on the radio. I think that they are in the playoffs and just got back one of their better players, Mark Chang.

California Bears

Pardon an alumnus' indulgence: GO BEARS!!! Wow, their two key offensive players - starting QB and running back - expected to go wild this year and both go down with injuries but their backups came in and didn't miss a beat. The Bears are undefeated in the season so far, 4-0 (1-0 in the Pac 10) and are ranked 13th and 14th in the AP and USA Today polls, respectively. Not all is rosy, as they had some defensive problems with a non-ranked team last week, but when you win 41-13 and don't give up a defensive TD, sometimes you are reaching when looking for negatives.

Leland Stanford Jr. University or Stanford University Cardinals (S.U.C.s)

Well, what do you expect from a Cal graduate? All I can say is this: how can they lose to the U.C. Davis Aggies? Is that how low they have sunk?

49ers Draft Alex Smith QB first in draft

2005-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

As much as Aaron Rodgers would have been a great sentimental pick, I can understand the reasons why they went with Alex Smith. First, impressively, he has already graduated with a degree in Economics with a 3.75 GPA at age 20. The vast majority of players are barely motivated to get their degree period but he not only has gotten his degree but did it on an accelerated pace even with all the extracurricular activities that college football requires of the players, whether it be practices or games or preparing for games. And yet he did it in just two years.

Second, I don't know this for certain, but I've been hearing that Alex Smith is more athletic and more of physical pressence than Aaron Rodgers. The NFL has been moving in that direction for many years now for QBs so that makes sense as well. With the huge linemen bearing down on QBs, the QB has to have some size or get clobbered by the behemoths that line up as defensive ends today.

Third, as much as they doth protest, the Niners are not really a West Coast offense team. For all the talk about the new offensive coordinator's learning at the feet of Joe Montana when they were together at K.C., hello!, the most well-known practioner of that offense, Bill Walsh, just lives down the street, apparently available to talk to anyone who wants to talk football offense, and the Niners have not snapped him up to act as a consultant to the team (which would have costed them much less than it did for the Niners to tell Dennis Erickson good-bye). So it is not entirely good that Aaron Rodgers is probably the best quarterback in college running a West Coast offense, as the Niners don't really run one else they would have embraced Bill Walsh as contributor emeritus to the Niners when the new regime took over.

Intelligent, strong physically, winner (21-1 in his two years as a starter, including 12-0 last season), leader, he was accurate as well as wily as he rushed for many yards and TDs as well. As a Cal grad, I would have loved the storybook tale of drafting Aaron Rodgers, a Cal product himself, a local boy who was a big 49er's fan, but I guess it was not to be.

I have no idea myself which player will be better, I go by what I read and process. I think Aaron probably ended up in a better situation, going to Green Bay, one of the truer practioners of the West Coast offense, learning from one of the great QBs in history in Brett Favre. He may have lost $10M in the process of falling from 1st to 24th, but he should make all that back and more if he can become the next great Green Bay QB, whereas I don't know what would have happened if he went to the Niners since their West Coast offense is not as pure as Green Bay's version (and even that is not as pure as the Bill Walsh's) and the situation is so much more chaotic and up in the air. It should certainly be a smoother ride in Green Bay than here.

The Warriors did it, just not the team I thought

2005-04-21T03:05:00.000-07:00

A year ago, if someone said that the Warriors would be tied with the Lakers in wins, you would have thought they were smoking something good....

Well, they did it, they tied a team ahead of them like I was hoping during their win streak (then followed by a losing streak but ending with a winning streak), only the caught the Lakers, who went into a free fall and ended up tied with the Warriors. They couldn't even get it up enough to win either of their last two games, either one of which would have kept them above the Warriors. In fact, the second to last game was against the Warriors and they demolished them by over 20 points.

The Clippers, as I was afraid they would, ended up 3 games ahead of the Warriors.

The Warriors are looking good and looking to get better over the off-season. Chris Mullins will not be sitting on his hands like previous management, even with the way the season ended, with the Warriors one of the top teams in winning percentage. They still need a big man - Foyle doesn't cut it - and Dunleavy and Pietrus play the same position. Given that Baron has taken Pietrus under his wing, and how well Pietrus did under Baron, that suggests that Dunleavy is odd man out, even though he too played better with Baron around. Hopefully his father will give the Warriors some good players and/or draft picks to get his son.

Warrior win 8th in a roll against the Suns!

2005-04-09T01:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, the Warriors did it again, beating the Suns in Oak-town with a thrilling run at the end of the game to win it running away. The Suns are only the best team in the conference right now, perhaps in the league. That's 8 in a row now and 10 of 11. Too bad the Hornets didn't give him up to us earlier, maybe they could have caught the Lakers. With 6 games left, they are behind the Lakers and the Clippers 3 games each. They got games against San Antonio (home), Denver (road), Minnesota (road), Portland (home), Lakers (home), and Utah (home).

San Antonio is ordinary on the road, 19-17. Baron Warriors are hot, Baron Warriors could win.
Denver is great at home, 26-10. Baron Warriors probably lose.
Minnesota is good at home, 22-16. Baron Warriors could win.
Portland lousy on road, 8-29. Baron Warriors should win.
Lakers lousy on road, 12-26. Baron Warriors should win.
Utah equally lousy on road, 8-29. Baron Warriors should win.

Looking at these, the Warriors have a chance to go 5-1, so the Lakers or Clippers only need to go 2-4 for the Warriors to tie, not impossible given how poorly both has played this season. However, the Warriors are more likely to go 4-2, meaning those teams would have to go 1-5 for them to tie, which is unlikely.

But you have to give it up to the Warriors for pushing this win streak out to 8 now and making it possible for fans to still speculate about rising that high when they could have just played out the string. Gosh, there were 20,000 in attendence for this game (19,000 capacity?!?), so apparently the good times are here again. This sets up things nicely for next year, with a number of young players like Pietrus, Biedrins and Cabarkapa are more experienced and ready to step to the next level.

Baron keeps it going!

2005-04-04T02:19:00.000-07:00

The Warriors beat first place Seattle at home last night. 25-11 on the road Seattle. 50-23 overall Seattle. Can Baron do no wrong? Apparently not!

Amazing Baron Completely Changed the Warriors

2005-04-02T21:42:00.000-08:00

The Warriors just beat the Jazz. No big deal since the Warriors are 11-7 since Baron Davis joined the team and 7-1 in their last eight games. However, they also posted their first five-game road winning streak since November 1978. 1978!!! There were good teams, many of them, during the Don Nelson regime (though none before or after...) but none of the achieved such a feat. Plus, this is their first win in Utah in 20 games or over 10 years ago, though these Jazz are a pale imitation of the great teams they had the previous 10 years.

The man is amazing! I thought the Warriors had some nice pieces before the trade but not enough to be winning regularly yet. But Baron has come in and changed things around and moving the team in 180 degree direction from what they were going in before.

Before trade, headed towards a Top 4 worse record in the league; after trade, winning at a rate that would translate into the 5th best record in the Western Conference.
Before trade, waning hope that the new regime of Chris Mullin and Mike Montgomery would be able to change the luck of the franchise; after trade, fans are thinking about making the playoffs next year and what the Warriors need to do to improve themselves.
Before trade, wondering about the players on the bench, how talented they are; after trade, Mickael Pietrus has took off, averaging over 20 point a game over the past 5 games, Mike Dunleavy got mad enough to get thrown out (and even ripped off and threw his shirt in the crowd) and has been playing as if inspired, Andris Biedrins has played well in spurts, showing why he was traded, Zarko Cabarkapa has had some breakout games, scoring over 20 points, and even Adonal Foyle has started to begin justifying his big contract that he signed in the off-season.

Not only that, but the Clippers has had an extended losing streak and the Warriors are inching closer to them. They are still pretty far away to catch and the Warriors are still unlikely to catch them, but now they are only 4.5 games away instead of the 8 games just 4 games ago. And it is not just that they are finally beating the lousy teams, though that helps. They have played well against teams that they couldn't even touch previously, like beating Sacramento, Phoenix (both on the road even!), Sacramento again, losing by 3 to Houston, losing by 4 to defending champs Detroit, Washington, and Minnesota, and losing by 6 to Detroit. They are competitive not only with the middle of the pack but have been playing the elite teams not just to a standstill but also beating them regularly as well.

The Warriors have been 7-2 since Baron took over the starting spot. The sand is not getting kicked in their face as much and, not only that, they have been taking it to a number of good teams as well. The light appears to be at the end of the long dark tunnel that we Warrior fans have travelled in since Chris Webber was traded away and the light is good.

Baron is da man!

2005-03-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

The Merc had a nice article today on Baron Davis, the Warriors have been 8-7 with him, about .350 winners before him. And the great thing is that the Warriors could have won a number of the losses with a little better 4th quarter, they could have been easily 10-5 or better had they executed. Next season is looking to be a good year for Warriors fans, barring injuries.

Wow, are the Warriors for real?

2005-03-21T22:23:00.000-08:00

Late to this but the Chron noted last Sunday that the 4-4 road trip was historic.

Only 5th team with sub-.500 record to win at least 4 of 8 games on a road trip since 76-77;
Warriors won 4 games on a trip for first time since 78-79, amazing since Don Nelson's clubs usually were pretty good, especially with Run TMC;

Then they've won 3 of 4 since then, only losing by 3 points to Houston, who has been on a total hot streak for a couple of months, plus beaten the Kings home and then away plus beat Phoenix on the road, even though their four of their players - Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson, and Steve Nash - had really good games.

In addition, Andris Biedrins and Zarko Cabarkapa have played well in spurts since they started getting more regular playing time. And Mike Dunleavey has come alive since Baron Davis joined the team. As well as Jason Richardson and, heck, the rest of the team.

It has just been beyond amazing what the team has done since Baron Davis came along. The team had been scraping by for so long that I did not think that they were just one player away from being competitive, even if we had gotten somehow Shaq or Kidd or Iverson. And yet, here we are, the Warriors have won 7 of 11 after three games (losses, but each less than the one before plus playing Detroit, the defending champions, to a virtual standstill for much of the game) of introducing Baron to the team and integrating him into the offense and defense.

Can it be? Has the fog of Nelson-Webber finally lifted from this valley of woe? Ironically, this shifting of the Warriors fortunes has almost coincided with Webber's trade to the 76ers, sending him away from NorCal, and the resignation of Nelly from the Dallas Mavericks as coach.

And Mully, sorry for doubting you but you are finally fulfilling the hopes of Warrior fans who were excited at your addition to the management structure and then promoted to the top position. All the manuevering to get out from the cap, the addition of players who looked good, but then the valley of this past offseason with the questionable addition of Fisher and questionable signing of Foyle plus the poor performance all season until Baron came along and made everything suddenly make sense on the court.

With only 15 games left, there is no chance for any playoffs, but obviously they are playing in preparation for next season. But perhaps they can take as a stretch goal catching the Clippers. At the rate they've been playing, the Clips should still end up with 36 wins, which would mean the Warriors would have to go 13-2 just to catch them. But teams have faded in the past and the Warriors have played a lot of good teams tough since Baron came along. So while it is unlikely, then at least they wouldn't be last in the division.

Who would have thunk B.B.D.? (Before Baron Davis) A 4-4 road trip

2005-03-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, Baron is walking the talk. He said the Warriors would be competitive with him around and he wasn't kidding. A tough 8 game road trip, longest in 10 years, against a number of good teams, and B.B.D. we probably would have been happy with a 2-6 trip, but here we are with a 4-4 trip and the feeling that it could have easily been 6-2 if they could have kept up the intensity.

Not only that but Biedrins has been seeing extended minutes and he hasn't been disappointing so far. Now all they need is a legit center (I guess that is what the salary exception they traded for will be used for since they are way over cap now) and they could be looking to go beyond the first round next year. At minimum, they look to be a playoff spot competitor easily next season.

Excitement returns to the Warriors

2005-02-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, this is probably the first time I've been truly excited as a Warriors fan since probably when Webber was traded for in the trade (ironic that the player he was bypassed for, Shawn Bradley, has been working for Nelly for, like, 7 years now). Baron Davis had a great first outing for the Warriors and played basically a full game, 29 minutes, despite his Achilles' heel still not 100%. 10 points and 8 assists is not a bad start given that. He was 3-11 from the field (2-4 in 2-pointers and 1-7 in 3-pointers). Cabarkapa played 10 minutes and Biedrins even got 2 minutes. Foyle even contributed, 6 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocked shots in 35 minutes.

Hopefully, though wins are nice, figuring how how Davis works with the core group of players and developing key future players like Cabarkapa and Biedrins will be emphasized for the rest of the season despite Baron's desire to win and win now, as espoused in today's Merc. The Warriors are too far back to do anything anyway, so they may as well write off the season (and improve the odds of a high pick) and work on developing the team for next season.

GSW: A Medical Term for What Has Happened to the Warriors Since Cohan Bought Them; Plus Royalty Comes to the Warriors

2005-02-27T21:35:00.000-08:00

GSW. I recently was watching ER and realized that they were repeatedly saying GSW, which is the acronym that the Golden State Warriors have been using. It is also a medical synomym for what has happened to the Warriors since Cohan bought them: Gun Shot Wound. As in shooting yourself in the foot:

When Cohan bought the team via basically a hostile takeover, that conveniently disrupted Finnane's (I think, can't remember the other owner's name) negotiations with Webber for a long term contract.
Trading down from Chris Webber to Tom Gugliotta to Donyell Marshall to Danny Fortson to, what, Popeye Jones? to nothing.
Traded down from Tim Hardaway to Kevin Willis to nothing.
Traded down from Latrell Sprewell to John Starks, Chris Mills, and Terry Cummings to Billy Owens and Avery Johnson to nothing.
Losing a variety of other useful players and getting nothing in returnMoved down from Don Nelson to Dave Dwardzik to Gerry St. Jean

When will it end? I have been hopeful with Mullins (though I was rooting for Rick Barry to get either the GM or coaching job). He engineered a number of trades to clear out players and contracts and did a good job, I thought, with them. But then he signed Richardson, Murphy, and Foyle to those big contracts, plus Fisher. I liked the Murphy one, was hopeful on the Richardson one, not sure, could go either way, on the Fisher one, but, like most Warrior's fans, had a big "?" on the Foyle one, and so far that is how each has played out.

Now the big trade for Baron Davis. This one will either make or break Mully. I don't remember all the numbers but he pushes the Warriors way over the cap for the forseeable future, making it impossible for the Warriors to try to sign a low-post big man during that period (good-bye Yao-Ming...). However, there is a huge question over whether Baron will be healthy enough to fulfill the remaining 4 full seasons on his contract at a reported $63M (uninsured) since he has been hampered by a number of injuries over the past three seasons and hasn't appeared in many games this season (only 17 before the trade out of 54). Mully said that he expects a physical to allay his and the team's concerns about Baron's health but isn't that kind of late in the game to figure that out for sure? That's a $63M gamble.

But at least the Warriors got some buzz out of the trade and upgraded via a trade for once. And even got royalty (Baron :^). The Warriors at least will be interesting to watch over the rest of the season and hopefully they can figure out whether Dunleavy is worth keeping or if they need to trade him plus give Biedrins more playing time so that we can get a good look at how he plays. I hope the Warriors prioritize more on figuring out these two players (plus perhaps Zarko Cabarkapa) and fitting in Baron Davis than on winning.

I noticed that Baron's FG% is woefully under .400 this season and under that mark for the past two seasons, though his career figure of around .420 before then is no great shakes either. That got me thinking that he's not that great a shooter.

But then this got me to thinking about something that has bothered me since the 3-pointer began: why don't the stats look at a player's true shooting percentage? They always use the combined shooting percentage, blending in 3-point shots along with the normal shots. However, taking a results-based view, the 3-point shots are worth 50% more than normal shots. So shouldn't the player have instead an equivalent shooting percentage?

For example, let's take Baron Davis. If you take out all his 3-point shots, I see that his shooting percentage is not as bad as I thought: .456. His 3-point shooting percentage is .327, which is why his overall percentage is so low. If you adjust that percentage to account for 3 points instead of 2 points, the percentage is raised to .468 overall because the .327 is equivalent to a .491 shooting percentage for normal shots. Not great still, but not as lousy sounding as his .410 career shooting percentage. It is hard to compare player's shooting abilities looking at only the blended rate and not at either the two separated (.456/.327) or equivalent (.468).

War-Oh No-iors again

2005-01-31T21:42:00.000-08:00

What is jinxing the Warriors? Oh yeah, Cohan! What idiot would exercise his option before the prior owners had secured the services of Chris Webber to a long-term contract? Then the long years of quiet incompetence from Dave Dwardzik and Garry Saint Jean, and the string of head coaches. I guess Adelman has shown that it was the personnel and not his coaching that was the problem. Ironically, he has done it with Chris Webber as his star...

I thought perhaps Mully would be the cure for what ails them with the moves he had been pulling over the past year before he officially took over. However, signing Foyle to that contract?!? I like Adonal but really, that much for a career backup? And now he's sitting on the bench, still a backup but paid like a starter?

With the season pretty much blown by JRich's injury, they should start preparing for the future as Rick Barry suggested on his talk show. Rick suggested that we find out what we got by playing Biedrins more and I agree. He's not going to get better on the bench. Give him more playing time over the guys who are getting the big salaries but who will be gone at the end of the season. He probably should also attend that famous annual "Big Man" training that is held every year by that old Cal coach, Pete Newell, to help develop him.

But the main point is that we gain nothing for the future from playing the established forwards instead of Biedrins. Playing the vets means more wins (don't laugh, potentially, :^) which would mean a worse draft pick. However, the vets will probably be gone after the season so anything that they learn will accrue to the next team. Meanwhile, Biedrins would learn to sit on the bench rather play and perhaps learn something.

I will grant that perhaps he is so overmatched that he would lose his confidence if he played regularly. But he has been in only 4 games for a TOTAL of 21 minutes for the season. Is Dale Davis or Clifford Robinson doing that much more for the Warriors? On a per-minute basis, not much more. And they are the vets, perhaps he would do better with regular playing time. And his learning will pay off in future years whereas these others are short-timers.

49ers Hire Mike Nolan

2005-01-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

As a 49er fan from the days of Dick Nolan, I viewed the 5 Super Bowl wins as exorcising the crushing losses suffered during Nolan's tenure, kind of like how I viewed Barry's career as validation for his father's. Now we get Nolan, the Next Generation, as redemption for the 49ers and the Nolan clan. I dig the hire from that viewpoint, much like I would have been happier with the Warriors hiring Rick Barry instead of Musselman (who I nonetheless liked and had no problems with, just I wanted Barry if I was going to put up with Cohan as an owner).

I really don't know much about football strategy (my cousin used to kick my ass when I played that popular football slideshow game of the 70's) but I knew the players and coaches and just root for the team. So I cannot get into how Nolan might help the Niners other than what I've read about his achievements.

The main impressive thing I noticed was that he oversaw, basically, the wholesale change of the Ravens' defense (except for the star, Ray Lewis) and kept it humming at a high performance level despite all the new faces and rookie talents. Given that the Niners' main talent and strength right now is on defense, especially in the linebacker area, I would expect the defense to leap towards the top of the league, else his hiring would be a disappointment in my eyes.

The question now is "who will run the offense"? Not a lot of good established talents there, only Ken Dorsey, to me, has the potential to be pretty good, I think, gut feeling. Barlow couldn't play much worse so hopefully the offense will rebound some due to that. I am hoping that they go for an offensive innovator, of course using a BILL WALSH derivative offense, who would be confident enough to hire back Walsh as Senior Assistant Emeritus or whatever fancy title they want to give him.

The only name to have caught my eye so far is Norm Chow of USC, who has developed a lot of NFL-ready QBs. Plus that would adversely affect the Trojan's offense, a plus for a Cal alum like me. In any case, it a focking shame that Bill Walsh does not have an emeritus title and life-time employment with the 49ers. If somebody is intimidated by Walsh, GOOD!, we have a high bar here at the Niners and if you don't think you are worthy, don't bother signing on as a coach. Only someone timorous would, as an owner or coach, not hire Walsh, because Walsh epitomizes all that has gone well with the Niners. Not that he was perfect, but I cannot see how you cannot bring him on so that he can at least opine on his thoughts and provide the benefits of his experience.

It's not like he's Al Davis, fossilized in his past glory. I credit him with the rebirth of the recent winning team when he had some hand in selecting players and generally helping out. Some blame him for some of the problems with the current team but he's never been perfect. What he has been has been an excellent talent evaluator and risk-taker plus he knew when to cut his losses (usually, hello James Owens and Renaldo Nehemiah). It is totally idiotic that he is not a part of the team; hopefully Nolan or the new offensive coordinator will bring Walsh back into the fold.