It’s his feet. Or his arm. Or his head. Or all of them together. Tim Lincecum is a mess — figuratively, that is. Thus, the Giants are a mess: A team without a leader, without an anchor — dare we say, if any sort of championship is to be discussed, a team without a chance. Tim is permitted to fail. He has been fantastic. Had been fantastic. But when Tim fails, the Giants fail. Read More

Now it is the Sharks’ turn to overcome the Curse of the Bay-bino. No, our teams didn’t sell Babe Ruth — just traded Willie Mays and Mark McGwire — but they’ve been undone by a jinx, the Left Coast version. Fame of late has been achieved less through suspension bridges than suspended belief. They did what? We’re the kings of the “Here We Go Again” syndrome. That is, for those teams even successful enough to make the postseason. Read More

Perhaps the A’s should rethink the policy against banners at the Coliseum negative to management, permitting display on the condition that signs must be accompanied by paying customers. While understandably no one wishes to be trashed in his own house, and figuratively that’s what the Coliseum is for the A’s, better to have the seats filled, if even by those who proclaim disdain for Lew Wolff.  Read More

It was another of those should have, could have days for the Bay Area, the ones overloaded with bad memories and worse possibilities. There was Manny Ramirez standing at the plate for the Dodgers, two outs in the eighth and you knew what was going to happen.  You knew the Giants’ great afternoon — Barry Zito’s wonderful performance — would be trashed about as quickly as you sigh “Kirk Gibson.” This wasn’t a World Series, but it was Dodger Stadium. And it was inevitable. Read More

What is it about golf that beckons so many athletes, that challenges a Michael Jordan or a John Elway or the man who caught the fever with no less impact than the way he used to catch a football, Jerry Rice? These guys have conquered their game at hand, won championships, won accolades, but they are not satisfied. They try golf, and they become obsessed with a pastime which never can be conquered, one the late George Archer, the Masters winner from San Francisco, said is like catching lightning in a bottle. Read More

Two things were evident on an evening of sweet nostalgia: That Al Davis wasn’t in the room, and that John Madden was.“You can’t write the history of sports in the Bay Area without the name Al Davis,” Madden said. “Al Davis belongs here. He’s a Hall of Famer.” So is Madden. He’s in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. Monday night at the St. Francis Hotel, in the annual feel-good ceremonies, Davis, previously inducted at Canton, joined Madden in BASHOF. Read More