Niners’ Shanahan on loss to Chiefs: “We got our ass kicked today”

They were calling it a Super Bowl rematch. It was more like a mismatch.

"There's no way to sugarcoat this. We got our ass kicked today," said Kyle Shanahan, the San Francisco 49ers coach. 

The final score made it seem close, Kansas City Chiefs 28, Niners 18. It wasn’t. A more accurate reflection would come from the time of possession: Kansas City owned the ball for more than 35 minutes. It owns the 49ers seemingly forever, now having beaten San Francisco the last five times they played.

The Chiefs only defeated San Francisco 25-22 in overtime in Super Bowl LVIII last February, and yes, the 49ers could have won that game. They had no chance of winning this one, Sunday, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, as Shanahan so tersely pointed out.

Not only was it because of the three interceptions of quarterback Brock Purdy, who concedes he tried to force the last two of the throws. Indeed Purdy and the Niners were without three top receivers, Jauan Jennings, Deebo Samuel and then when he got hurt in the fourth quarter—apparently a torn ACL—Brandon Ayuik. The loss of those players understandably had a huge effect on the Niners' offense, but every team in the NFL has injuries. KC was without several players, and the best teams survive if not thrive.

The Chiefs indeed are thriving at 6-0. They are the only team in pro football still undefeated with the Vikings falling to Detroit earlier Sunday. So much for any thought that KC would have a letdown after last season's title.   

The Niners are 3-4. While the situation figures to improve if and when halfback Christian McCaffrey returns, along with several of the missing receivers, it will not be easy to return to the playoffs. 

So many things have gone wrong this year, including the inability to finish games. If the Niners are to regain their once-exalted position as one of the NFL’s leading franchises, Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys would be a good place to start. 

The Cowboys have had their own troubles, and have owner Jerry Jones giving various explanations. Long ago Dallas was labeled “America’s team,” and whether that was justified, the Cowboys have earned as much respect and disdain as any team in any sport. 

The Chiefs have simply gained admiration under coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. They just kept winning and on Sunday the Niners were their victim. Again.

KC did it with a defense that wasn’t overwhelming, just efficient. The Niners gained 384 net yards, compared to the 358 for the Chiefs, but San Francisco, as has been the case, could not turn yardage into enough points.

Purdy’s three interceptions were part of the reason. Turnovers hurt even the best teams, and it is obvious that San Francisco, now behind Seattle in the division, isn’t one of the very best teams at the moment. The Niners still have more than half of their season remaining, which could be good news if they figure out how to complete the drives and somehow keep players healthy enough to play.

Mets, Dodgers show that money is a key to the Postseason

So here in the wasteland of baseball—but ain’t the weather beautiful?—we try to accept the fact the Dodgers are where the Giants are not, in the postseason. And we wonder whether the new guy, Buster Posey, is as surprised by what has happened.

Or what hasn’t.

Now, as the newly appointed director of baseball operations, his task is clear: to do what his predecessor, Farhan Zaidi, could not—build a Giants team that can overtake the dreaded Dodgers.

Posey of course was an MVP catcher and a major contributor when (sigh!) the franchise from San Francisco finished ahead of the one from Los Angeles and every other team in the majors. One thing Giants fans must hope is that when Posey goes out to get players, he will be accompanied by a large amount of money.

Poverty doesn’t work anymore in baseball. The New York Mets have the largest payroll in the sport, and that’s the reason they are facing the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Dodgers and Yankees are also among the top spenders. It’s been proven that, with rare exceptions in baseball, you get what you pay for.

The San Diego Padres thought they would be getting the place where the Dodgers are now, and they had a 2-1 lead over L.A. in the division series, but San Diego choked it away or got stopped by Dodger pitching that reminded people of the Sandy Koufax-Don Drysdale era of the early 1960s.

What might strike Giants fans as humorous is the way the Padres and their supporters have stolen a page from the book of Giants-Dodgers history. Before the playoffs, San Diego was flooded with posters and T-shirts with the words “Beat LA.”

Giants fans have chanted that for decades, to no avail, rather than a positive slogan like “Let’s go Giants.”

Early on, when the Dodgers recorded 33 consecutive scoreless innings, starting with the Padres and running on into the Mets, LA seemed unbeatable. It is hard to win when you don’t score, but one of the great cliches in baseball is momentum only lasts until the end of the game. The guy who hit a home run one day is quite likely to strike out three days the next. 

Even superstars can begin to struggle. The great Shohei Ohtani, who is a lock for National League most valuable player after hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases, has only two hits in the two games against New York. Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernandez tried to interview Ohtani after his hitless second game against the Mets Monday, but Ohtani wouldn’t talk. He had three hitless at-bats and now is 0 for 19 in the playoffs with the bases empty, but he is six for eight with runners on base. He is batting .222 in the postseason.

However, he and the Dodgers are in the Postseason. Unlike the team from San Francisco. Maybe next year… Buster Posey may have an effect.

Niners get the game they needed—for themselves and the fans

This was the game the San Francisco 49ers needed, maybe as much for themselves as their doubting fans and skeptical media. And this was the game the 49ers, calling down the echoes, grabbed in the most resounding and reassuring of ways.

True, the final score showed the Niners only in front 36-24, but from the opening moments you sensed they not only were going to win but prove that the talent and fire were still in the locker room and on the field.

They didn’t correct all the faults on display in consecutive losses to the Rams and Cardinals, but they once more reminded us of the exciting teams that got the ball into the end zone and stopped opposing runners when needed.

Playing at Seattle’s home, Lumen Field, against a Seahawks team that had its own problems, but still had a better record (3-2) than San Francisco, the 49ers showed plenty of offense (483 yards) and enough defense—including big interceptions by two rookie defensive backs, Renardo Green and Malek Mustapha. 

Maybe the game became a little uncomfortable for the Niners and their supporters, when the Seahawks, after trailing 16-0 late in the first half, closed to 23-17 late in the third quarter.

However, one never felt the Niners wouldn’t stay in control.

The belief that the Niners were among the NFL’s best teams had been restored, although we’ll find out more when they play the Super Bowl champion, Kansa City Chiefs, a week from Sunday. At the moment, we’ll be content with the fact that against the Seahawks the Niners seemed revitalized and very competitive.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan, as disappointed in his team’s offensive output the previous two games as anyone—San Francisco had only one offensive touchdown against the Cardinals—was understandably thrilled by the way his team moved the ball, especially moving it into the end zone.

Shanahan was intent on opening up things, and that tactic worked beautifully, quarterback Brock Purdy throwing three touchdown passes, a 76-yarder to Deebo Samuel, and two to the ever-reliable George Kittle, 10 and nine yards. For a man known for his solid blocking that sets runners free, Kittle is impressive as a receiver.

“He made two very good catches,” said Shanahan about Kittle. “And Deebo really turned in a great play. We used him a lot.”

Purdy spoke about the team’s resilience after its stumbling start.

“I think that we all came together as a team,” said Purdy. “Both touchdowns were trust factors. We stuck together as a unit.”

Niners need a kicker, luck and a win

The San Francisco 49ers need a new placekicker. Surely they will have one before Monday is done. The 49ers need a victory. They may get that in a few days. The Niners likewise need a break. Who will guess when one might occur?

The intent is not to seek sympathy for the Niners, who over the past decades have had their share of good fortune and success. And even if that were the intent—nothing is normal in the business of pro sports—none would be provided.

But for all the things that went right through the years when the 49ers were winning, including last season when they came within a victory—albeit a very significant victory—of taking the Super Bowl, so much has gone wrong this screwball season of 2024.

Not only are the Niners stumbling along with a losing record of 2-3, but the situation seems to be even bleaker than the numbers. On Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, San Francisco had built a 13-point lead over the quite mediocre Arizona Cardinals and then lost on a field goal with 1:37 remaining. Yes, the temperature climbed to more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit by the second half and yes the Cardinals train in the desert where temperatures are in that range daily, but good teams overcome such difficulties, which is why they are good teams. The Niners, on Sunday, could not. What the Niners similarly could not overcome was the loss of their kicker Jake Moody, who injured an ankle while trying to do what kickers and quarterbacks should be reluctant to do, make a tackle.

San Francisco after consecutive defeats to two other West Division teams, the Los Angeles Rams—blowing a big lead in that one—and the Cardinals, are in more than a bit of trouble.  They do have a chance to make a correction quickly when they play the Seahawks in a Thursday night game at Seattle. However, that could end up as another loss for the Niners, no matter who they pick up as their new kicker.

You’ve often heard the line that defense wins. And that’s not untrue, but you need a little offense, and it would be unfair to blame the defeat against the Cardinals on the D even though the Niners had built a large advantage. San Francisco scored only one touchdown on offense and was shut out in the second half. The Niners were without their All-Pro back, Christian McCaffrey, as they have been in every game this season, yet backup Jordan Mason has done more than an adequate job. It’s just like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces don’t fit with the Niner offense. San Francisco outgained the Cardinals 384 yards to 358. And yet, the Niners were unable to do what we’ve become used to them doing, taking the ball and getting it into the end zone when needed.

It was needed Sunday and maybe it will show up for Thursday’s game along with the new kicker.

Nobody said winning would be easy, but it has become very hard for the Niners the last few games.

Giants replace Zaidi (a baseball man) with Posey (a baseball player)

So the San Francisco Giants have decided to replace executive Farhan Zaidi, a baseball man, with Buster Posey, a baseball player.

And the question after consecutive losing seasons is not so much why but why not?

That Zaidi schooled in the beauty and agony of analytics couldn’t turn the Giants into winners in his five seasons as their director of baseball operations, probably wasn’t entirely his fault. Still, you can’t finish under .500 three years in a row and get pounded by the dreaded, despised Los Angeles Dodgers, without some consequences.

Posey, an MVP and star catcher of the Giants’ World Series Teams of 2010, 2012, 2014, was one of the most popular players of the recent era. Whether that popularity translates into success in the front office remains to be seen. After retirement, Posey, who has a young family and resides in Georgia where he grew up, has worked for the Giants in an advisory role. The plan was for him always to move up into a power position, but who knew it would be this quickly.

Everyone understands how dominant the Dodgers have been—although they only have one World Series title in the last few years—and that has made it unsettling for the Giants’ situation.  The San Diego Padres came along with the intent of catching L.A., and in the process have made life more difficult for San Francisco.

The Dodgers and Padres have slugged it out and as expected both are in the postseason.  However, the Giants failed to get to the playoffs and maybe even worse, were unable to win as many games as they lost. The Giants, indeed attempted to sign big-name free agents, including this year the remarkable Shohei Ohtani, but were unable to make a blockbuster deal that in retrospect would have given Zaidi job security as well as a place in baseball lore. Zaidi repeatedly said the Giants budget was large enough to sign Carlos Correa in 2023 or Ohtani in 2024 but those deals never came to fruition.

One of the frequent rumors in baseball is that top players don’t want to come to San Francisco for one reason or another, having nothing to do with baseball in particular, but the city’s reputation as a haven for the disenfranchised. And yet when Oracle Park is packed and fans are cheering, that seems to be less of an issue, as most likely it gets down to the team winning or losing. They stopped winning with Zaidi in charge. Will they be able to restart when Posey takes over?

We will know sooner than later.

49ers use a Belichick-type defense to beat his old team

You imagine Bill Belichick found a measure of appreciation the way his former team was defeated Sunday—if given the circumstances, not quite to the same degree Kyle Shanahan found in his current team winning.

Belichick’s historic success with the New England Patriots, the seven Super Bowl championships, was constructed on defense, although to be sure, no one doubts the contributions of a quarterback named Tom Brady.

The Patriots, now without Belichick and very much rebuilding, came to Levi Stadium Sunday, where the 49ers finally showed the type of defense needed to win in the NFL, defeating the Patriots, 31-13.

Quarterback Brock Purdy again played impressively for the Niners, but the difference as Purdy pointed out in the post-game interview, the defense missing the last couple of weeks—both defeats—was back and in full force. If that was the result of linebacker Fred Warner’s pre-game almost threatening inspirational speech to the squad, then so be it. Sometimes it takes a slap from more than the final score.

The Niners knew what to do. It’s just that they didn’t do it against the Minnesota Vikings or the Los Angeles Rams. Was it complacency or merely the unavoidable fact that teams do not play at the highest level each time out? 

“We were not playing the way we should,” said Warner.  

Quickly enough he turned his words into actions. In the opening minutes of the second quarter with San Francisco ahead 6-0, Warner picked off a pass from Jacoby Bissett and turned the interception into a 45-yard return for a touchdown. He injured his ankle on the play and did not return, but Warner said he would be fine—and after the pick-6 it was apparent the Niners also would be fine.

“The defense was awesome,” said Shanahan, “especially on 1st downs.”

San Francisco limited the Pats to a mere 216 yards on offense. New England had the ball for only 3 fewer minutes than the Niners, but couldn’t do much with it. The Niners had six quarterback sacks, in part because of the Patriots’ ineffectiveness but in part because of San Francisco’s needed aggressiveness. After all, didn’t the Niners give defensive lineman, Nick Bosa, $170 million for five years to help the defense play the way it finally did?

Purdy will be getting a new contract for next season and it is predicted to be enormous because quarterbacks, understandably, get better paid than anyone in pro football. But at the moment, however, Purdy is only talking about this season—and what has transpired.

“The offense and defense today were complimentary,” said Purdy, alluding to one category helping the other. “We distributed the ball.”

Jordan Mason, filling in beautifully for the injured Christian McCaffrey, rushed for 123 yards. Tight end George Kittle, known for his necessary blocking, made a spectacular touchdown catch and kicker Jake Moody was perfect on three field goal attempts.

So now the Niners seem to be revitalized, particularly on defense. They have many games left to verify that this is true, starting with the one against the Arizona Cardinals. If a game against the mediocre Cardinals verifies anything.

The A’s saga is over, however the sadness will always remain

And so, Major League Baseball in Oakland has come to an end. The final moment was recorded at 3:06 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday. The deceased was surrounded by a gathering of 46,889 at his former residence, the Coliseum. Death was attributed to a combination of financial stubbornness and political incompetence, a pattern too familiar when it comes to sports teams in Oakland.

Mourners are required to travel to Sacramento for viewing. There may be some satisfaction that the Athletics won the last game at what now is their former home, defeating the Texas Rangers, 3-2.

We have gone through the painful reasons for the disappointment. Does it make any of us feel better to despise the apparent chief villain in all of this, who forced the move, John Fisher?  Perhaps that caustic farewell speech he sent to A’s season ticket holders, very unsympathetic about the team’s move, probably is enough to not offer forgiveness.

You have read about the exploits of the players and managers who were so much a part of the A’s since they arrived from Kansas City in 1968. People such as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rolly Fingers, and Ricky Henderson.

Not to be forgotten, however, are those who never wore a uniform and to me are so much a part of this franchise. Steve Vucinich was the Oakland kid who became a batboy and then for decades, until retirement, was the clubhouse and equipment manager.

As the story goes, Vuchinich was trying to hook up with the A’s. Joe DiMaggio was a coach and vice president of the team. And when told that Vuchinich went to St. Joseph’s High in Alameda, “He’s Catholic?” said DiMaggio. “Hire him.”  

It turned out to be a great hire. 

Wednesday night he was interviewed on the A’s radio network about his historical 50-year career. Bay Area newspapers were known for saving money. They covered road games only because the team picked up the travel bill. But when the A’s arrived in Oakland, owner Charlie Finley wouldn’t go along with that idea. That meant only one person, the late Ron Bergman, of the then Oakland Tribune went on the road with the A’s. He was an intense, talented guy, not afraid to report the facts, and those facts included the fights inside the A’s clubhouse. He was the epitome of an honest journalist and admired by the rest of us who weren’t on the scene and jealous of Bergman’s items.

The A’s are fleeing, the Coliseum never again will be used for baseball, and we just have to accept the consequences. Life and baseball are both unfair. The line drives are caught and the bloopers drop in for hits. We learn to accept it. 

Still, to me, having no Major League Baseball in Oakland is unacceptable.

Was Niners' loss to Rams mystifying and mortifying?

It wasn’t so much who was missing. A great team, even a very good team, overcomes the loss of star players through injuries, inequities, bad breaks, and surprises—very tricky of the Rams to pull off that fake punt. 

Which the San Francisco 49ers did not. Which is why they are not a great team.

Yes, the Niners were without Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle, but they did have a 14-0 lead early on, and then a 10-point lead with 6 ½ minutes to go.

And they were playing the Rams in Los Angeles where they never lose—at least more than the once they did in the playoffs a few years ago. And all the fans, as you could tell on television,  the red-shirts and jerseys and unstopping cheers at So-Fi Stadium, as always the majority of the fans were cheering for San Francisco.

Despite all this, the previously winless Rams on a 37-yard field goal with two seconds remaining by former Stanford kicker, Josh Karty, beat the 49ers 27-24. 

This was more mortifying than mystifying, perhaps. Teams losing Super Bowls, as did the Niners in February,  seem to disintegrate the following season. That doesn’t mean the Niners are doomed, but they are 1-2. No excuses even with the big injuries.

Niners coach Kyle Shanahan seemed as stunned as anybody. 

“There were a number of times we could have put them away,” said Shanahan on the Niners post-game telecast. “It was a frustrating game. We kicked a field goal and they came right back with a field goal.” 

In trying to raise the spirits of the 49ers faithful, Shanahan pointed out that the 49ers had a three-game losing streak last year and as we know they made it to the Super Bowl. And as we also know they didn’t win the Super Bowl. It is a tough league, the NFL, and while it takes a team a long time to climb to the top, it can tumble into the depths oh so quickly. That doesn’t mean the Niners are headed for a decline. But the little things that go right when a team is successful seem to go wrong when the defeats begin to mount. 

That doesn’t mean the Niners are doomed, and they could well recover from this inglorious start to the season, but losing to the Rams certainly is ominous. A win in L.A. seemed almost a given.

Even with McCaffrey, Samuel, and Kittle ailing and missing from the offense, it seemed to be the defense that couldn’t respond to the demands. In the first half, there was a sequence in which the Rams had the third down and 29 to go, LA seemed notably hopeless. But as we should have known from watching pro football through the years, situations and ideas change almost as quickly as teams do from one end of the field to the other.

Brock Purdy, the Niners quarterback, played even better than some would give him credit for. He completed 22 passes in 30 attempts for 292 yards and three touchdowns, all three caught by Jauan Jennings. Purdy also ran 10 times for 41 yards.

“No problem with Brock,” said Shanahan. “He played his ass off.”

There wasn’t much more to give or to say.

For Kizzire, at the Procore, sweet smell of success and sparkling wine

NAPA — Patton Kizzire arrived talking about a new mental attitude for his golf game that included hugging a tree or two.

He departed filled with the sweet smell of success and the pungent aroma of Mumm’s Napa sparkling wine on his attire.

He had been sprayed Sunday by several celebrating friends moments after completing his first PGA tour victory in six years, the Procore Championship at Silverado Resort.                                                       

He came into the final round with a four shot lead that made the rest of us think he would have no problems. But every stroke in every round can be a problem, no matter how good you are.

Kizzire shot a 2-under par 70, the last 18 holes, and his four-round total of 268, a cumulative of 20 under par, was five shots lower than David Lipsky, who finished 2nd after a 71. Patrick Fishburn (71) was third at 274.

The thinking among the rest of us was all Kizzire had to do was show up and not fall into a bunker. And that thought seemed particularly relevant when he eagled par five fifth hole to go to 20 under par. However as any wise golfer, he was careful and thoughtful.

“I was trying not to get ahead of myself today,” said Kizzire. “I knew that it would be difficult not to get ahead of myself with a four-shot lead heading into today. I wrote down in my yardage book, ’I am here, I am now.’ I kept going back to that and that helped me be disciplined and stay present. That was something that I just kept going back to and that’s what really helped me come out on top.”

Any win on tour is meaningful because it is so hard to come by. But this one was particularly significant at Silverado, on the same course in the same tournament, although it was then named the Safeway Open, in 2018, Kizzire missed tying for first by a single shot.

Golf is played as much in the mind as on the fairways and rough. You have to believe in yourself, and the little things, a missed shot, a bad break, begin to erode a player’s confidence. Although Kizzire is 38, and has been a pro quite awhile, he said he needed a new approach, and began working a month ago with a mental coach. 

Yes, her advice included walking barefoot and hugging a tree. 

“Well, there’s always doubt in anything,” he said. “If you listen to the doubt in life in general it’s never beneficial. You look at the positives in all things. There’s going to be obstacles and that’s just how it’s going to be. You’ve got to plan to attack those obstacles. I did a fantastic job of that the entire week.”

Kizzire’s lead was trimmed to two shots when Litsky birdied 11. 

“He hit an amazing shot in there,” Kizzire said. “That was a tough situation. Yes, I grinded, just kept reading in my book. Yeah, he applied some heavy pressure there and that was definitely a test.”

One Patton Kizzire passed beautifully.

No talk of tree hugs for Kizzire, just great golf to extend Procore lead

NAPA — Not a mention of trees hugged or unhugged from Patton Kizzire after his round on Saturday, which was perfectly understandable. This time his golf game said it all.

Kizzire took a one shot lead he established Friday in the Procore Championship before telling us relaxed activities such as embracing trees had improved his “mental approach, and hoisted it up to four strokes.”

He went out at Silverado Country Club and shot a bogey free 5-under par 67 for a 54 hole total of 198 and left his competitors someplace back among the Cabernet and Chardonnay grapes.

“Swing feels good,” Kizzire said in what is an understatement almost as large as his lead. “I’ve been a little bit more focused on the mental game because I think that allows my swing to work, so that’s been a good combo.”

There is no sure thing in golf, where an interchange of birdies and bogeys can erase strokes quickly—think of Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters—but you’d think Kizzire in his eighth year, seems in perfect position.

David Lipsky, the first round leader, is the man closest to Kizzire heading into the final 18 holes, shot a 2-under, 70 Saturday.

There is a 4 way tie at 13 under, among 2 Canadians Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners, and 2 Americans Greyson Sigg and Patrick Fishburn.

Kizzire, 38, has won twice on the PGA Tour in 2017 and 2018. And right here in the Napa Valley he missed by a shot in this tournament, when it was called the Safeway Open. 

On Friday he explained how a change of approach, one that included relaxing—and that was reflected in his jovial remarks about hugging a tree—had improved his game.

“I wanted to make a little bit of an adjustment with my golf game,” he had said, “mental game and physical game. It’s been really cool to just get organized and try to be more playful out there and be unflappable, that’s kind of my word.”

Unflappable, or remarkable, he seems to have taken control of his game. 

“I think what was wrong, you couldn’t see it in the stats,” said Kizzire. “I think the consistency comes from a solid mental foundation and allowing yourself to compete. So I have been working on that and that’s been a huge boost for me.”

So much of the success in any sport is in the mind, you have to think positively and believe in yourself. Through the decades, the athletes—golfers included—have tried everything to keep themselves sharp.

He told us Friday the key is “not letting yourself go the other way.”

Through three rounds of this Procore he has been definitely going the right way.

“Treeing” it up in the Procore, Kizzire takes the lead

NAPA — Golfers are known to try anything which will improve their game. Patton Kizzire has chosen to embrace trees, those items we’re told poetically only God can make—as opposed to the pars and bogeys created by man.

Now he’s hugging trees. 

Hey, whatever works, and in the first two rounds of the Procore it ’s been working for Kizzire. He shot a seven under par, bogey free 65 Friday at Silverado Country Club. That gives him a 36 hole total of 131, 3 under par and a one shot advantage over first round leader David Lipsky. Another shot back is Patrick Fishburn.

Kizzire doesn’t seem like one of those kids from the Berkeley Hills—he’s from Alabama and went to Auburn. But when he arrived for the media interview he, yes, became a tree hugger.

“I’ve had a little bit of time off,” said Kizzire. “I missed the Playoffs, so I wanted to make a little bit of an adjustment with my golf game, mental game and physical game.

“It’s been really cool to just get organized,” he continued, “and try to be more playful out there and be unflappable, that’s kind of my word.”

When asked if he had hugged a tree, Patton replied, "Oh, you know, not joking. I hugged that tree right there," pointing to one next to the first green.

Whatever his options for helping his game, tree hugging or not, Kizzire matches up well with Silverado. He finished 2nd in 2018, when the tournament was called The Safeway Open.

He said he was looking forward to bringing his “positive vibes and positive thoughts” back to the wine country.  So far, so good. 

“This is a good place,” he said, “this a great golf course, and I enjoy playing it.”

That’s not unusual.  Golfers like courses on which they play well, and it’s a two-way street. Or is that a two way fairway?

And they play well on courses they like.

“The first time I played it (2018) I think I should have won.  I had the lead with a few holes to play, and another guy, Brendan Steele, played really well at the end and beat me by a stroke.”

Steele, who is from Southern California, won the tournament twice. Obviously, there is a long way to go in this tournament and well positioned in fourth place, three shots back is the veteran Matt Kuchar, a multi-event winner over the years.

Still, the tree hugger, Kizzire, is confident. And why not?

“I know I can do it,” said Kizzire, “and I’m looking forward to the opportunity this weekend.”

It’s there, along with all the trees on the course.

Lipsky gets the Procore lead and a tough question

NAPA — David Lipsky got the first-round lead of the Procore Championship and the type of question that never would have been asked of golfers such as Scottie Scheffler or Tiger Woods:

If you take a long view on your professional career… how would you describe it?

Talk about putting a guy on the spot. What’s Lipsky going to answer that doesn’t make him sound disenchanted or like a misanthrope?

A journalist might say he’s been persistent and not unsuccessful, especially after learning that while at Northwestern Lipsky was undecided about what to choose for a career.

Or was the option of turning pro and as demonstrated from his 7 under par 65 Thursday at Silverado Country Club’s North Course, it wasn’t a bad choice. 

He was a shot in front of Martin Laird, and Patton Kizzire with Mark Hubbard, who failed to register in time and needed to qualify on Monday, coming in with a 67. Defending champ Sahith Theegala had a 69.

Lipsky is 36. He has won in Asia but on the PGA Tour.  He spent the last couple of weeks getting instruction from his old coach at Northwestern, Pat Goss. The advice apparently helped.  Lipsky had eight birdies and one bogey in the round that signaled the start of the fall season.

Lipsky’s best finish this year was a 9th at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May, a long time ago according to the golfing calendar. Then Thursday, on a course amidst acres of vineyards in America’s most famous wine area, he looked like a different competitor.

“I think that’s the funny thing about golf,” said Lipsky, “especially the level of golf we play on the PGA Tour. It’s just something small, these little things that can make the difference in your game.”

Lipsky grew up in Southern California but resides in Las Vegas—not unlike other golfers trying to avoid taxes.

“Sometimes you have to realize golf can be fun, and I think I sort of forgot that along the way as I’m grinding it out week in and week out. Sometimes you’ve got to put things in perspective, take a step back. Sort of did that, seems like it’s working out.”

Silverado, redesigned in 1967 by Robert Trent Jones II, is a resort course about 50 miles north of San Francisco. Accepting enough to be enjoyable for amateurs but tricky enough to provide a decent test for the pros.

The PGA Tour guys like it because the weather usually is beautiful—it was in the 80’s Thursday, and they and their wives or partners take advantage of tasting Napa’s vintages.

Lipsky said this week of the tournament he is staying with a friend from Chicago who owns a vineyard, name unknown.

If things go right, there will be more than a few glasses raised.

Wyndham Clark at Silverado—for himself and the team

NAPA — Wyndham Clark was playing ping pong in a garage when notified he had won the AT&T, which is a tournament of golf, not table tennis. It was February at Pebble Beach, and you’ve heard this before, officials decided to cancel the already rescheduled fourth round. Clark, of course, received the $3.6 million winner’s check, but something was missing.

“I would obviously would have gone back and played the fourth round and had the nerves and excitement that you do in the final round,” said Clark Wednesday. “And to come down 18 and hopefully with a lead and to win.”

Now it is September, a week and some seven months and roughly 150 miles north of Pebble Beach. Clark is back in Northern California at Silverado where starting Thursday he’ll be in the new Procore tournament. New in name, if not location.

This is a restart of sorts of the PGA Tour, using the term restart loosely. The Tour Championship was two weeks ago, there was a week off, and now here we go again, which is fine for Clark. He wants to improve his own game, and he wants to get ready for the Presidents Cup matches in two weeks at Montreal. Clark is 30 and has a major championship, the 2023 U.S. Open, yet he sounds like a kid just out of college when it comes to the way he approaches the game.

“I stopped trying to win and went out and played as well as I could,” he said.

The philosophy has been around for a long time, concentrating on the swing rather than the score. If you hit the ball properly and get a few putts in the hole you will succeed to a point.

He spoke of the consistency of Tiger Woods and currently Scottie Scheffler. 

“That’s what you want,” he said, “to be there at the time and give yourself a chance to win.”    

Golf is the most individual of sports. You are alone on a course aside from a caddy. That’s why so many of the pros, including Clark, enjoy the team competition such as the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup.

“It’s amazing,” said Clark. “I feel like when you kind of get into that inner circle with some of the top players in the world, and this is all just coming from my perspective, I feel like it helps you stay in that circle because you’re around—iron sharpens iron, so when you’re around these great players, you feed off of their confidence and the things that they do and you pick up little things here and there that help your game.”

As does playing Silverado, says Clark. 

“But the golf course itself presents challenges off the tee,” he said. “It’s very narrow and it usually gets very firm and you just end up having some kind of really cool awkward shots into greens that makes it really fun. I’ve always really enjoyed this golf course.”

Probably more than ping pong in a garage.

McCaffrey missing but with Mason taking his place, Niners' offense was not

So you were unable to watch the Monday night game because of the arrogance and selfishness of those dueling millionaires, ESPN and Directv? That’s what happens to us knaves, but there is a solution, if a bit inadequate.

Simply insert a disc on your playback device of any 49ers game from last season. Other than the Super Bowl. The Niners are still the same. Not that you or anyone in the NFL should be surprised.

Yes, an hour or two before kickoff at Levi’s Stadium, it was announced that San Francisco’s Christian McCaffrey, arguably the best all-around running back in the league, would not play because of a lingering calf injury. Oh well, line up Jordan Mason and chalk up a season-opening victory, 32-19, over the New York Jets.  

Mason carried 28 times for 147 yards and a touchdown. But he seemed very unimpressed with himself. Although he had the game of his brief 49er career, Mason shrugged it off, saying “I worked hard all summer.”

Linebacker Fred Warner was similarly unexcited. “That’s why we’re a team,” said Warner. “We have a lot of good players.”

On both sides of the ball, the Niners won this game early by forcing the Jets into repeated three-and-out sequences. When you don’t have the ball, even with a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers, making a comeback is tough. 

At age 40, Rodgers, the one-time Cal star, was unable to hit any big plays until well into the second half. The Jets head coach is Robert Saleh, who arrived in New York after working as defensive coordinator for the Niners. He certainly knows the San Francisco offensive system and how to stop it. But it proved impressive.  Once again, the Niners are too strong.

On the telecast, which you may not have seen, the FOX announcing crew of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman kept repeating the fact that the Niners were running between the tackles. As if it were a shock. The Niners are recognized for their passing attack, but their emphasis under coach Kyle Shanahan has been to pound out yards.

That is a two-way advantage. San Francisco held onto the ball for nearly 40 minutes and gained 401 net yards. It’s difficult for the opposition to score when it doesn’t have the football.  

San Francisco quarterback, Brock Purdy, completed 19 of 29 passes for 231 yards. However, the Niners did not have a touchdown through the air, a rare occurrence.

Shanahan was not displeased with his team’s performance. Although as coaches always point out after wins, there could be improvement. The Niners go to Minneapolis next Sunday where they’ll face the Vikings and quarterback, Sam Darnold, who of course in the 2023 season was Purdy’s backup on the 49ers.

Ricky Pearsall, the rookie who was shot in the chest at Union Square during a robbery attempt a week ago Saturday, was at the game Monday night.  He is on the non-football injury list and hopes to be in uniform in a month. Some of the first responders who treated Pearsall after the shooting were at the game and honored by the Niners.

Under a new name, an old golf tournament is back at Silverado

There it is, pinched between the Tour Championship and the Presidents Cup. The reference is to the annual PGA Tour event at Silverado in Napa. The one with almost as many name changes as it has years of history.

It returns this week, now called the Procore. As opposed to the Fortinet, which it was called last year. And before that, the Safeway and Fry’s.

Yet, to rework that golf phrase, it ain’t what, it’s who. The place is important, however the players are more important.

The major problem for what we will list as a semi-major event held around the time of the harvest moon—the grape harvest that is—and certainly the start of the football season.
  

There’s a reason the Tour holds the Tour Championship the week before the NFL games get underway. Pro football not only dominates TV, it overwhelms every other sport out there.

Cleverly after the Tour Championship, the Tour disappears for a week. Give Scottie Scheffler his $25 million paycheck, and then take a full seven days off. For a while there, the lords of golf believed they could fool us, choosing to describe the event at Silverado as the start of the schedule hoping the big boys would enter to get their high-finish points as early as possible.

No longer. 

Now it is merely the resumption of the “Fed-ex Fall” schedule.  And unfortunately there is not a lot of interest compared to the spring and summer schedule. To the minds of some, incorrectly, golf doesn’t mean much until the Masters.

Golf and tennis, which lack the advantage of home games, are built on personalities. It’s been that way forever. Sponsors would complain that writers and television too often would emphasize who weren’t entered in a tournament, particularly when it wasn’t Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus in an earlier day, or Tiger Woods or Phil Michelson in recent times. 

“Why don’t you talk about other people,” I was asked for years. 

“Then they would become famous, like Arnie,” I was told for years.

Sorry, fame is earned and the star system is all too prevalent. That doesn’t mean the other guys don’t deserve attention, particularly someone like Sahith Theegala. He won at Silverado last year and finished third in the Tour Championship, behind Scheffler and Collin Morikawa. He will be a member of the U.S. team that play the international squad in the Presidents Cup the end of September in Montreal.

During the third round of the Tour Championship a week ago Theegala gained recognition for calling a penalty on himself when virtually unseen by anyone else he moved the sand with the club before taking a swing. That cost him a double bogey, but earned him appreciation. Honesty is at the very essence of golf and Theegala displayed it along with an ability to compete.

ESPN and DirecTV keeping fans in the dark

So Scottie Scheffler may be better than we thought, which makes him very good indeed. 

Coco Gauff perhaps isn’t as good as we imagined. And that dispute between ESPN and DirecTV is not good for anyone who gets his sports on television, meaning most of us.

Yes, there are other stations and other networks. And there’s Comcast and an abundance of additional cable companies. But there is nothing like ESPN, which not only transmits but seems to own most of the events. On the screen, excluding The Golf Channel (NBC), and the one which shows Speedway from Australia, sports basically is on ESPN. Yes, an exaggeration, but I’m irritated. I wanted to see LSU-USC Sunday night but instead was restricted to advisory messages. “Our contract with Disney, the owner of this channel,” they said  “has expired. We appreciate your patience while we negotiate to give you greater flexibility, choice and value.”

What they failed to say was “and to increase our profits.”  

Nothing wrong with that. This is a capitalist society. Those golfers and tennis players as well as the football, baseball, and basketball players are pros. The games are their work. They get paid for their skills and their success, often very, very well.

By winning the Tour Championship last Sunday, his seventh victory of the year not including 1st place and a Gold Medal in the Paris Olympics, Scottie Scheffler earned a cumulative $25 million. Tennis payoffs are smaller than golf. Still, Gauff, the defending champion, won $325,000 for making it to the 3rd round of this year’s US Open Championship, losing to Emma Navarro.  

There is great money in sports, and one of the reasons is the multi-million dollar TV agreements.

Everybody demands more. As we are aware two San Francisco 49ers, Brandon Ayuk and All-Pro tackle Trent Williams signed only days before the start of the NFL season. Eventually, the holdouts and management get together because there are few other options. Each needs the other.

The players have leverage. The viewers do not. As became evident Sunday night when Direct TV chose not to show the much-anticipated college game between USC and LSU, which the Trojans won in the final seconds. The sort of exciting game that increases TV ratings. However, in this case, no one was able to watch it. It was an ESPN game.

The U.S. Open tournament is a virtual ESPN event. Every match day and late night is carried, and there are a dozen ESPN announcers, all former players or instructors, offering expert commentary.  You learn a lot, even if you don’t know a rally from a volley.

But starting Sunday evening you learned nothing. The tournament went on but we were blacked out. That was unfortunate, particularly if you are a tennis aficionado. That was also reality. The big boys challenge each other at the expense of the little people.

Pro football is the golden egg for TV sports. The assumption is that ESPN and DirecTV notice all too well. A settlement may not be very far in the future.

But that doesn’t bring back the LSU-USC game or the tennis matches that were missed.

Sinner gets an Open win and a rare New York treatment

They are playing the US Open in New York where the fans are not only wise to what’s happening, but also wiseacres, known to pick on an athlete’s failings in the loudest of disparaging words.

So what was with their response to Jannik Sinner? Maybe they had an idea that this was an unusual situation. And it was. It was announced at the end of last week that he was docked prize money and ranking points from the tournament where the first result appeared. He had tested positive for trace amounts of the Anabolic steroid Clostebol twice in a period of eight days in March, but there was no penalty because it was ruled that Sinner was not at fault.

This brought skepticism from some, including Tony Kornheiser on ESPN’s 'Pardon The Interruption,' who explained how tennis works.

“He’s a star,” Kornheiser said.

And as everyone in the business knows, tennis does not want to lose its stars. Indeed not only is Sinner a star, but he is also No. 1 in the ATP rankings, ahead of Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic.

Certainly, Sinner didn’t want to miss The Open, the biggest tournament of any in America. 

And Sinner, who said the positive tests were due to using applications of the ointment for a cut from a trainer whom he subsequently fired, not only didn’t miss his first-round match Tuesday, but he won. 

He defeated Mackie McDonald 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. Bizarre because Sinner gave up 6 games in the first set and then only 5 combined in the next three sets.

McDonald learned the game in Berkeley, won a championship at UCLA and seemed to have a solid future as a pro. That hasn’t been the case so far.

There was nothing out of the ordinary, cheers for Sinner’s better shots, without any noticeable negative chants or shouts.  The obligatory on-court, post-match interview went on as scheduled, but there were no references to Sinner’s problem.

Obviously tennis spectators are not quite as demanding as those from, say, baseball or the NFL. You know that had it been a ball player who was caught in the mess as Sinner, he would have been booed as soon as stepped on the field—all the while protesting his innocence. Sinner, who is from Northern Italy, said he was pleased with the way the fans treated him. 

You don’t often hear that comment after a sporting event in New York.

Attles, 'the destroyer,' was a gentleman and a champion

Is it true that Wilt Chamberlain, who was quite a few inches taller and many pounds heavier, never wanted to get into a physical confrontation with Al Attles, the man nicknamed “The Destroyer”?   

It is true the night Wilt scored 100 points that Attles didn’t miss a shot, going 8 for 8 on field goal attempts and one for one on free throws. What also is true is that he surely missed a chance to make the headlines. Wilt was the reason.

Such thoughts entered the mind with the news Wednesday that Attles, 87, died at his home in Oakland. And so in a summer already sorrowful because of the passing of Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda, the Bay Area loses another sporting legend.

He was a Hall of Famer, as well as the backbone of the Warriors for more than 60 years as a player, coach, and executive. The fifth-round draft choice who became a first-class leader and always was an A-1 gentleman.

I had an assignment—and good fortune as I would reflect over the years—of covering the Warriors in the 1970s, a period of transition and some time with those losing seasons, Attles had become the accidental coach named by owner Franklin Mieuli to replace George Lee. The going was tough, criticism was prevalent. Attles understood it was all part of the job, a job he hadn’t sought.

Along the way, there are coaches and managers who have double standards, who treat writers and radio-TV people they know one way and those they don’t know perhaps the wrong way. Not Attles, according to someone who was a “cub reporter” when Al was in charge.

James Raia is now a freelance writer whose specialty is the auto industry. Maybe 35 years ago, Raia was a self-described “cub” reporter in the sports department of the Sacramento Bee, and with some trepidation was allowed to interview Attles for a feature.

“He gave me about an hour of his time,” Raia said of Attles, with whom Attles had never previously dealt. Raia still thinks about Attles’ courtesy that day, choosing that as an emphasis upon hearing of Attles’ death.

What we’ll also remember about Attles is his relentless determination and ability to unite and inspire the Warriors in the magical 1974-75 season to create a champion. From what in the NBA Finals the Baltimore Suns called the worst team ever to make it to the finals. 

That team, led by Rick Barry and Cliff Ray, included Jamal Wilkes, Jeff Mullins, Bill Bridges, Butch Beard and Charles Dudley, and swept the Washington Bullets.

That team also received an unexpected but not unneeded support from head coach Al Attles. When the Bullets’ Mike Riordan tried to provoke Barry into a fight that would have resulted in Barry’s ejection, Attles jumped onto the court and got into the battle.

The Destroyer had become the savior. Rest in peace, Al.

Giants-A’s—An End to “Baysball”

“Baysball,” lt was nicknamed—a sporting rivalry that was without bitterness but not without spirit. The Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants crossing bridges to play a meaningful game.

Chicago Cubs fans never would support the White Sox. As you know, the head of the Red Sox calls the NY Yankees the Evil Empire.

It hasn’t been that way in Northern California.

During the 1989 World Series, known as the Earthquake World Series, between Oakland and San Francisco, The New York Times ran a story on how different it was here.

The headline was something like “A region in love with itself.”  And you did see those caps with A’s on one side and Giants on the other? It would never happen in any other area.

Which, of course, is quite accurate.

So is the fact Sunday’s game at the Coliseum was the last between the A’s and the Giants before Oakland shifts to Sacramento. “Interstate 80 match-up” doesn’t have the same poetry as Baysball. 

Putting it into perspective, the Giants ending up with a 4-2 victory in 10 innings doesn’t seem to mean as much as the sad news that the series—as we knew it—was done.

We’re left with memories that mean so much to baseball. It’s difficult to think of the A’s without relating to the Giants, who by 10 years preceded the A’s by moving to the area. The Athletics came with heavy baggage.

They were owned by troublesome Charles O Finley—who could build a winning ballclub along with dozens of enemies.

The day in 1968 those Kansas City Athletics—who in an earlier time had already been in Philadelphia—announced they were coming to Oakland. Sen. Stuart Symington said, “Oakland is the luckiest town since Hiroshima.”  If you don’t know your history go to Google.

Finley got on people’s nerves, underpaid his players, and won. Meanwhile the Giants, who successfully attempted to keep Oakland from the West Bay claiming territorial rights to everywhere from San Jose to Marin, were not winning. 

Oakland, with players such as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Joe Rudy took back-to-back-to-back World Series Titles in 1972, 1973, and 1974.  

Indeed, the Athletics were in the Coliseum, which they were forced to share with the Raiders, while the Giants had a stadium under construction. That didn’t stop the A’s from lording it over San Francisco, putting signs on AC Transit buses that, to paraphrase, said “While they were building a ballpark we were winning championships.”

It was all in good fun, and isn’t that the idea of sports?  We will be missing that, and we’ll be missing A’s vs Giants. We will all be poorer for the way “Baysball” has been taken from us.

Kaepernick still trying to get back in the NFL; otherwise maybe flag football in the Olympics

First there was a story from Sky Sports that Colin Kaepernick is training again with hopes of returning to the NFL again. Then there was a story from NBC 10 in Philadelphia that Kaepernick wants to play flag football for Team USA in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Well, they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive. And in either case, Kaepernick would play quarterback.

Which, with particular effectiveness, he did as a starter for the San Francisco 49ers, even making it to Super Bowl XLVII under coach Jim Harbaugh where they lost, 34-31 to the Baltimore Ravens, coached by Jim’s brother, John.

Since then, Jim has moved on, first to the U. of Michigan, where he won a national championship, and now to the Los Angeles Chargers. Kaepernick also tried to move on, but, we’re told, on the advice of his girlfriend, he took a stand against racism by not standing to the national anthem and also becoming vocal before games during the 2016 season, then opted out of his contract with the 49ers the following offseason. He never landed on another team.

Pro football executives have enough problems with people who miss tackles or won’t sign contracts, so whatever their political beliefs—and most are conservative—they tend to avoid players who make headlines for reasons other than making yards or making tackles—and Kaepernick remained unsigned. In October 2017, Kaepernick filed a collusion grievance against the NFL. He and the league reached an agreement to resolve the grievance in February 2019.

Maybe part of the reason is while Kaepernick is a great athlete—he set a record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback in the playoffs against Green Bay—he’s not a great passing quarterback. In that Super Bowl loss to the Ravens, he had a short pass into the end zone and fired it like a missile, using strength not touch.

That said he surely was better than many of the quarterbacks in pro football. Despite denials, the owners were reluctant to give him the opportunity because of the off-field issues.

While it’s fine to pound the opposing linemen, players are discouraged from rocking the boat.  

Kaepernick is 36 now, and while that’s still younger than Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets, Rodgers has a mammoth contract and numerous MVP awards. Kaepernick is unsigned and has been inactive for the past seven years.

However, it hasn’t dimmed his determination to return.

“It’s something I’ve trained my whole life for," he told Sky Sports, "so to be able to step back on the field, I think that would be a major moment, major accomplishment for me."

The probability is his NFL career is finished, although there might be a desperate team.

Otherwise, there’s the flag football opportunity in the Los Angeles Olympics, in 2028. It’s not the big time, but it’s a chance to get on a gridiron once more.