Hey, They May Really Count!

I needed a break from doing Christmas decorations so I thought I would put some of my thoughts together in this blog.

Warriors

For the last couple of years on this site, we have called the regular season exhibition games at least for the Warriors.  This year it could be different.  'The Town' or 'The Bay' or 'the Warriors' or the 'Great Wall of China' or whatever they are without Curry they have proven to be a little better than some mediocre teams in the NBA as long as Durant scores over 40 points.

Curry is due back in a few days so everything should be okay.  The problems is he is still 30 years of age and subject to other injuries.  I would not be surprised if he misses another 15 - 20 games before the Playoff Season begins. Therefore, they need to win as many games as possible while he is playing because they are not the same team when he is injured.   Last year 48 wins were needed to make the playoffs.  Some years less wins make it.  Can the Warriors get 48 wins?  Every game counts.

On the positive side Cousins is due back shortly.  It will take him time to get into NBA shape but when he does the Warriors may be a different looking team.  I think this is needed for the Warriors to win the NBA championship as we predicted at the start of the season.


Ruben Foster

Foster was the big news for the Niners this last weekend.  Those that remember this blog predicted such an event a year ago.  We wrote that even before Foster 'beat the rap' they had lost a player because Shannan would drive up to Levi Stadium on a Sunday morning and find the Santa Clara County Sheriff's car waiting.  It happened in Miami not in Pruneville with the same girlfriend.  The Niners had no choice but to cut him.  It wasn't a real great shock to the team since he has been one of many disappointments this year.  He has been picked up by Washington commonly known as 'the Swamp', a city that should fit Ruben's life style just fine.

There is legislation to revise the prison rules that has the support of both parties and the President.  Its a feel good law.  Give everybody a second chance.  Foster had millions of reasons to shape up and he could not do it.  Are we asking for more trouble in our cities? Just asking!

The 49ers

We have been wrong about the 2017 draft.  The number 3  overall choice the tackle from Stanford has played like a 5th round choice.  Only the tight end #85 you see catching one pass after another on Sunday television has been outstanding.

In the Kezar Stadium days the 49ers before the new Governor of California, when Mayor of San Francisco, lost the team to Santa Clara, Monte Stickles number 85, a great end from Notre Dame, played TE for the Niners.   He earned the name "Cement Fingers" with a large group of fans. In those years we used to meet at the Shadow Box Cocktail Lounge on California Street after the game and cement fingers was always a major topic.  After one game guess who dropped in? Number 85 himself.  Needless to say the topic of conversation changed.

College Football

The big playoffs are coming.  You know the fix is in.  Alabama will beat Georgia to make room for The Ohio State University to make the final four.  If Georgia beats Alabama will it be Bama or 'The OSU' joining Clemson and Notre Dame?

The last weekend of college football was really something.  LSU lost 74 - 72  and one paper made a mistake and put the score under college basketball.  Then Ohio State scored 63 points on Michigan the best defensive team in the nation.  That rumble you might have heard was "Woody" Hays turning over in his grave.  His great Ohio State teams of the past rarely scored 63 points in a season.

I could not believe that some university teams actually put the American Flag emblem on the back of their helmets.  Who is kidding who?

Because both of my daughters graduated from USC, I became a Trojan since my school the University San Francisco dropped football after the 1951 season some 67 years ago.  Following the Trojans has been an adventure since Pete Carroll brought them back to national prominence.  Since then they have dropped slowly and this year almost hit rock bottom.  I am glad they did not receive a bowl bid after their horrible play against Ohio State last year in the Cotton Bowl which earned Helton the Trojan coach a hefty 5 years contract.  That's the reason he didn't get fired.  They could not afford it.  Attendance was way down.  Part of the problem was that many Trojan season ticket holders lost their seats this year due to the remodeling of the ancient Olympic stadium.  In addition they played many after 7 pm games which is hated by just about everyone.  I am a Saturday afternoon traditionalist and don't get a thrill of watching the third quarter at 10 o'clock at night.  Those games are even longer because the networks halftime show are stretched in order to review all the games of the day.

With this years bowl games to be decided soon, I remember it was the Sugar Bowl not inviting the USF 1951 team because  they had two black players, Burt Towler and Ollie Matson.  For that reason USF without the funds to continue,  dropped football.  That the story.   But is it?

In the prior 1950 season USF played both California and Stanford.  The Cal game played before less than 100 people destroying all the fruit in Strawberry Canyon and was titled the 'Mud Bowl" because it poured all during the game.  I doubt if they would have played the game today because university officials would be afraid the players might catch a cold.  Stanford beat USF 55-7 down on the farm in a game I witnessed in person. So why didn't these two great secular schools schedule a Catholic School in 1951?  They both beat the Dons in 1950.

The Dons were blackballed.  They only played 9 games in 1951 and two of them were against San Jose State.  The schedule included Camp Pendleton Marines and San Diego Naval Training Center.  I don't know what the Dons could have done if the communist had not won World War II.   No Pacific Coast Conference (Stanford, Cal etc) )team was on the schedule.  But Santa Clara who had no black players, had four conference opponents in their first five games.  Under pressure the conference always pointed out they were not prejudice because Jackie Robinson played half back for UCLA in 1938.  Look at the football programs of the 1940s and early 50s and there are no black players own any conference team.  So don't just blame the prejudice of the south for the demise of USF football after the 1951 season.  The Pacific Coast Conference rejected St. Mary's and Santa Clara from any televisions appearances so it was very soon after the Dons dropped the sport that Santa Clara and St. Mary's followed.    They were the heart of football in the Bay Area.  Santa Clara won the Sugar Bowl games in 1936 and 1937 and the Orange Bowl in 1950.  St. Mary's won the Cotton Bowl in 1938 and lost the Sugar Bowl game in 1945.

I believe there were something like ten players from the the 1951 USF team drafted in the NFL.  Three of them Ollie Matson,  Gino Marchetti and Bob St. Clair are in the Hall of Fame along with Pete Rozelle.  Rozelle was a 1950 graduate of USF and handle the publicly for the team in 1951.  He was then hired by the Rams and it wasn't too many years later that he was elected Commissioner of the NFL.  He is credited in negotiating the television contract that propelled the NFL into greatness that even those dummies with their phony law degrees, who run the show today, cannot destroy. Read that Tampa Bay gave away free tickets to get people to come to the 49er game last Sunday.

Rozelle is perhaps even more known than another USF 1947 graduate of that era Pierre Salinger who was press secretary to presidents John F.  Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Then in the middle 50s led by black players Bill Russell and K.C. Jones and others they became the basketball champions of the NCAA  and football was a distant memory.  Today when you see USF, you read University of South Florida and conference titles are only a pipe dream belonging to Gonzaga and St. Mary's.

The Oakland A's

A new stadium for Oakland and a community development for the Coliseum area.  I wish them luck and hope they succeed.  It would be a wonderful addition to the area.  When I drive the Nimitz pass the stadium I use to think to myself in about 15 years they're will be about 20 apartment buildings on this site being so close to BART.  If this property was in Irvine, CA  you can bet your last dollar it would be all apartments. Hope I am wrong and the A's are right.

The Giants

The new Head of Baseball Operations for the Giants is not going to make a deal for the sake of making a deal.  I think the first one will be a surprise.  Zaide has many challenges with over priced players and no trade contracts.  This however is his strength.  Give him a little time.

Is it Over?

The Warriors

It has become very evident even if it wasn't before that this is Curry's team.  Without him even with their outstanding talent they are a playoff team but not a championship team. Curry is already hurt and it is expected he will out for a couple more weeks which was unexpected.  When the coach tried to explain the reason for the extended time, he forgot to mention that he is over 30 years of age.  He missed many games last year and this will not be his last injury this season.  He has to stay healthy when the season really begins with the playoffs for the Warriors to have any chance.

The big news of the week was the Green-Durant blow-up before the overtime of the Clippers game. From watching the Houston game it looks like they are talking and communicating on the floor.  At least for the moment the distraction has been neutralized.  The problem will linger and its anybody guess with such a long season, what effect it will have on the teams play.

The question remains--- Is it over for the Warriors?


The Giants

The Giants new head of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi certainly has the resume to be very successful in his new job.  As we have detailed in the past it will not be easy with so many overpaid players and no trade contracts.

All the players will be evaluated using Zaidi's system so many might be saying to themselves, Is it over for me?  The answer is most likely yes in good number of cases, but it will take a season or two to complete the weeding.  I look for the Giants to make a big trade soon with some surprising and  unexpected names gone before Santa Claus arrives.


The 49ers

It's been over for the 49ers since #10 went down with season ending injury.  The season has turned out to be very disappointing with so many of us having high expectations.   What is disheartening is the fact that many players have not lived up to expectations.  It easy to use the injury to #10 as an excuse, but realistically they were not a playoff talented team.

The World Serious

The Series

The Boston Red Sox were the best team in baseball with 108 wins and easily winning the American League Championship series as well as the World Series.  What is really amazing they won without Pablo Sandoval.  Remember they released him last year about half way through the season even though they are paying most of his salary while he is playing for the Giants.

One of the big stories was Dave Roberts being booed by Dodger fans for decisions he made during the series.  When he became manager of the Dodgers I wrote on this blog that I though they made big mistake.  Roberts philosophy of baseball was not mine. When runners were on first and second with none out he would always bunt putting all the pressure on the next batter.  I observed too many times that the runner on third never scored because the defense had all the options in their favor.

 I was wrong about Roberts.  He has become a very good manager because he is well liked and the players play for him 162 games a year.  In todays game, that is the most important attribute.

The biggest controversy came in game 4.  Not one Boston hitter got to second base against Hill during the first six innings with the Dodgers leading 4-0. But out he came and to the delight of most Giant fans the Sox won easily 9-6.  Kershaw was ready for game 5, Ryu would pitch game 6 and the real standout Walker Buehler would be ready for game 7. So Hill wasn't being saved  except for perhaps spring training.

I never was a believer for changing a players routine for the playoffs.  Kenley Jansen who always pitched in the ninth inning was asked twice to pitch the eighth.  In both cases he gave up home runs.

In game 1,  I watched Pedro Baez mow down two Red Sox batters with a blazing fast ball.  They didn't come closes to hitting the ball.  I could not believe Roberts took him out because a left handed batter was next to bat. He is another Bruce Bochy.  I could never take a pitcher out when he was looking so great.  I don't understand.  The inning concluded with Nunez hitting a 3 run homer off of Wood.  Remember Nunez was not good enough for the Giants who traded him to the Sox for two well known Giant players Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.  It was smart trades like this that made the Sox the team they are today along some selected free agency signings and having four first rounders and two second rounders on the team is also a great asset.

I give the Dodgers credit they did not take the easy way out and blame Trump.


Warriors

The Town is off to a flying start in its final year at Oracle.  Curry has been on fire along with Durant and now Thompson has shaken his early season slump.  He has had slumps like this in the past but usually during the middle of the season when it is not as noticeable.

What's the difference this year compared to last?  St. Jean says on the post and pre game shows that last year they were in slow motion.

The Warriors survived the pre season in September, made it through October and now we are just starting November and they are still healthy.  Lets hope they remain in relatively good shape through December, January, February, March, April, May and June.  Good luck!

Steve Kerr was quoted as saying that Cousins knows his deal with the Warriors is only for this year because of the salaries of the other players.  My question is --- What happens if Durant moves on?  That leaves a lot of bucks that could possibly sign Cousins. Durant has been rumored back to OC, Seattle, Los Angeles and New York.  Take your pick.


William McCovey

Like all Giant fans, I was saddened by the death of Willie McCovey. It wasn't a shock because we knew his health was failing.  What thrills he gave us with Russ Hodges calling "Bye Bye Baby" and Lon Simmons expressing "Tell it Good-bye".  One of the last times I saw "stretch"play was at Wrigley Field  Chicago in 1978 when I believe he was 39.  He was close to a grand slam record.  He came up with bases loaded in about the fourth inning of one the most exciting baseball games I ever saw and he skied a ball that unfortunately was caught again the ivy in right field.  It was still a thrill for us.  That game was marked by two rain delays in which the Cubs were leading after five and the umpires could have easily called the game and the Cubs would have won.  It was nerve racking because we never knew when the game was going to end.  But instead the game was called because of darkness (Wrigley had no lights).  There were different baseball rules for games called because of darkness which in this case allowed it to be completed the next weekend at Candlestick with the Giants winning.

The 49ers

Last Sunday in Arizona the 49er again showed that they know how to lose a game blowing a big lead in the 4th quarter.

The once great football 49ers-Raiders rivalry that began at the Oakland Alameda Coliseum on September 3, 1967 died at Levi Stadium on All Saints Day.  It was dying a slow death anyway but I know when the Niners play at Vegas thousands of San Franciscans will  flock to the gambling palace of the world.

The 49ers brought out their secret weapon to surprise the Vegas bound team.  Nick Mullens  a qb off the practice squad who finished 16 for 22 and had a 151.9 passer rating, the highest for a quarterback with at least 15 attempts in an NFL debut since the 1970 merger.  Let's not get too excited until we see how he does against the New York Giants next week.  The Raiders offered very little resistance.

It was reported that Mullens studied hard to prepare himself for this opportunity.  He was ready and made the best of it.  This is a lesson for backup qbs in college and pros to be ready to take advantage of an opportunity.

We wrote that Beathard was a disaster.  He made some nice plays but four or five turnovers a game just doesn't cut it.  So he got benched and made the 49er coach look like a genus.  There wasn't much interest left in this years 49ers but now with a future qb on stage, the fans are starting to say Jimmy who?

Pac 12 Football

Will the Pac 12 representative to the Rose Bowl have 3 losses this year?  I can't figure it out.


The Giants

The silence about the Orange and Black plans for next year is deadly.  I don't think they have a clue!