Who will be the new face of the Giants?

Fce of the franchise. The label is so brief. And so significant.

The franchise might be a team, such as the Warriors, where Steph Curry has earned the position Or a sport, golf, and even though his playing is limited, it’s still Tiger Woods.

It can be a him, as LeBron James. Or a her, as Naomi Osaka. Either way, it’s the person who makes a difference. On the court or ice or field or floor. At the gate. More than infrequently that person is one and the same. 

Bob Melvin, for two months now manager of the — you wouldn’t be far off using the term woebegone — San Francisco Giants, understands perfectly. He said San Francisco is a star-powered town. Ergo, the Giants need some stars.

True, easier said than done, and the competition to sign or acquire the biggest names, starting with the player everyone wants and some — including the Giants — can afford, Shohei Ohtani.   

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the “Beat L.A.” Dodgers, who a few days ago implied, if not stating directly, they wouldn’t be in a bidding war for Ohtani, aha, admit they will bid for Ohtani.

Of course, from a biased NorCal view the hugely loaded, obscenely successful Dodgers (until it comes to the World Series) are less in need than the Giants.  

So too chasing Ohtani are the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs, teams as well as the dreaded Dodgers, and the Giants which apparently have any chance of signing Ohtani.

Melvin, Giants president Farhan Zaidi and virtually every other executive from the major leagues—as well as agents, media people and various rumors — showed up to the baseball winter meetings in Nashville that ended Thursday. 

There was a considerable amount of conversation but little action. At least action involving the Giants. Those involved kept saying once Ohtani makes his decision, the figurative floodgates would open. Transactions would, like that, take place one after another. Maybe.

The Giants, who Wednesday conveniently announced tickets for the 2024 season were on sale, were presumably hoping they would have a new player or two.

If not Ohtani, then young pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell or center fielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger. He once was with the Dodgers.

After the decline, following the 2021 season, when they won a team-record 107 games, the Giants have searched for power hitters and starting pitchers. And victories. Attendance shriveled and finally in the final days of the 2023 season, manager Gabe Kapler was fired. 

The front office knew it was time to get players who could get wins and attention. It had failed previously trying to sign top-notch free agents who might win games and capture fans, Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa.

Now they are trying again for a player who could be the new face for a team desperately seeking one.

Niners play the game we had waited for

Those were the San Francisco 49ers we expected, loaded with talent and intent, taking up the challenge and taking down the franchise with the best record.

The Philadelphia Eagles came in 10-1. They were playing at home in damp weather. And the 49ers crushed them, dominating on defense, and overwhelming on offense.

San Francisco won 42-19, the Niners’ highest point total of the season. This was a game that had Niners players talking with more than a bit of confidence — as opposed to the pre-game trash talk from running back/receiver Deebo Samuel.

The post-season still is more than a month away, and teams such as the dreaded Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are not to be ignored.

Yet this game, if nothing else, restored the belief in the Niners, who lost three in a row at one disappointing stretch. They have regained their swagger and position at the top of pro football’s food chain.

They also can create a bit of strange confusion on the sideline, with their own defensive lineman, Dre Greenlaw getting ejected for a fight that also brought about the ejection of an official from Philly’s Lincoln Field.

What he was doing among the athletes is a question still to be answered.

The Niners in their performance answered any question about their quality. True, they went the first down and with only a few yards, but that defense was spectacular, and San Francisco only fell behind 6-0. After that, it was Niners, Niners, Niners, Samuel running, Christian McCaffrey running and catching, and the pass rush squeezing Philly Jalen (until it) Hurts.  

“Our play spoke louder than words," said Niners star linebacker Fred Warner. “We knew coming in what we had to do.”

They had to defeat the team that knocked the 49ers out of the playoffs, 31-7, last year in the NFC championship game after quarterback Brock Purdy left with an elbow injury that would take months to heal.  

“I wasn’t looking for revenge,” Purdy said after completing 19 of 27 passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns. “I just wanted to win.”

He and the Niners (9-3) did because of the beautiful merging of offense and defense — or should we say defense and offense, the Eagles held to 333 net yards as compared to 456 for San Francisco.

We’re told repeatedly the only statistic that counts is the final score, but the lopsided differences in the other numbers are more than an indication of the differential in that score.  

The strength of any football (or basketball or baseball) team is constructed on defense, keeping the opposition from scoring, a reason the Niners are paying edge rusher Nick Bosa $34 million a year. Sunday, the rest of the defensive line paid off in dividends.

“It’s not making sacks, this isn’t an individual thing. We work as a team,” said Bosa. “We try to keep the pressure on. Even if you don’t get there, they have to block you for a long time and it wears them out. I think the job we did was awesome.”

Hard to argue after smashing a team that had lost only once.

NFL, NBA — and the return of Tiger Woods

This is what Tiger Woods means to golf: ESPN on Thursday afternoon felt compelled to interrupt its incessant reporting of the Dallas Cowboys to give us news of the Hero World Challenge.

It’s an unofficial PGA Tour tournament. It’s also where Woods is playing competitively for the first time since April. In the opening round he didn’t play particularly well, shooting a three-over-par 75 at the Albany Golf Course in the Bahamas, which was 18th in an elite field of 20.   

Yet what counted were not the strokes but the fact he was making them.  And making the sporting world aware. 

It’s late autumn. The NFL is in full stride. The NBA is holding some marketing device called the In-season tournament. Alabama is about to play Georgia. And golf was getting attention simply because of the one man involved once more.

Individual sports always needed individual stars. There are no home teams. But there are great players who become the lifeblood, overcoming national to get noticed, players such as Jack Nicklaus and Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Tiger Woods.  

It may not be correct to say Tiger is bigger than the game, but he’s invaluable. One minute we’re getting analysis of the Cowboys-Seahawks game, a minute later we’re hearing Tiger analyze his own game. 

It was not a satisfying overview, Woods told us how much he missed the sport. Not only connecting with a ball but also connecting with his contemporaries, sharing wisecracks and laughter, being “out there,” as golfers say.

Finally, Thursday, for the first time since he withdrew from the Masters with that aching foot, there he was if struggling. 

No pro golfer ever could be pleased with a double bogey and two bogeys on 15, 16 and 17, a finish that turned an acceptable round into a lousy one. However, Woods conceded he is not in shape. He played a lot of golf back home in Florida, but it’s hardly the same as golf on the Tour.

He said once more he was rusty.  How long does it take for a golfer his age, who has overcome numerous physical problems, for rust to be scraped and polished away?

“I would be thinking,” he said. “Should I do this or not? By then I’m pulling the trigger. I shouldn’t really pull the trigger. Hit a bad shot. I kept doing it time and again. It was a lack of commitment to what I was doing and feeling. I’ve got to do a better job.”

Tiger’s back; he missed golf, golf missed Tiger

For a great athlete, a sport is more than catching footballs or hitting baseballs. It’s a way of life, one from which he or she is embraced and has no wish to escape.

Tiger Woods reminded us when he spoke Tuesday about returning to golf after weeks away because of surgery on the right ankle that was damaged in that 2022 auto accident.

“I love competing,” said Woods. “I love playing, I miss being out here with the guys. I miss the camaraderie and the fraternity-like atmosphere out here and the overall banter.”

The fun at the office, as it were, the chance to talk and laugh, and no less, as anyone in virtually any line of work, to achieve a sense of self-satisfaction.

“But what drives me,” Woods emphasized,” is that I love to compete. There will come a point in time — I haven’t come around to it fully yet that I won’t be able to win again. When that day comes I’ll walk away.”

Right now he’s walking towards something, perhaps a renaissance. At the least towards the first tee.  

Woods, whose last previous competition was in April when he was forced to withdraw from the Masters because of the ankle, is playing in the fall event he’s long been involved with, now named the Hero World Challenge.

It’s an unofficial tournament, previously played at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks outside Los Angeles, but now is held in the Bahamas. 

Hero, in this case, refers not to Tiger, but to the sponsor of a motorcycle company in India.

If Woods understandably missed golf, then golf, understandably, missed Woods. There have been other fine players since Tiger burst onto the PGA Tour in 1996, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Rory McElroy, and lately Jon Rahm, but none had the magic combined with the game.   

Tiger brought in a new audience and filled grandstands and TV screens. People who didn’t know a divot from a dandelion knew Tiger.

In an earlier time, when baseball dominated our sports scene, Babe Ruth was America’s unique attraction, identifiable by just a first name. If Tiger isn’t another Babe, he is damn close.  

But Woods will be 48 in December, and even with his success, the 15 majors, the 82 total Tour wins, he knows the future can never match the past. The idea now is to be in the hunt and then with a key putt or two again be in the winner’s circle. 

“I’ve been playing a lot,” he said of his practice rounds, “but not with a scorecard and a pencil. My game feels rusty.”

As it should be. You’ve heard this before, but there’s a difference between going out on the course with your pals at the club in Florida and true competition.

“I’m excited to compete and play,” said Tiger. “I’m as curious as all of you are to see what happens. Because I haven’t done this for a while.”

Whatever happens is less important than it happens at all. Welcome back, Mr. Woods.

What’s to become of aging Warriors?

This is the way it works in sports. A team starts to win, and fans, the ones with perhaps less experience, believe that’s the way it always will be. They get spoiled. They get obnoxious even.  They get deceived.

But history is hovering. Nothing lasts forever, especially success.

Not very long ago the New England Patriots seemed unbeatable. Tom Brady was fantastic. Bill Belichick was a genius. 

And now? The Pats are awful. Critics are asking whether Belichick should be fired.

What some others are asking is what’s to become of the Golden State Warriors? Do they hang in for another season, shake off the inevitable scourge of time? Or do they decline almost before our very eyes — Draymond Green or no Draymond Green? 

Yes, Draymond soon is to be allowed back among the shooting and fouling of an NBA game. And presumably, the Warriors will never again be burdened by a dreaded six-game losing streak.

Still, this is the season of 2023-24, and the once-young guys who won four  NBA titles are older. You can’t go home again, and even going home appeared to be of little advantage during the recent stretch.

Pro sports in North America are designed to change the balance. Through the draft, the lesser teams are with wise choices and good fortune able to build themselves into better teams.

Which certainly is what the Warriors did, and oh yeah bringing in a free agent named Kevin Durant proved advantageous.

Who would have imagined Steph Curry would be the best long-range shooter in our lifetime? Or that Klay Thompson would pair up with Steph as one of the Splash Brothers? Or that Draymond, for all his faults, would be the guy who helped the pieces fit and no less played powerful defense?

Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach during their dominant years, was a player—and a fine one — on those Michael Jordan championship squads in the 1990s. Been there, and done that, so he understands the process and limitations.

Was it a year ago Kerr warned Warriors fans, that the team’s window to win was about to close? Last season the Dubs didn’t even get to the conference championship round.

The thinking — hoping? — of those in charge of the Warriors is that Chris Paul, 38, will be a more-than-capable addition to Curry, 35, Thompson, 33 and Green, 33. It’s possible if not probable.   

It’s all relative, certainly. Take it from someone (blush) who covered the Warriors in the ‘70s when they won 17 games and 22 games. The bad old days.

Those are gone forever. The issue, clouded a bit because of Draymond Green’s volatility and Klay Thomson’s shooting struggles, is whether the chance to win one last championship still remains.

Purdy perfect — like Joe and Steve

He had thrown his first interception. Worse, the 49ers lost.  And lost again. Then lost again.  The skeptics couldn’t be silenced. Maybe, they told us this was the real Brock Purdy, not the kid who unexpectedly captured games and media attention.

Whatever, the Brock Purdy who showed up Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, was as real, effective and efficient a quarterback as anyone ever.  

In fact, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him perfect because that’s what his rating was — perfect, 158.3 out of a possible 158.3. The last time that was accomplished by someone wearing a 49ers uniform —actually, somebodies—was in 1989, and the somebodies were named Joe Montana and Steve Young.

Who would both be voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not bad company.

Of the 25 passes Purdy unleashed only four were not caught. The figures included  333 yards and three touchdowns.

We know football is very much a team sport and that an NFL squad has more than 50 athletes. Yet, isn’t it amazing how the best teams have the best quarterbacks?

Asked about Purdy’s play against the Bucks as San Francisco improved to a 7-3 record, the best in the NFC West, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said merely, “He had a hell of a game.

Halfback Christian McCaffrey was no less enthusiastic. “Brock has been great every game,” said McCaffrey.  

Not quite, but if a player feels compelled to offer a teammate high praise, that’s quite understandable. And acceptable.

“He’s got to be in the MVP conversation with those numbers,” Niners star linebacker Fred Warner said after checking out Purdy’s stats following Sunday’s victory, which left the 49ers (7-3) a game ahead of the Seahawks — their opponent Thursday night in Seattle — in the NFC West. “It’s unbelievable the way he’s playing. He’s having an All-Pro, Pro Bowl-type of year.”

And at the end, of all the numbers on the screen, the only ones that count are those of the final score. Yes, the Niners won Sunday, defeating the semi-good Tampa Bay  27-14.  

On the other side, both symbolically and literally, is the man who played competently at quarterback for the Buccaneers, Baker Mayfield. Mayfield was first pick overall in the 2018 draft, by Cleveland, and now is with his fourth team. Purdy, as we are too well aware, was the last pick in the 2022 draft.

The Niners play at Seattle on Thanksgiving and then play the Philadelphia Eagles, arguably the best team in the NFC. Purdy’s doubters are poised. No less important is the defense for the opening days of the season, the area that was the strength of the team.   

Then, with Purdy, McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, and George Kittle, the 49ers went from a team that stopped others to one that others couldn’t itself be stopped.

Other than three weeks.

Bad day in Oakland; traffic stays, A’s don’t

This was Oakland on Thursday. Some jerks shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge, keeping many of us from going to work or leaving town.

Some others—dare we also call them jerks?—were in the process of making sure the Athletics baseball team would not be staying in town.  

True, those who Wednesday tossed their car keys into San Francisco Bay (anybody got a fit for a Rolls Royce?) and caused chaos had little to do with the A’s receiving permission to flee to Las Vegas.  

Other than a massive degree of inconvenience.

Life is timing, we’re told, and although we had been advised (warned? threatened?) that the departure of the Athletics was inevitable, who could imagine approval would come on the very morning of the massive protest on the span?

You want a ticket to Gaza or Opening Day?

Now we’ll have a landmark, of sorts, to remind us about the uncaring lords of baseball (sorry; they do care about dollars.)  

How often have we heard from the hypocritical owners who so often tell us they are merely caretakers and that the game belongs to the guys (and ladies) who cheer the teams?  

In the East Bay, the fans and the team were kicked around and forced to take refuge in a stadium designed for football, and forced to play where the dugout was full of furry little animals and the stands were empty of humans.

It reached a point with the A’s where the roster was comprised of ball players who were either barely out of the minors or still belonged in. Sure they lost more than 100 games in the seasons of 2022 and 2023. It was as if the majors were intent on having the A’s move. The NBA calls it tanking.

The A’s were kicked around and mismanaged after years of winning championships. We are told the game supposedly belongs to the fans. Well, check out the words that merge with the actions of the man who is the prime owner of the A’s, John Fisher. 

After the baseball meeting down in Texas, said without a dissenting vote, Fisher had the A’s office in Oakland issue a letter of apology. For what? Leaving a city that used to break records (three consecutive World Series triumphs)  sobbing with a broken heart.

Indeed the A’s may not have a legitimate ballpark in which to play in Las Vegas until 2028, but Fisher doesn’t care. He’s worth more than a billion, and that’s not in poker chips.  

They used to say sport is the opera of the poor, since those without wealth couldn’t afford to go to The Met. These days you’ve got to have a bankroll to attend almost any event.

A’s fans spent many dollars and all of their hopes on the team which let them down and soon headed to a new locale.  

So sad. So lousy.

Niners end the nonsense

The 49ers certainly put an end to that nonsense. And to their three-game losing streak. They played like the old days. A month ago.

Whatever was wrong with San Francisco’s entry in the NFL has been fixed. At least for one game. And maybe considering the talent and the expectations, perhaps for many games.

Every pro team has difficult periods, Daryl Johnson, the one-time star fullback and current-time game analyst for Fox TV, told us that the most difficult stretch of this particular Niner season was in the process of coming to an end, ironically against a team going through a wonderful period.

The Jacksonville Jaguars never may be ranked with the Baltimore Ravens or the hated Dallas Cowboys, but they were playing at home and had won five straight, as contrasted to the Niners losing three straight. Now both those streaks have been broken. 

The 49ers took control so quickly and so demonstratively in their 34-3 victory, head coach Kyle Shanahan chose early in the fourth quarter to change quarterbacks. In a twist, Sam Darnold, a first-round pick, replaced Brock Purdy, who as the sporting world knows, was the last pick in the 2022 draft.

But as we also know, first or last, what matters is how you play. And after three performances that might be called spotty, a word which similarly can be applied to the once reliable defense, Purdy on Sunday was virtually without flaws — no turnovers (those, five of them, were contributed by the Jaguars). If not silencing the doubters, he was poised and near perfection.  He completed 19 passes in 26 attempts for 296 yards, three touchdowns, and a rating of 148.9. (Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence, No. 1 draftee overall in 2021, had a rating of 56.2).

Those numbers can be interpreted any way one wants, of course, but when a team is functioning properly, the offense working well with the defense, football is a joy.

Nick Bosa and new addition Chase Young made the defensive line what it was supposed to be and more. The return of injured Deebo Samuel gave a boost to the rushing and receiving. And whether the shift of defensive coordinator Steve Wilks from press box to sideline means that much is debatable, but you can be sure he’s not going back.

Football is a game of response. Was the moving of the defensive backs to locations outside the linebackers the reason the Niners were so effective?

Whatever, Bosa has no questions. Now. He had a few when the defeats climbed. As, for one — “I’ll take it. It was a really good team win,” Bosa said “Just complementary ball.  A good reset for us to keep going.”

It’s easy to say that during the bye week when the Niners were forced to endure the criticism of the media and fans while unable to do much except on a practice field. Then after the break, came the success, and a degree of satisfaction.

Can the Giants get Ohtani?

It’s not an issue of money. At least that’s the word from the San Francisco Giants. They have plenty. What they lack is a team that makes the postseason and draws national attention.

Unlike the Los Angeles Dodgers, who as the Giants (and so many other teams), are actively pursuing the most attractive of free agents, Shohei Ohtani.

The major league general managers convened a few days ago in Scottsdale, Arizona, which happens to be where the Giants home for spring training. And, what else, they were pestered about the big guy who hits home runs and throws fastballs (or did until elbow surgery).

 So this was headlined in the Los Angeles Times: “The Dodgers want Shohei Ohtani. But how far will they go in a potential bidding war?”

And this was the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Giants preparing for full-court press on free-agent superstar Shohei Ohtani.”

You would guess (and hope if you’re one of the frustrated souls who does little but chant, “Beat L.A.”) that in this competition the Giants have the edge. But the history of free agency has not been favorable for the Giants, or has everyone forgotten the recent saga of Aaron Judge?

A Northern Californian, Judge stopped by for a moment or two and then (sigh) re-signed with his former team, the New York Yankees.

Ohtani, now 29, is not a one-man team. But he was close, a unanimous American League MVP in 2021, and a pitcher who could (should?) have been a Cy Young Award winner.

Maybe more than the statistics he produces as a two-way sensation for the Los Angeles Angels is the excitement—and fans—he has brought to the American sport since arriving from Japan in 2017.  

He has helped make what was known as “America’s Pastime,” into an international attraction. In Japan he’s God. In the U.S. he’s a hero, arguably the best two-way player since Babe Ruth, who you may not remember began as a pitcher and then became “The Sultan of Swat.”

Ruth, as the story goes, was asked in the early 1920s, if he deserved to be earning more money than President Herbert Hoover and answered, “Why not? I had a better year.” 

In a matter of days, Shohei Otani, about to be offered a contract that may be as huge as $400 million a season, will be earning more than anyone in the history of baseball.

After several seasons with the Angels, Ohtani may prefer to remain in southern California, meaning going to the Dodgers. Or maybe he can be persuaded to head north to the Giants.

Ohtani in 2023 batted .304 and led the American League with 44 home runs. His pitching ended with the injury. His appeal, however, is unending.

That all goes into the thinking of the Giants and the Dodgers.

“We’ve got a good amount of payroll flexibility,” said Giants’ president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. “So anybody we think can be an impact player, even on a long-term deal, we’re going to be looking at.”

In free agency looking is fine. Signing is essential.

Sharks season even worse than the A’s

The San Jose Sharks, a hockey team, reportedly, are doing what seemed impossible — having a worse season than the Oakland Athletics, a baseball team, reportedly.

Different sports, but similar ineptitude. Must be something in the Bay Area water. Or considering the number of vineyards, the wine.

The A’s had the worst record in the game in 2023. The Sharks very well may end up with the worst record in NHL history. There still is a question because the hockey season still has weeks and weeks to go.

Unfortunately, perhaps.

As of November 7, Tuesday, the Sharks had played 11 games and haven only won a single one. They also have a tie. As if that matters. 

The only thing that does matter is getting more goals (or runs) than the opponent. So far that’s been a hopeless task for the Sharks, as most of the  spring and summer it was for the A’s

Twice the Sharks have given up 10 goals in a game. Yikes.   

The two franchises ended up in similarly dire straits for the most obvious of reasons, a notable lack of playing talent, their rosters depleted and their fans deprived  

The Sharks found it necessary to rebuild, trading among others Eri  Karlsson (Norris Trophy winner as the league’s best defenseman) for younger players.   

The A’s trick was to go after cheaper players, telling us they couldn’t compete financially—and then (snigger, snigger) announcing they were going to shift the team to Las Vegas. 

The Sharks aren’t going anywhere, literally as well as figuratively. They’ll be a San Jose for a long while, whether their once-loyal fans will be is the issue.

In the last few years, attendance at SAP Center has declined.  

The Sharks were wildly popular, as San Jose’s own, they were the local product of a city seeking its own sporting identity. However, they were often put in the shade by the burg up the coast at 49ers games in neighboring Santa Clara TV shows and views of the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco.  

San Jose is hockey territory and yet at the same time, it isn’t hockey territory like Toronto or Boston. Does a revised roster fill up the seats again?  

The A’s actually had a winning record one day into the season, but from 1-0, reality took over. A ball club peopled with prospects and suspects is doomed to tumble. 

Maybe the best part of the A’s season was the reverse boycotts staged by fans trying to persuade owner John Fisher to sell the team. Stubbornly he wouldn’t, and so he’s prepared to move.

For the Sharks and the A’s, it’s been the worst of times.

What's happened to the Raiders?

There are team owners in sports who know what they’re doing. The Golden State Warriors’ Joe Lacob is a perfect example. And then there are owners such as Mark Davis of the former Oakland Raiders.

As is evident from the way the Raiders play football. 

Mark’s late father, Al, built the team into a Super Bowl champion. But if a franchise is transferred to the next of kin because of the legal system, there’s no guarantee the qualities to make that franchise successful also will be.

Mark, who grew up in Piedmont, the tony suburb of Oakland, just surreptitiously fired another coach late Monday night, a few hours after the Raiders suffered a 26-14 defeat by the ascendant Detroit Lions.

The Raiders, explained Davis, “were heading in the wrong direction.” Which a good part of the group called Raider Nation, would point out the team began to do years ago. Literally. 

When like fugitives on the run they fled the Oakland Coliseum for, well, it’s hard to call the landscape around Las Vegas greener pastures. Only more financially beneficial ones. 

Meaning the 68-year-old Davis and his partners, who cashed in elegantly and wealthily, provided a new luxurious stadium and the upcoming Super Bowl, which, no surprise, will not include the Raiders.

Bill Walsh, the legendary 49ers coach, once told me a problem in the NFL when a team is struggling is the owners’ friends will sit near him during games and belittle the franchise. How embarrassing. 

That the Raiders’ woes with Football shown throughout the nation on ESPN’s Monday Night, was more embarrassing. What to do? What Davis did was fire head coach, Josh Mcdaniels.

And oh yeah, even though he’s still on the team, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, late of the 49ers, has been benched. When he wasn’t injured, he was throwing interceptions.  

In the publication “Pro Football Talk” Mike Florio, a longtime observer and NFL writer, asks a very pertinent question, to which: Who is advising Mark Davis?

“Whoever Davis is listening to,” wrote Florio, “presumably had influence over what he’s done and over what he’ll do next . . . Given his track record of hires since he inherited the team he hasn’t been getting good advice, or he’s ignoring any good advice he’s gotten.”  

The advice Raider fans from an earlier era could have given was to keep the team in Oakland, where it not only was a contender but a major part of the community.

Too late for that, certainly. The Raiders are long gone, leaving only memories and an owner who flew the coop and has been unable to build a winner.

Niners can’t stop anything, and that includes losing

They seem unable to stop anything—primarily their losing streak.

The defense that was the heart and soul of the San Francisco 49ers is now clueless and unable to tackle. The season that had people repeating the precious words, “Super Bowl,” suddenly has them mumbling to themselves with phrases that other adults shouldn’t hear. Much less children.

The worst thing for the Niners and their fans, the so-called “Faithful,” may not be the how many, three straight defeats, after the 31-17 debacle against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium. But the how.

They were run over, run past and run through by a team that began the game last in the NFL in offense and third from last in rushing. The Bengals finished with 400 net yards, 134 on the ground. 

The comments from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and his players were the typical ones you'd expect after a team that is supposed to win, according to the oddsmakers, fails to win: "We've got to play better."

Oh yes, you do. But how does that occur? Sure, some of the answers—or was it all of them?—contained the word “execution.”

That brings to mind the immortal quote from the late John McKay when he was coaching the expansion (and awful Tampa Bay Bucs). Asked after one game what he thought of their execution, McKay remarked, “I’m in favor of it.”

Nothing that severe (or comical) from the Niners postgame, but Shanahan and his crew would be in favor of stepping back to early October when they overwhelmed the Dallas Cowboys, who you may have noticed on Sunday routed the Los Angeles Rams (Lambs?) 43-20.

The NFL is full of surprises, indeed. The Broncos even defeated the Chiefs. But the issue is consistency, to play well—at least to your strength—as often as possible, to be feared by the opponent.  

Nobody fears the 49ers anymore, except maybe the men in charge of the franchise.  

There was so much worry about Brock Purdy coming out of concussion protocol and getting onto the field and into the huddle. He made it. He threw a couple of interceptions and lost a fumble, three turnovers in all.

Far from the magic he appeared to possess for the opening games, yet not being able to get yards wasn’t what doomed the 49ers. It was their inability to keep Cincinnati from getting theirs. 

So much has been written or spoken of Purdy being the last man picked in the draft of 2022. The first man picked in the 2020 draft was Joe Burrow, the Bengals quarterback, and he completed 18 straight passes at one stretch on Sunday.

How much was attributable to Burrow and how much to the 49ers’ ineffective pass defense is a matter to be contemplated. What had to sting was the Fox TV announcer borrowing the line about Joe Montana and calling Burrow “Joe Cool” especially because Montana was in attendance. 

Oh yeah, Christian McCaffrey tied the NFL record by scoring a touchdown (actually two touchdowns) in 17 consecutive games. That pleased Shanahan.

Very little else did.

“We missed a lot of tackles in the first half. “ the coach said. “The bottom line is we have to get better in every aspect.

In other words, they have to execute.

Unexpected: Melvin new Giants manager

The Warriors lost their first game, which was unexpected. The 49ers lost their last game, which was unexpected. And, oh yeah somewhere among Steph Curry and Brock Purdy, the Giants named Bob Melvin their manager. 

Which was unexpected until a few days ago when it was disclosed that Melvin was unhappy in his role as manager of the San Diego Padres.

Then things became what they are in baseball, an activity that one of its practitioners, the late, great Yogi Berra, once told us “You don’t know nothing.” Melvin was expected to be available, if not necessarily in that order.

A manager can’t get hits or throw shutouts, but he can be a hit, and that’s what the Giants, searching for their place in the Bay Area’s crowded sporting landscape, very much need.

If not as much as a home run hitter.

Bo Mel, as he’s called, knows the territory, and growing up on the Peninsula while also playing ball at Cal and no less managing Oakland Athletics to the playoffs (if never the World Series), we know him.

What we don’t know is what sort of roster he’ll have. But you presume he wouldn’t have taken the job, even for a former colleague of Giants president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, with whom Mevin worked at the A’s unless changes would occur.

The Giants’ wish to sign Aaron Judge (yet another Northern Californian)  disappeared last spring, but there are other sluggers around, several on the Padres.

Maybe Melvin could help pry loose one of those high-priced players from the Padres, not that the Giants should expect help from the team that Melvin just extricated himself after a rumored strained relationship with A.J. Preller, head of baseball operations in San Diego.

Still, as everyone knows—and was verified in the two league championships that elevated the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks to the World Series—pitching wins.

The Giants have some pitching. They just need more.  

Apropos of nothing, but perhaps pertinent to everything, is the man who preceded Melvin as Padres manager in Bruce Bochy, who moved on to win three World Series for the Giants and now is in another with Texas.

San Francisco, the season of 2023 was rolling along until it mattered in September, then it tumbled from leading the wild card race to nowhere. How much that had to do with their very disciplined and analytics-based manager, Gabe Kapler being fired, is debatable.

Unless you’re Zaidi, who if only to prove he and the organization were intent on both keeping the Giants competitive and in a tough market, relevant.

Bob Melvin seems to be both the fortunate choice and the perfect one. No question he will get attention. Will he be able to get wins?

What happened to the 49ers’ defense?

There wasn’t any doubt in this one. Oh, the final score was close, but in truth, the game wasn’t. 

That 49ers team, which only two weekends ago crushed the Dallas Cowboys and had the Faithful talking Super Bowl, has gone missing.

And worse, has gone losing in two consecutive games.

It was the very mediocre Minnesota Vikings that beat San Francisco, 22-17, Monday night at US Bank Stadium. It was a very unstoppable Vikings team that destroyed what we mistakenly believed was one of the best defenses in the NFL.

A Vikings team with apparently no running game.  A Vikings team that ran and passed the Niners to oblivion.  A Vikings team that came into the game with a 2-4 record and when it constructed a lead it surprised ESPN announcer Joe Buck to the point that he said in so many words, “What’s going on here?”  

A national audience, which had been following the Niners’ 5-0 start and reading about the magic of young quarterback Brock Purdy, $170 million pass rusher Nick Bosa and scoring machine Christian McCaffrey, surely wondered the same thing.

Or maybe wondered if all the praise and expectations that surrounded the Niners was just a lot of journalistic nonsense.  

Nobody expects the Niners to go unbeaten. This isn’t 1972, and now the schedule is 17 games and there’s too much talent on every franchise. So, getting beat by the Cleveland Browns, 19-17, eight days earlier was acceptable.

This one against the Vikings wasn’t if you’re thinking about the championship.

What Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan was thinking we never might know, but what he said was, “They had one turnover, we had three turnovers. It was a five-point game, so it's almost as simple as that."

A game decided perhaps by the Vikings constantly blitzing Purdy, whose passing was 21 of 30 for 272 yards. He also threw two interceptions and was sacked once. He was under pressure from the start.

The 49ers couldn’t match that pressure. They didn’t have a chance.

What the Niners did have at one point in the second half was their largest deficit of the season, 19-7. And what they never had for the first time in any game was a lead.  

The Vikings, with the often-maligned Kirk Cousins at quarterback, had a brilliant game on offense as well as defense. Minnesota gained 452 yards, San Francisco 325.

McCaffrey, who was questionable because of an oblique injury, played and got into the end zone twice, extending his team-record touchdown streak to 16 consecutive games. But he fumbled on an early drive, and perhaps that changed the momentum of the entire game. 

Purdy made some key completions as the Niners tried to catch up, but hounded he lofted a ball that was intercepted, ending any chance for a comeback. 

“It was a tough day,” said Purdy. “The Vikings played a very smart game, and we couldn’t quite do it.”

“We can’t sit here and worry about what happened,” said Shanahan. “We have got to find a way to beat the Bengals (the Niners’ next opponent). And then we go into our bye week. We’ve got to take this like men.”

What they took was a figurative punch in the gut. Now there are questions about Purdy, and even worse, questions about the supposedly impregnable San Francisco defense.

A few days ago Shanahan told the media, referring to the defeat in Cleveland, “We haven’t had that for a while. I forgot how it felt after a loss.”

There will be no forgetting now.

Steph Curry now linked with Charlie Sifford

The great Jim Murray wrote of the barrier-breaking Charlie Sifford. “He stands as a social pioneer not because he could play politics, but because he could play golf.”

Steph Curry, as we know, can play basketball. And golf. 

And with his contributions to society and politics, if only in the most positive of ways. That Curry was given the Charlie Sifford Award by Southern Company for “Advancing Diversity in Golf,” surely would have pleased Sifford as much as it delighted Curry.

Yes, Steph still is on court, when needed. He was needed in a preseason game at Chase Center Wednesday night, hitting the game-winning 3-pointer as time expired to give the Warriors a 116-115 win over Sacramento.

The beauty of sport is that skill and talent—and hard work—transcend ethnic backgrounds. Or is supposed to. But it wasn’t that way in golf, historically a game as white as the dimpled balls placed on the tee.

Sifford grew up in a still segregated Charlotte, N.C., learning golf as a caddy. He had a short backswing but fortunately not a short fuse, patiently accepting the insults, death threats and sometimes the terrible materials hurled at him.

Sifford, who died at 92 in 2015, survived long enough to win two PGA Tour events and to be chosen for the World Golf Hall of Fame. As does Jackie Robinson, he has a place in the heart of every African American athlete. No Charlie Sifford, perhaps no Tiger Woods.

Curry, who like Sifford grew up in North Carolina, was particularly moved to be the Sifford Award winner, “to be recognized in this sport I am so passionate about.” 

His success in golf—he not only won this year’s American Century event at Lake Tahoe but also had a hole-in-one the previous round—is hardly a surprise.

Basketball players, along with hockey players, have the hand-eye coordination demanded. Michael Jordan was so good he tried to go on tour, although as he discovered there’s a gap between a low-handicap amateur and a pro.

Individuals who after a high profile celebrity event which might get them stories on the internet, usually along with advice to keep their day job. Curry certainly will, so that, although his day job is at night, in the company of Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.

Off the course and the court, Curry launched Underrated Golf in 2021, a purpose-driven endeavor with the “overarching commitment to provide equity access and opportunity to student-athletes from every community.”

At 37, Curry, his golf mostly confined until early summer next year, is astonished by the opportunity of one more NBA championship, adding to the four he has won since the season of 2015.

Not that his finances can’t be put to use at the same time, Curry is going to join the ownership group of the San Francisco team of the TGL, the virtual golf league developed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy

Curry and Klay Thompson will join billionaire businessman Marc Lasry, a former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks as investors. There will be six teams that will hold a competition on a virtual course in a custom-built arena in Florida. The league describes itself as “fusing advanced tech and live action.”

Charlie Sifford never would have believed it.

Simple explanation for Niners loss: They were outplayed

The coach said it. The score confirmed it. The 49ers were outplayed

That’s no sin in the NFL, where the words “on any given Sunday” remain more than just a persistent slogan.  

No sin, if it doesn’t happen too frequently.

And for the San Francisco 49ers, it hadn’t happened in any game in the season of 2023 until on this given Sunday when they were defeated, 19-17, on the road by the Cleveland Browns.

That left the Niners with a 5-1 record and reminders that what happened a week earlier, a resounding win over the haughty Dallas Cowboys, becomes inconsequential within days. 

It also for the first time in his Cinderella career left questions about the kid quarterback, Brock Purdy, who admittedly while at a disadvantage, a botched-up running game, looked — awful is probably too violent a word.

He threw the first interception of his year-and-a-half career, was sacked three times and completed 12 of 27 passes for a mere 125 yards. Those numbers in part were attributable to the Niners’ lack of a ground game.  

Christian McCaffrey missed much of the second half because of an injury (he did score, however, to extend his team-record touchdown streak to 15 games) and Deebo Samuel, also injured, barely played at all.

Thus the Browns, with the league’s best defense, could concentrate on getting to Purdy, physically and mentally. And they got to him.

Purdy’s slip into imperfection was matched by the rookie place kicker Jake Moody, who missed two field goals, including one from 41 yards with a few seconds left to play. Yes, that could have been the game-winner. But we don’t deal here in could haves.

Somehow those football gods had decided on this afternoon the way the Browns performed and the 49ers couldn’t perform that no way Cleveland would lose.

It didn’t.

“It was a grinding game,” said Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers coach. “We made way too many mistakes.”

It was a weird day overall. Before kickoff, the two teams got involved in a pushing match that involved an occasional sort of event that has been known to take place at college games where the players are hyped up from bellicose coaching advice but rarely if ever in the pros where energy and anger are saved until the line of scrimmage.

It’s hard to call the Browns-49ers a rivalry because of the current divisional league setup, but they began playing in 1946—as noted by the patch on the Browns uniforms when they were part of the old All-America Football Conference. 

Cleveland had Otto Graham, Marion Motley and Lou Groza and invariably outplayed the Niners. Just as they did Sunday.

Dodgers tumble: How humiliating, how delightful

That annual playoff collapse by the Los Angeles Dodgers? Up here north of Fresno (meaning Giants Land) one can only think of the comments by Henry Higgins near the end of “My Fair Lady.”

“How humiliating,” says Higgins, “how delightful.”

Finding joy in the misery of others (the Germans call it schadenfreude) may not be the most sportsmanlike of options, but the teams have been (is rivals too kind a word?) for more than a century.

And nothing quite matches the bitterness from San Francisco fans or the jealousy and paranoia.

What happened to the Dodgers in the best-of-five National League Division Series was the stuff that makes sport fascinating and baseball enthralling.

Unless you were rooting for those Dodgers.

It wasn’t just that after winning 100 games during the regular season (seemingly most at the expense of the Giants) LA couldn’t win any in the playoffs against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Dodgers were simply awful. Their pitching was terrible—future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw couldn’t throw an inning of the first game and the Dodgers ended up getting pounded 11-2.

Their hitting was worse. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, LA’s two top batters, were a combined 1-for-21.

In the last 15 years or so, the Dodgers have won far more games than the Giants, but the Giants have won three World Series, the Dodgers one.

That makes no sense, but it doesn’t have to. As has been pointed out, in baseball the line drives are caught and the bloopers fall in for singles.

In the last 15 years or so, the Dodgers have won a lot of games, earned a lot of praise and since they’re in the so-called Entertainment Capital of the Universe, drawn a lot of attention.

But they’ve won only one World Series, while the woe-be-gone Giants have won three.  

Would you rather have a team that keeps you hopeful until almost the very end, then breaks your heart like the Dodgers or one that plods along its merry way and other than a tease and offers no expectations—the Giants at least kept it interesting in 2023 until it really mattered.

Sort of funny. The Giants, perhaps more than any team in the majors, were infamous for coming unglued with their historic “June Swoon,” but that isn’t a sudden tumble as performed by the Dodgers  

“This is hellacious,” wrote columnist Bill Plaschke in the Los Angeles Times. “From first to worst, from 100 to zero, from great to godawful, again and again.”

Wonder the viewpoint of Farhan Zaidi, who before becoming the man in charge of the Giants, was duly employed by the Dodgers.

There’s no question how Giants partisans feel. If there’s anything almost as good as a San Francisco victory it’s an L.A. Dodgers loss. Ain’t sports fun?

Niners move on after what they did to America’s Team

It gets down to a two-word description: America’s Team.

So arrogant. So irritating. Unless you’re the designated franchise, the Dallas Cowboys.

To which we now may add, so overrated.

The label was created in 1979 by a self-indulgent team public relations man for a highlight film and was used continually on national TV, when the Cowboys were winning championships, which they might not do lately but still win the attention of ESPN.

That game Sunday, the mismatch at Levi’s Stadium, final score, 42-10, was treated by many across the NFL landscape as not so much a 49ers victory as a Cowboys defeat.

What it was for Niners coach Kyle Shanahan was an opportunity to gloat, at least in a subtle manner.

So much on the tube and in the dailies on the Cowboys. So much from Dallas owner Jerry Jones.  All right, already.

As Shanahan may not have said directly in his post-game comments yet certainly implied that the Niners coach knew what he had, a potential champion. And an all-encompassing audience, prime weekend time.

“This was our biggest game this year,” he said. 

No warnings about what’s in the future. No giving credit to the opponent.

Just an embrace of the obvious domination (421 yards total offense to 197) that verified the Niners’ defense is every bit as good as it needs to be and the offense may be better than believed.

San Francisco both shut down the Cowboys and shut up their all-too-boisterous supporters.

“Our guys were ready,” said Shanahan. Asked to comment on quarterback Brock Purdy, who threw four touchdown passes, Shanahan offered not a scintilla of doubt. “All our guys were good,” he conceded.

Tight end George Kittle caught three touchdown passes for the first time in his career as if to balance the three touchdowns scored a week earlier against Arizona by Christian McCaffrey, who Sunday had one to extend his team record streak of consecutive games with TDs to 14.

“We’re pretty good!” said one of the Niners offensive lineman.

How good still is to be determined (12 games remain for the Niners in the regular season). Only the 1972 Miami Dolphins completed a schedule unbeaten.

Who knows what might transpire?

What we do know is the 49ers are far superior to the Cowboys, whose America’s Team nickname is sadly out of date.

Still, reputations linger in certain cases, notably that of Dallas, which is always in the news for no other reason than history, even undeserved.

The Niners, in contrast, might not attract the attention of the Cowboys, or didn’t until the thrashing, so they’ll simply have to win games under the radar.

Besides, you don’t have to be America’s Team to win the Super Bowl, just the best team in America.

Time is right for WNBA—and to remember Franklin Mieuli

This was good work from almost everyone concerned, especially the WNBA for inevitably awarding an expansion franchise to a community where both pro basketball and women’s sports are wildly popular.

Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob (and others involved) for assigning the name Golden State, readily identifiable now, although the nickname has yet to be decided.

One imagines that it will have some connection to “Warriors.” But that came with the formation of the team in Philadelphia in 1946, a time when we were unaware of political correctness. The reference was to native Americans—subsequently replaced by a character called Thunder now with the guys in Oklahoma City.

Philly became the San Francisco Warriors in 1962, and despite having the great Wilt Chamberlain, there were more empty seats than full ones.  Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who ran a proverbial mom-and-pop operation, was struggling financially.

When in 1971 the San Diego Rockets moved to Houston, Mieuli arranged to play a part of the Warriors’ home schedule in San Diego. He needed a change to a more inclusive name. “I could have used California Warriors,” he would say, “but to me, California was the school in Berkeley.”

So Golden State became a mythical place, and now after all those championships, Golden State will remain.

The WNBA team will begin playing in 2025, after the Paris Olympics, perfect placement. As hoops fans know the WNBA schedule begins when the NBA schedule ends. And vice versa.

Tara VanDervrer obliquely deserves credit in all this. Her Stanford teams gave women’s basketball a place in Northern California’s overly busy sporting calendar among the Niners and Giants—and Warriors.

But so much is attributable to that electronic device that seems to control our lives, the television.

It was two years ago when ESPN (curse them, bless them) signed a contract to show us the WNBA. And if there’s one thing ESPN can do it’s promote its own products. Not more than a figurative minute has gone by the last few weeks without a mention of the WNBA and its stars.

Somebody must have been watching, and for good reason. Those girls can play.  

After the announcement at Chase Center, Warriors all-star Klay Thompson said now he would have something to occupy his summer, sailing his boat across the Bay from Marin to WNBA games in San Francisco.

The shame is one one-time Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who died at 89 ln 2010, couldn’t be around with others like WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert, to announce that the league is coming to San Francisco—really to the Bay Area since the team will practice at the Warriors former facility in Oakland.   

It was back in 1969 before anyone even thought of women playing pro basketball, Mieuli and the Warriors used the 13th pick in that year’s NBA draft on an Iowa schoolgirl with a great shot, Denise Long Rife.

Now Denise is 72 and while she never got a chance to play in the league, she has earned the recognition and it has kept her in the news.

A few years later, in the early 1980s, the Women's Professional Basketball League arrived briefly. There was a San Francisco team, the appropriately named Pioneers, and they played at Civic Auditorium, as on occasion did the Warriors.

We’re told that in life and love, timing is everything. You can add interest in the WNBA. Just look at Klay Thompson.

McCaffrey trade that worked for Niners

SANTA CLARA — This is the trade that worked. This is the trade that might get the 49ers to the Super Bowl. This is the trade that brought them Christian McCaffrey. 

All spring we kept being reminded about the bad deal that brought quarterback Trey Lance, who turned out not to be the man the Niners hoped he would be.

Well, McCaffrey, the Stanford guy (as is his dad), is exactly what the 49ers hoped he would be. And more.  

So, let’s hear about the good deal — the great deal — the one that brought them the marvelous runner and receiver. And what a game he had Sunday, picking up yards, picking up records and helping San Francisco pick up another win, this one 35-16 over the Arizona Cardinals. 

McCaffrey scored four touchdowns, with three of those coming in the first half. In the process, McCaffrey extended his team streak of games scoring a touchdown to 13, one more than the record of 12 set by Jerry Rice in 1987.

It was a year ago, October 2022, when Niners coach Kyle Shanahan was able to acquire the running back he knew the Niners needed to balance their defense.

And that McCaffrey, looking to expand his horizons and his performance, sought a change.

He mentioned, while still with the Carolina Panthers, the team that drafted him, that he would like to play with the Big City Guys as if there was much difference between where an NFL franchise is located. It’s the people who run the team and play for the team who count.

Small town or Gotham, you want great players and winners. McCaffrey, who rushed 20 times for 106 yards and caught seven passes for 71 yards, unquestionably is one of those.

“It’s a normal thing for him to score a touchdown in 13 consecutive games,”  said Kyle Juszczyk, the Niners fullback who blocks for McCaffrey. “That’s insane. It’s just come to be expected. He executes everything so well.”

Juszczyk is a prime blocker for McCaffrey, and as you know a Harvard grad. Maybe he’s the only one who would use “insane” in a football context.  

What McCaffrey said about what certainly was a historic afternoon at Levi’s Stadium was very little. He preferred to talk about teammates, especially quarterback Brock Purdy. 

“I think you can go down the list of what makes a quarterback good and he checks every box. Then he has all the intangibles that would be phenomenal. He brings a kind of swagger and energy every day that is fun to be around.  He’s quiet but very confident and he expresses that in the way he plays. It’s just awesome to have him in the huddle.”

The same is true for McCaffrey, out of the huddle and into the end zone.