The U.S. Open invites Tiger; as it should have

The United States Golf Association offered Tiger Woods an exemption into the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Anyone have a problem with that?  

I don’t.  

And one assumes NBC-TV, which has the contract to televise the tournament, doesn’t either.

Sports are about entertainment as much as they are about competition.  And in the individual games, golf, tennis, it’s the stars, the names, who bring us to the course or the courts, or the TV screen.

Four majors in golf, all of which have been won by Woods, and three, the Masters, PGA Championship and Open Championship, or British Open, give the winner a lifetime invite. You did something special, and you’ll be rewarded in a special way.

Unless it’s America’s national championship, the U.S. Open. Thanks, but in a few years you’ve got to qualify with the other guys, and don’t let the trophy get tarnished.  

Woods is not going to win. Not at age 48, with that beat-up body. He probably won’t make the cut. But as long as he’s able and willing, get him and the other former champions into the field as they do at Augusta or will do at Troon, in Scotland, where the Open is scheduled, or Valhalla, the site of the PGA Championship in May.

Golf is the forever game, with 25-year-olds challenging for the honors achieved by an older generation. Someone we barely know teeing off in the same group with someone already famous. Or about to be. 

No, you didn’t want to turn it into an invitational, but how come the British Open, the oldest event of them all, can find room for its former champions, and except for rare exemptions, such as this — and the U.S. Open can’t?

Woods seemed as excited about getting one more chance to play an Open as anyone.

He’s won three Opens, the last, in 2008 at Torrey Pines, when, with a leg so painful he grimaced on every shot, Woods beat Rocco Mediate, in a playoff that went 19 holes.

“This U.S. Open, our national championship, is a truly special event for our game, one that has helped define my career," Woods said in a statement. "I'm honored to receive this exemption and could not be more excited for the opportunity to compete in this year's U.S. Open, especially at Pinehurst, a venue that means so much to the game.”

Tiger himself did so much for the game. He brought in a different audience, which included various ethnic groups so long unaccepted in the game, and which also helped turn him into an attraction that before his time would have seemed unimaginable.

The U.S.G.A. did right by Tiger Woods and golf. It will be good to see him in The Open no matter how well he does play.

No LeBron, no Steph — is that what the NBA needs?

The old Hollywood execs figured it out practically from the day movies first hit the silver screen: The story didn’t matter as much as the people who were in it. Entertainment is not so much a business of plots as of personalities. Stars. Yes, Shakespeare is special, but did you want to see Lady McBeth or Lady Gaga?

The same is true in sports. As the TV people are aware.

A few days ago, before the post-season started, one of the announcers at ESPN said he wanted Steph Curry and LeBron James in the Western Conference playoffs.

Of course, because that’s what the viewing audience wanted to see. The player called one of the greatest of all time, still dominant at age 39, and the best long-distance shooter in history. You didn’t need to care about the Lakers or Warriors, not that being a fan of either team wouldn’t have hurt. All you really needed to be was a fan of basketball.  

Well, Curry — or more correctly his team, the Golden State Warriors — failed to advance to the postseason. And now, after playing only five games, the Lakers and LeBron are done.

Two favorites finished. 

The old guard — and old forward — about to depart. For now. And possibly how LeBron responds to the question on whether he’s played his last game for the Lakers, forever.

Change is inevitable in sports, as everywhere, yet it seems so much more personal and painful when the change is to the athletes we follow.

The NFL just had its player draft, selecting the new who will replace the old. In the summer the NBA will have its own draft. That doesn’t mean we have to replace them in our hearts.

The NBA West once belonged to Kobe Bryant of the Lakers. Then it became the property of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Now it has been usurped by Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. 

Hard to believe? Not really. 

Hard to accept? Only if you tend to live in the past, recent or distant.

We miss Kobe. We’ll miss Steph and LeBron. Time moves on as the memorable athletes slow down.

Up in Northern California, where we’ve waited and watched, and if you will, suffered the power and championships that went to the Lakers during the Magic, Kareem and Worthy years, we’re prepared for the worst.

But down in L.A., the future is being approached with particular gloom. 

“For the 13th time in 14 seasons, the Lakers have fallen far short in their bid to pile on another NBA championship, and, man, is this getting old,” wrote columnist Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times. “Scream. Sigh. Get used to it.”

In the continuing world of sport it’s hard to get used to anything except nothing and no one stays the same.

On his 100th birthday, Schallock is still a (Hollywood) Star

Art Schallock roomed with Yogi Berra, faced Duke Snider in the World Series, and, perhaps most noteworthy of anything, on Thursday turned 100.

And, oh yeah, I saw him pitch.      

Not for the New York Yankees, for whom he was a contribution to those championships in the 1950s, but for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League.

Which admittedly also makes me old, if not quite as old as Schallock, who even before this momentous birthday was the oldest living former major leaguer.

Schallock was a little lefthander, but at 5-foot-9, he was still a couple of inches taller than the legendary Bobby Shantz. His story has been told in newspapers, The Athletic, and quite impressively a few days ago by Vernon Glenn of San Francisco’s KPIX TV station, who tracked down Schallock to his residence in Sonoma.

Schallock was born in Marin, was a star at Tamalpais High and hoped to join the San Francisco Seals of the PCL. The majors had not yet moved west of St. Louis.

What he joined after the attack on Pearl Harbor was the Navy, where based on an aircraft carrier he saw combat. When the war was over he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who sent him to one of the Seals’ PCL rivals.

The Hollywood Stars played home games in a classic minor league park, all wood single deck, where CBS television city now is located in West L.A.

For a kid in junior high, it was a great place, easy to get autographs, people such as Bernier, Chuck Stevens, Frankie Kelleher, manager Fred Haney — and Schallock. 

He asked my name. “Same as yours,” I told him.  

For a player working his way back after not even throwing a baseball for years, it was a time of joy and a time of doubt.

The other PCL park in LA, Wrigley Field, where the Angels, PCL and briefly, in 1961, the major league played, was more elegant and double-decked. Not that it mattered, but it mattered to me.

The era was different. Salaries were minuscule compared to now — but, of course, a new car was only $1,500. Ballplayers held off-season jobs to support their families.

The Dodgers traded Schallock to the Yankees, who brought him up, making room on the roster by sending down a young outfielder named Mickey Mantle. After three years he was claimed off of waivers by the Baltimore Orioles.

A hell of a career. 

In the TV interview on, Schallock wore a Yankees hat. Understandable, but I’ll always remember him with the Hollywood Stars.

Warriors season is gone; does Klay stay or go?

Klay Thompson was upset. Not because he had missed every one of his field goal attempts — and surely that contributed to his discontent. But about the question posed to him this morning after, the one about his future, which at that moment seemed the only proper question to be asked. 

Of course when you went 0-for-10, and your team, the proud and until now eminently successful Golden State Warriors, would fail to qualify for the playoffs — ending a streak at 13 straight seasons — the question may not have seemed so proper.

“You don’t want to talk about the season first?” Thompson said, answering a question with a question of his own. “You want to talk about the future?”

Indeed. 

It does little good to discuss what has happened, other than in certain instances as a bit of self-satisfaction. Once a game is finished, a season complete, unless you’re stepping away, the issue is what will happen.  

The Warriors were the NBA’s best. No more. Their roster has become a blend of memories and possibilities.

The embarrassment of Tuesday night's play-in game, with the Sacramento Kings defeating the Warriors 114-98, may have been less of a disappointment and more of a revelation. Yes, Steph Curry still has his wits and his 3-pointers, Draymond Green is a defensive whiz and team leader, and Klay’s offense is invaluable — as his lack of scoring against the Kings made only too clear.

But the Warriors were out-muscled and out-hustled, pushed around as much symbolically as physically. They basically never had a chance. Except to show how much they lack.

Sport more than anything else makes us aware of the passing of time. The cliche that nothing and no one lasts forever is all too apparent on our courts and fields, diamonds and gridirons. The pieces are out there, and sometimes they fit perfectly — for a while. But it can’t last.

Veteran fans understand. Organizations are always on the lookout, on the rebuild, drafting, and coaching, but there only was one Michael Jordan, and there only is one Steph Curry.

The New England Patriots defied the odds. They were contenders in the NFL for a decade. Then they were hopeless and Bill Belichick was a nowhere man.

Where Klay Thompson is going to be next season and beyond is the topic of notable consequence. Curry and Draymond are under contract. Thompson is a free agent. 

“I can’t see us playing without him,” said Steph.

What Klay and the Warriors’ management see is what will count. 

“I previously just said about the season we had and how much commitment it takes to play the games we did and give it our all,” said Thompson, “so I really haven’t thought about that deep into the future because I still need to process the year we had and it was one filled with ups and downs, but ultimately, we — I personally and our team did everything we could to try and win as many games as we possibly could.”

He was asked, about living in the future, what were some of the things?

“Good place to be.”

Will that good place still be with the Warriors?

No drama this Masters; Scheffler wouldn’t allow it

AUGUSTA, Ga. — It wasn’t dramatic, the final round of the 88th Masters, but it certainly was emphatic. Scottie Scheffler grabbed the tournament by the lapel of its green jacket Sunday and never let go.

While many of the guys chasing him self-destructed with one double bogey after another, Scheffler played like the top-ranked golfer in the world.   

Which he is.

Now he’s also a two-time Masters champion after this overwhelming victory, four shots in front of the surprising Swede, Ludvig Aberg, joining Scheffler’s win of 2022.

“It’s hard to put into words how special this week has been,” added Scheffler. “It’s been a long week, a grind of a week. The golf course was so challenging, and to be sitting here wearing this jacket again and getting to take it home is extremely special.”

There’s an old saying that the Masters doesn’t start until the back nine Sunday. Oh, really? By then it was virtually over. Scheffler, in truth, locked this up with birdies on eight, nine and 10, and went on to shoot a 4-under 68.

Just before that, he had just bogeyed 6 to have his lead cut to a shot. 

“The best momentum turner that I had today was the birdie putt on 8. I hit two really good shots in there long of the green. I had an extremely difficult pitch that I hit up there about 10, 12 feet from the cup. It was a challenging read because it turned early and it was really straight at the end. So it was a putt that you had to really start on line and hope it held its line. I poured that one in.”

That gave him a four-round total of 11-under 277. Aberg, a rookie skilled enough to be chosen for the winning Euro Ryder Cup team, shot 68 for 281. Meanwhile, the Englishman Tommy Fleetwood shot a 69, joined by Cal alums Max Homa (73) and Collin Morikawa (74), all tied for third at 284. 

Last year’s winner, Jon Rahm, never was in it — the last person to repeat was Tiger Woods in 2001-2002. Tiger shot 77 on Sunday.

Scheffler is not yet another Tiger — no one will be — but at 27, he possibly could equal Woods’ five Masters victories in the coming years, one fewer than Jack Nicklaus.

Scheffler already owns one mark — he’s now the only golfer with a beard to win the Masters.

A Masters lead for Scheffler, an 82 for Tiger

AUGUSTA, Ga. — This was the Masters in all its glorious — and agonizing — inconsistency with shots missed and leads lost. Going into the final round, nothing was certain except Tiger Woods had his highest round ever here, a 12-over par 82.

The TV guys love to call Saturday “moving day” at tournaments, but with the way things went if any of the contenders, or Tiger, moved, it was to tears.

The scoreboards spread across the immersive landscape of Augusta National Golf Club had more number changes than at a race track pari-mutuel machine.

A Danish pro you’re probably not familiar with, Niccolai Hojgaard, temporarily grabbed first with birdies at 8, 9 and 10 and then, whoops, dropped out of sight and practically off the board by making bogies at 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.

Then it was Collin Morikawa, the Cal alum, briefly in front. Finally, at least for moving day, it was the 2022 Masters champion, Scottie Scheffler, shooting a 1-under par 71 and at 7-under 209, ahead of Morikawa, 69-210, while Max Homa, the other Cal guy, had a 73, is at 211.

Hojgaard came in at 74 for 214. A roller coaster ride.

Something Woods wouldn’t have minded, no one expected Tiger to win — other than Tiger at least — but no one, after Tiger rallied with a 72 Friday to make the cut, figured he would play so poorly.

Still, he is 48, and he hasn’t played very much because of the injuries. His body won’t do what he wants it to do, a problem that confronts so many as the years go on.

To his credit and to the delight of his fans, and CBS television, Woods vowed to play Sunday said a few days ago he’s a fighter, and fighters keep fighting

“I wouldn’t necessarily say mental reps. It’s just that I haven’t competed and played much. When I had chances to get it flipped around and when I made that putt at 5, I promptly three-putted 6 and flubbed a chip at 7 and just got it going the wrong way, and when I had the opportunities to flip it, I didn’t.”

Asked if Friday, when he played nearly a round and ½ wore him out physically, Woods said, “Oh, yeah, it did.”

Scheffler is where a younger Tiger used to be, the favorite and No.1 in the world rankings. He knows the tournament and knows how to succeed.

“I think I have a better understanding of what morning is like (Sunday), I’m proud of how I played today. It was a good fight out there.”

One Scheffler seems prepared to win. One Tiger was destined to lose.

Tiger sets another record — 24 straight Masters cuts

AUGUSTA, Ga. — He was talking like a man who believes he still has a chance because in his mind Tiger Woods always has a chance if he’s still in the tournament.

And Woods who Friday set a record by making the cut in the Masters for the 24th straight time — or every time he’s played as a pro — definitely is in this one.

Look, we know that with only two rounds left and behind players such as Max Homa, 2022 Masters champ Scottie Scheffler — the current No. 1 in the world rankings — and 2020 U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau, Woods isn’t going to win.

But Tiger doesn’t know it, or if he does, he never would admit it.  He’s come from behind so many other times, although, yes, now Woods is 48 and has been hurt so often it’s remarkable he still can walk, much less make birdies. He made enough in what virtually was a round and a half of golf at Augusta National.

Because darkness kept Woods and others from completing Thursday’s first round, Tiger had to play 14 through 18 Friday morning, then after a 50-minute break, tee off in the second round. He did so in a very Tigerish style, responding with an even-par 72 after a one-over 73.  That 145 total may have put him five shots to the rear of Homa’s 138, but Tiger has won the Masters five times.

"I'm tired," Woods said after the second round. "I've been out for a while, competing, grinding. It's been a long 23 holes, a long day. But Lance Bennett (his caddy) and I really did some good fighting today, and we've got a chance."

Which means the telecast (Saturday and Sunday on CBS, after the first two rounds on ESPN) has a chance to attract a massive amount of viewers. Not much else is going on this weekend and Tiger on the tube lures people who normally wouldn't watch.  

There’s golf, and then there’s Tiger. When Woods is involved, so is the public. Especially at a major championship. Especially when that major is the Masters.

“I’ve always loved playing here,” said Woods. “I’ve been able to play here since I was 19-years-old (After winning the U.S. Amateur). It’s one of the honors I don’t take lightly, being able to compete.” 

He’s not alone. As winter ebbs, pro golfers become obsessed with finding a place in the Masters. Tiger, along with the rest who made the cut, has that place. The ride should be very entertaining. Enjoy!

Even at the Masters, one is unable to avoid the story of O.J. Simpson

AUGUSTA, Ga. — This time the tournament is the Masters. That time the tournament was the U.S. Open. Both times the story was about the Pro Football Hall of Fame runner turned killer, Orenthal James Simpson.

Strange how these coincidences take place.

Now, Augusta, where Thursday Bryson DeChambeau took the first-round lead with a 7-under par 65.

Then, Oakmont Country Club, where in June 1994, Ernie Els took the victory. Now and then the overwhelming intrusion of O.J. ‘s life or death.

The announcement of Simpson’s passing, at 76, from cancer, was made in the morning. That it came just before the first shot to the year’s first major championship was appropriate. No matter what else was going on, O.J. Simpson, or his deeds, commandeered the headlines and television screens.

What we found out about Simpson is that he became as adept in the art of delusion as he was in his ability to gain yards. What happened and have been reminders is we don’t really know a person, even a spouse or best friend.      

Had he practiced self-deception, or was it just developed naturally? You come of age in the tough Potrero Hill section of San Francisco without a father, you discover how to survive.

I came to San Francisco in the summer of ’65. Simpson was at CCSF, a junior college, playing the first of two seasons with such brilliance. He not only broke rushing records but also was heavily and brazenly recruited.

That was strong stuff for someone who had been playing tackle at Galileo High, who erroneously was called “O. Jay Simpson” in a caption.

Simpson told us he chose USC because he liked the horse that was the Trojans mascot that ran around the track at the LA Coliseum after Trojan touchdowns. Presumably, he was telling the truth. Now you wonder.         

O.J. was engaging and cooperative, a sports writer and pitchman’s dream. If I needed an interview — after all, I was at the Chronicle, one of his hometown newspapers — or Hertz was looking for promotion, he never refused.

And then, even those skills had declined. Simpson came to the San Francisco 49ers, where tales of his childhood could be revived. A great guy, right? Wrong.

It was a Monday in June 1994. I was arriving at the Pittsburgh airport to cover the Open. At the baggage carousel, I hear some saying, “O.J. Simpson’s wife was killed, and he’s a suspect.”’

No way, I’m thinking O.J. never would do anything like that. The freeway car chase on that Friday captivated the nation. The golf event couldn’t quite do that.

Ernie Els grabbed the trophy. O.J. Simpson grabbed our attention. As always.

In a timeless sport, Rory time may be running out at Augusta

AUGUSTA, Ga. — First a pro football reference. Dan Marino was only 23, in his second season of pro football, when the Miami Dolphins were defeated in Super Bowl XIX by the 49ers. Don’t despair, people told him, you’ll be there again.

He never returned.

Now a turn, at a figurative Amen Corner, of course, to another disappointed athlete. Rory McIlroy was only 22 and in his fifth year as a touring golfer when he blew an eight-shot lead in the 2012 Masters. Don’t despair was the advice. You’ll be there again.

He never has been.     

Twelve years later, McIlroy remains haunted by the failure. The tournament remains the only one of the four majors McIlroy hasn’t won, the piece keeping from gaining a career Grand. He’s made runs, but it’s incomparable to McIlroy, a successful career forever will lack the ultimate closure selection in other games, but age cannot be discounted.

Jack Nicklaus won the Masters at age 46, and Phil Mickelson won the PGA Round Championship at 50.

Still, as you grow older the people you have to beat keep getting younger. And more talented and prepared. Nick Dunlap is your appropriate example. At the start of January, he still was at the University of Alabama. He stunningly won the American Express tournament in the California desert and qualified for the Masters. Oh yes, he turned pro.     

McIlroy’s path was not that different. He left the amateur ranks, and in a relatively short period — the keyword is relatively — won the Open Championship, the U.S. Open-stomping famed Congressional Country Club and the PGA Championship. What’s next? The agony of Augusta, which included a drive so wild it ricocheted off one of those tidy, white-painted buildings known as cabins.

Yet if every following Masters brings memories, it also brings possibilities. Yes, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler are the betting choices, but Rory might be labeled the shoulda-coulda-oh-drat-all selection. Sometimes that sort of irreverence works as well as a long putt on those huge Augusta greens. 

McIlroy has done well heading into the Masters, which is no guarantee of anything, but sometimes those fickle golfing gods are sympathetic. Hey, Rory is idolized from Northern Ireland to Southern California.

“This is my 16th start in the Masters,” he said, “so I feel like I’ve done it quite a few different ways, and I guess just trying to bring a little bit of normalcy into what I sort of try to do week in, week out. I play 25 weeks a year, and there’s no point in doing anything different this week compared to other weeks, I guess.”

Actually, there is, winning the Masters.

Fifty-seven years of Masters cheers and tears

AUGUSTA, Ga. — A tradition unlike any other. Jim Nantz’s brief phrase about the annual first major golf championship has been parodied and mocked, but it lives on. For good reason.

Indeed there is nothing quite like the Masters, which has become a rite as much as a festival of spring, as an event, a competition which has elevated what once was a small southern city to a place of prominence in the world of sport.  

The name is pretentious and became an embarrassment to the great champion, Robert Tyre Jones, who helped create it as the Augusta Invitational.

But if the designation has changed, the location remains the same. Augusta National Golf Club.

It’s where at the second Masters, 1935, Gene Sarazen knocked his second shot into the cup on the par-5 15th, a double eagle — or if you prefer, albatross provided a bit of excitement languishing through the Great  Depression. It’s where Tiger Woods not only won the tournament but because of his ethnic background and jubilant success grabbed our attention for years.

Who knows now what man that will end up the winner in 2024. Maybe it will be Jon Rahm, who could become the first back-to-back winner since Tiger in 2001-2002. Maybe it will be Scottie Scheffer, who has a Masters of his own and currently tops the golf rankings.

True, a veteran experience in the mysteries of Augusta’s greens, invariably wins. But not always. Fuzzy Zoeller won his first Masters — only the second golfer to have done that.

This will be the 88th Masters. This will be my 57th Masters. I had made 54 straight until Covid stopped the streak. Yeah, I’ve eaten a lifetime supply of (ugh) pimento cheese sandwiches and purchased a ton of shirts with the Masters logo on the left front and a large number of Masters hats with the year embroidered on it. 

My first Masters, when I was a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, was 1967. The winner was Gay Brewer. Yes, I believed San Francisco’s Johnny Miller was going to win a couple of times — he was ahead at the 15th hole one year and said “I kept thinking how proud my Dad would be to see me in a Green Coat” — but he never could do it.

The memories include Roberto Divincenzo signing the incorrect score in 1968 that cost him a tie for first — “I am stupid,” the Argentinian sadly kept repeating — and of course, Greg Norman blowing the six-shot lead in 1996. There were cheers for so many. There were tears from Arnold Palmer after his last round and Ben Crenshaw after his second Masters victory, days after the death of his longtime tutor.

Hey, a tradition unlike any other and a fantastic run of golf.

In baseball’s board game, Oakland A’s become the Sacramento A’s

So the Philadelphia-Kansas City-Oakland-Las Vegas Athletics are moving to Sacramento, another wicked maneuver for baseball, which was called America’s Pastime but is little more than a board game for bored rich Americans.

Wasn’t it Bud Selig during his occupancy of the commissioner’s office who told us the sport belongs to the fans while the club owners are merely caretakers? Yeah, we all make mistakes, even millionaires. Especially so many of them, excluding the revered Haas family — who left their fingerprints and sad legacies on the game.

It was one of the French generals in World War I who was trying to explain what went wrong, they said “Ah, they handed me a disaster.”

Which is what baseball on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay was destined to become. It all started with Charles Oscar Finley, a country bumpkin with money who was able to haul the financially staggering Philadelphia Athletics to K.C.

When Finley, a penurious sort, couldn’t get what he wanted in KC — a new ballpark — it was off to Californ-i-a. Missouri senator Stuart Symington called Oakland The luckiest city since Hiroshima. Pretty good foresight.

The A’s became Oakland’s response to the San Francisco Giants, “our team.” The little city was in the Big League. That Finley had no front office but it didn’t matter because he had Reggie Jackson,  Catfish Hunter and Cap’n Sal Bando. And they also had 3 consecutive World Series Championships. Match that Giants.

What the A’s couldn’t match was a corporate backing or government backing for a new ballpark. Still, the fans cheered for their team. Still, the drums pounded in left centerfield. Still, Oakland was A’s territory.

But it also had been Raiders territory. Al Davis, loved/despised, had taken his teams — and some said the heart and soul of the region — to Southern California. He brought the team back. For a price, of course. He wanted the Coliseum not just improved but restyled, a huge section of seats built on the 50-yard line, which unfortunately also was for baseball, was the center field bleachers. Thus we had a new monument, Mt. Davis.

That distorted the baseball park. That, and overflowing toilets in the clubhouse and dugouts made it obvious the Coliseum needed to be replaced.

But talk is one thing. And in the East Bay, action is not just another thing, but rare. The line about Northern California is that it is easy to get issues voted down but virtually impossible to get them approved.

Where the owner, John Fisher, stood on all this was hard to determine. He wanted a new place to play but didn’t seem to want to get involved in how that would come about.  He was oblivious and seemingly uninvolved.

The A’s have the worst team in baseball — one win through Wednesday — as they had the worst team, by far, in 2023.

The thought seems to be to let them fall apart and because it is Oakland, and not a city like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. It is going to become a reality. The team with a roster that probably belongs in the Minor Leagues, is disgracefully undermanned.  Major League Baseball is very much responsible for this. It has allowed the A’s to become what they are, a franchise now doomed to become the Sacramento A’s.

Giants better off without troubles Ohtani could bring

The San Francisco Giants have a new manager and apparently an improved pitching staff. What they don’t have is Shohei Ohtani. Thank heaven for small favors.

Ohtani may be the best player in baseball. He may hit 60 homers this season. May pitch several no-hitters. And he may be a problem as big as one of those Sumo champions. Come to think of it, he already is. So many of us, who are Giants fans (guilty your honor), rued the day Ohtani bypassed the Giants and signed what? A 100-zillion-dollar contract with the despised Los Angeles Dodgers.

Drat, the good folks up here north of Fresno and west of the Sierra, were thinking, those wealthy Dodgers, that celebrity audience and endless success. They did again to our sad little group from the ballpark by the Bay.

Is there no justice in the sporting world? There very well might be, and it’s named Ippei Mizuhara.

He was the interpreter and friend (some friend) who has worked with Ohtani all these years since Shohei came from Japan in 2018 to win two American League MVP awards with the Angels. Ippei is alleged to have bet millions on sports, bringing to the game nightmares of Pete Rose and placing Shohani in a situation of which he contends he was unaware.

In a prepared 12-minute statement Monday, ESPN properly thought it was so newsworthy it unpardonably interrupted the “Pardon The Interruption” show, Ohtani said he never bet on sports or anything else nor been asked to make bets for others. Ohani accused Mizuhara of “theft and fraud”  related to payments made from Ohtani’s account to an illegal Orange County bookmaking firm.  

Just think if the Giants had been unfortunate enough to sign Ohtani. They’d be dealing with all the legal mess along with the unpopular departure of longtime public address lady, Renel Brooks-Moon.

How much agony can a fan base take?

As this Ohtani drama unfolded I kept thinking of the film “Lost in Translation,” where a faded American movie star, portrayed by who else, Bill Murray, and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. It has nothing to do with baseball, gambling or theft, but in part offers a window into cultural differences between two societies on either side of the Pacific.

On this side where the Giants and Dodgers are based — is it ironic the Dodgers opened their season last week in Asia, albeit Korea, not Japan? — Ohtani will be hounded and pestered even more than when he merely was a superstar.

The Dodgers, players and fans, probably are better equipped to handle the Ohtani mess than others, we’ll learn in time. He’s a great athlete, but after what’s happened and considering what might happen, the Giants can do without his baggage. Although they would like his bat.

What would Bud Collins have nicknamed winning Swiatek?

INDIAN WELLS — Iga Swiatek doesn’t need much on the court these days — my goodness she recorded a bagel in her semifinal — other than one of those colorful nicknames invented by the late, great Bud Collins.

He labeled Steffi Graf  “Fraulein Forehand,”  Venus and Serena Williams “Sisters Sledge Hammer. He might have anointed Swiatek the “Polish Rifle,” except that was used for the NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski, who is American.

Swiatek truly is Polish, born in Warsaw, and without question right now the best women’s tennis player in creation.

She turned the final of the BNP Paribas Open into a quick romp Sunday, defeating bewildered Maria Sakkari, 6-4,6-0. 

The match lasted only 1 hour and 8 minutes. Sometimes it seems to take that long to open a new can of tennis balls.

“Sorry I couldn’t put on a better fight,” said Sakkari, who two nights earlier defeated Coco Gauff in a semifinal.

Two years ago, at the same place, Indian Wells Tennis Garden — when you spend millions to build a sports complex among sand dunes and cacti — it was virtually the same. Swiatek defeated Sakkari 6-4, 6-1. 

In the rankings, she means, a place to which she seems intent — and content — never returning. In her week and a half of competition at Indian Wells, the 22-year-old Swiatek lost only 21 games in six matches. 

“She’s aggressive but she’s solid,” Sakkari said, summarizing Swiatek’s incredibly effective tennis.

It’s too early in a career that could last another 15 years or so to predict how Swiatek someday may be judged against the greats, Margaret  Court, Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova, Graf, but among the current females, she’s exactly where the number indicates, first.

It would have been interesting to see what would have been, had Gauff defeated Sakkari, but perhaps the best thing about tennis at any level is the actual playing not the promising. When the opportunity presents itself how do you respond

Swiatek’s response across the net is quite apparent and resourceful. She handled herself beautifully. Same thing after the tournament.

“I’m really proud of myself and super happy,” was her comment after literally lifting the crystal championship trophy. “Even though this tournament looked like the scores, maybe I had everything under control. It wasn't from the beginning to the end. I felt really good on the last two matches. Big amount of confidence.”

And for the bettors who followed the advice of Zachary Cohen in one of the tennis publications to parlay Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Daniil Medved, 7-6, 6-1. Big money. 

Wonder if Cohen has a decent backhand?

At Indian Wells, Mother Nature rains, Carlos Alcaraz reigns to find a way to hang on

To the match. Not an umbrella.

He had taken a 6-1 lead in the first set of the BNP Paribas semifinal. He had won 19 straight matches and in the process a Grand Slam, the Australian. His opponent, Carlos Alcaraz, said of Sinner, “He’s the best player in the world right now.  

Right, and it doesn’t rain in the Coachella Valley in springtime. Sinner lost, or rather, Alcaraz won 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. He will play another former champion, Dan Medvedev, who in the semi defeated the American Tommy Paul, 1-6, 7-6, 6-2.

“I tried to play obviously good tennis, which I have done,” said  Sinner, “especially the first set. Then I made a couple of mistakes. You know the momentum has changed. He raised his level.”

Which since Alcaraz is No. 2 in the world and Sinner No. 3, it isn’t quite like having to leap the Empire State Building. It was just that Sinner had flown in the first set, verifying the betting line making him such a solid favorite the tennis folk concluded it was a given.

 “Who’s going to stop Jannik?” questioned somebody. Well, good old Mother Nature — he had a 2-1 lead in the first set when the weather intervened, play being delayed more than two hours. And eventually, Alcaraz, who won the BNP a year ago.

“Obviously a tough one to swallow,” said Sinner, previously unbeaten in 2024.

The thinking in men’s tennis has been Alcaraz, the Spaniard, eventually would replace Novak Djokovic, the game’s best. Someday at least. At the moment, Djokovic remains first, and even though he’s 36 and the two heir apparents are in their early 20s, the change could be in the distance.   

Alcaraz had an impressive start, but in the last few months he has slipped. And  Sinner has surged. Then came the Saturday meeting, proof that all the speculation might mean nothing.

“Well, I’m really happy to classify (qualify) for another final,” said Alcaraz. “It means a lot to me to play at such a great level and be able to play another final.”

In the post-match interview, Alcaraz was reminded Thursday he had to flee when a hive of bees swarmed in while Carlos was playing.

 “On Thursday,” he was told, “you had the bees and then you had the rain delay today. You came from down a set. Kind of a wild 48 hours.”

At Indian Wells, Paul has chance to make us forget Australian collapse

INDIAN WELLS — The chance is there for Tommy Paul, the chance to make us forget. Forget what happened  Down Under. The chance to make himself a winner of one of the world’s biggest tennis tournaments outside the Slams. The chance to alter the memories of his failure in the Australian Open several weeks ago when he let a two-to-one set lead slip away and lost in five sets, the final one 6-0.

That caught the attention of everyone in the game and many outside the game. Here was a 25-year-old American, one of the new generation, not only unable to close the deal but looking bad in the process.

He became a headline. But he didn’t become depressed, on the contrary. He got on a jet for California, got a practice court, and told us, “Sometimes the painful endings are exactly what you need.”

Paul has come along with his age-group pals, Taylor Fritz, Francis Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka. Tiafoe made it to the semis of the U.S Open, Fritz won Indian Wells and Opela has his own victories. What Paul has, in some minds, is a blown opportunity.

Yes, unfair, but he seems unperturbed.

Paul grew up in North Carolina but now lives on his mother’s farm in Southern New Jersey, where, no he doesn’t plant corn or drive tractors but the few weeks he’s home does chores like feeding the chickens

There was a shirtless photo of him standing next to a tractor in a tennis publication, but that was to get the game noticed, which certainly did. Paul has a footballer’s physique.

Whether that will be an advantage or disadvantage in the match against Medvedev, a veteran with a strong forehand and an aggressive style we will learn quickly enough.

This is the fourth straight year there’s been a U.S. men’s player in the BNP semis. Paul was asked what it feels like to have broken through.  

”Your success now,” wondered a journalist, “does it feel a little bit sweeter, the stuff you’ve gone through, the stuff we learned (about his lifestyle) on Netflix, the late-night calls to your mom, maybe partying a little too much (when)younger, being a bit of a late bloomer? The fact you’ve locked it down and become the player you are now, does it make this success even sweeter?”

Paul was a bit reluctant.

“Maybe,” he said “I don’t know what it would feel like if I broke into the scene right away. I’m not sure. I mean it feels good. Obviously, I have another match on Saturday that I want to win. I’m not satisfied yet. So obviously I want to end the week with a win. You know, I want to win tournaments. That’s always the goal.”

At Indian Wells, bees, a bad toe, and another Sinner victory

INDIAN WELLS — Quarter-final Thursday, as the round is known at the BNP Paribas, turned out to be the afternoon Carlos Alcaraz had to worry more about back-biting (from insects) than backhands. The round “The Woz” could no longer go toe-to-toe with her comeback dream.

The round Jannik Sinner (16-0) remained undefeated, Tommy Paul remained on track and the world’s second-ranked male, Carlos Alcaraz, managed to survive, unlike top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who three days earlier was upset and then subsequently decided to pull out of next week’s event at Miami.

And for the round, the temperature, here often in the 80s and usually in the 70s, was no higher than that mid-60s, not that the weather seemed to matter to the boisterous fans packed in the 16,200-seat main stadium.

If it’s too cold to go to the pool, go to the courts — especially with the cast of those entered. Not that the stories all dealt with the actual tasks of cracking serves and hitting returns.

Three games into the Alcaraz-Alexander Zverev match, eventually won by Alcaraz, 6-3, 6-1, a swarm of bees arrived (OK, toss in buzz lines) and the two contestants ran for safety. Officials called an apiarist (a beekeeper) who collected the swarm.

“I'm glad I'm not there anymore… That's crazy. There was nothing like 30 minutes ago. I would run away," said Iga Świątek, watching from the interview room after her 6-4, 6-1 over The Woz, Caroline Wozniacki.

Wozniacki, once No. 1 before she married former Warriors center David Lee and gave birth to two children, is coming back from retirement. She injured a big toe a few days ago in a win over Angelique Kerber, and when the pain grew so severe, she called a stop against Świątek.

Sinner is the Italian from the Dolomite region of the Alps where they speak as much German — if not more — than Italian. But whatever language he employs his racquets pay attention.

He was a 6-3, 6-3, winner over Jiri Lehecka, and after taking his first Grand Slam, the Australian  Open, he had the rest of the pros in awe. He has great speed and beautiful consistent groundstrokes. And even more notably, he has the confidence that is a byproduct of success. Or the reason for the success.

And yes, the former teen, Coco Gauff, now age 20, also won, 6-4, 6-3 over Yue Yuan.

“It wasn’t the best serving,” concedes Gauff, “but the groundstrokes worked. I just try and take the positives.”

Navarro, Gauff are on the numbers

INDIAN WELLS — Only a number. So said Emma Navarro, who ranks No. 23 in women’s tennis after Wednesday upsetting Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2.

Only a number. So accepts Coco Gauff about the birthday that Wednesday ended her teenage years.

Tennis is all about numbers. No matter how old you are or how young.

The BNP Paribas Open rolled on as finally, the clouds rolled by. Sunshine in the desert, the Coachella Valley, and success for American women, expected in the case of the birthday girl, Gauff, now 20; probably unexpected with the onetime college star, Navarro.

Emma, 22, only a few months away from an NCAA Championship while at Virginia, won arguably the biggest match of her career, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, over Sabalenka, who in February became a Grand Slam champion with a victory in the Australian Open.

Gauff ranks No. 3, but she’s been the No. 1 star in America since her U.S. Open title in September doing TV interviews and getting a huge spread in Vogue magazine. Despite the glamor and glory, Coco comes at you as unpretentiously as, well, a cup of cocoa.

 In her quarterfinal match Wednesday she blitzed Belgian doubles specialist Elise Mertens, 6-0, 6-2.

“Finally got a win on my birthday, which was great,” Gauff said without emotion. “Yeah, I have nothing to say about the match. It was pretty straightforward, and hopefully, I can continue the good tennis.”

That the numbers seem to be more than nothing, but it’s her opinion that counts.

Navarro, understandably, was more emotional after finishing what might become her breakthrough match.

“Yeah, feeling excited,” said Navarro. “I’ve worked really hard over the years just to get to this point,”  

That hardly separates her from the other dozens of female players. The separation is when that work pays off, as this is much against Sabalenka, the powerful Russian. This time it did.

“I guess I wasn’t comfortable with my ranking,” said Navarro. “There’s not an opportunity for that. When I was younger I played in a way where I wanted to work myself into points and work myself into matches, and kind of just react to what my opponent was doing, kind of take a step back, OK, how are they going to play? But at this level, there is no time for that. You are striking or getting struck.”

She was striking. So was Gauff, although for Coco she scores like it was business as usual. Which is exactly what it turned out to be.

In this numbers game. The American ladies had the perfect ones. Or should that be 6-1?

After surprising Djokovic, how far can the kid, Nardi, go in the BNP Paribas?

INDIAN WELLS — The tennis term lucky loser is a contradictory description, something everyone hopes to be, lucky, and something abhorrent in sports, a loser.

We hear it used mostly in club competition, recreational events. This week it was prevalent at the BNP Paribas Open — mostly because the player, Novak Djokovic, was a loser but hardly lucky.

He was defeated, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 Monday night by Luca Nardi, a 20-year-old Italian who was almost as surprised as everyone else, calling it a miracle.

Nardi will advance to play Tommy Paul, part of a generation which was to revitalize American tennis to where it was in the glory days of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and pals.

But making predictions in any sport, especially tennis where there may just be someone new and maybe better each time you double fault, is a dangerous thing.

This BNP was going to belong to Djokovic. If it didn’t belong to Rafael, who withdrew because of that hip injury. If it didn’t belong to Stefano Tsitsipas, who was beaten, 6-2,6-4 by Jiri Lehecka. If it doesn’t belong to Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Fábián Marozsán, 6-3, 6-3, it won’t belong to Djokovic certainly. The 36-year-old Serb, was entering a tournament for the first time since dropping the Australian semifinal to Sinner. Sinner’s resume lacked only a Grand Slam. The shock was the match against Nardi.

The kid missed out in qualifying for the BNP. Then because Tomás Martín Etcheverry of Argentina pulled out, Nardi, instead of going home, went into the tournament.

In tennis, an individual sport, if you get your chance you have to take advantage of it. And Nardi did big time. He moved Djokovic around the court and hit some big passing shots.

“I made some really terrible unforced errors,” said Djokovic. “Just quite defensive tennis and you know, not much on the ball in the 3^rd (set), he just stepped in and he used the time that he had.”

“He was playing more free and more aggressive than I did, and going for his shots and that break on 3-2 was enough.”

Djokovic said he is more selective with his schedule. 

“I do play fewer tournaments. So of course it is not a great feeling when you drop out early in the tournament, and especially here, I haven’t played here for 5 years. I really wanted to do well, but that wasn’t meant to be. We move on.”

Literally, he will be going to the second tournament Sunshine Slam, in Miami, eager to show he still is the best and can handle those young kids.

Osaka’s comeback halted at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS — She took time away, putting down her racquets and picking up baby formula. Going from tennis champion to champion mother and back takes work and time. As Naomi realizes now.

We’re in the California desert, maybe only 150 miles down the interstate from Hollywood. The Academy Awards show was Sunday night.  But this is the real world, the sports world, where comebacks are neither rapid nor easy no matter how good you were.

And Osaka with four Grand Slam titles was damn good! Greater even. But Monday she wasn’t as good as Elise Mertens of Belgium, losing, 7-5, 6-4, in her third-round match of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Although to some — Osaka lists herself as Japanese but was raised in New York and now lives in L.A. — the result was a disappointment but might not have been that big a surprise. Mertens also has won four Slams, and although they’ve been in doubles she’s a very accomplished singles player who, while Osaka has been raising her baby, was lifting awards.

Mertens next will play Aryna Sabalenka, the Wimbledon champion who Monday outlasted Emma Raducanu, 6-3, 7-3.  

Osaka, 26, went through numerous emotional problems not long ago, refusing to talk to the media after one match, and then withdrawing moments before another match. Newspapers and television networks responded with stories about mental health.

Then in January 2023, Osaka announced she was expecting—the father is her boyfriend, rapper Cordae (Amri Duston). The baby was born in July. Osaka’s first match after her return was on Jan. 1, 2024, in New Zealand, in preparation for the Australian Open.

That Osaka would come to the BNP and Indian Wells was expected. She had a bye then a victory. Now a loss.

“I had a plan today,” said Osaka. “And I didn’t really execute.”

Sounds like an NFL quarterback, not a world-class tennis player. Of course, maybe it was because the other team (Mertens) wouldn’t allow her to execute. Mertens, 38, has been there, done that in doubles or singles.

Then the admission. “I haven’t played in a while,” conceded Osaka, “so it was kind of surprising, her game.” A little bit that’s a Hollywood lie if ever there was one.

At Indian Wells, Djokovic has the answer

INDIAN WELLS — So at the place labeled Tennis Paradise, the No. 1  player in the world — and maybe ever, according to Sports Illustrated — was contemplating a stemwinder question not at all to do with paradise. 

“You’ve had such a spectacular career,” the 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, inquiry began and you knew what was coming — as did Novak Djokovic. “An incredible student of the game, my question is, this sport gives us so much. If you had to boil it down to just one or two key lessons that this sport has provided you, what would that be?”    

Fortunately, only moments before, Djokovic had concluded his first match in the BNP Paribas Open in five years, a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Aleksandar Vukic. He could be pleasant and forgiving. And surely the cover story on him by Jon Wertheim in the latest Sports Illustrated helped.

“The last GOAT (Greatest of All Time) Standing,” would tend to make a man more accepting of irritating comments and double faults. Not that the guy nicknamed the Joker hasn’t always gone about his business making others laugh as well as applaud from his earlier years before he started collecting Grand Slam titles — he now has 24, two more than Rafael Nadal. The Joker was known as a joker. His mimicry of other players was as big a hit as were some of his forehands. 

And apropos of nothing but considering the Serb, now 36, had to battle his way to the top, there was the time he won the U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows and in the awards presentation was introduced as Da-okovic.

Roger Federer retired. Nadal, too often injured, may be retiring. Carlos Alcaraz, who Sunday defeated Felix Auger Aliassime, the Canadian, 6-2. 6-3, supposedly is the heir apparent. And Janik Sinner of Italy won the Australian Open in February.  

But for now the men’s game is in the possession of Djokovic.

The nonsense that presented Djokovic from entering the US or caused him to be expelled from Australia is a memory. If a painful memory.  

He’s on the march, and that’s as exciting for his sport as it is for Novak. Fans love winners. His presence at Indian Wells will help fill the 16,100-seat stadium.  

And regarding that complex, convoluted question tossed at Djokovic, he handled the situation with a quick feel-good response. 

“Very good question,” Djokovic insisted regarding the lessons tennis has offered. He smiled, either an affirmation or a put-down.

“I need a little prep on that to give you a right answer.”

“But I would say out of the blue it definitely made me more resilient, I think, just for everything else in life, really. Competing at the highest level for 20 years has allowed me to tap into parts of myself mentally, physically and emotionally that I didn’t know existed. I had to really dig deep so many times to overcome challenges and reach history.”  

A tough, long question to The Joker, brings a heartfelt answer.