October Crossroads

 It's October--when big league baseball and the WNBA have their big finishes, NFL football starts defining itself and the NBA knocks off the rust and tests out team changes. 

The MLB playoffs are underway, but neither the San Francisco Giants nor the Pittsburgh Pirates made it that far.  Both had an insufficient second half, though both had moments of fun and promise.  The Pirates frustrated the Yankees at the end of the season, taking that series, and the Bucs won all the games they played against the Marlins.  Their young starting pitchers are more than promising, and they have punch in the lineup.  I imagine they're fun to watch at the ball park, and should be next season.

When the Giants again missed the playoffs last year they went after the two biggest free agents available in a big way, and whiffed on both of them.  Those two--Judge and Ohtani--just happened to dominate the season, and may well meet in this year's World Series.

But the Giants finished the year starting to look like a team that could bring people back to the ball park. The best news is that their new leader is Buster Posey.  That should at least solidify and further advance the Giants feeling like a team and not just associated statistics.

The WNBA playoffs have also started, and Caitlin Clark helped get her Indiana team into them, but they didn't win a game.  She had a great year nonetheless--especially considering that she played a long college season and those playoffs into the national championship game, then almost immediately on a new team at a new level.  Breaking records and earning Rookie of the Year, she also helped elevate awareness of women's basketball, while surviving all the attention and the ugliness that so-called fans and click-baiting posters unleashed.  Angel Reese also had an outstanding rookie year.There's tough and skilled basketball still being played in those playoffs.  Meanwhile Indiana looks forward to an even better year.  

The NFL season has started, with the San Francisco 49ers underperforming, due largely to injuries, and the Pittsburgh Steelers perhaps overperforming expectations,  but neither team has been consistent or appears to have much of an identity yet.  To me the team that looks really solid is Minnesota.

The NBA pre-season is just starting and the Golden State Warriors have going for them the excitement of uncertainty along with potential.   Klay Thompson's absence makes it a new group needing to become a team, adding new players and expecting veterans to add to their roles.  Could be fun.

Curry-Age-ous

 If there were any doubt, no longer: this is the Age of Steph Curry.  After making noise in the first few exhibition games with the 2024 USA Olympic team, Curry got quiet on the scoreboard.  Opponents were keying on him, which often left space for damage close to the basket.  The US team was beating up opponents on the inside, with defensive blocks and steals and lots and lots of fast breaks.  Le Bron James became the point forward, leading the offense.  Steph became an enabler, diverting attention as well as making passes and screens.  His 3 point shot seemed a little off, perhaps due to the speed of play plus the different international 3 point line.

In the last two games, defenses tried to guard the basket area better, which left Steph some space.  He also became the point guard again in key situations.  And then, there's Steph being Steph in big moments. 

 In the semi-final, Serbia was ahead by 14 or so at the end of the third quarter.  So it was Steph who kept USA in the game and then Steph leading the fourth quarter comeback.  He had nine 3 pointers, and a total of 36 points.  Kevin Durant and Le Bron make big shots and key defensive plays as well down the stretch, and the USA played like a team.  For that game--which Coach Kerr and Durant both said was the best basketball game they'd ever participated in--they were a real team.  Serbia played a perfect game, Kerr said, but the US superstars played a better one, by playing together.  And by looking for Steph in the stretch.

At the end of that game it was a foregone conclusion to everyone, including the players, that USA would win the gold in the final game with France.  But the French team didn't get that memo.  They played hard, stayed close, and in the fourth quarter they were very close.  Towards the end it was a one or two possession game.  But then, improbably again, Steph happened.  He hit one three, then another, then another, and finally--night, night--another.  Four threes in the last three minutes of the fourth quarter.  He won the medal.  No player in Olympic history has scored more points in the last two games (60), and no player has ever hit eight three pointers in the medal game. 

These last few games were fun to watch.  I was more impressed with Le Bron in these Olympics than I ever have been.  Kevin Durant, injured for the warmup games, was like a Zen master on the court, hitting his fluid shots and deftly defending with steals and runouts. And wasn't it great to see Steph and KD as teammates again?  They seemed to love it. Anthony Davis was essential on defense, and the younger players who now get the most media attention and awards all had their moments, but these three--Le Bron, Durant and Steph--dominated those last several games.

And now, this team that was a dream to play on--it was Curry's dream to play in the Olympics, Le Bron's dream to play with Curry, and Durant felt the dream while playing, --will play together no more.   So it will all seem like a dream, but one worth having and remembering.

At The Break

At the MLB All-Star break, the San Francisco Giants look forward to a better second half.  And why not?  They got through the first half with a big chunk of their starting pitching staff injured for significant amounts of time.  Now Blake Snell is back, with two stellar outings so far--including eight innings one bad call from being perfect.  With Logan Webb and Kyle Harrison, and some interesting young pitchers, there's progress to be made.

The Giants front office seems to be going with youth, which has the potential of streaks of excitement.  But with the team's leading hitter (Matt Chapman) at a dismal .235, there needs to be a lot of improvement with the bat.

Meanwhile the other team I follow, the Pittsburgh Pirates, ended their first half on a high note--with a four game win streak that sent them on the break with a 48-48 record.  Considering how little was expected of them, this is notably good.  Of course the highlight of their first half was the incredible debut of pitcher Paul Skenes, who has been in the league for a couple of months, and may well start the All-Star game. Super-fastball pitchers don't tend to last all that long, but in addition to his fastball he has a crafty set of pitches that can keep him going for a nice career.   But for sure, now is the time to enjoy watching him.  

Skenes now heads a pretty good young starting rotation.  Bryan Reynolds leads the team in batting, homers and RBIs, Oneil Cruz hits the ball hard and throws even harder across the infield, and Rowdy Tellez is always a threat at the plate.  Plus the Cutch has found a comfort zone with these young players.  The bullpen looked better as the season went on, and they will be a key to the second half.

As basketball eyes turn to the Olympics and the WNBA, the Golden State Warriors are talking up the team as currently constituted, while quietly working on at least one major trade.  But Steph at the Olympics is the upcoming excitement.  Reports are that he's eager to excel and lead.

In the WNBA, Caitlin Clark continues to draw big crowds on the road as well as at home, and she's set some personal records already, but it's the Indiana Fever team that is the most impressive.  Their come from behind win over the MN Lynx is just the latest indication that they're learning to play together better on offense, and their defense is relentless. Clark as point guard and assist leader is of course the key, but everything is jelling around her.

 I'd thought before that this would be a learning year for Clark, and it would take some off-season rest (which she has not had since the start of last year's college season) and work on getting stronger before she could take this team places.  But now it looks like the Fever could make some noise in this year's playoffs.

Meanwhile Angel Reese is having a high-impact season, setting the record for consecutive triple doubles.  She's right to say that she's lucky she wasn't drafted until the 8 spot--she got on a better team and hit the ground running.  Both Clark and Reese will play in their All-Star game.    

Scrambling Time

 A few days into free agency and the Golden State Warriors are into scrambling mode.  They've lost Klay Thompson, and they've let Chris Paul go. They failed to complete a meaningful trade.  They've picked up a prospect and a couple of role players but nobody who can replace either of those players, or their roles.  They are going to save some money, though.

So the Warriors are more or less officially a team in transition, both in terms of next year's competition and the team's identity.  Klay was a big part of both, even though in some ways he was becoming a liability. The Warriors won't be the same without him.  Klay may win a ring with the Mavs, he may even turn into their Robert Horry, but he's not going to be happy in Dallas.  I doubt he'll be in the league at all in two or three years.  I hope I'm wrong.

If the Warriors' goal is to extend Steph Curry's career and help him win at least one more championship, things right now seem to be going in the opposite direction.

The Giants are scrambling, too, at least at the front office level, as they reportedly are deciding whether to go into rebuild mode or maintain their core players and compete for the playoffs.  Recently however they've been doing remarkably well on the field for a team that has lost most of its starting pitching to injuries.  These bullpen games are mostly working, and they're seeing some young prospects.  

Is it my imagination or are there more and more injuries in baseball?  This is hurting not only the pitching staff but the lineup, with guys coming back and going out so much that you can't get a fix on the team.

So soon after Willie Mays, comes the death of another Giants great, Orlando Cepeda.  I remember him from his rookie season through the early 60s.  Like Mays, he went on after the Giants to help other teams win championships, despite nagging injuries. He was the first player from Puerto Rico to play in the All-Star Game.  Roberto Clemente was probably the second.

Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Pirates are doing well, behind some exciting young pitchers.  Cutch seems to be thriving at last.    

Willie

 Willie Mays died on Tuesday, at the age of 93.  He was unique, as a baseball player and afterwards, because he did not fade away.  The San Francisco Giants and the city of San Francisco kept him active and useful and honored. The Giants' ballpark is in Willie Mays Plaza, and it features an eight-foot high statue of him. Today he's being called the greatest center fielder of all time, and perhaps the greatest baseball player of all time.  But San Francisco especially will miss him (though it took a few years for SF fans to embrace him as a player.)    

I was growing up in western PA during his playing days, first as a New York Giant (where he was Rookie of the Year in 1951 and League MVP in 1954), then in San Francisco (MVP in 1965, with 52 homers) when I was in college, before a final season with the New York Mets (where he made his last plate appearance in the World Series) when I was a working writer.  

 Mays is part of Pittsburgh Pirates history for his bare-handed catch of a deep fly ball hit by the Pirates' Rocky Nelson in 1957, but I hadn't gone to Forbes Field for a game yet.  That was also the Giants' last year in New York, and their last game there was played against the Pirates.  Bob Friend had thrown one pitch to Willie when the crowd spontaneously gave him a standing ovation as a personal goodbye.  It's possible I did see him play at Forbes Field in the late 50s or early 60s, but I don't recall.  I certainly watched him on television--he especially excelled at All-Star games.  He played in 24 of them.

  Today I relished the story San Francisco Chronicle sports columnist Scott Ostler told, of a barnstorming or winter league game somewhere--Puerto Rico probably--in which Mays was playing center field next to Roberto Clemente, the Pirates Great One, in right field.  They apparently worked out a trick play in which, on a single hit to center, Mays deliberately seemed to let the ball go by him, tempting the runner on take another base.  But Clemente was right behind him, backing up the play, and gunned down the runner.  Clemente, especially early in his career, had the best outfield arm in the majors.  Though Mays was pretty close.

 On Thursday the Giants will play the Cards in Birmingham, Alabama, at the newly renovated baseball field where Willie first played professional baseball on the Negro League team.  The game was meant to honor the Negro Leagues, for Major League Baseball has officially recognized them as major leagues (as it has a few other leagues in the past), and the statistics of their players are now in the MLB record books.

It was going to be special for the Giants' outfielder Carl Yastrzemski because it is the only field where both his father (with his career in the minor leagues--when the Negro Leagues disbanded, the field hosted a minor league team) and his famous grandfather (Hall of Fame star for the Red Sox) played.  Three Carl Yastrzemskis is a story about the place of baseball in American history and American life, a sacred place.  Even more is the story of Willie Mays,.  The news of his death came the same day as the official announcement that he wouldn't be traveling to the game, but would watch it on TV.

Mays started with the Giants only a few years after Jackie Robinson broke the color ban with the Dodgers.  He won hearts and minds--President Obama said that he made it impossible to be a racist, at least while he played.  Obama gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. 

 He did not live long enough to enjoy the milestone of Thursday game in Birmingham, but at 93 he had so many, as a player, a godfather to Barry Bonds, and as a mentor to many other players--for he had really studied the game. Right from the start he studied how to hit with power, he studied pitchers before he faced them (he wanted to know their best pitch, because he would probably see it)  and eventually he understood the whole game so well that he directed his team's play from center field--allegedly including the catcher's call of pitches.  He certainly passed this on to Barry Bonds, who startled Giants announcers on a plane ride by telling them the first 4 pitches he would see the next day--and he was precisely right. 

Willie May's baseball intelligence helped make him a great player--he hit for power and average, many times a Gold Glove fielder, and a great baserunner.  But what people remember is that he played with joy and style.  That's something to be remembered for.

And This Ball Game Is Over!

The San Francisco Giants have suddenly been on fire.  After a very successful road trip, they won their first two games of their current homestand before falling to the Phillies on Wednesday.  With their dramatic 1-0 10th inning victory (their bullpen vs. the Phillies ace) Tuesday night, they had won 8 of their previous 10.

Most conspicuous change is their hitting.  It was situational and opportunistic, with a number of the hitters looking like Pablo Sandoval in his prime, driving the pitch to places where the fielders weren't.  Also very obvious, they finally scored big on an offseason acquisition of a star player with Matt Chapman.  Chapman adds power, smart hitting as well, and great fielding at third base.  His incredible play to end a game against Pittsburgh and preserve the win was one for the ages.  For the moment at least, the Giants are in second place and a game above .500.

Speaking of Pittsburgh, the Pirates have been playing above their reputation lately as well.  They won a series in Chicago and more impressively in Atlanta against the highly touted Braves.  They're still below .500 but if they can keep hitting, their new starters should add some victories, assuming the bullpen doesn't give them all away.

Back to the Giants: it was so great to tune into the 1-0 game and hear that same brilliant broadcasting team I listened to in the glory days.  (I find the Pirates announcing embarrassing.  All that Jolly Rodger and cannonball crap.)  

This is something I am well aware of and cherish about rooting for Bay Area teams.  Where else in the country can you find the best announcing team in baseball still on the air (through thick and thin, while oversensitive fans like me listen mostly during the thick)?  Or where else in the NBA can you find core players you've enjoyed watching for ten years but at Golden State?  As part of an organization that on and off the court is the gold standard of sports?  It's gratitude, man.  

In the NBA playoffs, well, it turns out that all the fun was in the second round.  In the third, the Celtics swept and the Mavs won in 5.  I have no interest in the finals.    

NBA Round 2 to 3, and the Young NL Fireballers

 The NBA second round game sevens lived up to their billing.  After being down 20 points in the third quarter, MN completed the biggest game 7 comeback in playoff history, going to up 10 in less than a quarter.  The Denver Nuggets appeared gassed.  MN was longer, quicker and deeper.  Denver's playoff experience could not overcome the T-Wolves.  MN showed impressive playoff resilience by surviving three straight losses to blow Denver out in the sixth game, and then go into a higher gear to end game 7.  They defeated the defending NBA champions and this year's MVP, the favorites to win it all. 

Now Jokic joins some other big names watching the playoffs on TV.  Viewership of the first two rounds was down by 17%, attributed to the absence of familiar stars like the Warriors' Steph Curry, whose jersey remains the most popular around the world. 

MN entered the West finals slightly favored over Dallas, who won their series by defeating OKC by a single point.  MN defeated a better team than Dallas did; Dallas squeaked by a young team not as talented or proven as MN (though they will probably be better next year.) Dallas had the edge in experience and maturity, but MN has proven it can overcome those disadvantages in the long run.  Even though they lost the first conference championship game at home, I'm expecting MN to prevail, and represent the West in the finals. I'll be rooting for them anyway.

In the East 7th game, the Indiana Pacers also set an NBA playoff record for shooting percentage (67.1%) to blow out the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.  Like the MN T-Wolves, they took the series by winning games 6 and 7.

The East finals began with Boston outlasting Indiana in overtime, with the Celtics looking rusty and the Pacers overanxious.  The question now becomes whether they can shake playoff nerves to take better care of the ball and steal one in Boston, and make this a series.  

In MLB, a recent series in Chicago between the Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates showed off two of the exciting rookie pitchers in baseball, back to back.  The Cubs rookie Shota Imanaga shut out the Pirates 1-0, accomplishing a total ERA of 0.84 over his first nine games, the lowest since ERA stats were recorded in 1913.  The next night, Pirates rookie fireballer Paul Skenes struck out the first seven batters he faced, one short of the record.  He finished 6 innings with 11 strikeouts, often on his 100+ mph fastball, giving up no runs as the Pirates' questionable bullpen held on to preserve his victory.

It seems like at the moment, Skenes is attracting the most attention in sports outside of Caitlin Clark. I remember watching the 19 year old Dwight Gooden pitch for the Mets in 1984 with absolute wonder at the speed and location of his pitches.  Gooden was a phenomenon who regularly reached 98mph with his fastball.  For Skenes that might qualify as an off-speed pitch.  There are some other fireballers out there regularly throwing beyond 100 mph, and while it's a wonder to watch them,  I also wonder how long they can do it, or as in Gooden's case, how they can handle it.  (Both in and out of baseball, Gooden had a recurring drug habit, mostly cocaine.)  Skenes seems pretty level-headed, so here's hoping he keeps being successful, on and off the field.  Meanwhile the Pirates have some other exciting young players, as well as veteran leadership.  Their bullpen could be their downfall, though.

Speaking of the Pirates, they announced they are enshrining Barry Bonds in their team Hall of Fame, along with his manager Jim Leyland.  It's a reminder of how great a player Bonds was before his exploits in San Francisco.  I watched him many times at Three Rivers--I especially recall one game in which he smacked four hard hits to every field.  I don't believe it is fair to keep him out of the MLB Hall of Fame--he was competing against pitchers and other players just as allegedly juiced as he was in his SF years.  But no one can criticize the Pirates for honoring him for his years with Pittsburgh.