Author: lleonardbw

Oakland A’s Spanish announcer Amaury Pi Gonzalez celebrating over 40 years at the microphone; plus some 49ers considering jumping ship

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by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Bay Area Sports Hall of Famer Amaury Pi Gonzalez is entering his 42nd year behind the microphone whether it was covering the Oakland A’s and Major League Baseball or doing Spanish play by play or as a reporter. Amaury who writes in this space each week doing podcasts and his “That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary” has seen such great Oakland A’s teams from the 1972-74 A’s World Championships to the A’s World Series years from 1989-1990 and the Billy Beane Money Ball years, Amaury also did radio play by play for the San Francisco Giants and Seattle Mariners and is currently calling L.A. Angels games for Spanish TV.

We did a three hour program with Amaury with players who came from Cuba before the embargo going all the way back to the 1920s as well as after the embargo, and of course later on with the more well known former players Minnie Minoso, Camilo Pascual, and Tony Oliva, and of course the White Sox current superstar Jose Abreu.There is such a great history of these players who came to Majors from Cuba. There was such a huge influx of Cuba players who came to America and that all got shut down in 1959 when Fidel Castro took over.

I got to do a two part cable TV program with Amaury in 1998 about Hispanic players in MLB that included the great Roberto Clemente and the notorious and current New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, we did the program and it was well received. Amaury has been able to work with many of the great Cuban players for decades and the list is going to explode with a huge crop of Cuban players coming to MLB.

So this being Amaury’s 42nd year covering or doing play by play in baseball is just another chapter, another thrill as he enlightens the fans for the 2015 season. What makes it all come together now is he gets to make calls on such current Cuban greats Abreu, Yonder Alonso, Erisbel Arruebarrena, Yuniesky Betancourt, Yoenis Cespedes, and Yasiel Puig.

New spring training stadium for A’s in Mesa AZ: The new A’s training facility in Mesa is a much bigger stadium than the previous A’s facility Phoenix Municipal. The new facility holds 12,500 fans and the new facility is a nicer facility than the Oakland Coliseum. The players now have a first class facility and baseball has a lot money so there is no reason why the players should have substandard facilities.

Don’t expect the A’s to redo the locker rooms at the Coliseum and the team would like a new stadium. From a comfort level for the players it is crucial, case in point if you go over to AT&T Park in San Francisco their clubhouse is first cabin. The A’s should have something on par with the Giants and have a first class MLB facility.

Jerry Feitelberg covers Oakland A’s baseball for http://www.sportsradioservice, listen to Jerry’s podcast below on 49er players that maybe leaving the team

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: 2015 Spring training opens

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

TEMPE AZ–This week pitchers and catchers report to Arizona and Florida for 2015 Spring Training. Reading the reports for most teams optimism is running high, even Barry Zito is now joining the Athletics for the first time since he won the Cy Young for the green and gold, who says he has a new pitching style. That was a low risk pick-up for the A’s, if he comes back in the form as the good Zito, the A’s win, if he does not, they let him go, no harm no foul. Many things have changed in the game of baseball, but one thing that remains a constant is that you really never have enough pitching; so the Barry Zito signing in a way is a win-win for the A’s. And if Zito has nothing left? He might want to retire with the A’s, the A’s have a sellout at the Coliseum on Barry Zito Day and everybody is happy. Does anybody believes the Giants would have won last October without Madison Bumgarner?

Meanwhile half dozen teams still in pursuit of Cuban infielder Héctor Olivera, all dangling a $70 million multi-year contract on the rookie, with the Los Angeles Dodgers looking as the front runners as of today. Starting this week the Athletics will train at Hohokam Park, in Mesa, Arizona, with a capacity of 12,500. The Giants continue at Scottsdale, plus another 13 teams in the Phoenix area opening their camps. All California teams train now in Arizona, A’s(Mesa),Giants(Scottsdale),Angels(Tempe),Dodgers,(Glendale), and Padres(Peoria).

Having traveled to the Phoenix Area for Spring Training, every year for the past 30 years, I have seen the amazing transformation of the Valley of the Sun. For example, because a total of 15 teams have their training camps there, you must make accommodations no later than early January, if you want to have a good place to stay. Hotels are close to capacity at this time of the year. Spring is the perfect time for Arizona, an average of 75 to 80 degrees everyday and if you like baseball, this is heaven for you. Snowbirds drive down with their trailers and camp for weeks, many big baseball fans. One of the most favorite teams that train there are the Chicago Cubs, who will continue to train in Mesa, in a sensational new facility, (the biggest and the best I have seen so far). I visited that Cubs facility last spring, when they inaugurated a replica of historic Wrigley Field.

There is nothing wrong with Spring Training in Arizona, maybe the traffic is the biggest negative, but if you have the time, and you are a baseball fan, you can’t go wrong. You can hop from park to park on one day, or you can stay and watch one team all day. If you stay in the Phoenix Area, most teams are within 45 minutes by car.Thousands of people from all over California, plan their vacations this time of the year, others just fly for the weekends, it is a quick hour to hour and half flight from most places in California. You can drive it also, depends where you live, from the Bay Area, plan on an all day drive from sunrise to sunset.

Giants and Indians were the pioneers in Arizona. The now famous Cactus League, became a reality in 1947, when Horace Stoneham’s New York Giants and Bill Veeck’s Cleveland Indians began to open their camps in Phoenix and Tucson. For Bill Veeck’s Indians it was easy, since he owned ranches in the Tucson area. Other teams that previously have trained out west were the Chicago Cubs, who in 1905 training in Santa Monica(LA)California. The Cubs liked California so much back then, that between 1922 and 1942 they had their Spring Training camp in Catalina Island, and then again in 1950 and 1951.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish radio voice and the Los Angeles Angels Spanish TV voice and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

MLB steroid boss gets time in slammer for illegal distribution in Biogenesis case

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by Tony The Tiger Hayes

The jury is out on Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch, Bosch was convicted by a federal judge on a conspiracy charge of illegal distribution of illegal drugs and was sentenced to four years in federal prison. Major League Baseball attorneys drew up a voucher for Bosch seeking leniency because Bosch had cooperated in revealing his sources of who he distributed to.

Bosch outted Major League players the New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez and the Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun of the high profile players who were using performance enhancers. Bosch had been on bail until trial after pleading guilty to the distribution charge he was also in drug treatment for a cocaine addiction.

Bosch helped point out that A-Rod was a PED user after distributing to him, the deal was that he would rat out players that he distributed to in exchange for MLB lawyers to ask the courts to award Bosch leniency. MLB found that the information provided by Bosch crucial in finding out who is using banned substances after MLB had established policies for such infractions.

A-Rod was suspended for the entire 2014 season as a result of PED use, A-Rod was preparing to sue MLB for banning him but regrouped and dropped the lawsuit in exchange for baseball allowing A-Rod to return this season with the Yankees. MLB lawyers were so grateful for Bosch’s help that they drew up a ten page letter that outlined his testimony as a cooperating witnesses against it’s players.

U.S.Distict Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Bosch was distributing illegal drugs and that he followed the gammit of the law by sentencing Bosch to four years in Federal prison. MLB lawyers had outlined that Bosch’s help was “critical” in outing the users in MLB also the attorneys said that what Bosch did was “important to public interest.”

Gayles disregarded MLB’s attempt to help Bosch and Gayles said that Bosch was “the mastermind of the operation” and that “a stiff sentence is appropriate”. Also the court told Bosch’s attorneys that Bosch had to return back to jail 60 days early before the trial. Bosch’s clients included high school students and that Bosch had passed himself off as a doctor in South Florida.

Tony The Tiger Hayes is a talk show host on Sportstalk on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News, Commentary & Podcast: Ice rink gets ready at Levis Stadium; plus Stanford Women shooting for three straight

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by Joe Lami

SANTA CLARA–The preparations are officially underway for this Saturday’s NHL Stadium Series and ice conditions should be okay the South Bay is expected to get a little more of a heat wave this weekend similar to this past weekend. It looks all good and the ice will soon be installed at Levi’s Stadium and they announced a sell out at 70,000 are expected to be in attendance.

The second hand ticket market is going nuts for this game now that it is officially sold out and the Sharks added more additionally tickets and Levis Stadium is going to try to see how the expansion of this stadium works out as they will get a preview of the capacity size of the stadium when the Super Bowl is played there next February.

The NHL Stadium Series should be a good one, it’s going to be an important one the two teams are pretty much next to each other in the standings between the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings. However the Sharks lost on Tuesday night to the Nashville Predators 5-1. The Sharks are starting to lose ground in the playoff hunt.

If you look towards the standings as of Tuesday evening the Sharks still stand fourth in the Pacific with 66 points and have only played 59 games. L.A. is just a few points back but the Kings have three games in hand and for L.A. those three games are going to be huge. The Kings won on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lighting at Staples Center 3-2.

This was after Tampa had absolutely killed the Sharks in San Jose on Sunday night 4-1, the Kings have only one game before the Stadium Series against Colorado on Wednesday evening. The Avalanche are a struggling team with 59 points with 57 games played, they sit sixth in the wild card standings with seven points back from San Jose in the Pacific.

Colorado is not out of it yet it’s not looking good for them as L.A. has won the last two and they will capitalize and put a lot of pressure on San Jose. San Jose is in the midst of a two game road trip with Dallas on tap on Thursday night before they come to face L.A. at Levis Stadium on Saturday night. That Stadium Series game is going to have a lot of hype behind it because of the playoff hunt and it’s not looking good for San Jose if L.A. wins they will officially have more points than San Jose.

Joe Lami is filling for Amaury Pi Gonzalez this week. Joe also talks about the Stanford Cardinal Women’s basketball team join him on the podcast below

Sportstalk podcast at Rosa Mexicano Restaurant downtown San Francisco Mon Feb 16, 2015

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Cast: Michael Duca (host), Tony the Tiger, Shawn Whelchel, David Zizmor, Morris Phillips and Lee Leonard Producer

Podcast from Rosa Mexicano at 30 Mission Street downtown San Francisco Sportstalk talked about former 49ers Jim Harbaugh’s real reason for leaving the 49ers, how the Giants shape up for spring training, and the second half for Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors and with Rosa Mexicano General Manager Nick about the great dining at Rosa. Check them out here! http://www.rosamexicano.com/sanfrancisco

NCAA basketball commentary: Is ESPN putting Dickie V out to pasture?, sports network says Vitale won’t call UNC vs. Duke game

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by Tony the Tiger Hayes

It won’t be awesome baby, it won’t be showtime, ESPN’s Prime Time Player (PTP) Dick Vitale won’t be calling the UNC vs. Duke game in Durham and it snaps a streak that started since 1979. Not calling the traditional match up between the two schools had been as traditional as counting on Thanksgiving and Christmas each year and the diaper dandy of the event Vitale won’t be there to call the game amongst the disappointment of thousands of fans in Durham and the millions watching around the nation.

Vitale who was a staple on ESPN for calling UNC-Duke games for 36 years had his plug pulled for what ESPN now considers their top tier announcing crew and play by play man Dan Shulman and color announcer Jay Bilas, Bilas formerly played with Duke. Vitale had worked with Shulman and Bilas on previous broadcasts and the students and fans were looking forward to seeing Dickie V make the rounds at UNC.

Vitale has been less visible since Bilas has been doing the color and calling games more games without Vitale. Bilas took over a larger role without Vitale in the three man booth this 2014-15 season. Bilas has been working the NCAA prime time broadcasts in Vitale’s place. Vitale has been on less high profile telecasts and working mid afternoons Saturday games. Some of those games have had high ratings while others haven’t.

Vitale has a contract he signed in October that runs with ESPN through 2017 so those fans who wanted to listen to him on the telecasts can find him on the network but not on the high profile shows now being broadcasted only by Bilas and Shulman. The UNC-Duke rivalry broadcasts were a brand that started with Vitale behind the mic in 1979 and no one thought that would change anytime soon at least this season but it comes to an end.

Vitale tweeted to his core of fans “Yes 35 straight years/it was fun/I will miss it but ESPN has been great to me/No Hall of Fame without ESPN”
that was a classy statement with the end of this traditional match up for Dickie V. The game is slated for this Wed Feb 18th at Durham NC.

Tony the Tiger Hayes is a talk show host on Sportstalk on http://www.sportrsradioservice.com

San Jose Sharks commentary & podcast: Miscues and bad bounces continue for Sharks; looking for corrections on Tue in Nashville

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by Mary Lisa Walsh

Join Mary Lisa in her commentary this week as she discusses the Sharks tough loss to the Tampa Bay Lighting 5-2 on Sunday. Sharks head coach Todd McClellan talks about a play where they won the draw from a bounce off someone’s skate but the Lighting end up scoring seven seconds later. More frustrations in the game with 7:12 left in the second period the Sharks were trapped in their own zone with a line of Patrick Marleau, Logan Couture, Matt Nieto, Scott Hannon and Brenden Dillon they couldn’t clear the puck where the Lighting Andrew Killorn hit one from the slot and hit a corner of the net where it beat Sharks goaltender Annti Niemi.

Mary talks about this and more on the Sharks commentary and podcast below.

NCAA basketball commentary & podcast: Utah (11) looks to extend 17 game home win streak; Cal’s only way to win is shut down the Utes offense

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–Defensively the Utah Utes (19-4) are one of the top teams in the country ranked at 11th. The Utes have a lot of size and a lot of smart ball handlers and guys that facilitate out of their back court. The Utes are really good defensively, so if Cal (16-9) had seen them before the win streak they would really be in trouble. The Bears still might be in trouble trying to navigate the defense that the Utes present.

Utes seven foot center Dallin Bachyinski is not going to start but the Utes are looking at starting center Jakob Poeltl he’s a seven foot starter. Bachyinski will be coming off the bench and it’s a real adjustment for Utah because Poeltl started previous to this year and Peoltl in the mix Bachyinski is the back up. Once again they both Utah great depth with shot blocking ability and protect the paint.

All these things are going to give Cal issues and now you have the loss of Christian Behrens with his knee issues which will be determined but it will keep him out of Sunday’s game in Utah. This why this is a legitimate top team that that has size and has depth their really smart on how they share the basketball and protect the basketball when they have it.

The Utes are a really good team in the conference play they’ve just been blowing everybody out including Stanford who they beat 75-59 they won that game by 17 but it wasn’t that close you got to look out for the Utes. The Bears will have a tough time to contend with the Utes in the paint, a lot of the work that their going to have to do has to be on the perimeter.

The Bears are going to have to be disruptive to Utah’s guards and try to force some turnovers and get some easy baskets and all that is not as easily done as it is said this Utah team really protects the ball well and they don’t go out and make a lot of mistakes. From Cal’s prospective it might not what they do defensively but what they do offensively.

If the Bears can score and if they can get a lead and if they do get a lead they can protect it. The Utes have a 17 game home win streak and Cal hasn’t beaten anybody like this in the five game win streak they beat some teams that were below them in the standings with the exception of UCLA. This and Arizona tops as Cal’s biggest remaining tasks, on the schedule they didn’t have any luck with Arizona the first time around at home so it’s hard to see Cal doing much better at Arizona.

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

Stanford Cardinal men’s basketball commentary & podcast: Cardinal licking their wounds from pounding in Utah as they get set for Colorado on Sunday

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by Matt Harrington

PALO ALTO–The 79-59 loss to the Utah Utes (19-4) Thursday in Utah was a game that the Stanford Cardinal (16-8) had on the schedule they knew that that game was going to be a struggle. Utah is 10th in the nation. There a top ten team and their a force come March come April. The Utes are going to be a three seed or a four seed.

Utah is a force, the thing that was evident following that game was they had the blue print to beat Stanford, they knew exactly what to do. The Utes eliminated Chasson Randle so he’s not going out for 20 points and they stopped him from scoring in the final six minutes of the game which is just crazy to think about.

Your talking about shutting down the guy who could very well be the Pac 12 player of the year. The Utes also got the Cardinal’s Stefan Nastic out of the game pretty early with foul trouble. When you force Stanford to their depths they’ll struggle a little bit they don’t have the scoring depth that Utah has or the scoring depth that Arizona or UCLA has.

The Cardinal don’t have that guy off the bench like other teams they don’t have a ASU player like Jordan Bachynski or a couple guys like that from UCLA that can come off the bench and put up ten or 12. So that was what was really going on in that game on Thursday was Utah they used the right strings to pull and they pulled it to beat the Cardinal and big too.

When you look at the Big Three for Stanford your looking at Randle, Nastic, and your looking at Anthony Brown. When you see what their total contribution was in that game you look at Randle’s ten points, Nastic’s seven, and Brown led the team with 15. Brown was the only one who was able to stay on the court and be productive with 15 points in that game.

It was Utah following the blue print getting Nastic out with with foul trouble and he’s prone to get into foul trouble. The Utes were contesting Randle and keeping him off the boards and keeping him from distributing the ball. Randle only had three assists and three turnovers and that is what the Utes applied high pressure on Randle in order for him to turn the ball over.

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

Cal Bears basketball commentary & podcast: Bears try to keep win streak in tact the big test on Sunday in Utah

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–“Excuse me what’s a Ute?” The judge asked the attorney (actor Joe Pecsi) in the movie My Cousin Vinny, the Cal Bears are about to find out this Sunday. I see this game ending after 40 minutes with the Utah Utes (19-4) winning this game on Sunday against the Cal Bears (16-9) by 12 points, the Utes are a big physical team and the Bears don’t fair well against big physical teams.

They were competitive against Texas they were really in any threatening position to win the game and Texas is a big physical team. Arizona is clearly head and shoulders above everybody in the Pac 12 although they are now tied with Utah. The Utes not only can they smell it this is a team that was absolutely dreadful when Larry Krystkowiak took over from Montana.

Krystkowiak is a former Bears head coach Mike Montgomery disciple, Montgomery talked about the fact that he would make that team competitive very quickly and he has done that without having great players. They have taken what he’s got and coached them into being an effective efficent oriented team organization.

No one is expecting the Utes to work terribly hard against Cal this Sunday but Cal has found their three point shooting range this is a team that is not afraid to hoist up 20-25 three point shots a game. They had that game last week where they made more threes than twos. It’s not out of the question if they hang with the Utes because Utah is not a three point shooting club.

The Utes are an inside team with a low post presence, they scored two at a time but if the Bears can score three at a time they’ll hang in. The Bears are coming to Sunday’s game with five straight wins. You never say never, especially in college sports if they Bears can pull this one off. Attitude and heart have a lot to do with it, games are shorter than the pro games, so if somebody goes on a run there might not be time to answer it.

You can’t say for sure I didn’t think Arizona would ever think they’d go into Well Fargo Arena in Tempe and coming out having dropped into a first place tie with Utah in the conference but things happen. Taking a look at some of the players who made things work in the last few games during this streak. Dwight Tarwater is a surprise here this is a kid who had a tough senior year at Cornell and didn’t get to play as much as he wanted to who threw up a three pointer for a winner against UCLA last Saturday.

Tarwater is a graduate student and wanted to use his last year of eligibility at Cal rather than stay at Cornell, Tarwater is not an exceptional player, he’s not exceptionally tall, he’s not quick, he’s not a deadly outside shooter, he’s not a great ball handler, he’s not a terrific center, he’s not a great rebounder but he turns out to be a pretty good basketball player if he plays within Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin’s system.

Michael Duca does Cal Bears commentary each week on http://www.sportrsradioservice.com listen to his podcast on Cal below