At the AT&T, Mother Nature laughs away

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — That howling down by the ninth hole? You think it was the wind? Nah, it was that feisty lady, Mother Nature, cackling away.

“Think you’re going to hold a golf tournament here in February? Won’t you ever learn?”

It’s dog-bites-man stuff. Ancient history. Yes, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am went, shall we say, head to head against the best (or worst) of climatological conditions

And as so often happens, the tournament was the loser on Saturday. So, in a way, was CBS, which in this dead-of-winter situation, a week before the Super Bowl, gets a ratings boost from celebrities such as Bill Murray and other amateurs who remind us the game still is fun, even if not played well.

It was difficult. That was the Goodyear blimp up there, however, not the Chinese weather satellite. Play was suspended around midday until finally, after a three-hour plus delay, it was stopped.

Peter Malnati, at 12 under par, was two shots ahead of Joseph Bramlett and Keith Mitchell, with Kurt Kitiyama, the one-time basketball star from Chico, both at 9 under.

There’s nothing certain about what should have been the 54-hole mark except the AT&T will not finish until Monday, something that has taken place many times when storms and darkness combine to take a toll.

The amateurs who choose will be allowed Sunday to finish their completed rounds, so whether they make the cut or not they’ll be done. That may not be fair, but who said golf is fair?

What Bramlett said was, “It was just one of those days. You take it as it comes. We got to play Pebble Beach, so it was a blessing in that regard. But the weather was wild. It was fairly calm for maybe our first seven, eight holes. Then when we got to 9 it started blowing and then it's survival mode.”

You have to like a golfer with a movie director’s perspective.
“It's just trying to predict what the ball's going to do. I had 136 yards to the pin on No. 9 and I hit a full 8-iron short of the green. I had 210 yards up the hill on 14 and I airmailed the green with an 8-iron. So it's a guessing game. We're just doing our best.”

Mitchell likes challenges, and he and the others here definitely have one.

“Definitely pleased with how I played,” he said. “We definitely — first couple holes were very benign. Then right when we got on the 6th green is when the wind started picking up. Playing 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, pretty much straight into the wind, 8 was a little off the right, but everything else was straight into the wind.

“We knew going into (Saturday) that those were going to be the tough holes. That was going to be the hardest stretch potentially all week. If I could make it through that stretch in a relatively good score, I would be set up for the weekend.”

And he was. Take that, Mother Nature.

A windy reminder it’s Pebble Beach, not Palm Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — So the wind was up and the temperature down, but that was just a friendly reminder it’s February and we’re in Pebble Beach, not Palm Beach.

Yes, there are golf courses and mansions at both locations, but for this week at least, this is the only one that matters on the PGA Tour.

Where else would you be getting the speed of the wind as well as the speed of the greens, which as tales of poa annua grass remind us are both bumpy and quick? Just joking; the beach out here along Carmel Bay is famed for little rocks. What the golf property is famed for is being a place that produces champions.

Maybe one of those will emerge from a field filled with people other than major winners. Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose and Danny Willett still are trying to break through. The day’s low Monterey’s round was by Seamus Power, a 64. Naturally it was at MPCC, where par is 71, a stroke lower than the other two courses. 

“I grew up in Northern California,” said Kurt Kitiyama, “so I got to play Spyglass quite a bit. Not so much here and Monterey. But I’ve seen it before and definitely feeling a lot more comfortable this time around.´

“It's always nice playing here. It's nice being here. The plan is take what the course and conditions allow.

“I know it's playing a lot tougher there than the other two courses. So I think just kind of staying patient all around and get what is possible.”

The third round, the Saturday round, often is the biggest for TV, and for the fans in attendance when most of celebrities get their chance before missing the cut. They come up with songs and acts and stunts for the non-golfing public, the last remnants of the old Bing Crosby event.

Sport is supposed to be enjoyable, and the Saturday round at the AT&T inevitably is, no matter what the weather is. One year Bill Murray, who’s become the main non-pro attraction, reached into an ice cream cooler near the 18th tee and pulled out a frozen fish.

Maybe the pros attempting to get a victory won’t appreciate something like that, but most everyone else certainly will.

So who's really leading the Pebble Beach AT&T?

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The game is the same, hitting a little white ball as few times as possible, but the courses are different. Which makes the first round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am perhaps as much mystery as history.

Day one of this event — where thanks to Bill Murray there may be as many laughs as putts — gave us a leaderboard with a man named Hank Lebioda ahead of everybody else.

As they say, we will find out in a matter of days, or at least by Sunday evening when every one of the 156, or at least those who have made the cut after three rounds, finish their cycles.

So you are not familiar with any of the names. Well, be patient and persistent. Somewhere a few clicks down are a U.S. Open winner (Justin Rose, 69 at Pebble Beach), a Masters winner (Danny Willett, 71 at Spyglass Hill) and a winner of the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open (Jordan Spieth, 71 at Spyglass Hill).

The weather, often the deciding factor in wintertime on the Monterey Peninsula, wasn’t bad most of Thursday. Then it got semi-brutal, the wind so strong you’re surprised they didn’t post small golfer warnings.

Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course is mostly tucked in among the pine trees until it swings out toward Monterey Bay.

Coming down the last two hole, said Harry Hall, another of the newer names who shot 64 at MPCC (par is 71), “It started to blow 45 miles an hour. It was crazy. Happy to get in a 7-under.”

Spieth has won this tournament, and last year he missed by a shot. He knows the courses and the conditions, which doesn’t necessarily mean he loves them. Golf is a test of making the best of the worst,

“Spyglass is hard,” said Spieth. “It’s a tough test. Would have liked to have done better on my front nine. That was really forgettable.

“Then I thought I played the back nine really well. It was really bizarre the last four holes or so with the wind. It went from nothing to flipping and then blowing about 25 out of nowhere the other direction than the forecast. That throws us through a big loop when you're prepping for something and you got to make the adjustment.

“But I had a good last three holes and that always kind of puts a smile on your face. I wish I would have shot a few under today. Just a couple early iron shots I hung right.”

Bill Murray has been hanging in at the AT&T seemingly forever. Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the movie “Groundhog Day,” which helped make him the tournament’s primary attraction. Others may come and go, but almost always he’s in the field.

We know his name and his game.

AT&T golf fights for attention

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The sports headlines dealt with Tom Brady. Of course. And LeBron James, naturally. Virtually nothing about the golf tournament at Pebble Beach.

Although, as a matter of interest, both Brady and his father, Tom Sr., have been entrants as well as longtime fans.

The Super Bowl is only a week and a half away, and isn’t that the biggest event in America? So how does any golf tournament, even one as historic as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, escape the shadows?

And since we’re in a question mode, if you were starting a golf tournament and needed someone famous to get the attention, who might you choose?

You know this, but the world, including the world of sports, isn’t what it used to be and, glancing around, you suspect isn’t going to be again. All this was brought into focus of late.

It’s not an issue of quality or skill. Every one of those guys or ladies on the tours, golf or tennis, is so excessively talented it’s almost frightening. Even the people who can’t make it are brilliant.

It’s an issue of getting the rest of us to watch them. And ask for autographs. And purchase the products they endorse.

Do you remember when Donald Trump — yes, that Donald Trump — played in the AT&T in 1993, and even made a hole-in-one? Never mind what you think of his politics. He would have people lining the ropes.

Jordan Spieth is in the AT&T, having won it once and also having associated with the sponsor. He’s a great guy as well as a great golfer. He understands the difficulties inherent in building a tournament.

Asked if the tournament would lose too much if the amateurs were dropped (Spieth plays with singer Jake Owen), he answered in the affirmative. “I think it would — I think the ‘Am’ portion of this tournament is obvious. How old is this tournament? 75 years old or something. Back to the Bing Crosby. I mean, that’s what this tournament is.”

Elevated to attract the big boys, the AT&T requires golfers who make the tournament required viewing, on the course or on the tube.

This is not unique. Back in the time where the top players were Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, or Arnie and Jack, the papers frequently reminded us who wasn’t there.

Tournament sponsors would scream, but hey, news is news, negative or positive. Reputations are not invented, they develop. Nothing is promised, but plenty is available.

You have to believe there will be more winners and more celebs, enough to make the Pebble Beach Pro-Am what it used to be. Even without Donald Trump.

Lonely golf at the AT&T

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — There wasn’t a rain cloud in sight. Or any spectators either. Nature is responsible for the first. The people who run the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am get credit or blame — you decide — for the other. 

Yes, time once more for Northern California’s favorite golfing event — maybe America’s, if you go by the TV ratings — when show business and big business hook up with players who really mean business.

It was created in the 1930s by Bing Crosby (go ahead, Google his name or his game), and as much because of the format and the spectacular landfall on which it long has been held — not to mention the conditions — it has persisted for eight decades.

Not that everyone who plays the PGA tour is enthralled. They don’t like rotating among three courses, Pebble Beach, Monterey Peninsula and Spyglass Hill. They don’t like being slowed by amateurs, rounds usually lasting six hours. They don’t like the climate, although everything was gorgeous on Tuesday.

The AT&T — for nostalgia’s sake, we’ll call it the Crosby — is remembered and heralded for storms and cold. The bad weather might not have produced wonderful golf, but it has given us at least one memorable comment.

“I can’t wait,” said the singer Phil Harris, “to get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.”

I can’t wait to see fans swarming over the courses. For no good reason, tickets are no longer sold for practice rounds on Tuesday. It was lonely out there, other than a few locals.

It’s a different world. We understand that. But when you can walk six blocks from Flaherty’s restaurant in Carmel, only a few yards from Pebble Beach, and not encounter another human soul, it’s a strange world.

That doesn’t particularly bother or affect Viktor Hovland, who seems content any place on any course. He grew up in Norway — no sardine jokes, please — went to Oklahoma State and won the 2018 U.S. Amateur at Pebble.

Those amateurs are not to be confused with the ones in the AT&T, who are more recognized — Bills quarterback Josh Allen, retired Giants catcher Buster Posey, 49ers Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young, soccer star Gareth Bale and as always Bill Murray — but don’t carry handicaps.

That doesn’t mean they might not carry their pro.

“Obviously you want to have fun and play well,” said Hovland about teaming up. “I like to play fast. But I do enjoy the format. It’s very unique to be able to play a PGA Tour event with an amateur, and I don't mind it. But I'd prefer to play fast, and I'm here to obviously try to win the golf tournament, so it depends on the partner, as well. I think you get to kind of have a little bit of a different feel to it. It feels more relaxed.”

The lack of fans? AT&T officials decided after shifting the celebrity shoot-out from Tuesday to Wednesday that marshals and security types appreciate time off before tournament play begins Thursday.

What? Didn’t we have too much lonely golf when Covid closed things down three years ago?

“That is a different dynamic,” said Hovland. “It felt lonely.”

As it did Tuesday.

Niners' magical season ends in hopelessness

What happens when there isn’t any more? When the season that was so magical becomes so prosaic and sad? When the dream so unexpectedly becomes, if not a nightmare, than a feeling of hopelessness?

What happens when everything that was going so right goes so very wrong? When you lose your quarterback, your cool and most significantly the game that was going to put you into the Super Bowl?

Everybody knew the Philadelphia Eagles were a great team. Didn’t they have the best record in the NFC? Weren’t they playing at home Sunday? Maybe if the 49ers aren’t forced to use a quarterback who in effect was fourth string, Philly still dominates as it did, crushing the 49ers, 31-7.

Or maybe not.

You’ve heard the phrase — part reality, part agony — that one plays the cards he or she is dealt. Your starting quarterback gets pummeled minutes into the game? Your usually disciplined defense starts making one penalty after another? The officials seem biased? (Which they are not).

Kismet, baby. Fate. You do the best you can.

Unfortunately for the Niners, down to a quarterback who virtually had been found in the wilderness, 36-year-old Josh Johnson, getting called for penalties after what might have been a game-deciding sequence, the best wasn’t good enough.

And so it is done, this 2022 season, when a kid who was known as Mr. Irrelevant, quarterback Brock Purdy, had helped win a dozen games in succession, and in the process won plaudits and fame.

It was being billed as a fairy tale, the guy taken at the bottom of the draft, along with a defense that was on top of the league stats, bringing a title to the City by the Bay. But as we learned as kids, not all fairy tales have a happy ending.

And yet, this topsy-turvy Niner season has just concluded — the 3-4 start, the injury to the QB who was the starter; the injury to the steadfast loyal kid who replaced him, Jimmy Garoppolo; then on Sunday the injury to the kid who replaced Jimmy G, the surprisingly skilled Purdy.

If you’re a Niners fan, even a fan of pro football, do you cling only to the results of the final game, the end, or are you able to find at least a small measure of satisfaction in that big picture, a long winning streak and, after yet another victory over the Dallas Cowboys, a place in the conference title game?

Donte Whitner, a onetime defensive back, said in so many words that the only way to judge success is whether a team wins the Super Bowl. Or doesn’t win the Super Bowl.

That’s a bit shortsighted. The Niners didn’t even advance to the Super Bowl, but look at what was accomplished. The man at the most important position, the quarterback, gets knocked out of the game so quickly. It is not Brock Purdy’s fault or coach Kyle Shanahan’s fault.

“I wish we had a little better opportunity,” said Shanahan, understandably emotional.

If wishes were horses … you know the saying. The only place this Niners team will be riding is off into the sunset.

Niners: After win over America’s Team comes Philly

You know the lyric, The road gets tougher, it’s lonelier and rougher. Not about the NFL playoffs, but it should have been.

Just about the time everything’s going splendidly, a divisional playoff win over the erstwhile America’s team, the Dallas Cowboys, the 49ers get the team currently acknowledged to be best in America.

Or least the best in the NFC, which may be one and the same, the Philadelphia Eagles.

They also get one game away from another Super Bowl.

But because that game is against the Eagles, Sunday in the chill at Philly, one mustn’t make future plans.

As Niners coach Kyle Shanahan stood on the field at Levi’s Stadium, where after the 19-12 victory over Dallas he agreed to appear for Bay Area television — people get magnanimous following big wins — the subject of the Eagles was brought up.

Philly may not quite have the magic and the history of Dallas, which always has had the attention of, and occasionally the edge over, the Niners.

They offer no Jerry Jones in egotistical splendor making promises, no memories of Montana to Clark — The Catch — fulfilling promises. They are just a franchise that started the schedule with a victory and a lead over everybody.

Also with a roster that so crushed the New York Giants Saturday night in the other divisional playoff, going in front 28-7 in the first half before winning 38-7, the New York writers were shocked — which seemingly is impossible.

“They’re very good,” or words to that effect, conceded Shanahan about the Eagles, whose quarterback, Jalen Hurts, missed a considerable part of the season with an injury, but were dominant because of, yes, defense.

The same thing that won for the 49ers and the Cowboys, teams that in the long-ago era were known for offense, Montana and Steve Young, Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. Now their reputation is constructed on defense, as a halftime score of 9-6 would verify.

The Niners scored the game’s only touchdown, a two-yard run by Christian McCaffrey, in the fourth quarter.

Defense and turnovers are the difference in the postseason. San Francisco limited the Cowboys to 282 net yards while gaining 312. Niner quarterback Brock Purdy didn’t throw an interception; Dallas’ revered and reviled Dak Prescott threw two.

Purdy is 7-0 since replacing Jimmy Garoppolo (who of course replaced Trey Lance, who was forced by injuries to sit out). The question is what San Francisco will do with all three quarterbacks next season.

First comes the question of whether this season, Purdy, famous as Mr. Irrelevant, last pick in the draft, can be the first rookie to be a Super Bowl quarterback.

He’s already the third rookie to win two playoff games.

Tight end George Kittle, whose catch of a slapped ball was worthy of the many replays it got on Fox, said of Purdy, “Brock is a good quarterback. He keeps his eyes up when the play is falling apart and gives us a shot at the ball.” 

He certainly has given them a shot at the championship.

A wild win for Niners in wild card

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Or then, perusing history, maybe it was. After all, the words “wild card” can be interpreted any way you decide.

And the prevailing wisdom about the 49ers was that their game against Seattle wouldn’t be as wild as it turned out to be.

The Niners had defeated the Seahawks in both regular-season games this fall and winter, but as has been pointed out quite accurately, it’s difficult to beat another team three in a row in the NFL.

Unless they are mismatched. Which, in a second half that began with the heavily favored Niners trailing by a point, ultimately turned out to be the situation.

San Francisco, with its top-ranked defense taking control as it has so often, scored 25 points before the Seahawks got a touchdown, with three minutes remaining, that didn’t matter.

So the 49ers won 41-23 on Saturday and are into the next round of the playoffs, for a game that will be played, as was this wildest of cards, at Levi’s Stadium against a yet undetermined opponent.

And most likely, not in the rain that has been punishing the Bay Area and returned in the third quarter, as seemingly did the Niners.

Yes, for those of a certain age, it brings back memories of 1981, when the weather was inclement and the results were inspiring, San Francisco beating the New York Giants on a Candlestick Park field barely playable — remember the sod squad? — and then on the Montana-to-Clark pass taking down the Cowboys and going to the Super Bowl.

Where this journey concludes is unpredictable, but at least the Niners are still a presence, and head coach Kyle Shanahan is still a happy individual — after being less happy at two quarters into the Seattle game.

The Niners were doing virtually everything they needed to do in the first half, other than getting people into the end zone, a rather significant problem.

“You’ve got to score points,” said Shanahan, and then someone reminded him the Niners gained more yards in this game, 505, than in any this season.

“We only had 13 points until late in the first half,” said the coach.

Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy threw four touchdown passes. Not quite a rookie after playing six games — and winning every one — he was under pressure early. Sure, he was unbeaten and had performed remarkably for a man taken last in the draft (actually for anyone taken anywhere in the draft). But this was his first postseason game. Ever.

Under pressure from a pass rush carefully crafted by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, Purdy, a righthander, kept running to his left before throwing an incompletion.

Asked if he thought Purdy was nervous, Shanahan said, “No, the deficit made me nervous. I appreciate what he’s doing. I was wishing he could have had a couple of touchdowns.”

They got one quickly after Niners defensive lineman Charles Omenihu knocked the football loose from Seattle QB Geno Smith. The 49ers recovered at their own 19 with some three minutes left in the third quarter. That did it for the Seahawks.

“The ball hit the ground,” said Shanahan. “I saw it bouncing and kept thinking, ‘Grab it.’ He scooped it up.”

And San Francisco was about to scoop up a win that shouldn’t have been as difficult as it became.

Will third time against Seattle be a problem for Niners?

The thinking in the NFL is that you don’t beat another team three times in a season. Which means the 49ers might have a problem. Or that whatever people say doesn’t mean as much as how people play.    

The first round of the playoffs, a wild card game on Saturday at Levi’s Stadium, will be the third between the Niners and Seahawks. San Francisco won the other two, one at home, one up north.

Sure, the Seahawks may have figured out by now what they must do to beat the Niners, but so what? The personnel hasn’t changed — although the Niners have used two different quarterbacks, so why should the results?

San Francisco has the longest current winning streak in the sport, 10 in a row, topped off Sunday by a 38-13 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

But a rather mortifying 3-4 start to a record that at 13-4 is their best in a long while, left the 49ers a game behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC standings.

Philly earned the bye, the week off, which can be a refresher for any athlete who’s been pounding and pounded on since training camp in July. But what matters is qualifying for the tournament, the postseason, and that’s what San Francisco has accomplished.

What any team needs is to be playing its best football in January. The current longest win streak in pro football is an indication that the Niners are doing just that.

Somehow, by planning or fate, the guys who run the league have the ability — or the fortune — to keep us fascinated until the final moments of the final regular season game. That happened Sunday night

Detroit at Green Bay, former Cal quarterback Jared Goff, a No. 1 overall pick, against former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who should have been a No. 1 overall pick. The game was in the chill at Lambeau Field. The Packers were ahead.

But Goff and the Lions won. The Packers, the probable Niners opponent in the wild card, were done. So perhaps is Rodgers, age 39.

The Niners are far from done. They’ve got the best defense in the NFL — as you’ve been instructed, defense wins. They’ve got a rookie quarterback, Brock Purdy, who barely was drafted and has never lost a game; they once again have their full roster, with Deebo Samuel and Elijah Mitchell back from injuries and running wild.

And they have old mo, momentum.

The knock on the Niners is they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs and beat a lot of lesser teams like the Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams. We’ll see if it matters.

“I don’t know if I’ve had this feeling that I have right now about our team and the opportunity we have to win this thing,” said Niners linebacker Fred Warner. “We have everything we need on this team to do what we need to do.”

He was on the 2019 team that was 13-3 (the sked has since been altered to 17 games) and lost to KC in Super Bowl LIV. Comparisons are difficult, especially after a gap of three years. 

Coaches believe in their system and their players but understand their plans can fail with a freak bounce or a bad throw. “It’s a relief,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said of getting to the postseason. “It was a stressful week knowing you needed a win, but you’re thinking about the (playoffs) also. So being able to pull off the win — and being able to rest some guys at the end — was great.”

Rose Bowl: Grandaddy has it tough

PASADENA—So the home of old grand daddy made it to the century mark on Monday. That’s the Rose Bowl, the stadium, which opened in 1923, 21 years after they played the first Rose Bowl game.

For me it was was the 69th in a row. No I didn’t go to Texas for the 2021 game, moved there because of Covid restrictions in California, but otherwise as program salesman (then in high school) or sports writer, all the others.

And of course I saw the Bowl played in a rainstorm, 1955, when people dumped tickets for $1.50 and the irascible Ohio State coach Woody Hayes complained because the USC band marched on a soggy field at halftime—as if the athletes hadn’t already torn it up. The Buckeyes still won.

It kept threatening to rain this Rose Bowl when Penn State, breaking a halftime tie by breaking loose on an 87 yard run, by Nicholas Singleton, beat Utah 35-21.

It finally did rain near the end of the game, but it was gloomy, cool (54 degrees) and generally as depressing as the Utes’ defense.

Not that the offense was much better until the very end, after in fact the game already was decided.

The sort of day that would have had Jim Murray, the late L.A Times sports columnist gleeful, if in private. When a Rose Bowl was played in sunshine, as usually was the situation, Murray, would give us one of the “and there goes the neighborhood” pieces.

Everyone residing in Ohio or Michigan, trapped indoors, would be coming out to Southern California, creating even more traffic.

What Penn State created in this Rose Bowl was really a re-creation.

The first a year ago to Ohio State was memorable. Not this one, however.

The Rose Bowl used to have a place of its own, a holiday tradition. Newspapers treated it reverently if perhaps for no other reason than the attention it brought to a region that had a lot of land and not a large population.

Alas everything changes, in sports, in society. There were so many football games on television, college and pro, the past few days, you sometimes didn’t know who was playing who. 

The Rose Bowl announced its usual sellout of more than 90,000, although there seemed to be numerous empty seats. Maybe we’ll get some idea when the television ratings are announced.

The Rose Bowl long has had its own time slot (2pm Pacific, 5pm Eastern). It no longer has exclusivity or maybe priority. Depending on your rooting interest or alma mater, will it be on your schedule?

Granddaddy--I only hope it is.

Giants decide to play (and pay) with the big boys

Here are two truisms. One: If you want to play with the big boys, you have to play like the big boys. Two: in wine, cars and baseball players, you get what you pay for — with exceptions.

Yes, the salaries of sport are growing more exorbitant by the hour, as are prices of virtually everything, including necessities, which may include baseball, depending on your viewpoint. No, it’s not to be equated with, say, gasoline, but those summer evenings would be empty without the game.

For the San Francisco Giants, the deal was awarded to the free agent shortstop Carlos Correa, a contract reportedly worth $350 million, which isn’t bad for not being Aaron Judge.

Who, with his Northern California background and Ruthian glamour, supposedly was the guy the Giants would have preferred but couldn’t pry away from the dreaded New York Yankees.

“Chicks dig the long ball” was the message in a commercial ages ago. As do most in baseball, a game in which everyone now swings for the fences and the hit-and-run is on the verge of extinction.

Correa is a home run hitter, and one of those in the middle of the infield as well as the middle of the lineup is a particular blessing.

Shortstops once were thought of as lean, lithe individuals who could start a rally or keep one going. The infield power came from the guys at the corners, first and third basemen. But as demonstrated by Brandon Crawford, both the image and responsibility have changed.

What happens now to Crawford, a longtime member of the Giants, who through his play — MVP votes attest to the fullness of his career — and engaging personality and intelligence have made him a fan favorite? He may go to third or the outfield. For sure, he won’t be at shortstop. The Giants aren’t giving Correa a king’s ransom to be a backup.

The Giants were overdue for a move after the slippage last season, when they fell to an even and (looking around at the always inescapable Dodgers and recently bombastic Padres) mediocre finish in 2022.

Perhaps they weren’t tumbling into irrelevancy (that word belongs to the draft placement of a surprising 49er rookie quarterback), but they had lost some of their appeal as well as far too many games.

Attendance at Oracle Park had declined, if not precipitously then at least notably. Empty seats were common if not prevalent. It’s embarrassing when there are more spectators in the right field stands wearing blue and cheering for that franchise from L.A.

Will Correa fix that problem? He’s a beginning, along with the acquisition of outfielder Mitch Haniger and pitcher Ross Stripling and maybe the former Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea.

The other day on the ESPN show “Pardon the Interruption,” co-host Tony Kornheiser suggested that signing Correa might end up better for the Giants than signing Judge.

Just talk, of course, but the kind of talk needed by a team desperate to get back into the limelight.

Niners: Wrong audible, right quarterback

One play into the game and Brock Purdy was down, sacked. Not quite the way saviors are supposed to begin.

“Wrong audible,” was the brief, unemotional explanation from 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.

But in time, the right quarterback.

No, Purdy, the acclaimed Mr. Irrelevant, did not by himself beat the Bucs and Tom Brady, called the GOAT or greatest of all time. Football is a team sport.

But on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, the rookie Purdy, utilizing his talents and a game plan brilliantly created by Shanahan and his staff, was better.

Because, as has been the situation since the loss to Kansas City, the 49ers’ defense is better.

Sure, much of the pre-game material was about the two QBs — the Niners’ rookie, who took over from the injured Jimmy Garoppolo, and the Bucs’ star, who grew up in San Mateo, some 25 miles from Levi’s.

Yet as we have been instructed over the years, it’s the other people, the linesmen, the defenders, who make the difference. Brady only had thrown two interceptions all season. He threw two alone against San Francisco. Two more than Purdy.

“I was really happy for him,” said Shanahan. “He’s tough. It looked like he would be our No. 2. Then Jimmy signed. He works hard.”

After the game, Purdy was as humble as a man taken last in the draft figured to be.

“He’s very poised, but he plays with energy at the same time,” running back Christian McCaffrey said. “And I think those are two great traits to have as a quarterback.”

If Purdy had game-opening, first-NFL-start jitters, they were probably knocked out of him by safety Keanu Neal on that first play — a sack that was negated by an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Said Purdy, “Honestly it just felt good to get hit and just feel like I was in the game.”

He knows the system and his teammates after weeks of practice. What he didn’t know was that the two men ahead of him would get hurt.

What we don’t know is how he’ll respond in a road game where the crowd is hooting and jeering, but we will learn quickly enough. The Niners play at Seattle on Thursday night.

“We got turnovers in this game,” said Shanahan, about the offense. They also had 404 yards rushing and passing, And the Niners, once 1-2, are 9-4 after a sixth straight win.

Deebo Samuel is injured, a high ankle sprain, which could be a big loss in this run-oriented system. Then again, that’s why the 49ers signed McCaffrey. He is not Deebo, but he is very close.

The theory in the NFL is “next man up.” If the next man is Brock Purdy, the idea would seem to have some merit.

As Niners learned, nobody’s irrelevant in the NFL

The definition of irrelevant is “not connected with or relevant to something.” Unless, of course, it involves the NFL, where everything and everyone is connected. As we learned once more on a Sunday in San Francisco, where a foot was broken but a team’s hopes were not.

We refer to Jimmy Garoppolo, Mr. Hard Luck, and to Brock Purdy, perhaps Mr. Good Luck. And to the screaming unpredictability of sports. Do not try to outguess fate. Or rewrite fables.

Nobody would have believed the Niners’ quarterback progression this season, or the accidents incurred.

But here they are, using a quarterback who in generic terms was little more than third string, but because he was in the right place — or wrong place — at the right time is forever to be labeled Mr. Irrelevant, famous for being infamous. 

Paul Salata, who grew up in L.A., was a receiver for USC and played in the 1945 Rose Bowl. He also was on the Trojan baseball team. Drafted by the 49ers, he played a smattering of NFL games and became enamored by the players, who like himself, were pros but never stars.

“Everyone who is drafted works hard,” Salata once told the New York Times, but some don’t get any recognition. “I wanted to celebrate who gets picked last. The player at the end of the line rarely gets noticed. And their hard work should be noticed.”

Thanks to Salata, who died in October 2021, one day before his 95th birthday, the player at the bottom gets plenty of notice, and so does Salata. He and his friends from Orange County came up with the idea of Mr. Irrelevant and Irrelevant Week, where the man chosen last gets almost the same attention as the man taken first. Almost.

There’s a dinner and TV appearances, a tradition that started when Kelvin Kirk of Dayton was drafted by the Steelers in 1976. Kirk took umbrage, believing he was the punchline of a joke, but later on those designated Mr. Irrelevant have been appreciative. Some end up on rosters. Kicker Ryan Succop (South Carolina, 2009) made it to the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay, winning a ring.

Purdy and the Niners would be thrilled by that possibility, although admittedly there’s a big difference between a player who gets a team into the end zone and someone who gets the ball over the crossbar.

Purdy was projected as not even being drafted, but the Niners made him the 262nd player taken.

In movies, people like Purdy are tossed into a game and toss the winning touchdown pass. But this is real life, and the dreamers are warned not to believe in miracles.

Still, Purdy did throw for a touchdown last weekend. Whatever happens from here, is a tribute of sorts to Paul Salata — and a reminder that nobody who’s good enough to be an NFL draft pick is irrelevant.

These shots from Tiger are vocal

Interesting what’s happened to golf. It used to be known as the gentleman’s game, one in which you may have missed a critical putt but rarely missed a chance for an appreciative handshake. Now? Certain people are at such odds it’s remarkable they aren’t at each other’s throats.

There’s a tournament this weekend in the Bahamas, the Hero World Challenge, a limited-field event that might not mean much except for Tiger Woods. He has plantar fasciitis and withdrew because he can’t walk. However, he can talk, particularly about Greg Norman.

Norman once was known as the most sympathetic figure in golf. He blew a six-shot lead, lost the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo and responded like — well, he did win many other tournaments including two British Opens, so champ would be a fine word.

For the PGA Tour, the best word might be pest. As you know, Norman, with Saudi Arabian money, is involved with the rival LIV Tour, which with shorter (54-hole) events and higher payments is stealing players from the PGA Tour. The hope is to force the PGA Tour to accept the LIV, creating one very wealthy if unhappy family

Apparently for this to take place, Norman will have to take off.

“Greg’s got to leave,” said Tiger when asked at the media conference about the possibility of a merger — which was what the Saudis, in the process of trying to upgrade their image through “sport washing,” want anyway.

In other words, Norman will be forced to make the ultimate links-connected sacrifice, his dream buried in a shallow bunker — but, this being golf, not without a large-sized financial gain.

“Right now,” said Tiger, “is not right, not with their leadership, not with Greg there and his animosity toward the Tour itself.

“As Rory (McIlroy) said and I said as well, Greg’s got to leave and then we can — eventually, hopefully — have a stay between the two lawsuits (one by each side) and figure out something. But why would you change anything if you have a lawsuit against you? They sued us first.”

Did someone out there add “Nah, nah”?

What Pat Perez added two weeks ago after Woods previously knocked the LIV was, “That’s the stupidest spit I’ve ever heard in my life.” Only he didn’t say spit. The question is, whether with 54-hole events and guaranteed money, golfers still would have incentive.

Perez, who played the PGA Tour for more than 20 years, is 46 — a few months younger than Woods, who will be 47 at the end of December. He grew up in San Diego and faced Tiger in junior tournaments. There’s respect but no idolizing.

Claude Harmon III is Perez’s swing coach (and son of Butch Harmon, who used to be Tiger’s coach). Harmon III pointed out that Woods still had “incentive” to compete despite getting money up front.

“He’s made so much money off the course, he found incentive to go,” Perez added. “But again, he only played how many tournaments? He didn’t go — I never saw him at John Deere, never saw him supporting all these events.

“He played in the majors, he played in the WGCs and that was it. But he’s worth every dime. In fact, like I said, he’s two billion short of where he should be, I think.”

Fore!

Niners: Not much offense, but oh that defense

That’s true, the offense was held to a single touchdown and two field goals. Which usually isn’t enough to win an NFL game, unless the other team gets fewer points. Like zero.

And so we harken back to that old — very old — reminder from John McKay, who won games at USC and then, after becoming coach of an expansion team, lost them with the Tampa Bay Bucs: You win on defense; if the other team doesn’t score, you’ll never get worse than a 0-0 tie.

But since the 49ers managed to put a few piddling points on the scoreboard at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, they got a win, not a tie, their fourth win in succession, a 13-0 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

The Niners now are in first place in the NFC West, ahead of the Seahawks, who somehow lost to the former Oakland Raiders, ahead of the former St. Louis Rams and ahead of the onetime St. Louis Cardinals.

Indeed a lot of movement in the NFL, even some on the gridiron. Those Carole King lyrics, “Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore,” seem appropriate here.

Also appropriate is the comment by head coach Kyle Shanahan from a few days ago, to the effect that this is 49ers football.

You’ve been advised that San Francisco, with good old Jimmy Garoppolo, doesn’t have the quarterback a team needs to win a Super Bowl, that he manages a game instead of taking control and ramming it down your gullet.

But Jimmy G, who completed 26 of 37 for 222 yards, including a five-yarder to Jauan Jennings for the game’s only touchdown, showed exactly what a QB needs, the ability to get up after being smacked around and then act like the leader he’s proven to be.

“He’s tough,” Shanahan said of Garoppolo.

The Niners know what they have, and no less importantly what they don’t. If Jimmy G doesn’t make you think of Tom Brady, whom Garoppolo was drafted by the Patriots to replace, well, he’s the major factor in the offensive system designed and administered by Shanahan.

Week after week, the TV commentators use at least part of a phrase to describe the Niners’ attack, “so many weapons.” The arsenal was interesting with Garoppolo, Jennings, Deebo Samuel, Elijah Mitchell, Brandon Aiyuk, George Kittle and others; it became fascinating with the acquisition of Christian McCaffrey.

Alternatives? If that running back doesn’t have the ball, this receiver does. There are 60 minutes to an NFL game. On Sunday, the Niners had the ball only 10 seconds short of 35 minutes.

Inherent in sporting success is the belief you have the capability and determination to succeed. Winners act like winners, talk like winners.

“We’re on our way, for sure,” said Nick Bosa. He’s the Pro Bowl pass rusher who late in the game had yet one more sack. “I think we have the guys to do it, definitely. And everybody who is still here (from when the Niners went to the Super Bowl three seasons ago) could be better.”

The 49ers haven’t allowed a point in 94 minutes, 19 seconds of game action, since the second quarter of the win last Monday night in Mexico City.

That will get the job done anytime, anywhere.

For Joe Starkey, a last Big Game

BERKELEY — The band was on the field. Forty years later Joe Starkey said it again, although this time it was only as an off-the-air reference. Yes, it was that ragtag Stanford band, and it was the same end zone at Cal’s Memorial Stadium. But now it was in the final minute of pre-game warm-ups, not in the closing seconds of one of the most historic of college football games.

This has been Joe’s week, memories and farewells. There will be one more Cal game to announce, but Saturday was his last Big Game, the rivalry that because of that crazy ending and Joe’s alert call — “The band is on the field!” — seem a perfect way to close.

I didn’t hear Starkey’s emotional description on Nov. 20, 1982 — I was in the press box — but I’ve heard it since, again and again, as have many people, involved in sports or not. A great way to be remembered.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but these words do surpass any photo.

For the 125th Big Game, in which Cal overcame a deficit to win 27-20, there was no better place to be located than the Joe Starkey Broadcast Booth, dedicated in November 2016. Joe was prepared and professional, sounding a bit subdued when Stanford was in surprising control and a bit elated at the end.

Through the seasons, Joe’s been through it all, the surprises, the upsets, the sheer enjoyment of being, well, involved in a business that makes you think of John Madden’s line when he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: “I never worked a day in my life.”

Joe Starkey worked a lot of days and nights, calling football, Cal and the 49ers, and ice hockey, and he touched a lot of lives. On Saturday, he and analyst Mike Pawlawski, the former Cal quarterback, offered a commentary aimed at Cal fans but acceptable for everyone.

“Stanford hasn’t done anything on offense,” Starkey pointed out early in the second half when the Cardinal had a 17-6 lead. He reminded us that it had done enough on defense.

Later, a two-fumble play resulted in a Cal touchdown, and if it didn’t remind you of “The Play,” it at least injected a little excitement into a game that needed some.

Starkey and Pawlawski weren’t sure what had happened until they — and the officials — had video verification.

When it was over, both on the field and in the broadcast booth, Starkey was asked what he will miss most about probably never broadcasting another Stanford-Cal after missing one in more than 40 years.

“It’s so soon after this one,” he said, “and I do have Cal-UCLA next weekend. “It will be the competition between the two schools in the Bay Area who both emphasize academics and respect the rivalry. I imagine when the teams start practicing in the spring and start playing games next season, it will hit me.”

As the game finished, many of the 51,892 (an announced sellout) began climbing down to the gridiron. Too bad Joe Starkey also had finished, or he could have said, “The fans are on the field.”

Warriors ‘missing collective grit’

That was a poignant observation from Steve Kerr. For Warrior fans, it also was a painful one.

He used different phrases, but basically Kerr told us — reminded us — that sporting dynasties do not last forever. Even one as exciting and gloriously enjoyable as that of the Golden State Warriors.

Earlier Wednesday, Kerr was interviewed by Ramona Shelburne on ESPN, which along with NBC Bay Area a few hours later would televise the Warriors’ game against the Suns in Phoenix. And the subject was success, of course, but in a twist the inevitability of that success comes to an end.

Players change, results change.

The Warriors, not knowing what their coach would forecast, went out and remained winless on the road, dropping their eighth straight game, this one to the Suns, 130-119. Steph Curry would score 50 points for the Warriors, but basketball is not a one-man game.

As the past few seasons, the Warriors, with their winning streaks and four NBA championships, made quite clear. As Kerr, a member of the Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls — certainly a dynasty in the 1980s — was clear about what lay ahead: change.

“History would suggest teams have runs,” said Kerr. The Warriors most likely have two or three years remaining in a run, that with Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green began with the magical season of 2015. “Maybe five years,” he conceded.

But players get old — we all do — and despite wise management, fortunate trades and perceptive drafting, the new pieces don’t fit together like the previous ones. That’s why championships are so rare. And so treasured.

During the game, a television sideline reporter, noting Curry’s outburst — he was well on his way to an 11th game of 50 points or more — mentioned to Kerr the Warriors needed offense from others besides Steph. “We don’t need offense,” said the coach, “we need defense.”

It was only one game, but truth tell it was more than one game. It was a verification of what the Warriors once had and what so far in this struggle of a season they lack, the ability to stop the other team. The Suns shot right around 50 percent and hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer.

“We have to get everybody on board,” said Kerr. “But with the new kids learning the system and each other, will they? It takes talent to build a winner. It takes time.

“We had a lot of joy beating people over the years. The other teams don’t forget. That feeling of joy is lacking now. We’re missing collective grit.” 

Kendrick Perkins, a longtime NBA player and now an ESPN analyst, said that Draymond Green punching teammate Jordan Poole in practice just before the season began is having an effect.

“People say it’s over,” Perkins remarked about the incident, “but those things linger.”

For the Warriors, basketball may become less a game than it is a grind.

Remembering Joe Roberts and a Warriors win

OAKLAND — They came to say goodbye to Joe Roberts, to tell several stories, share a few laughs and, for some at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, shed a few tears.

Joe was 86, defeated after a long struggle against cancer. It was one of the rare fights he ever lost in a career that from start to finish was loaded with success.

Roberts is best remembered as the assistant coach who took control of the Warriors in the 1975 NBA finals, helping win a game and a championship.

But he was so much more, a member of that 1960 NCAA champion Ohio State team, with Jerry Lucas, John Havlicek, Larry Siegfried and, yes, Bobby Knight; the overall 21st pick (by the Syracuse Nats) in the 1960 NBA draft; and a coach and teacher in the Oakland schools.

But for those of a certain age, Roberts will be the man who couldn’t be intimidated by a situation or a sneaky tactic by a member of an opposing team, in this case Mike Riordan of the Bullets (now the Wizards).

The Bullets were huge favorites in the series. One paper — was it the Baltimore Sun? — described the Warriors as the worst team ever to reach the finals. But the Warriors (the nickname Dubs was years in the future) won the first three games. 

When they got in front in Game 4, Riordan pummeled Warriors star Rick Barry, who pummeled back. Before Barry could be ejected, Warriors coach Al Attles charged out and charged in — and was thrown out, not Barry.

For a few moments, the Warriors were in, shall we call it, a semi-chaotic state, a ship without a captain, as it were. Then Roberts stood up and ordered everybody to sit down and stop talking. There could be only one boss, and it was going be Mr. Roberts.

There could be only one NBA champion, and it was the Warriors in a sweep. 

Attles was at the celebration of Joe Roberts’ life, as were Cliff Ray, George Johnson and Charles (Hopper) Dudley, who is working on a video to honor those ’75 champions. So were top players on subsequent Warriors clubs, including Purvis Short, the guy with the rainbow jump shot.

The NBA adopted the 3-point shot in 1979, just before the start of Short’s decade-long career, but the emphasis in the NBA in that era was to shove and push and get the ball closer to the basket.

Asked if he still had his jumper, which seemed to soar out of sight, Short, now 65, said, “I could make the shot. I don’t know if I could get open.”

Short lives in Houston, Cliff Ray in Florida and Dudley in the Seattle area. Their reunions are infrequent but also important.

The Warriors these days are the class and pride of the NBA. But we shouldn’t forget the team that won the title because Joe Roberts showed us — and them — how to be a leader.

Thanks, Joe. We’ll miss you.

‘Say Hey’ says it all about Willie

SAN FRANCISCO — What a great few days for baseball stars from the Bay: Dusty Baker on the tube and on top of the world (Series); Willlie Mays on the silver screen and always on our minds; Barry Bonds on stage and on target.

On Saturday night there was Dusty in Houston, finally clasping the long-missing World Series title. Twenty-four hours later, we were at the century-old Castro Theater in San Francisco, and there was the documentary “Say Hey, Willie Mays!” and in attendance for what was the local premiere was Bonds, Willie’s godson and, of course, the single-season home run champion.

The film, directed by Nelson George, offers some material we’ve seen over the years — not that anyone wouldn’t want another chance to catch The Catch in the 1954 World Series — and other stories not as well known, such as the racism Mays encountered when attempting to buy a home in the City.

Mays, now 91, was only a kid from Alabama, still a segregated state, when he joined the New York Giants in 1950, but he was brilliant virtually from the start. The actress Tallulah Bankhead said, “There are only two geniuses the world — Willie Mays and Will Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare didn’t give interviews.

So much of Mays’ genius, certainly, is physical. He was a so-called five-tool player — hit, run, hit with power, catch and throw — as we see again after he chased down Vic Wertz’s towering drive in the ’54 World Series. Willie spun around and fired the ball back to the infield.

I came to San Francisco in 1965, when Mays still was hitting home runs. The Giants came here in 1958, and Mays has a tough time adjusting — not to the game but to the Candlestick Park winds that, as mentioned in the documentary, kept his long balls from clearing the fences.

San Francisco was Joe DiMaggio’s town. He grew up here and played minor league ball here, years before the Giants arrived.

So when Mays came here in ’58, long after DiMaggio’s retirement following the 1951 season, the press looked back and not forward. Willie was not appreciated, Tallulah Bankhead to the contrary.

DiMaggio was damn good. His 56-game hitting streak in 1941 surely never will be broken. After Joe left the game, he would make public appearances and be introduced as “America’s greatest living ball player.”

But Joe was no Willie Mays, and he wasn’t forced to play home games at Candlestick Park as Mays was. 

George’s documentary, which will be streamed on HBO, doesn’t forget that Reggie Jackson played in Oakland and is a Hall of Famer, or Dusty Baker, who after the World Series win is destined to be one. 

Barry Bonds said the documentary “basically is about mentoring, about growing wiser and more proficient as we mature.”

The plan certainly worked for Willie Mays.

Dare we add, “Say hey?”

For Irving, no apology but a suspension

Yes, that was a rabbi on ESPN’s NBA Today. You might say he was acting as a point guard, trying to keep things under control. Not on court, in society.

Trying to do what ESPN tells us sport often does: brings together people from different places, with different viewpoints. Enables us to share the joy.

Except now, we’re sharing disappointment. Not over the results of a particular game. We get over losses in time. This is different. This is about an observation from basketball star Kyrie Irving that is as worrisome as it is unacceptable.

Irving went on the internet and endorsed a propaganda film from a book by the same name, “Hebrews to Negroes,” loaded with antisemitic assertions.

Irving insists he doesn’t dislike the Jews or any religious group, but he refused to apologize for the internet post — which, of course, was taken down Wednesday by his team, the Brooklyn Nets, who are based in one of the country’s predominantly Jewish areas.

“I don’t hate anyone,” Irving said.

In suspending Irving, the Nets — already a dysfunctional mess — called him “unfit to be associated with the team.”

What Mike Wilbon from ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption called Irving was dangerous.

Last season, because he refused to be vaccinated against Covid, Irving was not cleared to play in New York, the Nets’ home state, or California. 

Irving supposedly said the Holocaust never took place, but he denies the assertion, and Thursday before he was suspended, offered a confusing open-ended remark.

“Some of the criticism of the Jewish faith and the community,” said Irving, “for sure, some of the points made there, that were unfortunate.”

Everything with which Irving has been in involved of late seems unfortunate.

Asked if he believes or agrees with the false idea that the Holocaust never happened, Irving answered “those falsehoods are unfortunate.”

So is this entire situation. Fans at a Nets game Monday night wore T-shirts with the slogan, “Fight Antisemitism.”

In West Los Angeles, Eraz Sherman, rabbi at Temple Sinai,

cringed and readied for his own fight. Many NBA players work out in the temple’s gym not too far from the UCLA campus.

“It makes me scared,” he told NBA Today of the film and the Irving internet posting. “One of the kids who belongs to the synagogue loves wearing his Kyrie Irving shoes. Now he wants to throw them away.”

Someone wondered what the rabbi might tell Irving, given the chance in a conversation,

“I would point out this is a multi-faith world, not inter-faith,” said Sherman. “We have to stay together, not tearing everything apart.”

Irving, apparently believing money is a substitute for an apology, will donate $500,000 to promote antisemitism.

“l didn’t want to cause any harm,” Irving said to reporters.

But he caused great harm, for himself and others involved in this awful event.