The Giants’ biggest problem is that they don’t trust their fans.From the opening of their park in China Basin, the Giants have set Bay Area attendance records, but ownership and management have always been fearful that it wouldn’t continue. Over and over, I heard from club executives that attendance would fall in any season in which they did not field a contending team.
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The Giants will have only one All-Star representative, deservedly so, and that player should be Barry Bonds.Bonds is the logical choice for three reasons:» He’s nearing the record for career home runs. At one point, it seemed he might break the record before the July 10 All-Star Game. That’s unlikely now, but the consensus among local media people to whom I’ve talked recently is that he’ll do it before he turns 43 on July 24.
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The 49ers won’t move to Los Angeles, but their fans must resign themselves to the same crummy stadium for years to come. That’s the realistic conclusion after the meaningless visits of NFL executives this week to two potential sites for a new stadium in Santa Clara and at Hunters Point.
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Barry Bonds defines the Giants. For most of his first 12 seasons with the Giants, he made the team look better than it was. Now that he’s Barry Lite, the weaknesses of the team and the bad decision-making have been exposed.Throughout the ’90s and into the 2000 season, Bonds was the best all-around player in baseball, a player who hit for average and power, an excellent baserunner with as many as 40 steals in a season, a superb defensive left fielder.
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For the 49ers to make the playoffs this season, quarterback Alex Smith must make a big stride forward. He’s confident he can."I just feel so much more sure of what I’m doing," he said after a practice at the 49ers’ Santa Clara facility. "Now, when I go back to pass and my first receiver is covered, I know to go to my second receiver — or third. I don’t try to force the ball. I know what my receivers can do and who I should look for on a particular play."
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A local columnist has produced a novel theory for the Giants’ demise: Brian Sabean’s brain turned to mush when the Giants adopted a plan of building around Barry Bonds.
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Good news for Raiders fans: Al Davis seems to be serious about giving his young coach, Lane Kiffin, a genuine opportunity to turn the franchise around.First, Davis allowed Kiffin to select assistant coaches, which is a complete turnaround from the way Davis has always operated.Now, on the Raiders’ practice field, Kiffin is installing an offense that looks much more like the one Bill Walsh brought to the 49ers in 1979 than the bombs-away approach Davis has long favored.
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Brian Sabean is toast. The Giants’ general manager will get the ax at the end of the season and his rant at fans and players last week shows why he should go.Sabean has never taken criticism well. He proclaimed that "I’m not an idiot," when he was criticized for the Matt Williams trade, a deal I defended. Reacting to criticism for his moves before the 2005 season, he referred to "the lunatic fringe," a group that included fans, KNBR talk show host Larry Krueger and me.
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Which baseball players are overpaid? On the Giants, Barry Zito is and Barry Bonds is not. And economic value to the club is the bottom line.An Internet columnist compiled his list of overpaid players and had A’s catcher Jason Kendall at the top. Kendall certainly belongs on the list, but my nomination would be Seattle’s Richie Sexson, who is hitting .195 with seven home runs through 46 games. Not a good value for $15.5 million a year.
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It seems so simple. The Giants have strong starting pitching, but have problems scoring runs. Ergo, trade a starter for a slugger.But it’s not going to happen.For openers, there’s only one starter who could or would be traded. Nobody would take Barry Zito and his contract. Matt Morris is pitching well, but his future is limited because of age. When clubs call about Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, Giants general manager Brian Sabean hangs up.
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Three years into the 49ers’ rebuilding program, personnel chief Scot McCloughan says,"We can be a pretty darned good team this year if we stay healthy." But he knows the team is not yet a Super Bowl contender."I was lucky enough to be with a Super Bowl team in Green Bay," McCloughan said, "and the Packers had a quarterback [Brett Favre] who had been in the league six years and had experienced the highs and lows. Our quarterback, Alex Smith, is still on a learning curve."
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Is Barry Zito the reincarnation of Ray Sadecki? In 1966, the Giants traded for Sadecki, thinking they were getting the left-handed starter they needed to win the pennant. Two years earlier, at 23, Sadecki won 20 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, but he felt tremendous pressure because he was traded for Orlando Cepeda, the most popular Giant. In four seasons with the Giants, Sadecki was 32-39. Cepeda was the NL Most Valuable Player in 1967 and the Cardinals won the World Series.
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Memo to the Warriors: If you want to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs, tone down the attitude.And yes, I do mean you, Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson.I don’t buy their defense that they can’t change because their emotions are what make them outstanding players. In fact, Warriors coach Don Nelson disputed that when he said, "The only player who can stop Stephen Jackson is Stephen Jackson. He’s a terrific player, but when he can’t control himself, he becomes less than average."
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Curt Young is amazing. The A’s have lost Barry Zito to free agency and Rich Harden and Esteban Loiza to the disabled list, but they have led the league in ERA because of the work of Young, their pitching coach.Here’s how Young views his current starters:» Dan Haren, who came to the A’s in the Mark Mulder trade two years ago:"He’s grateful that he got the chance to pitch here, which he might not have with the Cardinals, and he’s proving he can be the No. 1 starter. He’s got a great split-fingered fastball, which he knows he can go to any time he’s in a tight spot."
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Bruce Bochy is looking at the whole season, resting his regulars in an attempt to avoid something like the 2-13 collapse at the end of last season."It just makes sense to me with a veteran lineup like we have," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in his office Wednesday. "It also gives me a chance to get other players into the lineup and keep them fresh. I like to use all my players."Bochy is very approachable, in sharp contrast to his predecessor, Felipe Alou, and talks to players individually on a regular basis.
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