With the NFL draft quickly approaching, baseball getting into
full swing and the NBA postseason starting, now seems like a good
time to take stock of professional sports in the Bay Area.
As far as football goes, it’s been a pretty miserable year for
local fans.
With the NFL draft quickly approaching, baseball getting into full swing and the NBA postseason starting, now seems like a good time to take stock of professional sports in the Bay Area.
As far as football goes, it’s been a pretty miserable year for local fans.
The Niners were an embarrassment to themselves in last year’s 2-14 campaign, which has local fans chomping at the bit over this Saturday’s draft possibilities with the team in control with the coveted top pick. Whatever route the 49ers go in the draft – Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers or trading the pick – it’s likely going to take a couple of years for the once-great franchise to get things turned around.
Nothing like extended rebuilding. Maybe San Francisco should have tried a little harder to accommodate at least one of the two Pro Bowlers who left the team before the start of last season.
As far as the Silver and Black goes, the Raiders are looking like they will be much improved over last season. Despite my personal disdain for Mr. Randy Moss, who is public enemy No. 1 as far as Green Bay Packers fans like myself go, he is an amazing talent and will certainly bring big-play capability to a team in desperate need of such a tool.
And I do mean tool.
I know that its way too early in the baseball season to start predicting where the Giants and the A’s will be in the standings come September, but local hardball fans can’t be too happy with the starts their teams have put together this season.
As I write this, the Oakland Athletics are looking to get above .500 with a win against Seattle. But Barry Zito’s bid to pick up win No. 1 on the year looks to be in question as an all-out slugfest is unfolding at Safeco. Obviously, Zito will find his A-game at some point, but I would imagine that A’s fans would sure like to have had Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson in the rotation until he does.
The Giants were looking to get to .500 with a win against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday night but Noah Lowry, usually a lock for a victory, couldn’t keep the Snakes completely off the board.
Let’s face it, the Giants are going to struggle to stay around the .500 mark until Barry Bonds and Moises Alou return to the lineup. And, last I heard, Bonds’ rehab is going slower than expected.
So then, could it be that the Golden State Warriors have been the best Bay-Area sports story this past calendar year?
I think so.
At the quarter mark of this NBA season, the Warriors were just horrible. Loss after loss had fans calling into sports talk radio programs talking about how well certain ex-Warriors were doing now that they were playing ball for the Washington Wizards.
Seriously. That topic dominated the radio chatter for weeks. That and Mike Dunleavey bashing of all sorts.
But, all of the sudden, the future is very bright for Warriors’ basketball.
The team has shown flashes of brilliance since Baron Davis arrived. In fact, there are some folks who cover the NBA on a daily basis who believe that the Warriors have been playing like a solid top-10 team since the point guard arrived. Furthermore, there are those who believe that the Warriors will have one of the league’s most potent backcourts for years to come with Davis and Jason Richardson handling the ball.
I’d have to agree with that.
The Warriors are 13-4 in their last 17 games and look like a team that should be headed for the postseason. Davis has already given local fans reason to believe with his optimistic outlook for next year and beyond.
