The Giants say they want to get younger, and the key battles to watch this spring are at second base and left field. Manager Bruce Bochy says there will be open competition at both positions. If Kevin Frandsen is the opening-day second baseman and one of the young outfielders is starting in left field, this will indeed be a new beginning. If Ray Durham is the second baseman and Dave Roberts is the left fielder, it will be the same old Giants — emphasis on old. I’m betting on Durham and Roberts.
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Stanford men’s basketball coach Trent Johnson was prophetic when we talked on Wednesday, saying that "There are nights when we can beat anybody in the country, and there are nights when anybody in the country can beat us." On Thursday night, the Cardinal blew a 14-point lead and lost to Arizona State in overtime. Two nights later they almost blew another lead, but hung on to beat Arizona 67-66.
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San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom issued a challenge to the 49ers when we talked about a stadium in The City this week."We’ve done everything we can to make it possible to build a stadium at Hunters Point," he said. "If they reject this plan, the 49ers are going to have a hard time looking San Franciscans in the face if they take away their team."Newsom and I were talking after a San Francisco Chamber of Commerce luncheon, which featured discussion of propositions for the June 3 ballot, one of which included a new stadium in its proposal.
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Sometimes, the worst way to judge a pitcher is by his won-loss record. Matt Cain had a 3.65 ERA last season and gave up just 173 hits in 200 innings, yet he was only 7-16 because of a lack of run support and shoddy work by relievers who followed him."It was pretty hard to stay positive," he admitted when we talked at the Giants’ luncheon kicking off their 50th anniversary campaign. "My teammates picked me up, [they were] encouraging me."And to his credit, Cain never complained about his fate.
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Recruiting is a complex process, as Cal coach Jeff Tedford explained after unveiling 21 recruits this week. Tedford showed highlight films of the players to the media, but said that’s just part of the process. "We watch a lot of game tapes because we want to see what players do when they’re not making highlight-film plays," he said. "If we see a player not following through on his block, for instance, we don’t want him because we want players who work hard all the time." Assistants also go to games.
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The reputations of Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots all took a serious hit as the New York Giants won Sunday in a huge upset. Brady has often been compared to Joe Montana in recent years, but he didn’t look much like Montana against the Giants as he lost his first Super Bowl after three wins. Montana won all four Super Bowls in which he played and was the MVP in three of them.
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Nothing better illustrates the difference between the winning style of the New England Patriots and the dysfunctional style of the Raiders than the turnaroundby Randy Moss. Moss is perhaps the most talent wide receiver ever to play in the NFL, able to outrun the fastest defensive backs or outjump them on high passes.
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It’s time for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to stop Al Davis from ruining the Raiders’ franchise and what remains of Davis’ own reputation.
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The 49ers and Raiders are linked in their futility. Neither team has made the postseason in the last five years. The Raiders are an NFL-worst 19-61 in that time, the 49ers not much better at 25-55. When will the misery end? Don’t hold your breath.
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Coaching does make a difference. The Cal women’s basketball team, coached by Joanne Boyle, is first in the Pac-10 Conference with an 8-0 record (17-2 overall).
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Tom Brady and Brett Favre each get another chance to solidify their reputations in Sunday’s conference championship games, but my vote for the top quarterback of the last 30 years still goes to Joe Montana. In the late ’70s, the NFL drastically changed the rules on defensive contact so that linebackers such as Dick Butkus, Ray Nitschke and Jack Lambert could no longer clothesline receivers coming across the middle, and defensive backs such as Jack Tatum and George Atkinson could no longer commit mayhem on receivers well past the line of scrimmage.
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Last weekend reminded me why I prefer the football postseason over baseball’s. The NFL gets it right by rewarding teams for their regular-season play. The best teams get a first-round bye, so they have more time to heal the inevitable injuries. In each matchup, the team with the better record (or higher finish) hosts the game, a significant advantage. The wild-card teams never host a game.
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Al Davis’ football knowledge is second only to Bill Walsh among those I have known well, but he does have his blind spots.
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I owe Norv Turner an apology. When he was named coach of the San Diego Chargers last year, I wrote that he was a great offensive coordinator who would never be a good head coach. I wasn’t alone, but I can’t use that as an excuse because I’ve never been been afflicted by the group-think mentality of the sports media. My opinions are strictly my own.
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With John York in charge, the 49ers have no hope. This week’s comic opera, with Mike Nolan returning as coach and Scot McCloughan becoming general manager, is only the latest example of York’s incompetence. It makes no sense from either a football or business standpoint.For years, Nolan was passed over as a head-coaching candidate, despite a résumé that included a father who had been a successful head coach and a background as a defensive coordinator.Now we know why. In three years with the Niners, Nolan is 16-32, and he took a considerable step back this season.
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