Airwaves: Holiday wishes for all Bay Area teams

Hoping for better days: Warriors coach Don Nelson, right, and Stephen Jackson are running out of time to turn things around. (Getty Images)

SAN FRANCISCO — ’Tis the season to be jolly, and we wish all our readers a happy and safe holiday and thank you for reading us on a weekly basis. In addition, it is also the time of year to wish our local pro teams a wonderful holiday with the following thoughts included in their X-mas card:

To the Warriors: Keep grinding. The season is long and it is an endurance test. Keep Nellie happy and let him shape the team in his mold. Losing is hard on everyone, especially the coach! Tim Roye on the radio and Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett on TV have become Bay Area fixtures with their calls.

To the Sharks: Keep up the great job. You make hockey exciting and fun to watch. Although I cannot ice skate, everyone loves to be associated with a winner! You have a great broadcast team that makes the game easy to follow and understand. To Randy Hahn, Drew Remenda, Jamie Baker and Dan Rusanowsky, thanks for all your hard work and professionalism on the broadcasts.

To the 49ers: Decisions, decisions. Management needs to keep or hire a coach, keep or hire an offensive guru and find a new play-by-play man. Seems like Mike Singletary will keep the job, but one never knows. He deserves a shot, but is he the right guy for the long term? Good luck with this, Jed York. It might be the appropriate time to seek advice from your uncle, the great Carmen Policy. Also, here is wishing at this time next year, that there will be shovels in the ground, digging a hole for a new stadium, no matter what the location.

To the Raiders: More decisions! Here’s hoping Al Davis gets his next hire right. It has been a brutal six years, and let’s all hope the next coach brings some stability and solid coaching to this team. It is too early to start thinking about the Coliseum lease ending after the 2010 season. That issue will surface soon enough on its own.

To the A’s: Please just finalize what the stadium plans are. I am confused! It seems like the Fremont plans change on a daily basis. Put a stadium downtown or on the shore in the Alameda naval yard. I am a fan of Billy Beane and Bob Geren. Keep doing what you are doing and things will work out and get you back into the playoffs. The broadcast team of Ken Korach and Ray Fosse are the most underrated in all of baseball.

To the Giants: You are fortunate to have a guy such as Larry Baer running the organization. The spending in baseball has gotten completely out of hand. Do not be fazed by the unfair criticism you endured during the courtship of CC Sabathia. Although I have a Yankees tattoo (on my hip), I root for you guys because you are a model franchise in the way you conduct business on and off the field. The broadcast team, led by the great Jon Miller, might be the best in baseball.

To the SaberCats: Our Arena Football League franchise, along with the rest of the league, will go into hibernation for a year because of financial concerns. It’s a shame, because the ’Cats have a great following in and around San Jose. Here is wishing you and the league come back strong in 2010.

NHL wise to bring back outdoor game

Random thoughts on the media world:

On Jan. 1, NBC will broadcast the second outdoor NHL game (in the U.S.) when the Detroit Red Wings travel to Chicago’s Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Blackhawks. Last year’s outdoor game in Buffalo drew about 3.7 million viewers. Although this is in the middle of the college bowl season, NBC is rolling out the red ice, I mean carpet, for this one. It will use some 25 camera men and have an on-site weatherman in the stands. Great move by NBC, and I find it fascinating that the NHL is starting to take this frigid game out to the elements.

Nice going to San Jose native Tim Ryan. He does a great job for Fox as a football analyst. Fox has wisely decided to include him in its BCS broadcast this year. This former USC Trojan and Chicago Bear has grown into being a first-rate TV analyst.

I am not trying to be a jerk during the holidays, but the NFL Network’s broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys-Baltimore Ravens game on Dec. 20 was horrible. Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk do not belong in the booth during an NFL game. Lack of preparation and the inability to get your point across in a sensible manner usually is a combination for a disaster. Enough said.

Congratulations to Joe Paterno and Penn State. When was the last time an 82-year-old coach received a three-year contract extension? This is one of the great stories of the year. It would be fun to be around JoePa on a regular basis. He is a quote machine that has the game of college football in the proper context. The Nittany Lions will have their hands full with USC in the year’s Rose Bowl.

Once again, best of luck to Comcast SportsNet Bay Area in its upcoming launch of a daily studio show. Ted Griggs and the crew are working their butts off to make this a first-rate station that will bring viewers the most up-to-date info on the local sports scene.

I saw the movie “Milk” this past week starring the great Sean Penn. It’s an awesome movie that tells a groundbreaking part of the history of San Francisco. Penn deserves an Oscar for his role as Harvey Milk, but supporting actors such as Josh Brolin keep the movie interesting and real with their betrayal of those around Milk. One sick, true note I did not realize prior to the movie is that Dan White (Brolin) was only sentenced to seven years in prison and only served five for the murder of Milk and Mayor George Moscone.

Newsmakers

ROB PARKER
Even during the holidays, there has to be an idiot out there that crosses the line. After last week’s blowout loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Detroit News columnist asked beleaguered Detroit Lions coach Rod Marinelli, whose son-in-law Joe Barry is the team’s defensive coordinator, “Do you wish your daughter had married a better defensive coordinator?” This question was way out of line. Marinelli handled it with class and did not respond. Covering a losing team is not easy for the scribes of the world, but a guy like Parker makes it worse for all those involved.

TED ROBINSON
“Ted Robinson will be the next play-by-play man for the 49ers,” a well-placed and informed source told me this past week. Robinson, a TV and radio veteran with a wonderful reputation, has apparently placed himself in good standing with the 49ers and KNBR (680 AM) to secure this spot. I think it will be a good move as the team and radio station searches for a replacement for the retiring Joe Starkey.

One to Watch

Jay Cutler and the Denver Broncos travel to San Diego to take on the sizzling Chargers today at 5:15 p.m. for a play-in game. The winner will be crowned AFC West champion, and will advance to the playoffs and host a game next weekend. This is a good move by the NFL televising this game in front of a captivated national Sunday night audience. The game was switched to this time slot as part of the NFL’s flex-scheduling. KNTV (Ch. 11) will broadcast the action.

Sports by Numbers

15 Years 49ers receiver isaac bruce has played in the nfl

5 Players, including bruce, who have 1,000 receptions or more

14,936 Bruce’s career receiving yards, second-most in history

Artie Gigantino spent 25 years as a coach at the major-college and NFL levels, was lead college football analyst for Fox Sports Net for seven years, was with CBS for one year and was an executive with the Raiders for three years. E-mail him at agigantino@sfexaminer.com.