Warriors-Knicks: Bad teams but a good game

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SAN FRANCISCO — This is what keeps us interested, even when there’s no reason to be. Two bad teams playing a game that was very good, perhaps not technically but very much so emotionally.

The eternal line in sport is “you never know.” You never know when the last-place Knicks, who had lost 10 in a row, and the next-to-last place Warriors would compete as they did Wednesday night and play a game that makes you say, “I wish I was there.”

Especially if you owned one of those high-price Chase Center season tickets and weren’t there.

Yes, it was another Warriors loss, the Knicks winning 124-122, and now Golden State at 5-21 has replaced the 5-20 Knicks as the team with the worst record in the NBA.

So if you were looking for something that might be showing up on ESPN, this wasn’t it.

But for one game out of the 82-game schedule, for a night’s entertainment, it was terrific — the Warriors, looking unenthusiastic, down by 22 points just before half, tying the game on a seemingly impossible, virtually on the sidelines 3-pointer by D’Angelo Russell with 5.5 seconds left in regulation and then losing.

It was so terrible that just before intermission the fans booed, even though they should know, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr reminded that, with Klay Thompson and Steph Curry injured and a ton of kids on the roster, this will be a learning season.

With Russell, 32 points, showing why the Warriors took him in a sign-and-swap deal with the Brooklyn Nets for Kevin Durant, fans were celebrating after the fourth-quarter heroics.

The Knicks have been awful for the longest time, weeks, months, years, and only a few days ago in the usual desperation move by an organization that is caught between panic and ineptitude, New York fired head coach David Fizdale. On Wednesday night the new guy, interim coach Mike Miller, got his first win.

“We know there are tough stretches,” was Miller’s analysis of getting off the schneid, “but we are playing the right way, and we are putting ourselves in position to win.”

The Warriors are putting themselves in position to promote. The tenet in advertising is to sell the sizzle if you don’t have the steak. It was Star Wars night Wednesday at Chase. The Force wasn’t with the Dubs.

The Warriors switch uniforms from game to game; among the half dozen is the one that says “The Town,” supposedly honoring the community the Warriors fled after some 70 years to come to Chase. There’s also San Francisco, which was in use before Franklin Mieuli, the late owner, decided to switch to “The City.”

This is the marketing era, but one surmises that if Klay, Steph, Durant and Draymond Green could show up healthy, white T-shirts would be perfect attire.

The thinking was Curry and Russell would provide the offense this season, but Steph is out with that broken hand, and Russell has been limited by a thumb injury, missing numerous games.

But he was there against the Knicks, and if nothing else his 3-pointer will become part of Warriors history in a quite unhistorical season.

Asked how he created space for the shot, pinched between a defender and the sideline, Russell said, “Honestly, I feel like if I dribbled I would be helping him guard me. I was just trying to be as crafty as I can and get a shot up.”

Kerr was asked what if anything the Warriors learned from the game in this learning season.

“I think they learned it’s a long game," he said, "and there is lots of time to comeback. At halftime we were down 18, and we were sort of lifeless. We got back into the game petty quickly in the third quarter. That’s a good lesson for young players.”

The lesson for everyone is that any game can turn out to be a memorable one.

Struggling Warriors are the poster kids for Raiders’ Jon Gruden

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By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — They have become the poster kids. For another sport.

Whenever Jon Gruden wants to make a comparison of all the ills that have beset his Raiders football team, as he did the other night, he refers to the Warriors basketball team.

Not that in anything beyond misery there are any true comparisons between an NBA franchise that was on top of the sporting world and, for one reason or another has tumbled to the bottom, and an NFL team still trying to get out of its own way.

The Raiders have been overwhelmed by injuries, needing to rely on new players. ”The Warriors,” said Gruden, “have been going through the same processes.”

What the Raiders went through Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum was a 42-21 pummeling by the Tennessee Titans. Then a few miles and a few hours away, at Chase Center, the Warriors were defeated 110-102 on Monday night by another team from Tennessee, the Grizzlies.

Tough times. Maybe everywhere, except in the 49er camp. Tom Brady, of all people, was booed at home. Who cares about what a man or team did last season or over the many seasons? What have you done lately?

And why have you done it?

“It’s just the nature of sports,” said Steve Kerr, the Warriors' coach. “People expect that if you’ve won, you’re going to win forever. It doesn’t work that way. A team tries to do its best, set realistic goals and tries to avoid the expectations and outside noise.”

Which, of course, is impossible.

That noise, the ranting on TV and radio, the grumbling of the fans, the complaints of a tormented coach, is what sports is all about. Always has been what sports were about.

Even limited success, then, should be cherished. Washington won the World Series. After years in the wilderness that should be enough, but it won’t. More, more, more.          

What the Patriots are dealing with, what the Raiders are dealing with, what the Warriors are dealing with, what the New York Giants — who Monday night lost their ninth in a row — are dealing with is losing.

Look what the Warriors had. And what they have. For five seasons, they were playing for championships. This season, they’re playing to get better so maybe someday in the future, with the big guys back, again they’ll be playing for championships.

“We faced an unprecedented situation,” reminded Kerr, who rarely reviews the damage. “Losing two All-Stars (the now departed Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson) to season-ending injuries within two games of the NBA finals. Something that’s never happened before.

“Then this season starts and whatever, it was, three, four games, Steph (Curry) goes down with a broken hand, and your team is decimated by injury. It changed the outlook of the entire season.”

From being a contender to being ignored.

A year ago, the Warriors were never off TV. Now they’re never on, at least on the national networks. Already two Warriors games have been pulled from prime time. 

One day you’re famous, the next you’re virtually nonexistent. Like the line about a tree falling in the forest, does an NBA game count if nobody knows it was played?

Tickets are expensive, especially in new arenas like Chase. As Kerr pointed out, expectations are big, even when that’s unrealistic. After the loss to a bad Memphis team Monday night, the Warriors are 5-20, the worst record in the league.

Will a fan base accustomed to winning and having purchased season tickets that run into the thousands be willing to support a lot of kids still learning pro basketball? It’s sort of like going to a Broadway show and getting a cast of backups.

Kerr has implied it was acceptable. Until Monday night.

“This was a disappointing game,” said Kerr. “I thought the energy was pretty good early, but the execution was really poor. Often it was carelessness... We have such great fans, and they are dying to cheer for us. We’ve had games here this year where the fans have loved the effort. Tonight, I didn’t think we responded well enough.”

At least there were no boos.

Warriors experiencing richness of the ‘taste of defeat

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

SAN FRANCISCO — Bill Bradley knew about winning. He played for the championship Knicks, then was a U.S. Senator. And about losing, failing in bids to become a candidate for president.

”The taste of defeat,” Bradley wrote of his career, “has a richness of experience all its own.”

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Giants’ new pilot Kapler: ‘I’m not the popular hire’

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By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

SAN FRANCISCO — It was not the normal introduction. Nobody cared what Gabe Kapler would do as the new Giants manager. Only about what he failed to do when he was director of player development for the Dodgers, and some of his players were accused of sexual assault.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Chris Mullin knew all about Warrior rookie Paschall

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SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Mullin knew all about Eric Paschall. “He used to kick our fanny,” said Mullin. That was when Mullin was coach at St. John’s and Paschall was a starter for rival Villanova.

Now Mullin is working as TV analyst for the his old NBA team, the Warriors, and Paschall is making an impact for his new NBA team, the Warriors, that not many other than Mullin knew was possible.

On Monday night, Paschall, a rookie, the 41st overall pick in this summer’s draft, had 34 points and 11 rebounds, and the Warriors — exhale, please — finally escaped the Curse of the Chase, defeating Portland 127-118, the first win in their new building.

It was going to come some night. After all, nobody goes 0-41 on their home court. But the Dubs had been without a victory in their previous four games at Chase Center, so there was a bit of anxiety.

Without Klay Thompson, injured knee, cheering from the bench, and Steph Curry, watching on TV at home, his broken left hand in a cast, the Warriors are not going to be a playoff team.

Yet with Paschall and another rookie, Kyle Bowman, playing well, the Dubs won. And that was despite Draymond Green missing the game because of a sprained injured finger.

These Warriors are not your father’s Warriors. Or even those of your brother, who would boast of those five straight finals appearances. These Warriors are a lot of guys who won’t get much attention from ESPN but are figuring out what the pro game is all about.

And keeping coach Steve Kerr as satisfied as anyone could be with a 2-5 overall record. He’s looking for hustle, for improvement, for basketball smarts. And slowly, progressively, he’s getting it.

And so are the suddenly alert sellout crowds, the fans Monday night responding vocally when, glorioski, they realized they were about to witness a small slice of history, the first Warriors victory at Chase.

Also a large slice of Paschall, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound forward who started his undergraduate career at Fordham, sat out a year and then transferred to Villanova, where he helped win the 2018 NCAA Championship.

“We really liked Eric because of his strength and his power,” said Kerr. “He was undersized, but these days, at that four position (strong forward), as long as you are really strong with that wingspan — well, we’ve seen it the last few years with Draymond.

“We felt Eric had a chance to have a similar impact, somebody you plug in and play particularly because he played four years (actually three) in a great college program. He didn’t look like a rookie at all from the first day of practice.”

He looked like a star Monday night on his 23rd birthday, scoring 17 points in the first quarter.

Apropos of nothing but pertinent to everything is the observation-joke about Michael Jordan’s career at North Carolina where he was restricted by the system, that the only person who could hold Jordan under 30 points a game was Dean Smith, his coach.

So Monday night Kerr alluded to that, substituting Villanova coach Jay Wright for Smith. Asked if he thought Paschall could hit the 30-point mark, Kerr answered, “Yes. I told Eric the only guy who could hold him under 30 points was Jay Wright. Jay’s my guy. I just wanted to say that.”

What Paschall, a humble sort, said was that confidence is behind his success. He believes in himself. And Kerr and Paschall’s teammates seem very much to share that belief.

“My teammates just find me and allow me to make plays,” said Paschall. “We have a great young group that just wants to play together, and we play hard. I felt like tonight we had fun.”

If getting that first win at home isn’t fun, they’re in the wrong business.

Bosa’s big day makes it a huge day for the Niners

SANTA CLARA, Calif.---He can hit you with a quick tackle or a long explanation. If Richard Sherman didn’t create the phrase “Legion of Boom,” to describe the defensive backfield, including himself, of the Seattle Seahawks championship teams he certainly made good use of it.

    Yes. Sherman has his opinions. Why not?  He’s been there, done that. And now, in his second year with the 49ers, he’s doing it again, on the field in the interview room.

  The Niners won again Sunday, crushed the Carolina Panthers, 51-13, at Levi’s Stadium, kept the sometimes apathetic fans cheering and chanting—like the good, old days you might say. Of course, these very likely are the good, new days. As acknowledged by that sort-of-old guy, 31-year-old Richard Sherman.

  The Niners have a defense. Defense wins. The rookie defensive end, Nick Bosa, the No. 2 overall selection in this year’s draft, had three sacks and an interception.

  The Niners have an offense. Offense excites. Tevin Coleman scored four touchdowns, the most since a guy named Jerry Rice—talk about the good, old days—did it twice in the 1990s. Sharing that record is Bill Kilmer, from the 1960’s.

  And the 49ers are 7-0, which keeps them, along with the Patriots, one of the two unbeaten teams as the NFL is about to reach November.

  This Bosa kid (he’s only 22) has Sherman and the other teammates enthralled.

   “He deserves player of the week,” Sherman said of Bosa, “defensive player of the year. From the first day in camp he’s showed his pedigree. He never stops working.”

  The Niners, working beautifully, stopped a competent Panthers team (now 4-3) quite decisively, only 230 yards total offense and sacking quarterback Kyle Allen seven times.

  “That was a goal of ours,” said Niners defensive lineman Arik Armstead, “first to shut down the run, always, and then put some pressure on him and try to rattle him.”
   Whether or not Allen was rattled, he certainly was pummeled. “Their defensive line did a really good job of rushing,” was Allen’s accurate summation.

   A passer under duress is a passer who prefers not to scan the post-game statistics. Allen, again replacing the injured Cam Newton, was under such duress that Bosa, a lineman, picked off one of his passes and then like a running back sped through and around would-be tacklers for awhile.

  “They had been cutting us a little bit on the pass,” Bosa said of the Panthers’ blocking style. “He got me on a play before. Really cut me good. So I just played the cut that time and saw the quarterback’s eyes and just jumped.  And it went right into my hands.”

  The way this delightful season seems to be falling into the 49ers hands. They’ll probably lose one here or there along the way—only the 1972 Miami Dolphins finished unbeaten in the Super Bowl era, and that was a 14-game regular season.  And Thursday night the Niners have to play at Phoenix.

  Still, this isn’t golf. You don’t lose what you’ve gained. There are no bogies in football. Just mistakes, although to this point the Niners haven’t made too many.

“In the NFL you never expect to blow someone out like that,” Kyle Shanahan, the Niners third-year coach said of the big win. “Especially as good a team as that.”

  But he did expect Bosa to be the player he is.

  Asked his impression of Bosa’s day, Shanahan said, “Probably the same as you guys. It was pretty damn impressive. I’m sure when I watch the tape  it will be even better The play that he made the interception on was one of the more impressive plays I’ve seen from a defensive lineman.

  “He’s just very confident. The more he plays, the better he’ll get as long as he can stay healthy. He’s a special player.”

  As is Richard Sherman.

Bosa’s big day makes it huge day for the Niners

SANTA CLARA, Calif.---He can hit you with a quick tackle or a long explanation. If Richard Sherman didn’t create the phrase “Legion of Boom,” to describe the defensive backfield, including himself, of the Seattle Seahawks championship teams he certainly made good use of it.

    Yes. Sherman has his opinions. Why not?  He’s been there, done that. And now, in his second year with the 49ers, he’s doing it again, on the field in the interview room.

  The Niners won again Sunday, crushed the Carolina Panthers, 51-13, at Levi’s Stadium, kept the sometimes apathetic fans cheering and chanting—like the good, old days you might say. Of course, these very likely are the good, new days. As acknowledged by that sort-of-old guy, 31-year-old Richard Sherman.

  The Niners have a defense. Defense wins. The rookie defensive end, Nick Bosa, the No. 2 overall selection in this year’s draft, had three sacks and an interception.

  The Niners have an offense. Offense excites. Tevin Coleman scored four touchdowns, the most since a guy named Jerry Rice—talk about the good, old days—did it twice in the 1990s. Sharing that record is Bill Kilmer, from the 1960’s.

  And the 49ers are 7-0, which keeps them, along with the Patriots, one of the two unbeaten teams as the NFL is about to reach November.

  This Bosa kid (he’s only 22) has Sherman and the other teammates enthralled.

   “He deserves player of the week,” Sherman said of Bosa, “defensive player of the year. From the first day in camp he’s showed his pedigree. He never stops working.”

  The Niners, working beautifully, stopped a competent Panthers team (now 4-3) quite decisively, only 230 yards total offense and sacking quarterback Kyle Allen seven times.

  “That was a goal of ours,” said Niners defensive lineman Arik Armstead, “first to shut down the run, always, and then put some pressure on him and try to rattle him.”
   Whether or not Allen was rattled, he certainly was pummeled. “Their defensive line did a really good job of rushing,” was Allen’s accurate summation.

   A passer under duress is a passer who prefers not to scan the post-game statistics. Allen, again replacing the injured Cam Newton, was under such duress that Bosa, a lineman, picked off one of his passes and then like a running back sped through and around would-be tacklers for awhile.

  “They had been cutting us a little bit on the pass,” Bosa said of the Panthers’ blocking style. “He got me on a play before. Really cut me good. So I just played the cut that time and saw the quarterback’s eyes and just jumped.  And it went right into my hands.”

  The way this delightful season seems to be falling into the 49ers hands. They’ll probably lose one here or there along the way—only the 1972 Miami Dolphins finished unbeaten in the Super Bowl era, and that was a 14-game regular season.  And Thursday night the Niners have to play at Phoenix.

  Still, this isn’t golf. You don’t lose what you’ve gained. There are no bogies in football. Just mistakes, although to this point the Niners haven’t made too many.

“In the NFL you never expect to blow someone out like that,” Kyle Shanahan, the Niners third-year coach said of the big win. “Especially as good a team as that.”

  But he did expect Bosa to be the player he is.

  Asked his impression of Bosa’s day, Shanahan said, “Probably the same as you guys. It was pretty damn impressive. I’m sure when I watch the tape  it will be even better The play that he made the interception on was one of the more impressive plays I’ve seen from a defensive lineman.

  “He’s just very confident. The more he plays, the better he’ll get as long as he can stay healthy. He’s a special player.”

  As is Richard Sherman.

Clips, Lakers, take the stage that belonged to the Warriors

It’s all about LeBron and Kawai now, about the Lakers and Clippers. The new reality set in Tuesday. Another NBA season started, and the Warriors are no longer on center stage as was made all too clear on prime time.

  Lakers vs. Clippers; that’s what the country wants to see, and what it did see on opening night, the Clips, with Kawai Leonard scoring 30, defeating the Lakers, 112-102. That used to be the Warriors, getting the attention, but no longer.

  The change was so rapid. One day the Warriors were playing the Raptors in Game 6 of the finals. Virtually the next day their dynasty was coming apart.  Andre Iguodala was being traded, Shaun Livingston was retiring, Kevin Durant was joining the Brooklyn Nets and Klay Thompson was injured.

 Nothing is forever, but who thought the end would be so quick?  It was almost impossible to read a preseason forecast in which Warriors weren’t the favorites. Now it’s impossible to read one in which they’re anything but also-rans.

   It’s a new world, one where the dynasty, five consecutive finals and three championships is barely a memory; a world where the player some consider the greatest ever felt compelled to get in a zinger.

   That Michael Jordan took a shot, albeit a figurative one—those old guys will do almost anything for attention—was meaningless. That Klay Thompson will be unable to take any shots for a long while is serious.

    It’s funny with great athletes when they retire. Some tell us the new generation is fantastic. Others, like Jordan, act as if nobody will match their accomplishments, and in Jordan’s case, that might be true.

  In an interview with Craigh Melvin on “Today,” Jordan was asked to update a list made six years ago of players he thought would be unbeatable in a pickup game.

A loaded question. The older an athlete gets, the more distant he is from the competition, the better he gets. Right?  Not that Jordan had much room for improvement, as opposed to room for understanding the feelings of his peers. 

  Jordan declined to update which was allowable, continuing the 2013 group of Hakeem Olajuwon, Magic Johnson, James Worthy and his former Chicago Bulls teammate, Scotty Pippin.

 “So Steph Curry shouldn’t be offended when he watches this?” Melvin asked Jordan.

  “I hope note,” said Jordan. “He’s still a great player. Not a Hall of Famer, yet, though.”

  Technically, Jordan, now an executive with the Charlotte Hornets, is correct. You don’t get voted into the Hall until your career is done. Jordan could have given a more positive answer, but he knows Curry is from Charlotte and obviously wanted to give him a bit of a jab.

  Jordan knows, as we all do, Curry, a two time MVP, a member of three Warriors title teams, is a lock for the Hall.

  He also knows he’s a hell of a golfer, as is Jordan.

 Klay Thompson is another Hall of Fame probability. At times he’s unstoppable. Three years ago he scored 60 points in three quarters against Indiana before being taken out by head coach Steve Kerr.

  Now Kerr would love to have Thompson for just one quarter. But the coach said Thompson’s rehabilitation from the torn ACL which occurred in Game 6 of the finals, June 13

 “It’s unlikely he’s going to play this year,” Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area. “So we have to understand that.”

Thompson had surgery July 2. Warrior’s general manager Bob Myers, speaking Sept. 30 at the start of training camp, said the team would re-evaluate Thompson around the All-Star break in mid-February.

“You have to look at it realistically,” Kerr said. “I had an ACL (tear) in college, and I missed a whole season. Generally, an ACL for a basketball player is a full-year recovery, and if it’s a full year for Klay, that puts them out for the season.”

  A season that for the Warriors is here all too soon.

Gruden well aware of the issues that keep him from smiling

ALAMEDA, Calif.—He still wears the visor. He rarely wears a smile. When Jon Gruden was asking the questions in his role as an ESPN football commentator he was described in one story as “jolly.”

  Which he had a reason to be, as the network’s highest paid employee, earning a reported $6.5 million for analyzing the game he loves and knows so well, becoming a celebrity.

  But now, back coaching, back with the Raiders, he’s compelled to provide answers that are difficult in certain situations. Such as when two days ago, during his weekly media session, he was queried about the domestic abuse allegations against tackle Trent Brown. Answers are painful.

    “We’re aware of it,” was Gruden’s response to a question about the lawsuit suit filed against Brown, “and we’re looking into it. I’m not going to say anything else other than we’re aware of it.”

   The rest of us are aware Jon Gruden willingly accepted this job, if coaching of any sport at any level can be called a job. An occupation, maybe, a way of life, but not exactly an “is it time to go home yet?”  sort of job.

    People who coach surely want to be paid well—Gruden’s getting $10 million a year from the Raiders—but something other than money drives them

   They want to succeed. They want to help others succeed.  They are supremely confident, believing they have the skill and will power to facilitate change, for those they coach.

  Chris Washburn was a problem as a basketball player at North Carolina State, but he was 6-foot-10, a dream within a nightmare. Washburn was taken No. 3 overall in the 1986 NBA draft by the Warriors, and lived down to expectations, so angering George Karl, the coach who selected Washburn despite the player’s reputation, Karl tore doors off Washburn’s security cabinet in the locker room.

  Asked why, despite all the advice, he drafted Washburn, Karl said, “He has such ability. I thought I could make him better, get him to reach his potential. Thought I could coach him.” 

   There’s always a challenge, always something to prove perhaps as much to oneself as to others.

 Gruden was in his 30s, ebullient, wise-cracking, when in 1998 he was hired by the Raiders to become an NFL head coach for the first time. His football smarts were apparent. His father was a coach. So was Jon’s puckish sense of humor. Asked by a writer for an interview he wondered—probably chuckling silently—“Why would anyone care what I say?”

What Raiders owner Al Davis cared was Gruden not only didn’t get any championships, he was glib, photogenic, becoming the face of the franchise, an unpardonable—albeit unintentional--sin.

 Al was known for firing employees. Gruden however, wasn’t dismissed, he was traded, to Tampa Bay in February 2002 after going 10-6 with the Raiders and losing the infamous “Tuck Rule” playoff game the end of the 2001 season.

  The following year Gruden coached the Bucs to a Super Bowl win (over the Raiders) and in time at ESPN, with Monday Night Football and the Gruden quarterback camp, became a media hero.

  Enough?  Not really. He heard the echoes, saw the visions. “I never wanted to leave the Raiders,” Gruden told us when after an absence of some 16 years he reappeared.

  Then he said, “I haven’t changed much at all since 1998.”  On the contrary. He has changed, maybe because the people in the game have changed. Gruden began with the Khalil Mack holdout a season past. This season it was Antonio Brown, fortunately released in time, and now Trent Brown and Richie Incognito.

  It’s always someone in pro football and always something. But the Raiders keep going and their head coach implied at least this was what he wanted the chance to complete what he started way back when the world was young and there was a time to smile.

Nats don’t need the devil to get their title this time

Surely Mr. Applegate is ecstatic. You know Mr. Applegate, the mystical guy who had a hand in helping Washington get to the World Series. Some people thought he was the devil, but hey who cares, especially the way things are going back there.

   It was Applegate who popped up strategically in the 1950s musical “Damn Yankees,” when in the plot the aging, frustrated insurance man, Joe Boyd, said he’d do anything if Washington at last could beat the Yanks. Which was all Applegate needed to hear.

 Yes, it was the Washington Senators, who became the Texas Rangers, not the Nationals, who used to be the Montreal Expos. Still, it’s the location that’s pertinent, rather than the nickname on the jerseys.

  The Senators were awful. Referring both to the nation’s first president, and the team, people used to say, “Washington: First in war, first in peace and last in the American League.” 

  The Nats, nee Expos, are in the National League, but impermanence is the way of all sports. See Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders for verification.

  Joe Boyd, the fictional Senators fan, grumbles out loud if Washington only had a power hitter it could beat “those damn Yankees.”  Mr. Applegate gleefully arrives and in a literal puff of smoke (stage trick) Joe Boyd is transformed into young Joe Hardy, who slugs home runs and makes the Senators a winner. 

  For the Nats the role of Joe Hardy as been capably filled by Howie Kendrick, who was the MVP as the Nats swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, winning the final game, 7-4, Tuesday night.

   Joe Hardy didn’t have to endure various levels of post-season play to get to the World Series, but you won’t hear anyone on the Nats complaining. Wild card, divisional, league, they’ been unstoppable, for the most part because their pitchers have been unhittable.

  The devil, Mr. Applegate, doesn’t have a thing to do with these Nats, although you contend the way team was created by general manager Mike Rizzo, the devil was in details. Who needs Mr. Applegate when you have a general manager like Mike Rizzo?

   These have been an interesting few years in the Major leagues, a time for the halting of curses and life-long disappointment. The Red Sox started it in a sense by ending their so-called “Curse of the Bambino.”  Then the Giants, without a championship in half a century, gained three in five years. Next it was the Cubs for the first time in more than 100 years.

  Now a team from Washington for the first time since 1933.  It would just be perfect , wouldn’t it if they faced those damn Yankees in the Series, but after three games of the ALCS, New York trails the Astros, two games to one and against Cole and Scherzer even the devil seems overmatched. 

  So right now it looks like Washington against Houston, but who knows? The Nats weren’t going to get past the Dodgers. The TV people were talking LA-New York, an historic rivalry and the country’s two largest markets.

  The Nats stunned the Dodgers, indeed all baseball, wining the deciding division series championship on a grand slam in the 10th by that man, Kendrick.  And they haven’t lost a game since.

  Washington had a record of 19-31 in May. The Nats manager, Dave Martinez, had to undergo a heart procedure in September.  Through it all they triumphed.

   ““Often, bumpy roads lead to beautiful places,” said Martinez, “and this is a beautiful place.”

   That sounds like a line from a Broadway musical.

Niners could be turning the page--back to 1981

 They keep winning. The excitement keeps growing. Isn’t that the way it should be?

   Isn’t that the way it was the magical year of 1981 when the 49ers turned the corner, went from the team that never could to the team that that always did, the team of the decade.

  Now it may be time to turn the page, back not forward, back to the days of Super Joe and Dwight Hicks and the Hot Licks, back to memories which make one think of possibilities.

   So the Niners are 5-0. No one expects them to get to the Super Bowl, much less win it. The same way in ’81 no one expected this franchise which in the 35 years since its founding hadn’t won a championship of any sort.

  Those’81 Niners had a third-year coach who was an offensive—well, the word “genius” was used quite a bit, over time, at least. Those ’81 Niners had a defense which, thanks to Dan Bunz and Hacksaw Reynolds, made a couple of huge goal-line stands. Those ’81 Niners kept winning while the doubters kept waiting for them to lose.

  Shanahan isn’t Bill Walsh (either is anybody else) but that’s irrelevant.  He’s doing what Walsh did, taking a team that was a loser (well, since 2016) and making it a winner—with the assistance of that defense,  that young quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo, 24 of 33 for 243 yards) and a running back somewhat unrecognized ( Tevin Coleman, 18 carries, 45 yards and a touchdown).

  Yet, the way the Niners won this game against a good Rams team (It did get to the Super Bowl in February) is exactly the way the Niners won the game the week before against a bad Browns team. By stopping the other guys.

   The observation has been made here and everywhere: You win on defense. As the late John McKay, who went from Rose Bowls with USC to virtual self-immolation with the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs, who lost their first 26 NFL games, correctly pointed out, “You win on defense. If the other team doesn’t score you’ll never get worse than a 0-0 tie.”

  The Rams scored Sunday on their opening drive to lead the 49ers, 7-0, with much of the first quarter unplayed. And then they never scored again. Even when they had the ball inside the Niners’ one.

  The Rams were 0-for-9 on third down. The Rams were 0-for-4 on fourth down. Jared Goff, the Rams quarterback, the kid from Cal and Marin Catholic High, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft, didn’t even throw for 80 yards.

  Yes, the Rams were without their top running back, Todd Gurley and a few other injured players. But good teams overcome the problems, which is why they are good teams. Maybe the Rams don’t belong in that ranking. Without question, the 49ers do.

  The season has weeks to go. There are two games against Seattle, and those could be ones that derail the Niners. However, that shouldn’t derail the fans.

   “Faithful then, faithful now,” is the phrase painted on Levi’s Stadium, words meant to link past, the glorious ‘80s and 1995 (Steve Young’s Super Bowl season) with the present.  Kind of humorous. A few years ago, maybe around 2010, the Harbaugh years, those in charge tried to dissuade the media from using that slogan.

  But it’s back. So are the Niners. Those who stayed faithful or have become faithful should find that faith and dedication rewarded. The Coliseum Sunday was full of red-shirted Niners fans, as was Anaheim Stadium in the 1980s when it was home to the Rams, and the Niners were the best in pro football.

  They haven’t reached that level at the moment—the Patriots keep rolling—but the Niners are heading in the right direction.

Niners at 4-0 is surprising. Or is it?

SANTA CLARA,  Calif.—The number is down to two now. Five weeks into the 2019 NFL season and of the 32 teams only two are unbeaten. One of those is the New England Patriots, which isn’t surprising.

  The other is the San Francisco 49ers?  Which is surprising. Or is it?

  The Niners were supposed to be improved. but who knew? Who knew they could be 4-0, which is their record after dominating the Cleveland Browns, 31-3, Monday night at Levi’s.

   Yes, undefeated in four games, which has not been accomplished by any Niners team since1990, since the days of Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Roger Craig. And Steve Young, because he along with Joe and Steve  became an unfortunate part of what until the last couple quarters of play could have been an historic season.

That 1990 team was going to be the first in league history to win three straight Super Bowls, but in that championship game at Candlestick Park, Montana got hurt and Young came from the bench and Craig missed a handoff and the New York Giants recovered.

   Kicking five field goals the Giants would stun the Niners, 15-13.

    Twenty-nine years ago, the glory days, and perhaps after a seemingly endless wait, after a change of stadiums, of course, the Niners may have returned to the game’s upper echelons. Not to where the Patriots reside, but to a place of respectability.

  The Niners will know more, much more, after  playing the Rams on Sunday in Los Angeles. It they beat the Rams, who were and possibly still are the NFC favorites—after all they did reach the Super Bowl last February—then, well, OK, don’t even offer the suggestion to Niners coach Mike Shanahan, but anything’s possible.

  “I mean it’s still early,” said Shanahan when asked about the record. “It means we played four games, one less than most people. It you tell me that at the end of the year when the season is over you’ll see me celebrating pretty hard. We’ve got to get to work on the Rams. It’s going to be a short week,”

Kyle is in the third season as Niners head coach, and it was Bill Walsh’s third season, 1981, when San Francisco not only became a winner but also became the NFL’s best for a long while, the team of the ‘80s.

Sure that thinking is premature, but the way the Niners battered what was supposed to be a contending Browns team, (it’s now 2-3), outgaining them, 446 yards to 180, intecepting two passes, recovering two Cleveland fumbles, was very impressive. Even exhilarating.

  The 49ers were coming off their bye week. Sometimes teams after the inactivity are sluggish.

   “It was a long two weeks,” said Shanahan. “We felt like we had some good momentum (before the bye). Spending two Sundays watching other teams play. That was the first time I’ve had to do that.. Two weeks in a row without playing.”

The Niners started fast—their first play from scrimmage, Matt Breida, untouched—excellent blocking as well as excellent running—sped 83 yards for a touchdown.

  ‘A big hole,” said Breida. “I saw a big hole. The play worked the way it was supposed to work.”

  As almost everything worked, offensively and defensively. As almost everything has worked this season.

  “It gives you a big boost,” said Breida of the quick score. “The team feels that, and everyone feels the energy, When we did that, and the defense then comes out and (Cleveland) goes three and out, it’s just an amazing feeling.”

  The feeling for Baker Mayfield, the Browns quarterback picked first in the 2018 draft, was the opposite.

  “You make mistakes,” said Mayfield, “a team like that is going to capitalize on them”

  And going to troll the imperfections. When he was at Oklahoma, Mayfield, in a game at Ohio State grabbed a Buckeyes flag and faked planting it into the turf. Monday night after a sack of Mayfield, Niners rookie, Nick Bosa, a Buckeye, the Niners No.1 pick in the 2019 draft, mocked Mayfield.

   “Hopefully,” said Shanahan, “it was a Niners flag and he didn’t offend anyone.”

   Other than Mayfield that is,