Bay Area Sports State of the Union Address

By Mike Walsh

Good evening members of the blog, members of our readership, my fellow Bay Area Sports Fans.

I stand before you tonight and say that the State of our Sports Nation is …dire. I would like to site two recent examples of the current Bay Area Sports climate that I ran across before I tackle each issue head on and explain how we can get our Nation headed in the right direction.

#1) I hail from the little community of Chico, CA. A quick glance around a sports bar Sunday morning here revealed this: 30% dejected Niner fans, 20% Raider fans looking like they got declined for parole, 10% Bandwagon Cowboys fans (no southern drawl and the cowboys jersey looks very new), 10% bandwagon Packer fans (they weren’t morbidly obese) and 30% random fans cheering their teams on. Why should some schmuck in a Tony Gonzalez jersey seem happier than me after 67 year old Brett Favre just stuck a dagger in the Chiefs hearts? Because he doesn’t root for Bay Area Sports teams. There were no expectations for the Chiefs this season, expect maybe the expectation that Larry Johnson might face the first 11-men in the box scheme for an entire game.
#2) After fending off the barrage of Sacramento Kings bandwagon fans over the last eights years, the sports bars are back to being diverse as only the true Kings fans are left to lament the current state of mediocrity that Reggie Theus will not be able to change. At least, not with that roster. So, like every other Warriors fan in Chico, I headed down to a sports bar with satellite to watch the Warriors (since the Maloof’s took over Chico became “Kings Country”, so every Warriors game not on TNT or ESPN is blacked out, no matter what. I hope the Kings move to Vegas, soon). Our table of five is easily the loudest and, unfortunately the most knowledgeable. At one point in the third quarter a guy (who had been rooting for the Warriors, no less) leans in on our table and asks, “Who is #15?” Without skipping a beat I answer, “Matt Harpring. Why are you asking? He hasn’t even played yet.” Then he brings the thunder with, “no, who’s #15 on the Warriors?” I grumble that it’s Biedrins, finish my beer and quickly order another one. As the game wore on all of the Warriors fans carried the look like they knew the Warriors weren’t going to win. It was like last year never happened. Is this what its come to already? Bandwagon fans and the real fans looking catatonic every third quarter when the W’s come out of the locker room flat?

If it’s like this 180 miles from San Francisco, what’s it like there? I will be in the bay next weekend to find out. I will unleash my Marco Belinelli Italian League jersey and my pasty white arms on an unsuspecting sports bar in the San Francisco/Oakland area. Until then, here are my thoughts on the Bay Area’s issues (read: teams) and how they might be fixed (in some cases, there are no feasible solutions, save for riding out the storm) to get our Nation headed in the right direction.

Raiders- With vulgarity laden t-shirts admonishing the tuck rule still in circulation it’s clear that Raider fans are still traumatized by their playoff push that culminated in Chucky treating the Raiders like a hung up ex-girlfriend, leaving and then coming back just to have his way with them. The Super Bowl against the Bucs seems like a long time ago in Oakland.
It seems the NFL has a surplus of teams with good defenses and terrible offenses. The Raiders did what needed to be done by getting rid of Randy Moss, who refused to try in Oakland. Then they shot themselves in the foot by trying to play hardball with JaMarcus Russell and his No. 1 pick contract, thus culminating in the panicked Daunte Culpepper signing. I actually thought Daunte would be a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately Daunte doesn’t look hungry to compete and prove all his doubters wrong. He just looks hungry. It doesn’t help that Jerry Porter is the #1 wide out in Oakland still. The only thing Porter has over-achieved at is under-achieving. That and the fact that the Raiders have former No. 1 draft picks on their roster that include: a drug-addict kicker and a bust on the offensive line reminiscent of Kwame Harris across the bay all adds up to a bad Raiders team that decided to start Josh McCown instead of their 60 million dollar No. 1 pick on Sunday.
Lane Kiffin needs to play Russell now to take stock and figure out where to go from here. Lamont Jordan is serviceable and Fargas offers a nice ‘Thunder & Lightning” option. Unfortunately the line still needs work and with little threat of a passing attack Jordan and Fargas will not be successful against any good defenses. Until Russell plays the Raiders have no direction.

49ers- Joe Montana is not walking through that door! Jerry Rice is not walking through that door! Steve Young is not walking through that door!
For fans my age and up, this was the most spoiled fan base in the NFL. Then, Young got concussed (because Lawrence Phillips didn’t pick up the blitz), Kurt Warner sold his soul to Satan for a few years in the spot light and then the front office hired Dennis Erickson. The current coach admitted in a public interview that he doesn’t know what is wrong and is open to suggestions.
Yikes. I remember trying to argue that the Niners would finish 10-6 this season with Matt. He said they would finish 8-8 or 7-9. Now? 7-9 would be nothing short of a miracle. I would hope for them to lose out, but all that would mean is that the Patriots would get a better pick. And I don’t need anymore more Boston bandwagon fans to brag about “their team.” In year three of the Alex Smith era we know three things: he is tough, he is well respected by the Niners organization and he is woefully inaccurate. Apparently running the crazy wing-T Urban Meyer offense doesn’t translate to NFL success (buyer beware: Tim Tebow). Now is a good time to mention that they could have had Aaron Rodgers, a fellow Chicoan and Cal alum, for one-third the price. For anyone who watched Cal, Aaron ran Tedford’s pro style offense very well, he has a cannon and he is very, VERY accurate (see: USC game, 23 straight completions). The O-line isn’t doing what it did last year. Gore hates the play calling. Darrell Jackson and Ashley Lelie are terrible route runners with alligator arms. The Niners are another team with a solid defense that gets no support from the offense.
So what can they do? For this season they need to apply the “why not?” attitude. They should let Smith air it out, preferably to Vernon Davis (why not?). They should blitz more and move Willis all over the field to see how many different ways he can wreak havoc (why not?). They should also offer Willis an extension right now and give him as much money as he wants. They need to really see who they can count on when the chips are down. Then ship Jackson and Lelie away as fast as possible when the season is over. You think Washington needs more insane, disgruntled wide receivers?

Warriors- My memories of the Warriors in the playoffs pre-2006 include the Sonics beating the Warriors senseless with a young, pre-paternity suit, pre-buffet king Shawn Kemp and a young Gary Payton leading the way. That’s it. Run TMC never got to hit its stride because Richmond was exiled to Sacramento for Billy Owens, who was supposed to be the post threat we were looking for. 16 years later the Warriors are still looking for a post threat.
It doesn’t matter which combination of Bay Area baseball, football and college teams you back, by the time October came around you weren’t excited about the World Series, you weren’t talking about the NFL playoffs much and by Halloween you weren’t talking about any BCS hopes either. You were talking about one thing: the Warriors. After an amazing run that took the Warriors to the second round of the playoffs after vanquishing the evil German Giant, what did we find out about the Warriors? They can’t rebound, they take bad shots and they don’t play a lot of defense. Mullin’s answer? Sign Troy Hudson, a bad defender who takes horrible shots and Austin Croshere. Yes, the same slow, pasty-white, balding Croshere that was a spark plug for Indiana in 2000. The Warriors opened the season against the filthy, cheating Jazz. So what happened? They got shoved around, out rebounded and out executed. Then they went to LA and let Chris Kaman go for 26 and 18 on them. Then…THEN…they go to Utah and get hammered again. Tuesday night? They lose to the Fighting Lebrons at home. So far this season has been a traveshammockery after starting 0-5 with a loss to the Mavs on Thursday night.

Cal- With no history of success and no tradition to fall back on, rooting for the Bears has been a strange life experience. The basketball team used to at least be able to attract some talent such as: Jason Kidd, Abdur-Rahim, Ed Gray and Lamont Murray. These days I can’t name their starters and Matt is having nightmares because of the add campaign on BART. As recently as four years ago Chico State went down and played Cal. They hung around, Cal eventually pulling away for a 20 point victory. Shouldn’t a PAC-10 school beat a crappy division II school by 40 to 50 points? I mean I could have played for Chico State and I’m not even good. The sad part is, that isn’t hyperbole. I could have played for Chico State, which means I could have played against Cal. Once again, I’m not that good at basketball.
The football team has been slowly rising to prominence. Finally this year they had earned national respect, they beat Oregon in Eugene. It was looking like this was their year. Then, after an LSU loss, all they had to do was beat Oregon St. at home to slide into the National Poll Position. Of course, they lost. Then, they lost the next week. Then, they lost the following week. There’s always the Axe game, I guess.

Stanford- The football team beat USC. Too bad Stanford fans don’t exist anymore. 3-5 overall, 2-4 in conference. When was the last time people were excited about this football team? When they had Troy Walters? The basketball team shows flashes from time to time, but is not consistent. Aside a predilection for recruiting smart, 7 foot tall twins, the hoops team hasn’t been good since the Mad Dog was on campus acting like Tyler Hansbrough 1.0 (that may be a slap in the face to Hansbrough, given that his offensive game is more polished. The point is that Madsen and Hansbrough are/were good college players with none chance of being good in the NBA). Bad times for smart kids.

Giants- Where do I even begin? 1989-Giants get swept by the Bash (read: steroid) Brothers. 1993-Giants win 103 games and do not make the playoffs because the Braves are aligned in the National League “West” and win 104. 2002-Up 3 games to 2 the Giants, lead by Russ Ortiz take a 5-0 lead into the 7th inning…*deep breathe*…only to blow the leads thanks to Scott f-ing Spiezio. 2003-JT Snow thrown out at home to end the playoff series against the Marlins. 2004-present. No lead is safe as the Giants pitching staff comes up with new ways to blow games at every turn. With no World Series championship ever for San Francisco and none for the franchise sine the New York Giants swept the Indians in 1954, Giants fans are spiraling towards Cubs fan status. And that’s not good for anyone, except Dodger fans. Shut up, Matt.
As a diehard Giants fan it pains me to say that the Giants were the worst team in baseball last year, but well, they were. The asinine signing of Barry Zito (which I tried to defend until month 3 of the Barry Zito era) looms as the biggest road block to any chance of recovery in the near future. All Sabean can hope for is a Yankee team in the hunt in 2008 or 2009 that is desperate for pitching and trades for him (author’s note: if there is a God, this will happen). The team needs to sign one or two big bats and play all of their young kids and keep their young pitchers. For the love of Pete, keep the young arms.
Knowing that I could do a better job as GM makes me mad. I’m not bragging, I’m saying that GMs are that incompetent.

A’s- For a while, if you were an A’s fan, you knew your team would make a second half surge and make the playoffs. Billy Bean orchestrated a great run and evaluated talent very well for a team that couldn’t afford to throw money at big names. Of course, they haven’t made it to the World Series during this run. heir pitching is still their strength. Some guy name Lenny DiNardo is good even though Matt’s boy Thompson can throw as hard as DiNardo. Their lineup is made up of players that aren’t even real. So that’s not helping matters. What can be done? The window of opportunity is short for a team that can’t lock up its best players long-term. They have to rely on the perfect storm of good young pitching, some call-ups who produce and a crop of players who are making the leap at the same time while still affordable to the A’s (Giambi, Tejada, Chavez, Hudson, Mulder and Zito all at the same time!). Without profit sharing and a hard salary cap (which will never happen in baseball) the A’s chances of winning a title are pretty terrible. Maybe their mojo will improve in Fremont. Although if the Marlins can do it…

Sharks- After starting out as the cool expansion team and new sport in Northern California recent high expectations have left fans disappointed. They have fizzled out in the playoffs for a number of years now amid high expectations and they are floundering their way to a second place tie in the sub-par Pacific Division this year.

My fellow Bay Area sports fans…the situation looks seems grim. We can’t look to the future with any certainty of prosperity. We must come together as a collective unit and remain in support of those who give their blood, sweat and tears for us night in and night out. Sports, like the economy, is cyclical. We know that if we stick by our values as loyal fans that eventually our teams will rise to prominence. It is during that time that our dreams are realized or crushed. So stay the course, hope for smart decisions from the front office, hope for 100% effort and dedication from the players, but most important of all is for us to keep going out and supporting our teams in their times of crisis.