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.
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