Did world’s number one, Sinner, pull a fast one on tennis?

One of the reasons people like sports is that, unlike life, they are fair. Rules count. Three strikes is an out, four balls a walk. No appellate judge can change an umpire’s call although a replay review might give visual proof the base runner called out definitely was off the bag. 

Which understandably is why several tennis stars are outraged by how the world’s No. 1 men’s player, the Italian Jannik Sinner, apparently pulled a fast one on those who govern the game. Or was it a needed one?

There are no home teams in tennis but there are big names. The sport relies on them to be on the court to create interest, provide competition, and draw crowds.

Sinner tested positive last year for trace amounts of Clostebol, a synthetic androgenic steroid often used in sports to enhance physical performance. He appealed the charge, was permitted to compete, and went on to win his second consecutive major title at the Australian Open last month. Then he accepted a three-month ban, which conveniently allows him back in time for the next Grand Slam tournament, the French Open in May. He could have been suspended for two years.

Noting the discipline, one skeptic pointed out, “Banning Sinner for three months from February to the beginning of May is the equivalent of banning Santa from riding his Sleigh between January and November.” 

Indeed Sinner will not be able to play at Indian Wells in March, and that is a huge event, but he was given a virtual free pass to the French, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. If, say in baseball, a similar violation occurred, the suspension would have been for weeks, maybe even months.

Novak Djokovic, who has won more Slams than any other man, 24, and is still near the very top, said, “A majority of tennis players have lost faith in the anti-doping authorities, and there’s a widespread feeling that “favoritism” is being shown to the sport’s biggest stars.”

Of course. Tennis relies on the appearance and performance of the best players to keep the grandstands full and the television ratings high. Do you want to see a player ranked 100th or someone in the top ten? It’s the people, male or female, who get the points and the headlines, who also get the attention.

Djokovic certainly has been one of those, and he earned his triumphs and his recognition in the correct manner. He believes there appears to be a problem with this sport.

“Right now it’s a ripe time for us to really address the system,” said Djokovic, “because the system and the structure obviously doesn’t work. So, I hope that in the near future the governing bodies are going to come together of our tours and the tennis ecosystem and try to find a more effective way to deal with these processes.”

Keep hoping, Novak, but many of us will keep doubting. Unfortunately.

49ers may not get to next Super Bowl, but 49ers stadium will

Wasn’t it Jim Mora Sr., then coaching the Saints, who, when asked about games with unexpected results, said, “You don’t know, you can’t know, you never will know”? Mora's insight comes to mind when reflecting on what happened in the Super Bowl.

Or if you prefer, what didn’t happen.

Oh yeah, one thing we do know: The next Super Bowl, LX, will be held at Levi Stadium, where the San Francisco 49ers play home games. And one more thing we do know: the Niners won’t be in that Super Bowl, because they are in the same conference as the Philadelphia Eagles—who crushed  Kansas City Sunday, 40-22 in this Super Bowl—the Los Angeles Rams, the Minnesota Vikings, and the Washington Commanders. 

Unless somehow they can rebuild as quickly as they came apart last season. Defense wins. It was never more evident than how the Eagles stopped the supposedly unstoppable Chiefs and their excellent quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Kansas City was trying to become the first team ever to win 3 consecutive Super Bowls. It couldn’t be done. The thinking here is that it never will be done. There are too many factors.  The Niners won two in a row and appeared very much about to defeat the New York Giants at Candlestick Park for the so-called “Three-peat.” But it was not to be. A Roger Craig fumble, a Montana injury, and five field goals by the New York Giants, who won 15-13 without a touchdown. 

Kansas City was a 1 to 1 ½ point favorite, but the Chiefs were never really in the game. Still, it wasn’t until they trailed 34-0 late in the third quarter that Fox TV announcer Kevin Burkhardt grudgingly conceded that Philly was going to win.

This is not to fault Burkhardt, who had a better game than Mahomes. TV people want to keep you watching. Otherwise, those ads, which sold for $8 million for half a minute, would go unseen. Burkhardt also fell into that new method of describing how far a team is in front or behind. When the Chiefs trailed by that huge deficit, 34-0, he said it was a five-score game.

Until the Super Bowl, Mahomes and the Chiefs had survived by winning games thanks to things like late missed field goals by the opposition. Good teams find ways to win—that’s why they’re good teams. And that’s why KC was a narrow favorite. But the Chiefs fell behind so quickly, with the Eagles running the ball effectively and picking off passes, that Kansas City barely knew what hit them.

A year ago, the 49ers lost to the Chiefs in overtime in the Super Bowl and went on to struggle throughout the 2024 season. The unfounded description is “Super Bowl hangover”—the idea that a team, for one reason or another, can't regain its footing after a tough championship defeat.

What’s going to happen to the Chiefs? Will they be as effective and successful as they were before the Super Bowl? Or will that one awful game stay with them in the coming months? 

To use one of Jim Mora’s observations, “You don’t know.”

Warriors had to do something—and that’s why they got Jimmy Butler in trade

The Warriors had to do something. Especially after the dreaded Lakers did so much, adding Luka Dončić to a team that already featured LeBron James. Especially with their championship window—meaning the final days of Steph Curry and Draymond Green—now barely wide enough to slide a memory through. 

The Warriors had to do something and they did. 

And in trading efficient, cooperative, good guy Andrew Wiggins to Miami for frequent problem Jimmy Butler—he had been suspended for his disagreement with Pat Riley—did they do the right thing?

Butler didn’t play in Thursday night’s game against the Lakers in Los Angeles, where Golden State, once trailing by 26, fell 120-112. That dropped the Dubs to one game below .500 at 25-26. 

Warriors’ management knows what it had and what it doesn’t have now. This is always the problem when greatness ages, trying to replay the past with another cast. It’s a mark of desperation, and yet it’s entirely understandable because the hope is there that somehow the magic will return. Even though the brilliance that was Curry and Draymond understandably has dimmed, if not that much, with Steph turning 37 in March the same month Draymond becomes 35.

On Thursday night Curry scored 37. He still can carry a team, but not without some assistance. The thinking is Butler will be able to provide that help, which is why the Warriors front office was willing to make the trade. Butler may play a different style than the Warriors, but he does notably well at the most important of times.

As someone pointed out, Butler performs well on the big stage. But can he get to the big stage? 

According to some sources, Kevin Durant would have been the Warriors first choice. He helped propel them to two NBA championships. However, Durant did not want to return to Golden State. He remains with the Phoenix Suns. 

So Butler, who sought to escape Miami—he refused to play with the Heat the last few weeks and was then suspended—was the guy the Warriors obtained in exchange for Wiggins, Kyle Anderson, PJ Tucker, Davion Mitchell, and a 2025 protected first-round pick via the Warriors. 

This is all about the present, about trying to cling to what may be remaining. A large price for Golden State perhaps, yet the people in charge felt it had to be paid in order to keep the crowds paying for those expensive seats at Chase Center.

Butler is 35, but he remains dynamic and exciting, which would be perfect to enable Curry to find more room to get open and get the ball in the basket. 

“I’m happy to be wanted again,” Butler told the media. “I got a feeling I’m going to be back in a big way, too. So I’m smiling. I know that I have my joy back now.”   

The Warriors can only wish they will be as joyful.

A careful McIlroy has a cool week and a win at the AT&T

PEBBLE BEACH — This was as good as it gets in golf—magnificent Pebble Beach in the sunshine, a leaderboard full of major champions, and Rory McIlroy, his once wild game tamed by maturity and wisdom, now under control, beating them all. On this Sunday, McIlroy delivered a masterful 66—each shot carefully crafted—even opting for a 5-iron off the tee at the historic par-5 18th. 

That’s the bayside hole that was nicknamed “The Finisher” nearly a century ago, and it proved to be just that for Rory McIlroy, who won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am by two shots with a score of 21 under par, 267. In McIlroy’s wake were some of golf’s biggest names. Fellow Irishman Shane Lowry finished second at 269, while Justin Rose and Lucas Glover tied for third, another shot back. Lowry has a British Open to his credit, Rose owns both a Masters and a U.S. Open, and Glover is also a U.S. Open champion. Meanwhile, Sepp Straka, who led by a shot over McIlroy going into the final round, could only manage a 72 and slipped to a tie for 7th.  

McIlroy may be only 35, but he has been playing pro golf around the world, mostly on the European Tour, for years. He would hit the ball as far as possible to impress himself, spectators, and those in the media—but not always with precision, especially on the greens. Just last June he botched putts on the closing holes of the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. But maybe that had an effect, if you listened to him and watched him at Pebble, McIlroy seemed to have learned from his failings—as golfers so often do as they mature. 

“Pinehurst hurt the most,” said McIlroy. “Again, thinking of strategy and maybe those impulses that I talked about, hitting the right shot at the right time or being in a different place mentally, calming yourself down, using breathing exercises, whatever it is, I think the one thing that I did  (Sunday) really well is that I didn’t get too flustered and it may—it certainly feels a little more boring to me.” 

“It might look a little bit more boring on the golf course, but it definitely is more effective. Today was a test and I was able to come through it pretty well.” 

McIlroy has 27 victories, no matter where they’ve been played, some of which were considered part of the PGA tour. This AT&T was his first this year on tour, with McIlroy having only arrived in California Monday from the Middle East, where he annually competes a few times during the Winter. 

So much success, and yet when people refer to Rory they mention how he fell apart in the final round in 2011 at the Masters, the only one of the four Grand Slam Events he has not won.  

“It’s been a great week for a lot of different reasons,” said McIlroy, who had an ace on the 15th at Spyglass Hill on Thursday, the first round, which is the other course used for the AT&T.

“Playing Cypress Point for the first time, obviously getting a win. Yeah—it’s been a really cool week. Obviously couldn’t wish for a better start for my PGA TOUR season.”

What the AT&T needed: A leaderboard packed with greatness including Rory and Shane

PEBBLE BEACH — This was exactly what the tournament needed and what the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am got, a leaderboard packed with big names who have big games and a spate of major championships, people like Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, and Justin Rose. 

After two rounds that felt as dull as the gray skies over Carmel Bay, the third day delivered a much-needed jolt of energy, fueled by standout performances from familiar faces. 

Nothing wrong with Sepp Straka—who remained in front after 54 holes. He’s a three-time PGA Tour winner, but he doesn’t attract the same crowds or TV ratings as Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, or Scottie Scheffler—who is not out of it even if six shots behind may not really be in it. 

McIlroy, arguably the most popular golfer since Tiger Woods stepped away, and his fellow Irishman Shane Lowry, each had a 7-under 65 on an afternoon with occasional rain and frequent wind. Straka had an even par 70. So with one round remaining and apparently any chance of bad weather holding off until at least the end of play, Straka, at 16 under 200, is a shot in front of both Irishmen, McIlroy and Lowry. 

In fourth place is Rose, who won the AT&T two years ago and as many of the others, is a major champion—actually a two-time winner, having claimed the U.S. Open and the Masters.

McIlroy, in his first PGA tour tournament since last summer, completed his round with a stirring birdie putt on Pebble Beach’s seaside 18th. That would please anyone and certainly elated Rory.

“After 18 years (on tour),” said Rory who is now 35, “Yeah, it was a really good Saturday to get myself in contention. I keep reminding myself this week, it’s my second tournament of the year. It's great to be playing well at this point, but the main goal for me is to play well from April through July. It’s really cool to be in contention this early in the season.”

April of course is when they play the Masters, the only one of the four major championships McIlroy has not won.

Someone pointed out to McIlroy that it is not surprising that he and Lowry perform well in gloomy, overcast, and frequently cool conditions. But Rory responded, “That is why we moved to Florida to get away from weather like this.” 

Lowry, in perhaps the most thrilling of majors, won the 2019 British Open at Portrush in his homeland. It was the highlight of a career that sometimes goes unappreciated by those outside Ireland or outside professional golf.

“When I arrived here (Saturday morning),” said Lowry, “People said this weather is gonna suit you. Yeah, it might suit me somewhat but I don’t enjoy it. You know, I live in Florida for a reason. Yeah, look I’m able—I think my game is well equipped to handle these conditions and I go out there kind of no fear and I know I just need to batten down the hatches and make pars when I can.”

Straka is the only Austrian to win on Tour. Not that nationality means as much as keeping the tee shots in play and making the putts. Hey, the ball doesn’t care who is hitting it. The only thing that matters from any player, famous or not, is striking it fewer times than anyone else.

Will Sepp Straka waltz off with this AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am?

PEBBLE BEACH —  He was born in Vienna and plays golf with consistency as beautifully as Strauss composed waltzes. His given name, Josef, offers a window to his origin, and his talent provides insight into his skill. Straka stomped across the California desert a week and a half ago, going 69 holes at one stretch without a bogey and winning the American Express Classic. Some 250 miles north, Straka is in the lead halfway through the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

He shot a 7-under par 65 on a cool, drizzly Friday at Pebble Beach and is at 14-under 130 for 36 holes. That put him 4 shots ahead of 2 men, 1st-round leader Russell Henley, who had a 69, and Cam Davis, 68, both of whom were at Spyglass Hill. 

The son of an Austrian father and an American mother, Straka and his twin brother Sam moved early on to Valdosta, Ga., where there may not be any strudel or downhill runs, but there are plenty of golf courses. He played at the University of Georgia and, since joining the PGA Tour, has secured three victories. A fourth could be as close as Sunday, but one thing we have learned in golf is never to make predictions—except when Straka is in the field. He's going to score effectively. So far in the two rounds of this historic event, he’s made only two bogies, one each day.   

“It was kind of a team effort,” he said about his spectacular second round. However, he was the only member of the team and was referring to the manner in which he scored.  “Hitting the ball really well early in the round, and then missed a few putts but made some really nice putts, too. So it was just all around a pretty solid day.”

Through the decades of this event which began as the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, frequent downpours have been so famous, that they’ve been labeled “Crosby weather.” Last year’s tournament was called after three rounds on a Sunday night, which was a precedent. A heavier rain than Friday’s drizzle has been predicted for Saturday, and how that affects Straka and the others is a guess.

“Yeah, the forecast looks pretty rough. I think it’s going to be a lot more challenging. Yeah, looking forward to that challenge.”

There was no 36-hole cut in this accelerated tournament, meaning everyone who started will finish—unless the player chooses otherwise, so still in the field are last year’s champion, Wyndham Clark, and Brendon Todd, even if they are 18 shots behind. Jake Knapp, with an-even-par 72 at Spyglass, slipped out of a first-round tie for second, but at 137, is in a decent position for a high finish. He is the former night club bouncer, who is now bouncing golf balls into cups. Of course, he and everyone must chase Sepp Straka, who has made the bogey virtually obsolete.

Waltz to that music.

One-time bar bouncer, Knapp, among those tied for 2nd at Pebble

PEBBLE BEACH — The cups that hold his attention these days are the ones on the putting greens where Jake Knapp makes birdies. Knapp was among six players tied for second at 7-under par—a shot behind Russell Henley—in Thursday’s opening round in the ATT Pebble Beach Pro-Am. But not all that long ago Jake Knapp was thinking about cups and glasses in the restaurant-tavern where he worked while struggling to become a touring pro.

Golf is never an easy game, but some people become successful more quickly than others.  Knapp was one of the others. He did modestly well while at UCLA some ten years ago. He got on the second circuit which was renamed the Korn Ferry Tour. And he didn’t make progress until after losing his card. Then everything clicked. 

He won on the Korn Ferry and almost exactly a year ago broke through on the PGA Tour with a first-place finish in the Mexico City Open last February.

“I worked as a nightclub bouncer. After losing status and missing at Q-School in 2021, out of funds, I needed to be away from golf. I needed some responsibility and some perspective on things. I wasn't aware that The Country Club, a restaurant in Costa Mesa, turned into a nightclub; I went there to be a barback (assistant bartender).”

His days were free since he worked at night, allowing him to spend them practicing golf. It obviously paid off for Knapp, who is now 30, which is considered late to start a career on tour. However, what matters is not how long he is on tour, but how well he does. 

On Thursday he did very well, shooting a 65 and not making a single bogey.  

“It was cold this morning,” he said with a southern California viewpoint. “I wasn’t playing super easy those first few holes, just how firm and kind of bouncy the greens were, but once it kind of warmed up you realized with not much wind out here you can give yourself a lot of opportunities and did a good job of doing that.” 

When you think of bouncers in bars, you might picture someone built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. But Knapp is built more like a defensive back—5-foot-11 and 190 pounds. Yes, that’s large enough to put a few glasses on the counter and maybe put a few unruly customers out the door. 

On Friday, when he shifts to Spyglass Hill—the other course used in this historic tournament—he needs to put a few more onto the fairways off the tees. If the weather turns nasty, as predicted, it's better to be at Spyglass, deep in the Del Monte Forest, than at Pebble Beach along the bay.

“If we get a little bit of weather and if that happens,” said Knapp, “just do our best to keep the ball in front of us and keep it below the hole.” 

If he can do that, the man who was once responsible for ejecting unruly customers might find more than a glass raised to his golf.

Would it be possible these days to create a golf tournament the way Bing Crosby did?

PEBBLE BEACH — You read the nickname on one of the many plaques posted behind the first tee. “Crosby Clambake,” it says, the briefest reference to a tournament that has been altered over time—and to some, diminished— evolving into what is now the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

You know how it all came about, a singer-entertainer whose popularity helped brighten America during the Depression of the 1930s, creating a golf event for his pals and impoverished pros. It was an original, and it became an anchor for the sport, which has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry.

Most of us know that. What we don’t know is whether that would be a possibility, or even a fantasy in today’s world. Is there any individual around whom you can build a golf tournament or any sporting competition as once was done? Television has made us aware of so many multi-talented athletes and entertainers.

Just watch any of the late-night shows or sports channels. Pick one of your favorite stars. Then remember he or she must be a golfer as was Crosby or Bob Hope. It doesn’t work anymore. It doesn’t need to. Which is why the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, once listed as “The greatest show in golf,” must be viewed through a historic prism.

You had Ben Hogan or Sam Snead trading strokes while Phil Harris or Dean Martin cracked jokes. It was like watching the Colbert show while it was being staged on the 18th green at Pebble.

There were birdies and bogeys and laughs. There were memorable lines, as well as memorable tee shots. The Golf Channel and ESPN didn’t exist in those days. If you wanted to know what was going on, you had to be standing there, even in the rain that came to be known as “Crosby weather.”

The purses were small compared to now—Scottie Scheffler, who is in this AT&T, earned $25 million last year. That figure would seem a dream for pros even in the 1950’s. 

Of course, everything changes, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The tournament once was played on three courses including iconic Cypress Point where Bing himself was a member and once made a hole-in-one on the hole that juts into Monterey Bay, the 16th hole.  During his tournament, he would be seen wandering around the course welcoming fans and seemingly enjoying the golf as much as the players. 

Clint Eastwood, who became the mayor of neighboring Carmel, has a long history with the tournament, both as a player and an official.

In his book on the tournament, Dwayne Netland offered an Eastwood recollection. While a soldier at nearby Fort Ord, the Army Base which is now the site of Cal State Monterey Bay, he and a buddy crashed the Sunday night dinner, claiming they were assistants to Art Rosenbaum, the San Francisco Chronicle golf writer (and eventual sports editor). 

“I had the best steak I ever had and then went around and ate up all the desserts.”

You notice he didn’t mention a thing about clams. But that is how Crosby is remembered on that plaque behind the first tee at Pebble.

At Pebble Beach, Scheffler returns to golf after hand injury

PEBBLE BEACH—You hear it almost every time an athlete gets hurt doing something unusual, something unrelated to their sport: “We have to live normal lives too.

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, offered a version of that reminder when Tuesday addressed the media. He returned to the game after missing the opening weeks of the PGA tour season. He sliced up his right hand on a broken glass while making ravioli for Christmas dinner.

We never got a taste of the pasta, but we are going to get a figurative taste of Scheffler’s brilliant game in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, starting Thursday. 

“Yeah, it broke and the stem kind of got me in the hand,” said Scheffler. “So it's one of those deals where like it's truly — I can't live in a bubble, like got to live my life and accidents happen. You know, it could have been a lot worse.”

“I actually talked to somebody who did the exact same thing and the stem went straight through his hand. It's one of those deals where immediately after it happened I was mad at myself because I was like gosh, that's so stupid, but you just don't think about it when you're in the moment. Yeah, I’ve definitely been like a little more careful doing stuff at home.”

Rory McIlroy, who returned from his annual winter tournaments in the Middle East and is also in the AT&T, had his own thoughts about Scheffler’s accident.

“I think he made enough money to hire a chef. It's like why are you cooking yourself?” said McIlroy. In normal locker room repartee, Scheffler shot back, “I’ve got a chef, her name’s Meredith. She’s pretty cute.”

Indeed, Meredith is his wife and mother of their recently born first child, a son, Bennett.

Scheffler is as much a joy to listen to as to watch. He takes the sport seriously but not himself, poking fun at mistakes and making clear how much he understands the game is as much mental as it is physical. He isn’t full of theories or of himself. 

During his forced absence—Scheffler needed minor surgery on the right hand to extract tiny pieces of glass—he reviewed videos of his game during the season. It’s an old story for any golfer. No matter how well he or she plays, there is always room for improvement.

But after a year in which he earned $25 million on the Tour and a second Masters, you wonder how much better he can get? So much of golf, as any sport, is being at the right place at the right time. Yet Scheffler seems capable of performing excellently for many years, if he stays out of the kitchen.

The AT&T isn’t like it once was—but what is?

The question was understandable. The man looked at the field of the AT&T Pro-Am, which starts Thursday, and asked “What ever happened to this tournament?”

Answer: Progress and reality. 

Also, survival.

Golf isn’t what it used to be, and neither is the world. The tournament that began as the Crosby Pro-Am back in the 1930s has been forced to adapt to the times, as has the rest of us. 

The amateur field is not as full of celebrities as it once was decades ago. Because there are not enough celebrities who, first play golf, and also are willing and able to be part of an event that interrupts their platform. 

Is golf still a wonderful game, played by millions, and watched by as many worldwide, and fascinating to those involved as participants or spectators? And is the course named the Pebble Beach Golf Links one of the most challenging and attractive of any on the globe? However, those points almost become incidental to all but the most involved. Indeed. But not to the point we knew or they knew.

Look what’s happened to college sports, where the name-image-likeness situation has kids waiting for the best financial offer as opposed to merely the best offer. And the transfer portal has become standard fare. So has golf been similarly altered?

Everybody’s looking for the best opportunity, the best deal. The deal for the AT&T was to find a way to survive. 

The name pros particularly and some top-flight celebrity amateurs became disenchanted with rounds that lasted more than five hours and occasionally were played in miserable weather.  One of the great attractions of the tournament that began decades ago as the Crosby Pro-Am had been negated by time and progress. The erosion began in 1969 when Cypress Point, such a unique and exclusive property, open to the public only for the tournament, was taken out of the rota. Pebble Beach, the anchor course, remained one of a kind, ranking with such locations as Augusta National and St. Andrews. That still couldn’t bring the top-ranked players to the edge of the Pacific for one event out of the many on the PGA tour.

Yes, the veterans in the gallery and in the field were familiar with the great Bill Murray and his antics—and his victory one year—yet that wasn’t enough as the tournament purses grew and the field shrank.

Is it redundant to say sport itself is different? That ESPN, the Golf Channel, the Tennis Channel and every other channel has brought us an abundance—maybe an over-abundance—of sports, day and night? Whatever, there is so much out there and on the tube that what once made us attend or watch has become almost incidental. Today’s audience, understandably, is more focused on today’s stars, who they can watch almost anytime—like the NFL playoffs, for example—or any hour. The Australian Open has been shown live at 12:30 a.m. PST frequently.

The PGA Tour and the AT&T officials understand what they’re up against and thus how they must respond. The whole idea is to keep the tournament, modified as it might be from the good ole days. As the saying goes “adapt or disappear.”

Of football and fire

The contrast was being played out on our television screens. There on ESPN, as proper, the pictures and words were about the NFL. Fun and games. On CNN were scenes of tragedy, smoke and flames. One of man at his best, competition. On the other, nature at its worst, destruction. Football as scheduled. Fire as unimaginable.

Athletic heroes, at least in name. First responders and emergency personnel, heroes deserving of the label.

Fire pays no attention to status. We are all at the mercy. It’s merely a question of where the ashes land and where your residence might be. We’ve been through this before in California, but not really anything like this.

Who would have believed the entire Pacific Palisades or several miles away, Sierra Madre, would be razed? Yes, I’m a sportswriter, but I covered news through the years that included fires in Southern California, where I grew up, and Northern California, where I now reside. The Oakland Hills fire in 1991, which destroyed 2800 homes, and the Camp Fire in Butte County were awful, but what has gone on the last week and a half offers a new definition to that word. 

The frightening thing is we kept getting warned of the possibility. Not that we could do anything but worry, stay alert, and heed evacuation warnings, although sometimes we disregard the warnings because of the misplaced belief that it will never happen. 

But it happened this time.

Warriors coach, Steve Kerr, was one of the victims.  The home in which he grew up in the Pacific Palisades, close to Santa Monica, was burned to the ground. His 90-year-old mother, who evacuated, was saved. But all the trophies and awards Kerr collected in his very illustrious career—he was Michael Jordan’s teammate—are gone.

Los Angeles Lakers coach J.J. Reddick also lost his home, and when interviewed on TV seemed understandably shaken. It’s as if what occurred would have been impossible. But as we know, nothing is impossible. 

That the National Football League readily shifted the Los Angeles Rams-Minnesota Vikings playoff game on Sunday to the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium outside Phoenix was both necessary and correct. It was an inconvenience for the fans in Southern California, although busloads of them made it to the game, some 200 miles from Los Angeles. Yet the fact that the game was held at all could be acknowledged as a reassurance that the fire would not ruin all sense of normalcy.

The NFL and various outlets including all the networks broadcasting the postseason, kept telling us about how to donate for fire relief efforts. Sometimes those requests are overdone. Not after this fire. Too many lives were lost and too many buildings were lost. 

All we can do now is to retain our sense of perspective and know that sport might contribute to providing what little benefit might be possible. And thanks to those who brought us the news good and bad.

TGL: Talent (including Tiger) and gimmicks

It’s called TGL, which stands for The Golf League, and it’s as dependent on gimmicks as it is on talent and there seems to be an abundance of both.

Unlike Mark Twain’s historical definition, this golf is not a long walk spoiled but, rather a short trip to fantasyland. And perhaps to the bank. Yes, Tiger Woods is involved, as an investor and as well as a competitor and so is ESPN, a twosome in this age of gaining attention and coverage, hardly is unimportant.

"It's not golf as we know it," said Woods. Rather it's an activity to fill time when there is no NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball—or golf as we know it.

You might say it's where personalities, Tiger, Xander Schauffele, and others who have done well at locations such as Augusta National or Royal Troon, meet technology. It is held indoors right now, at SoFi Arena in West Palm Beach, Fla.—not to be confused with SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. 

The evening begins with a bellicose announcement of the players as if they were battlers in MMA and not the PGA. There is a screen as in some golf facilities which records the distance and direction of the long iron and wood shots.  You might be familiar with one of those.  Some have you believe you are playing Pebble Beach or St. Andrews. The TGL screen is enormous—64 feet by 53 feet—and the course it depicts is not one in particular, just holes with bunkers and water hazards. The building itself is large enough for a basketball arena, and has rows of seats for fans encouraged to hoot and holler.  

The players are divided among six teams, each consisting of four PGA golfers chosen arbitrarily.  In Tuesday's inaugural, Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Sean Lowry, Ludvig Aberg, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Wyndham Clark were involved. Each was placed on teams called New York and Palm Beach, not that this is important. If you are going to have competition the result must mean something and at the moment, who really cares other than how the players perform? After their long shots, the players then move to an artificially turfed putting green—and here come the gimmicks—which is constructed to be able to spin and undulate. So far no windmill. 

Woods did not play Tuesday but made an appearance, not surprisingly, since he is so involved.  The schedule is for him to compete in the next matches, probably for Palm Beach. 

Maybe the best part was the jabbering and needling among the golf stars, just as if they were in a practice round or friendly match.

The thinking is that the public drawn by the names will find TGL must-see stuff. Who knows?  But there are a lot of oddball shows on TV, and TGL may find its niche. After all, even a person who doesn't know a bogey from a birdie would most likely find it more compelling than Corn Hole.

If not, The Golf Channel will deliver the real goods on weekends.

Niners head toward a future of needed change

The San Francisco 49ers’ lost season has come to a close. With a loss naturally. Would you have expected anything else?  

The question now is what should be expected? Other than the fact that having recorded a painful, almost absurd 6-11 record, the Niners must improve greatly through whatever methods are possible. This includes taking an impactful player, possibly a defensive lineman, with their first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Due to their poor finish, they will be picking 11th in the first round.

On Sunday, in a game which, to use a phrase, was full of subs and scrubs for the Niners, San Francisco was defeated by the Arizona Cardinals 47-24. Niners starting quarterback, Brock Purdy, was kept out of a seemingly meaningless contest.  Although, in a sport all too competitive, it’s perhaps incorrect to use the description “meaningless.”

It may be better to try and look ahead rather than grimly recalling what went on the past several months, but reflecting is both necessary and appropriate. True, San Francisco chose to go with journeyman quarterback, Joshua Dobbs in place of Purdy, who injured his elbow a week ago. However, it was the defense, as has been the case of late, that cost the 49ers any chance of a win today. Arizona rolled up 436 yards on offense, an inexcusable amount for a team that hopes to win.

In a way, that’s old news. However, you need to know what happened if you are going to make a change.

“They wore us down by the third quarter,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan pointed out. “We’ve been processing what’s been going on and got to get to work during the off-season,” he said in what is a massive understatement.

Journeyman Joshua Dobbs, in his start game of the year, taking over for Purdy, completed 29 passes of 43 attempts for a solid 326 yards and two touchdowns. The problem was he also threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. He, and the Niners, lost a top receiver when Juaun Jennings was ejected for fighting in the second quarter. Shanahan said, “I didn’t see him throw a punch, and am surprised he got ejected.” Jennings said he was being held down and couldn’t get up. As often happens, the officials failed to notice that part of the incident. 

A perfectly imperfect situation in a year when everything went wrong. 

It would be no surprise if the Niners have a placekicker other than Jake Moody next season. Moody did connect on a 51-yard field goal, but then later missed a 47-yard attempt. 

Once again, the Niners hurt themselves with penalties. They were called 13 times for 85 yards. Meanwhile, the Cardinals had only one penalty for 5 yards. Ineffective teams usually draw more penalties because the players are trying to offset a disadvantage, grabbing, pulling or beating the count.

Twelve months ago, the Niners were heading to the Super Bowl. Now they head to a questionable future. 

A rose on my seat, and the end of a streak

The press box seat was vacant. Except for a lone flower, a rose, of course, placed there by a sympathetic and understanding official. Wednesday, for the first time in roughly three-quarters of a century they were playing a Rose Bowl game in Pasadena and I wasn’t there.

Oh, I watched the game on television at home as most others, but as you might imagine it wasn’t the same. 

Streaks of any sort become obsessive and rewarding, and mine probably was both. Starting as a program salesman in 1954, and continuing as a spectator and then a sports writer, I had been to 70 consecutive Rose Bowls. No, I didn’t go to the Covid game in 2021 that moved to Texas, but if it wasn’t held in the famed stadium was it a Rose Bowl?

A pro of nothing but perhaps pertinent to everything, Ben Hogan, the golf great kept reminding us not to get old. I seemed to have missed the advice. My vision had deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t maneuver around the stadium by myself. So for safety's sake, the decision was to step away this time at least. Unfortunately. 

True, Ohio State routed Oregon, 41-21—I’ll get into that later— but it didn’t seem like the most compelling event. It was a throwback to the 1940s and 50s when the Big Ten would roll over schools from the West, winning game after game.

Still, until you have been there, it is difficult to grasp why the Rose Bowl holds such a prominent place in college football. It was the first bowl game, as the slogan quote “Granddaddy of them All” keeps us aware. The setting is particularly special, in the Arroyo Seco, surrounded by trees and a rustic area of homes, all set against the backdrop of the Sierra Madre's towering peaks. It would be a great place, even without the football game. Sunset is the best time of day when the game is coming to an end and the peaks to the East turn purple. Maybe even the stunned Oregon fans could appreciate the beauty.

There is a saying about football, “you don’t know, you can’t know, you never will know.”  We certainly had no idea what would happen when an undefeated Oregon team, which had beaten Ohio State by a point in September, would again face off against the Buckeyes. But we found out all too quickly. The game was decided halfway through the first quarter, Ohio State simply was too strong. You almost thought about the Buckeye teams when grumpy Woody Hayes was the coach, with his “3 yards and a cloud of dust offense.” Maybe the game was an unsuspected mismatch, but as almost always, the weather was great, as it usually is. 

The last time there was appreciable rain for the Rose Bowl Game was 1955 and interestingly, Ohio State was one of the opponents. Yes, the Buckeyes won but Hayes memorably complained about the band of the other team, USC, marching on the soggy field at half-time. He always needed something about which to be unhappy. Until the final score.

That was my second Rose Bowl and I got drenched, but I went home, changed my wet clothes, and told myself, you have to come back again.

I did. Again and again and again. Until this year.

In a 49ers game that didn’t matter, Purdy’s injury could

The game that was to send Brock Purdy on his way to a multi-million dollar contract instead sent him to the training room for MRI tests on his valuable right elbow, which required surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation just two years ago.

Purdy performed effectively if not perfectly Monday night as this tormented season of the San Francisco 49ers headed toward the finish. Then in the closing two minutes of a game that seemed inconsequential but could take on significant meaning depending on test results, Purdy was sacked and left the game.

The Detroit Lions (14-2), perhaps heading to the Super Bowl where the Niners were in February, defeated the Niners 40-34 at Levi Stadium, yet that seemed insignificant compared to the condition of Purdy, who said on NBC Bay Area Sports that, “I got hit on the backside and my arm was on fire. It felt like pins and needles were in my arm. What hurts me is that I couldn’t finish the game.” 

What will hurt the 49ers is if Purdy’s injury is anything like the one he incurred in the 2022 NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. He spent the spring and early summer trying to get healthy. Purdy did not think that would be the case this time. 

“It doesn’t feel the best,” said Purdy, “but it doesn’t feel that bad, so we’ll see tomorrow.” 

Purdy said the initial tests showed no damage to the ulnar collateral ligament he hurt two years ago. He hoped to be in the Niners last game of the season this upcoming Sunday at Arizona, but he was replaced by Joshua Dobbs for the remainder of the game after exiting this game.

Not until the start of the 2023 season were the Niners certain the quarterback would be ready to play. He was not only ready, he helped lead them to the NFC Championship. The Niners head coach, Kyle Shanahan, was more than satisfied with Purdy’s game Monday against Detroit. 

“He had better stats tonight,” said Shanahan, “he managed better tonight. He had a good night playing on a high level.” 

Purdy completed his first nine passes and overall twenty-seven of thirty-five for 377 yards and three touchdowns. In the first half, he relied on quick outs which kept the Lion's defense off balance. But after intermission, San Francisco changed its offense, and Purdy started throwing longer routes. Under pressure, in the fourth quarter, he threw two interceptions, which if nothing else, cost the 49ers a chance for a victory.

San Francisco had been eliminated from playoff contention before the game started. The Niners  said they were “playing for pride.” They did a very good job, although the defeat left them with a 6-10 record for a season that will not long be remembered.

Rookie receiver Ricky Pearsall had a fine game, with 8 receptions for 141 yards and his second touchdown of the year. He’s the man who was shot in Union Square by a would-be thief, who tried to steal his watch, during training camp. That was an awful introduction to the NFL.

From beginning to end this season has been full of the unexpected, especially for a team that was supposed to be one of the best and didn’t come close.

Niners looking at next year, although two games remain this year

And for this unmerry holiday (and NFL) season, the San Francisco 49ers will receive the 11th pick in the 2025 draft. Which one guesses is better than a lump of coal. Or another game when they can’t stop making penalties. 

No, the Niners are not finished with the 2024 schedule, unfortunately. They still have two games remaining, including Monday night in San Francisco against the Detroit Lions (13-2), a team playing as well as the Niners have played poorly.

When you get to December in pro football you hope to be at your best. And one year ago, the Niners were. Just wanted to reference the good times. Wasn’t the old showbiz slogan, “Always leave ‘em laughing?”

There is no mirth in Ninerville these days, especially after the failings and misfortunes that have haunted them since September—untimely penalties, numerous injuries, and a general lack of football smarts—that ganged together in Sunday’s 29-17 loss to the Dolphins in Miami. That defeat left San Francisco 6-9. It also officially eliminated the 49ers from any spot in the postseason, although even coach Kyle Shanahan conceded they were out of it before kickoff. 

“We knew that last week,” Shanahan said.

What he similarly knew was that the offensive line and overall defense had regressed. “There was a lack of concentration,” said Shanahan, “the penalties, a missed field goal (by Jake Moody). You can’t expect to have three personal fouls on three drives in the second half and expect to win. It was disappointing in how we got the penalties and how many we had.”

Disappointing is a word that is repeated too often about the Niners this season. They have had their chances, but not unusual for a troubled team, they were unable to benefit from them. The Niners need to get younger and stronger. They lost control of the offensive line, and have to make improvements in the running game—although if Christian McCaffrey comes back healthy that will make a difference.

Quarterback Brock Purdy had a semi-effective game Sunday throwing for 313 yards. However, with the Niners getting outgained on the ground with 81 rush yards to the Dolphins’ 166, he didn’t have much help. The old line is “to win you have to be able to run the ball.” 

“Offensively we didn’t play good enough,” said Purdy. “We hurt ourselves. When we think about the plays we should have made, we had plenty of opportunities, but we couldn't finish. Dang it, that hurt.” 

Purdy is going to get a very large contract in the offseason, maybe $60 million a year. The 49ers also are going to have to spend at other positions, including defensive backs.

After a less-than-stellar performance in the loss to the Rams in the rain a week and one half ago, Deebo Samuel played well against Miami, catching seven passes for 96 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 25 yards in five carries.  

“I’m not frustrated,” said Samuel, who perhaps will not be on the team next year if changes are made. “We have had injuries. We need to get prepared for next year.”

Planning ahead is not a bad idea after a bad season.

Rickey could steal bases and our hearts

And so once more in this terrible year, we lose another Bay Area baseball legend. This time it was the greatest base stealer of all time and perhaps the greatest Oakland Athletics player of all time. Rickey Henderson died Friday, five days short of his 66th birthday, which would have been on Christmas. Willie Mays died in June, followed by another of the San Francisco Giants Hall of Famers, Orlando Cepeda. Now Rickey, of pneumonia. 

Presumably, Henderson was in a hospital bed. Had he been on the basepaths, the Grim Reaper wouldn’t have caught him. After all, few throws from catchers ever did.

When his 25-year major league career came to a close in 2003, Henderson had 1,406 steals, 130 of which set the single-season record in 1982. Then in 1991, when he broke Lou Brock’s all-time stolen base record, Rickey famously celebrated by grabbing the base and holding it aloft. A fan of Mohammed Ali, Henderson was not exactly a paragon of humility. “I’m the greatest,” he boasted. And he was.

Henderson also is the all-time runs-scored leader with 2,295. And what’s more important in baseball for the team at bat than scoring runs? 

Henderson grew up in Oakland, attending Oakland Tech High and playing both football and baseball. He hoped one day to be on his hometown team, the Oakland A’s, and was wildly successful. The team would name the playing surface at their now departed home, the Oakland Coliseum, Rickey Henderson Field. Sadly, that’s all gone, the franchise having been shifted to Sacramento. 

Henderson and former teammate, Dave Stewart, another A’s star, came to the team’s final game at Oakland in October, remembering the good days, as now we will Henderson.

When he was enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility, Henderson, who also played for the Yankees and several other teams, said, “That was something I always wanted to be, and now that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has voted me into the Baseball Hall of Fame, my journey as a player is complete. I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time and at this moment, I am very, very humbled.” 

Even though his words don’t make him seem that way, Rickey was a comfortable presence in the clubhouse, a not-unwilling interview. He understood the need for an athlete to be cooperative as well as talented.

Stolen bases became less important in baseball during the middle of the 20th century. Ty Cobb’s record of 96 steals was set in 1915 and was not broken until Maury Wills raised the mark to 104 in 1962. Brock stole 118 in 1974.

And then along came Henderson, dynamic and exciting, winning games and in 1990 winning American League Most Valuable Player Award. 

He didn’t exactly change the game, but he certainly made it more thrilling. He gave opponents a run for their money. He’s gone, and so is the field named for him, but the great memories will always remain.

Thanks, Rickey.

For the Niners, plenty of rain but not a touchdown

It was an awful way for the San Francisco 49ers to end the season, in the rain at Levi’s Stadium, without a touchdown, and with a 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. No, the Niner’s season is technically not done, but after Thursday night’s depressing defeat, everyone who is a realist understands that’s it for 2024.

Never mind the playoffs. You have to wonder if the 6-8 Niners even have a chance at finishing the season with a .500 record. To make matters worse—as if they could get worse—one of San Francisco’s defensive linemen, De’Vondre Campbell, refused to return to the game in the third quarter. “I’m not going in,” he reportedly told the coaches.

San Francisco at least played effectively on defense, but the offense was alarmingly poor, managing only two field goals by Jake Moody. That started with the game plan by head coach Kyle Shanahan, continued through quarterback Brock Purdy, and went down to boastful wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who had spent the week insisting he wanted more opportunities with the ball. As if answering his demand, the Niners called a pass to Samuel the very first play from scrimmage. It was incomplete.

Samuel eventually caught three passes for 16 yards but gained only three yards on two carries. “The rain impacted us from running as well as we could,” Samuel explained. “We got to do better. It was frustrating.” That word can also be applied to the Niners performance this year.  Indeed, they had far too many injuries, including such key players as running back Christian McCaffrey—who will not return until next season-—and defensive stars Nick Bosa and Drew Greenlaw, who were able to come back to face the Rams.

Yet every team has injuries and when the Niners lost players, they also seemed to lose their heart.  Everything that could go wrong went wrong for many games, including this one on offense.

“We had offensive struggles,” admitted Shanahan, stating the obvious. “They got their run game going better than we did” (the Rams racked up 142 rushing yards compared to San Francisco’s 63). “LA played well and we left a lot out there. Deebo on third down didn’t catch the ball. That was a big one.” 

The Niners were swept by the Rams for the first time in six years. Can you imagine what it was like for the home fans, getting drenched and then being unable to cheer for a single TD? 

And can you imagine what it was like for Purdy, who had one of his poorest games? He was under constant pressure from the Rams, who came in prepared with methods of keeping the Niners QB scrambling, throwing incompletions (14 for 31 for 142 yards) and an interception. It was a career-worst for Purdy, who gained fame as “Mr. Relevant”, the last man picked in the draft. 

“Obviously this one hurts,” said Purdy. “We have lots of people ready to fight to finish out the season the right way. We had opportunities that we didn’t convert out. I didn’t play my best tonight. I left a lot of plays. I could have been better for my team. The defense did a great job.”

Oh well, someday the sun will shine again.

For Niners, even with a win, ‘These are desperate times’

The San Francisco 49ers understand. They are playing for survival, playing for pride, and playing for respect. It would have been difficult to believe in September, but as acknowledged by defensive end Leonard Floyd, that’s exactly where they are. 

The Niners did beat the Chicago “Very Bad News” Bears on Sunday with a decisive 38-13 victory at Levi’s Stadium. But so what? The victory may have been a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a three-game losing streak that was finally coming to a close.

In the immediate future, this Thursday night, the 49ers will host the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams not only defeated the Niners two and one-half months ago but also stunned the Buffalo Bills on Sunday—who crushed San Francisco in an all too typical Buffalo snowstorm last weekend. 

Technically, the Niners still are going for a spot in the playoffs, although perhaps only in misguided dreams. They need to win all their remaining games, on a schedule that includes the Detroit Lions, who have lost only once in thirteen games.

“These are desperate times,” said Floyd. “The goal is to grab it by the horns and go home early.”  He didn’t mean departing before the postseason but that seems to be the fate awaiting the 49ers. With a 6-7 overall record and sitting at the bottom of the NFC West, their chances of making a playoff run appear slim. 

It’s hard to judge your quality in a game against the Bears, who were playing their first game under interim coach Thomas Brown and have dropped their seventh straight game.

Still, San Francisco was remarkably impressive on defense, keeping Chicago to four yards in the first half. So, the Bears would be an embarrassment to their late founder and owner, George Hallis, but they’re still a legitimate NFL team. 

The Niners' offense was, in a word, effective. Quarterback Brock Purdy reminded us of his performance last year, the Super Bowl year, completing fourteen of his first sixteen passes and finishing with 20 of 25 for 325 yards and two touchdowns. “We had offensive rhythm in the first half,” said Kyle Shanahan, the Niners' relieved coach—who had been a target of fans and journalists during the brief losing streak.

“We had to step it up today”, said Shanahan. “We did and we got a win.”

Floyd, who had two sacks of San Francisco’s total seven, said “Great defense. Everyone stepped up. The goal is to carry it to Thursday.” 

The defense had been a problem with the injuries to Nick Bosa and others. 

Bosa still was unable to play for a third straight game, but with Floyd and ever-reliable Fred Warner taking charge, the D certainly dominated Chicago. The Bears were held to just 162 total yards. San Francisco surged to a commanding 24-0 lead by halftime, effectively deciding the game before the break. Chicago didn’t score until about the middle of the third quarter. 

Niner partisans had been eagerly anticipating—or perhaps just patiently waiting—for a performance like this over the past couple of months. They finally have it. However, it might have come too late.

Montana’s advice to Purdy: Don’t press

The evening dealt with the passing of time and because the guest speaker was a quarterback—in San Francisco, The quarterback—the passing of a football.

Through the years, the MPSF Speakers Series has offered prime ministers, former presidents,  executives, and other notables. On Wednesday at the Paramount Theater in Oakland and on Zoom,  it was Joe Montana. 

He is now 68 years old, a proud grandfather of three, and as successful in the business suite as he was on the gridiron—arguably even more so A look back is full of sweet memories, both for Joe, who led the 49ers to four Super Bowl victories, and for the fans who remember the exploits of the guy nicknamed “Super Joe” and others from those championship years.

An audience that likely included more than a few current Niners supporters frustrated with the team’s disappointing record this season was given the opportunity to ask questions. Unsurprisingly, one of the questions was about Brock Purdy, who now holds the quarterback position that long ago was held by Montana.

What advice would he give Purdy, was a question for Montana. “You don’t press,” was Montana’s response. “Go back to your fundamentals—on offense and defense.” 

Sounds simple, but as Montana knows, it doesn’t turn out to be simple. 

Montana was drafted in the third round in 1959 by a rookie coach named Bill Walsh. The Niners were not very good in those days. 

“That season, to put it mildly, we looked like the Bad News Bears,” said Montana. “When we played the Cowboys, Bill started to substitute and I hid behind him, but he saw me and put me back in the game.”

Ronnie Lott, the star defensive back, joined the team in the 1981 draft, and, alongside the maturation of Montana, helped elevate the Niners to a Super Bowl appearance that once seemed out of reach. "The culture improved," Montana recalled.

Walsh then chose a little-known receiver from Mississippi Valley State University, Jerry Rice, who broke virtually every receiving record and helped win more Super Bowls. 

“Walsh was ahead of his time,” said Montana. “He started the back shoulder throw. His offensive style was different than the others. He always wanted to complete the pass. You had to understand the philosophy behind what he did. He demanded that the quarterback be perfect. He paid most attention to the littlest details.”

Montana fondly recalled Walsh’s sense of humor, like the time he dressed up in a bellman’s uniform to greet the team upon their arrival in Detroit for Super Bowl XVI. He also talked about Super Bowl XIX at Stanford, where before the game Walsh sat in the locker room and jokingly whined, “Oh, those Miami Dolphins are so good, we have no chance.”

As history shows, the Niners beat the Dolphins.

Montana and his wife Jennifer have been married for 40 years. And Joe laughed as he talked about trying to propose to her. 

“We were out to dinner, and I wrote on the back of the check, ‘Will you marry me, Jen?’ She said I didn’t really ask her. Then I hired a plane to fly over the Marina Green with a banner that said, ‘Will you marry me, Jen?’ She still said I hadn’t actually asked her.”

Finally, he added, “So then I asked her properly—and she said yes.”

He always had the right touch.