Author: lleonardbw

Sacramento Kings commentary & podcast: Karl wants these two next games against Memphis & San Antonio

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by Charlie O

SACRAMENTO–Kings head coach George Karl coached his first two games against the Boston Celtics in Sacramento and his second game in L.A. versus the Clippers with different results. Nobody really knew quite what to expect many reporters haven’t in Sacramento haven’t been able to cover Karl that much but you see the persona on television.

Head coaches are suppose to be friendly and their suppose to be nice and their suppose to be fun guys on ESPN. Many were on hand to see what their first impressions were with Karl at the helm. I got a chance to be at his pre game conference for his first game last Friday night which is set 90 minutes ahead of the tip.

It was really interesting to me it was a tremendous media circus there were about 50 reporters there instead of the normal four to five your would have in the coaches office before the game. One of the things he talked about he was really overwhelmed by the reception he was getting from media in Sacramento with the coverage.

I really believed that he was indeed overwhelmed in that first game as head coach for the Kings. That was carried out even more when he was introduced to the crowd during the intros. You can tell he was just taken aback from the way the crowd responded to him. Sacramento is a really unique town, it’s an NBA town.

That’s because it’s an NBA only town, the Kings are the only show in town, there’s the minor league soccer team the Republic FC, the minor league baseball Rivercats, and a former UFL team the Mountain Lions. Sacramento is a one team market like Memphis, Oklahoma City, or like Portland. It is the big thing in Sacramento and you could tell almost immediately that he has been caught up into how important his role is to the fans and the sporting community in Sacramento.

Karl is aware the fans obviously care about this team and what their going to do and it was a nice introduction. I liked his attitude and the way he handled the press. It was a real scrum because you had everybody out covering it there were people there that I haven’t seen at a Kings game in the last two years that I’ve been covering the Kings. He handled it with grace and he really made people feel like he cared.

Charlie O covers Sacramento Kings basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch his podcast below

San Francisco Giants commentary & podcast: Akoi and McGehee expected to help lead the charge in camp this spring

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by Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants third baseman Casey McGehee is a power hitter even there’s that big left field line that goes down left field for 339 feet at AT&T Park. McGehee is going to be a big bat, his defense is okay but he’s going to be a big bat and hit for average. He’s not as popular as ex-Giant Pablo Sandoval was who was one of the most popular Giants over the last ten to 15 years.

Leftfieler Nori Aoki is a great addition because he’s got speed and with Gregor Blanco who will be sharing left field has been in San Francisco for the last two World Series. With the addition of Aoki he’s a great addition that general manager Brian Sabean made in the off season. Probably one of the most heralded, underrated pick up moves that Sabean had made in the last eight years.

Giants catcher Andrew Sasac’s offense was on fire when he came up to help catcher Buster Posey last season in the dog days of September before the playoffs started. Catcher Hector Sanchez could go back down after this spring and there is a question whether he’s got any offense left in him. Sanchez could be out of options. Sasac is a great catcher he’s a young talent and he’ll Posey out a lot, so Sasac will be there to help Posey out as well as Sanchez if the Giants go with three catchers.

Angel Pagan the Giants centerfielder says he’s feeling the best like he’s never felt before after coming off that bulging disc injury from last season. Pagan will be a great addition coming back and he’s a leader. He’s part of that core that’s been there from those two World Championships he’ll be helpful coming back this season. Coming back from a back injury is very serious but he’s got to come back and he should do well. Pagan has a great bat he hit .300 last season and he will do well being back with the team again.

Joe Panik will be the Giants second baseman for the near future in San Francisco, Panik will not be going anywhere. Panik has a small bat but he has a great glove that’s what the Giants like about Panik he’s got great defense at second base.

Jeremy Kahn is the beat writer for S.F.Giants baseball listen to his podcast below at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News, podcast & commentary: After having stents put in Bochy said he feels good enough to climb Camelback Mountain

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by Daniel Dullum

SCOTTSDALE AZ–The stent procedure for Giants manager Bruce Bochy was impressive in terms of his turn around. He wasn’t feeling well last week and got checked out by the team doctors and after an angioplasty it was determined that he needed two stents put in. He has the procedure and after he was done he was ready to go back to work.

Bochy said that he felt so good that he could go climb Camelback Mountain and that’s not an easy climb either, good for him and these days the doctors and hospitals don’t want you laying around in your room they want to send you home as quick as possible. As far as climbing Camelback Mountain is concerned that tells you something about Bochy those old catchers are tough you know.

There are a couple questions that were raised on good pitching and we were getting positive reports on Giants reliever Tim Lincecum as many of you know Timmy reconnected with his dad who taught him his pitching mechanics many years ago to begin with and sometimes when you get out of sink you got to go back to the source. That is what Lincecum has done and so far so good.

Sometimes when pitching mechanics are so precise it doesn’t take much to get out of whack and you can expect many good things and a good come back from Lincecum this year whatever it was that wasn’t quite right he found the answer. Giants fans can look forward to good things from Lincecum. We’ll all be anxious to see how that goes when he gets the first few spring training starts.

On the reahab trail you’ve got pitcher Matt Cain whose been throwing some good bullpen sessions and pitcher Tim Hudson who also has been back on the path of recovery. Cain had the elbow surgery and Hudson had surgery to remove bone spurs from his right ankle which is the same one that sidelined him in 2013 and hopefully that went well and little things like that can effect things Hudson had a excellent first half of the season last year. In the second half of Hudson’s season it was not so good and you have to wonder if those bone spurs were a big issue for Huddy.

Will the Giants miss the Pandas spirit in the clubhouse? You have to wonder about that, Sandoval always had a great disposition in the clubhouse and kind of set the tone for a good clubhouse situation for what I’ve seen. There going to miss him in that respect, that is something that is underrated. What Pablo did with the bat and the glove is one thing and the guy can throw left handed as well. Pablo Sandoval is a very talented athlete, the Giants are going to miss him on the field, their going to miss him in the line up and their going to miss his clubhouse presence.

Daniel Dullum is filling in for Amaury Pi Gonzalez and is covering the Cactus League in Arizona for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Sportstalk @ Scotts Seafood in downtown San Jose podcast Monday Feb 23, 2015

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Scott's Seafood, San Jose, CA

Cast: Jerry Feitelberg (host), Len Shapiro, Troy Clardy, Jeremy Harness, and Lee Leonard (producer) cover the NHL Stadium Series with the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings; also the Worcester Sharks moving into SAP Center for 2015-16 season; what the Sharks need to do to get back on track and get deep in post season, plus the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry injury when he’ll be back from his foot injury; all from Scott’s Seafood in San Jose the home of the greatest seafood in downtown San Jose at 185 Park Ave. Try all of Scott’s favorite’s off the menu the variety of fish, shell fish, fresh oysters, lobsters, crabs and more. Our thanks to our hosts General Manager David Buhagiar and Manager Mark Buhagiar, our Banquet manager Andrew and server Clare.

NCAA basketball commentary & podcast: Are the Bears falling back to their old ways again? Cal has slipped in two games straight

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–There is a lot of good stuff going on in the Cal Bears program but we didn’t see it in the last two ball games which Cal dropped to Utah and on Saturday at Stanford. The Bears Tyrone Wallace had a tough afternoon scoring 11 points and Wallace didn’t play in the final minutes of the game when they looked they could make a run and they were swept by Stanford for the second time in the last three years 72-61.

The Bears have not had much success in Maples Pavilion at all dating back to the time when Cal head coach Mike Montgomery was coaching the team. They did clinch the Pac 12 regular season title that year that they won it under Montgomery at Stanford which was a big milestone win. Other than that it’s a tough place for Cal to win and Stanford just continues to get better and better. It incumbent on Cal to try and match that if they want to keep up with their rival the Cardinal.

The Cardinal Chason Randle 19 points with a career high of eight assists, has quietly become a great player in the Cardinal history and he continues to do great things. They even outlined a scenario where he would eclipse former Stanford stars Todd Lichti and Adam Keefe as the leading scorer in the history of the Cardinal program. On Saturday Randle came right at the Bears.

Chason was double teamed in the game with a second defender a move to cut him off and it worked for about 20 minutes in terms of his scoring. Chason is a great player and he just looked for his teammates and in the second half he hit a couple buckets to start off and he was off to the races in terms of his scoring. Chason is just a real heavy player.

In my article on Saturday night I wrote about the one play that the ball was inbounded for the baseline over the top and he had the ball with only two seconds left on the shot clock and he immediately shoveled it over for a huge assist and that assist helped Stanford get a big basket to finish the clock off and that put Stanford up by 13 points late in the game.

This is a good lesson for any ball player if the defense is set up to take you out of the game then your goal is to get the ball to your teammates and Chason did that. Chason had a great game. For Cal they were behind the eight ball all night long, they just struggled with Stanford’s size, the Bears Jordan Matthews is hobbled he’s a tough guy and nobody is explaining what’s wrong with him but he was favoring his ankle, Matthews didn’t get any scoring done and finished the night with seven points.

Morris Phillips is the Cal Bears beat writer and is filling in for Michelle Richardson for NCAA commentary for this week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Morris’ podcast below

A’s and Giants commentary & podcast: A’s get ready to unveil remodeled Mesa facility for first week of camp

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–It will be wonderful to see what they’ve done with old yard in Mesa the Oakland A’s remodeled training facility. The way it used to be they used to have a huge long chain link fence at one time that went all the way down to the foul poles and a plywood pressbox where you felt like you were watching a game in a prison because everybody felt they were so fairly fenced off from the players.

This might not be better than the A’s clubhouse at the Coliseum, it’s still the A’s spring training your still going to have between 40-60 guys in there. It’s a different kind of situation, you have guys coming and going all spring long, there’s five different days when cuts are made and players move onto minor league camp.

You be assured that there will be a distinct improvement, the minor league facility is the one that has undergone a lot of changes at Ho Ho Kam Stadium and the Chicago Cubs worked out there in spring training for decades. The A’s have more than doubled the size of that facility and they have really turned it into quite a project.

The A’s with the City of Mesa along with a tax fund which is from all the folks who attend spring training are really the first to start the funding there. A lot of that money comes from the people who make the mistake of renting a car during the month of March down there when it’s non March date they’ll hit customers up for regular rental fee but not during spring training. The stadium itself hasn’t moved Ho Ho Kam Park you could say it’s in a quite neighborhood, it’s across the street from a 300 acre cemetery. It’s very quite a marble orchard.

Ex-Giant pitcher Charlie Williams who was traded to San Francisco from the New York Mets during spring training 1973 for Willie Mays passed away at the age of 67 on January 27th. There aren’t too many trades in baseball that make both teams unhappy and that was one of them. Giants fans during the early years never really super accepted Willie Mays in San Francisco they always loved Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda more because they started out as San Francisco players and neither were an import from New York.

The Giants fans really never really gave Williams a fair opportunity to earn a place in their heart, New York fans of course had already seen the miracle Mets of 1969 and the Mets were a pretty good team back then and what they got back in 1973 was just a shell of the real Willie Mays. I remember seeing Mays final base hit as a Met in the 1973 World Series in Oakland against the A’s, he got the hit late in the game and he did wind up on first base. He fell down on the way to first base, it was sad to watch because Mays stayed a year longer than his legacy deserved.

Williams for the Giants split the 1973 season between minor league Phoenix and San Francisco before making the big club for good in 1974 and stayed with the Giants until 1978. Williams passed away in January due to complications from heart surgery with clogged arteries. He was 67.

Michael Duca is covering the A’s and the Giants in Spring Training for http://www.sportsrsadioservice.com listen to his podcast below

NHL Stadium Series & SJ Sharks commentary & podcast by Mary Walsh

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The San Jose Sharks host the Los Angeles KIngs this evening at Levis Stadium for the very first Northern California outdoor game. Mary Lisa talks about how the Sharks will try to run the offense and how Sharks head coach Todd McClellan plans to play the outdoor game in a rather different environment. The Kings come into Santa Clara 27-18-12 and the Sharks 30-22-8. The Sharks are coming off a huge victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday in Dallas 5-2 which they’re hoping will put them back on track.

The Kings are hopeful to extend their six game win streak to seven, their getting plenty of help from goaltender Jonathan Quick 2.46 goals against average, 912% on saves, and has three shutouts this season. Tyler Toffoli leads the Kings with 19 goals. This game could be rugged listen to Mary’s podcast below for all the Stadium Series details.

Golden State Warriors commentary & podcast: Warriors had game under control despite technical calls on Friday

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The game on Friday was a big test for the Golden State Warriors where they defeated the San Antonio Spurs at the Coliseum Arena 110-99. They looked a little sluggish leading up to the All-Star break and of course their two best players Stef Curry and Klay Thompson both played in the All-Star game and participated in the All-Star activities.

So Curry and Thompson didn’t get a full weekend off during the break, they did get about a week off to rest. Some fans were concerned that the Warriors were hitting a wall however they came out against a great Spurs team on Friday night and played one of their best games of the season. That kind of relaxed everybody, the Warriors don’t want to start the second half of the season with a dud.

The Warriors didn’t start this second half with a dud, it was competitive in the first quarter as the Spurs led by two and things looked a little shaky there in the second quarter. Part of that is that in the second quarter Curry rested for the first five minutes of the second quarter and the Spurs weren’t pulling away.

The Spurs were leading and there was kind of threat that they might put a little distance between them and the Warriors then Curry got called for a phantom foul that led to a technical. Then there was another technical on head coach Steve Kerr and that just fired up the Warriors and from that point all the way until the third quarter the Warriors just dominated the game.

By the end of the third quarter the Warriors turned it up led by Curry who went off as a scorer but as a facilitator, as the Warriors were up as much as 20 points. In the fourth quarter they didn’t need the starters in there that much and the Warriors won it by 11, it was never a close game in the fourth quarter. The Warriors were 2-24 in their last 26 games against the Spurs during the regular season.

The Warriors had their struggles over the past seasons against San Antonio but in a couple of wins they’ve had in the last few years it’s typically been really close games. They’ve never had a game like this against a Spurs team that they’ve pulled away and they had a chance to sit back and relax and relish the game. They’ve had these competitive tight ones that have gone down to the wire but it wasn’t the case in this game.

David Zizmor does Warriors commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Stanford Cardinal basketball commentary & podcast: Key for Stanford tonight Nastic staying out of foul trouble

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–One thing I wanted to point out about Saturday’s game against the Cal Bears at Maples is anybody against Stefan Nastic and there have been games this season where the Cardinal have struggled mightily he provides a big strong physical presence.At Haas Pavilion the CSU Bakersfield game where Cal ultimately lost 54-51 and it was because Bakersfield had this big center that nobody could stop.

All it was in that game was feed Aly Amhed the CSU center the ball underneath the net and just put it up and he had his way with the Cal defenders and that’s the guy I’m keying on tonight the big man for Stanford with the way Nastic played against Colorado for 24 points. He would have had an offensive outburst probably more if he didn’t get into foul trouble.

It’s the same song and dance now, Nastic is great but stay out of foul trouble this is going to be a favorable match up for him Saturday night. Another Cardinal Anthony Brown for the first time since he’s come to Palo Alto he didn’t put up double digits and he had a poor showing with eight points against Colorado last Sunday.

Brown is going to come out Saturday against Cal and try to atone for that at Maples and being closer to his dorm he’s going to be shooting around 14-16 points. He might surprise everybody and go for 20 and he’s playing extra motivated and there is definitely a good chance he could put up 20 points. I’m going to go with the two senior leaders and exclude Chasson Randle because he’s like the old watch that’s ticking he can get you 12-14 points and he get you some great offense.

It’s not to say the key is on Randle because he’s an older player and that’s he always going to be performing. Randle is one of the most consistent guards in the entire league. He may not get his points spread out when he starts being cold and he’s in a hurry but you don’t have to worry about Randle’s performance against Cal.

The concern is what is Nastic going to do down low because he’s got this favorable size and he’s a big physical guy he knows how to work his way to the basket in a mismatch he knows how to exploit it and look for Nastic being the difference in the game against Cal. The Cardinal’s Marcus Allen is developing he’s been kind of the missing piece in terms of adding another scorer in that starting five. When you look at what head coach Johnny Dawkins would normally run out there there’s three set positions Randle, Brown, Nastic and Reid Travis is the second power forward and after that it’s wide open.

Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball listen to his podcast below on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders & Chargers new stadium in L.A. podcast: How Raiders & Chargers plan to make new Stadium joint effort a reality

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by Daniel Dullum

Both the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers are both talking about the Los Angeles area of Carson to get a new stadium shared and the timeline is in the neighborhood of three years so both teams could be set up for business by 2019 with ground being broke sometime late this year at the soonest.

It’s all very intriguing because ever since 1994 there’s been an entire generation that has been born and raised that went to school and went to college that never saw an NFL Los Angeles team play. Think about that for a second after the Anaheim Rams and L.A. Raiders left around 1995 about at the same time and the Rams went to St.Louis and the Raiders going back to Oakland.

You would think that L.A. fans would be up and arms but not really, they get the top television games from each network every Sunday so it’s not that bad if your just a casual fan. It’s come time and it’s taken so long for the NFL to seriously look at getting a team into the second largest media market in the country.

Once a new stadium is in place in Carson there will no turning back and the Raiders and Chargers will be there for generations. Before there was no wiggle room because there was always the possibility that the Raiders would have a new stadium in Oakland happen. Alameda County built Mount Davis at the Coliseum that part was okay but the rest of the stadium has mostly been for the baseball Athletics.

The Coliseum hasn’t done much for the Raiders and their kind of antsy about that, the Raiders want their new digs their not interested in sharing space at the 49ers new stadium also they want their own situation with the facilities being a little bit better. As far as the Chargers are concerned the older fans know this and I’ll remind you all anyway they spent their first season in L.A. playing at the Coliseum before they moved to San Diego in 1960.

The stadium that the Chargers play in Qualcomm was built from 1967 to 1968 and the San Diego baseball Padres started their franchise in that stadium with the Chargers and it was fine at the time. As times change there’s different demands team owners want a new stadium. After the Padres got Petco Park downtown the Chargers have been saying “where’s our new stadium” and it’s not happening and so a very willing ally with the Raiders will go in together and share a stadium.

Daniel Dullum is a talk show host for Sportstalk podcasts on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast on the Raiders and Chargers new stadium in Carson below