Author: lleonardbw

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Harbaugh gets to ring in New Year standing on the shoulders of Michigan as new coach

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SANTA CLARA–Jim Harbaugh who is so well renowned with the San Francisco 49ers, Stanford Cardinal, and now is head coach with the Michigan Wolverines and brings that Midas touch. He has 44 wins with the 49ers and five playoff wins, gone to three championships and a Super Bowl with the 49ers and he’s a turn around kind of artist. He’s familiar with the University of Michigan and he will bring his assistant coaching staff with him and he will recruit some talent. This is a good deal for Harbaugh.

The 49ers fans they haven’t done a survey of the Bay Area and if they do a survey losing Harbaugh is not a popular move by the 49ers. Harbaugh was well liked by the fans and remember last year they said “whose got it better than us?” that’s what the fans saying was about bragging rights of having Harbaugh. He is a good coach, it’s a fact every place he’s been he wins. This is just more than just winning on the field, 49ers CEO Jed York mentioned a couple of days ago he wasn’t happy with the scandals, the 49ers are a very proud organization their not perfect there’s scandals in every sport.

There’s scandals going on in the NFL York didn’t blame Harbaugh but in a way indirectly he was saying he didn’t like the way things were going in the last few years that the team has been having scandals off the field. This is the grand prize for Jim Harbaugh becoming the new head coach at Michigan we have to congratulate him. It’s a good situation and he’s a young man and he can come back after three or four years and coach another team. He’s won every place he has been.

Harbaugh is a guy who changes stuff he’s a turn around kind of operator and he can do that in Michigan, the program there has been running out of steam in the last seven years. So good for Harbaugh and the 49ers are not that popular right now and the thing about the 49ers is not only Harbaugh, Michael Crabtree, Frank Gore, or somebody else might want to leave and not return next season. The Niners might start rebuilding a little bit.

You can’t beat that Harbaugh is going back to where he is loved, he went there to school his alma mater and he’s making all that kind of money this is a perfect situation. Sentimentally and emotionally he’s got everything, it’s kind of an irony a guy who just a few months ago the 49ers season got underway. The 49ers were one of the teams that were expected to win the Super Bowl and he finished 8-8 and they couldn’t even smell the playoffs.

For him to finish 8-8 this season and get that deal with the Wolverines his alma mater and getting $35 million for seven years sentimentally and financially he can not do any better than this. Actually he’s the guy who should be saying “who has it better than me?” He has it very good right now. It’s like the political race for president and the recent polls show for example Hillary Clinton for the Democrats and Jeb Bush for the Repbulicans. Clinton and Bush are name recognition and this is what Harbaugh has in the sports field and that’s name recognition.

Listen to the rest of Amaury’s podcast below and Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sac Kings podcast & commentary: Games in review Brooklyn put muscle to Kings on Monday and Kings thrill crowd with OT win over NY

Published on by lleonardbw1 Comment

by Charlie O Mallanee

SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento Kings last loss on Monday night in Brooklyn was particularly painful for the team in the fact that they were looking at going in against a team that had an equal record. A Brooklyn Nets team that had two of it’s stars Deron Williams and Brook Lopez that had been injured and had been sitting on the bench. They could go in there and have a really decent chance to come away with a victory. The first quarter they looked alright because the Kings were up 28-27.

But then came the second quarter and they fell apart, they only scored 16 points in the quarter all the scoring came from basically three people, the Kings DeMarcus Cousins had seven points, Rudy Gay had six, and Nick Stauskas had a three point bucket and that was their entire scoring for the period. In the second quarter they turned the ball over seven times and it was good for ten points it was a particularly painful quarter and they went to half time down 13 points 57-44.

They came out of the third scoring 25 points a piece and the Kings actually outscored the Nets 30-25 in the fourth quarter. They were too far down and they ended up losing it 107-99 in Brooklyn. The key stat for the entire game the Kings turned the ball over 21 times and the Nets were able to pick up 25 points because of those turnovers. You can’t turn the ball over that much in the NBA and win a game.

In the game that was played on Saturday at Sleep Train Arena to beat the New York Knicks in overtime that was one of the most entertaining basketball games that I’ve been to in years. In fact I thought I had a flashback to my first NBA game in Cincinnati with the Royals and the Celtics a number of years ago. All offense and no defense on either team it was 117-117 in regulation the Kings went onto win 135-129. The fans at Sleep Train were thrilled that they won.

It was a game that had some very alarming moments in the sense that the Kings led the game the entire way later the Knicks would tie it up in the closing seconds of the game. The Knicks took their first lead in the game in overtime and it’s really tough when you never have relinquished the lead in the game and you realize your on the brink of losing that game in overtime. Also with the lack of defense has to be very concerting of a great concern to both the management and the coaching.

It’s one thing to go out and put up 107 points in regulation, you have up 107 points to a Knicks team that have been averaging 94 points a game. Also the Knicks were playing without Amar’e Stoudemire beause Stoudemire has been off for three games in a row with knee soreness. The Knicks were missing one of their key elements as well. So after a great win, a very exciting win the crowd in Sacramento was just off the hook as you can well imagine.

It has a lot of concerns because of the fact there was a lack of defense, now they did pick up the defensive effort in overtime and went on a 9-0 run which set up the victory. Crazy game Cousins 39 points, Gay 29, and Collison with 27. So the Kings really led by those three players and again entertaining basketball but it’s the kind of basketball you cannot keep on in a consistant basis. Proven by what happened in what happened in New York or Brooklyn.

Charlie O continues his commentary below click on the podcast. Charlie O covers Sacramento Kings basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers podcast: Niners ready to move on without Harbaugh; sources say assistant coach Shanahan could be in the mix

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Morris Phillips

SANTA CLARA–Jim Harbaugh who completed coaching his final game as head coach with the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Arizona Cardinals to close out a four year run and is headed to Michigan to coach there next season and will be the highest paid college coach in the NCAA at $49 million for six years worth of work. Harbaugh lands on his feet and he did not get along with the 49ers brass and thus one of the biggest reasons why he’s out as coach.

In a unusual way to say goodbye to someone that bickered with the head coach on and off during Harbaugh’s tenor the 49ers CEO Jed York and General Manger Trent Baalke came on the sidelines after the game to give Harbaugh a huge goodbye hug. Not bad for someone whose bosses’ felt didn’t deserve a contract extension. The 49ers have a front office of stars with Baalke, Jed York, owners John York and Denise DeBartolo, and team president Paraag Marathe.

The 49ers brass feels justly that they’ve been a big part of what the 49ers have enjoyed in the last four years under Harbaugh and they are going to challenge themselves to get a better football coach or just as good as one as Harbaugh. Kyle Shanahan the Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator whose in his first year with the Browns has been name dropped according to sources as a candidate. The choice won’t be easy but that’s what the 49ers are challenging themselves to do.

As far as the biggest distractions are concerned you just can’t get away from former 49er Ray McDonald who was arrested this season for domestic violence and eventually released by the team for allegations of sexual assault and Aldon Smith was suspended by the team for nine games for illegal weapons charges and DUI. If your trying to win a championship and if your trying to be a great football team professionalism is first and McDonald and Smith really let the team down.

The 49ers really need to do some soul searching in terms of where their heads really are at in terms of getting the job done on the field based on what their doing off the field. Distractions are huge, it’s a distraction for the team and greater than the distraction you just wonder how you play championship football when you have all this other stuff going on. The real simple observation in terms of distraction maybe what outweighed them is just that this football team is fast. The 49ers are fast based on the way that they played which was physical and just like what Harbaugh wanted them to do by injuries and it all added up. Injuries had a real cumulative effect of what the team did on the field with it’s physical play to get to where they are now.

Stanford Cardinal in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levis Stadium: With Stanford University you just feel like great things are coming head coach David Shaw has made it very clear that he’s staying on board and he’s not going anywhere. He’s coming back and his first three years as head coach have been dynamite. He got the Rose Bowl championship in 2013 and won and then a second trip to the Rose Bowl in 2014 and lost that one. The NFL are looking at the Cardinal and to see if they can retain some of those guys.

The Cardinal are going to make a run at the championship and the Pac 12 Championship next season again in 2015, this is a really solid college football program their having the game at Levis Stadium and for hosting the Foster Farms Bowl and the future is looking very bright. The size of the crowds when comparing venues for the Foster Farms Bowl hasn’t changed between AT&T Park and Levis Stadium. So with the venue change (this being the first year at Levis Stadium) your going to have a partially empty football stadium on Tuesday night.

An empty stadium doesn’t necessarily look good with the local team involved and they might draw around 40,000 fans for that game and maybe they’ll get 50,000. Once again Levis Stadium in Santa Clara is not a hotbed for college football and Maryland who faces Stanford doesn’t draw the local sports crowd. So it’s a match up on Tuesday between the Stanford Cardinals and the Maryland Terrapins at Levis Stadium for the Foster Farms Bowl.

Click below as Morris Phillips continues his podcast and covers the San Francisco 49ers and Cal Bears for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Stanford Cardinal podcast and commentary: Dawkins will be watching non-conference schools to draw reference for Pac 12 play

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Matt Harrington

STANFORD–The Stanford Cardinal (7-3) host the UAPB Golden Lions (3-10) on Monday night at Maples Pavilion. The Cardinal are coming off an overtime win against the Texas Longhorns (10-2) 74-71 in an upset win that was played in Austin last Tuesday the Cardinal’s last game. A big performance by Chasson Randle who scored 22 points, Anthony Brown led Stanford with 25 points in that game. The win was the statement of this season so far to this point.

Arkansas is coming in Monday night with that 3-10 record and it’s one of those games that’s going to be hard to get out of bed for in a sense. Stanford had struggled a little bit with Denver which they won 49-43 earlier in the year they were trailing for most of the game in that one. They just beat Loyola Marymount (3-6) 67-58 who didn’t have as strong of a record as some of the Pac 12 teams their going to be playing. The one thing that head coach Johnny Dawkins always says as he lines up teams in the non conference schedule that play a similar style to other Pac 12 teams it will be interesting to see what kind of school Pine Bluff is going to be to a Pac 12 school.

Washington State (5-6) and Washington (11-0) are coming to Maples on the weekend of January 2nd and 3rd it will interesting to see how Stanford does for the start of Pac 12 conference action. Also it would be interesting to see what school that Dawkins uses as a model for Pac 12 play as they head into conference play especially against a team like the Huskies coming to open. The Huskies might have the same style as the Cougars in time for Stanford to get ready for Pac 12 play.

When you look around the Pac 12 right now Stanford and the bottom five and their records after non conference play which is a whole lot different when you see schools like Oregon State and Utah above them. It’s going to be a strong conference. It was really a case of BYU where it was frustration where the shots were falling in the last minute Randle hit a couple of threes to tie but Stanford lost it 79-77. The Cougars knew that game was winnable, Randle didn’t get to the line much and shot two out of three free throws in that game.

The Cardinal are a team that are going to live and die by the free throws, they work really hard on the free throw shooting when they go to practice and in warm ups. If your missing the free throws it is going to hurt you and that will be a key role in scoring points. Brown didn’t have a strong game against Texas, it was one of those things that their guards produce now. The game against Denver Randle has only nine points scored. The Cardinal struggled for most of the game and found a way to pull it out and get the victory.

Against BYU with Brown he struggled and they weren’t able to find the victory, the Texas game however Randle and Brown combined their 47 points that was the difference right there. You know the Cougars Tyler Haws is going to hit you with 15-20 points and he got 24 and maybe he would get ten on another night. So it’s about the production level from the guards, Randle was on that BYU game with the 24 points and it looked like Brown was struggling a little bit who finished with six points.

Listen to Matt’s analysis of Stanford below on his podcast. Matt Harrington covers Stanford basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NCAA Bowl games commentary & podcast: Way too many bowl games diluting the product

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Michelle Richardson

Please let it be known if your team isn’t anything great your team probably had at around a .500 schedule and I’ll be honest I grew up in the 70s and we didn’t have this many games. So for the NCAA to play bowl games beyond Christmas you can be just an average team and you can get in somebody’s toilet bowl. It’s sad but I can appreciate that some of these kids get to play a little bit longer, but to me it really dilutes the product.

Your just playing to be playing these games why don’t you just play king of the mountain and throw it up in the air it’s really diminishing. It used to be about the Cotton Bowl, the Rose Bowl, Peach Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. Those were the bowl games that you had to be a part of. There were only about five of them and then after that that was it and now it’s like way too much. I do understand for the mid majors I do understand it.

Two weeks of this utter garbage football I must say the Central Michigan-West Kentucky game was a tough fought game as W.Kentucky got by 49-48 for the win. If it wasn’t for the two points West Kentucky would have lost that game on Wednesday. It was all Central Michigan in the fourth quarter of the game and they fell short at the final gun now that was a bowl game. West Kentucky was up by 40 points and then the game was tied up.

Were simply not getting the best product and it used to be when you were kids New Year’s eve and New Year’s day that’s what you did you sat and watch college football because these were nothing but the best games. That’s pretty much how it is now with a lot of extra games to watch before that if your that much more of a football junkie God bless you. Please watch and watch until your heart’s content, but there are fans who are getting disappointed in the utter commercialization of what it’s suppose to be.

NCAA and the conferences it’s kind of spinning to an end but yet you can’t pay the athletes, your getting off on a non-profit status because of everybody wants to make a buck. Please understand all these schools of the athletics department they fall under the university’s non-profit 501-3 status. They are non-profit, you have all these extra bowl games and in defense of those of you who have not been to a bowl game and you buy your tickets through Stub Hub the schools do not get any part of that money.

Schools are forced to buy a certain amount of tickets to feed a bowl game, a lot of times schools end up losing money because they want to be in the bowl game. Yes, that’s true they lose money in going to a bowl game, so they’re not all making money their losing money so why do we have so many bowl games if were actually losing money? I would gladly take that money and give it to the student athletes not to the football players and not just to the basketball players but all the student athletes.

Hear the rest of the podcast with Michelle by scrolling down and clicking below, Michelle Richardson does NCAA commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers report: 49ers and Harbaugh agree to end contract after last game and coach at Michigan next season

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–It’s not often that you will see a head coach either in the NFL or the NCAA announce that he’s up for a new job before his old job ends. As San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh was saying for weeks on end that he wants to focus on the games on the 49ers schedule and that he’s only focusing on preparing the team, the coaches, and the personnel each week and didn’t want to talk about any offers from Michigan his new found employer for next season. That policy ended when it was announced on Friday night that Harbaugh will coach at Michigan next season.

Harbaugh who is coaching his last game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals at Levis Stadium had no idea when the season started and the new stadium was first opened that he would be the subject of possibly leaving the team. As the season wore on he never got the contract extension he was expecting and their were problems internally with the team aka Ray McDonald’s domestic issues, Aldon Smith’s nine game suspension for illegal fire arms possession and drinking. There was also talk during the season that Harbaugh lost the locker room too.

Harbaugh through it all held his head high and navigated the team with the best of his ability but there were some tough loses the team had to suck up during the course of the season losing twice to Seattle, losing tough games to Arizona, Denver, and a close three point loss to St.Louis, and some might have questioned if he lost the team when they lost to the Oakland Raiders at Levis 24-13.

Either way Harbaugh was heavily pursued during the ending of the season by Michigan who running up during the week of the Raiders game there was an offer to Harbaugh to sign on with his former alma mater for six years and $49 million. He had come to an agreement with the 49ers this past week to let him out of the last year of his five year deal which his last season was scheduled for next season and go to Michigan. Harbaugh was getting $5 million a year on this current $25 million deal with the 49ers.

Harbaugh will be introduced at Michigan this week during a press conference that should take place either on Monday or Tuesday. Harbaugh goes back to his roots where he quarterbacked for legendary head coach Bo Schembelcher in 1982-86. It was also no secret that Harbaugh was having front office issues with his bosses from last season and likewise this season with 49ers team CEO Jed York who actually apologized on twitter to the fans for losing a game to the Seattle Seahawks on Thanksgiving day 19-3.

49ers running back Vernon Davis said at the time of the apology which some viewed as an embarrassing moment for the coach to have the team CEO apologize on social media “there are a lot of distractions around here, all season long there have been a lot of distractions. But we tried our best to fight through them. Even now, there’s a lot of talk about Harbaugh not being here.”

Trent Baalke the 49ers general manager’s daughter Cassie tweeted that 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman should be fired after the 49ers Thanksgiving loss and later Baalke and Cassie both issued an apology to Roman stating from Baalke “my daughter and I both regret that her feelings got the best of her after last night’s game and that she chose social media to express her feelings. While disappointed, as a father I will use this as a teachable moment to help my daughter grow.” said Baalke

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders podcast commentary: Sparano sets up for last game a win could get him coaching job

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders will have to wait and see on their decision to retain head coach Tony Sparano, Sparano won three out of his last five games and that’s great. Like we’ve been saying the last couple of years what you really want to see from this Raiders team is gradual improvement. The talent level is something that their still trying to figure out and as you see the team improved their results you will see them improve in their actual talent level and quality of play.

You have to give Sparano some credit the Raiders are definitely playing a lot better than they were under former head coach Dennis Allen. Sparano has been a head coach in the NFL before he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and coincidentally he happened to be coach of the Dolphins about three and half years ago when both the 49ers and the Dolphins were trying to sign current 49er head coach Jim Harbaugh.

If you remember there was a big flurry of meetings between owners and Harbaugh, where the owner of the Dolphins actually stuck Harbaugh on his private jet and flew him out to Miami in a last second attempt to woo him to the Dolphins and when that didn’t work he announced his support for Sparano for the Miami job and the Sparano barely lasted the remainder of that season before he was fired. Sparano has some experience he just wasn’t very good with the Dolphins that’s why he got canned.

Sparano is doing a good job so far at the Raiders the talent level isn’t that deep and it’s not known yet if Sparano will be a good long term choice for Oakland as a head coach. Anybody who came in after Allen was going to do better, he had a few organizational skills in order to get the team to play with the playbook they were going to look better. The one thing you notice at the end of the Allen era they just weren’t executing at all.

When you have a team with little talent and they can’t execute their going to look terrible on the field. Let’s be fair there have been a couple of instances the Raiders looked terrible on the field remember they lost just a few weeks ago to the Rams 52-0. So it’s not it’s been wine and roses for the Raiders under Sparano. It’s great that they beat the 49ers and the Chiefs those are big games for them you always like to go against rivals and come out on top.

Sparano in those wins did well in that regard and he’s now put himself at least in the discussion as a head coaching candidacy and you have to look at what the Raiders are planning to do in the next few years. What do the Raiders want out of a new head coach? They want to make sure that Sparano is their guy. The fact of the matter is this is a team that doesn’t have any superstars, there is no player on this team that defines the Raiders.

If you look over at the 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick is the guy or Patrick Willis, Frank Gore is a free agent but Gore is the guy. There is a handful of players on the team who represent the 49ers, in the future the Raiders might have quarterback Derrick Carr or Latavius Murray or Khalil Mack. It’s all up and comers but on a national level when you think of the Raiders you don’t think of anybody because there is nobody good whose established themselves.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen below for David comments on the 49ers and Raiders

49ers commentary podcast: Harbaugh and 49ers will decide within 48 hrs after Sunday’s game

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh is still under contract with the 49ers for one more year so after Sunday’s game versus the Arizona Cardinals maybe he might have something to say about leaving the team and going elsewhere. The Niners aren’t going to do anything before this season is over and that’s all the rumors and speculation are just that. It seems that the way this is going to go down is Harbaugh is going to coach the game on Sunday and address this later.

Within about 48 hours of that he’ll probably be released out of his contract unless the 49ers somehow can figure out a way to trade him and it’s doesn’t seem very likely. Within 48 hours he’ll be released out of his contract the 49ers would like to get moving on their coaching search and they can’t do that until Harbaugh is relieved of his duties. Former Washington and Denver coach Mike Shanahan’s name has been thrown around as the next 49ers coach but it’s only speculation at this time.

At the same time Harbaugh if he does indeed want to coach at the University of Michigan which is the big rumor right now Michigan would want him signed as quickly as possible so he can get out and start recruiting right away. So the 49ers and Harbaugh both have reasons to get started and especially for the 49ers. If Harbaugh in fact is going to Michigan they obviously can’t trade him that doesn’t work you can’t trade between the college and the pros.

If this goes out as we think it will we’ll probably know by Tuesday what’s going on and maybe even sooner than that. The 49ers will probably wait 24-28 hours so Harbaugh can do whatever wrapping up he needs to do with the team. He can do some end of the season run downs and reviews with the players but beyond that Harbuagh is prepared and it’s just a matter of a few days and this last game with Arizona is a formality.

Was former 49er Ray McDonald a distraction to the team this season? The answer has to be yes, the players will always tell you that they focus what’s on the field and what goes on off the field is none of their concern and the fact of the matter there is a lot of good stuff surrounding the sexual assault issue now. That story was a big piece of news that wasn’t just an NFL news piece that was a national news piece.

The Ravens Ray Rice just elevated into the national consciousness and it was something you couldn’t avoid. It was a story that was everywhere and unless the players were living under a rock and frankly there are a few who do. You heard about this story and after Rice who got suspended initially McDonald was really the first case. The domestic violence allegation against him in September was the first case that came across the desk of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

McDonald took the full brunt of the scrutiny that came along with that national press report and any 49er who said that they weren’t paying attention and wasn’t distracted even a little bit is lying. Folks will say that because this was something that was lingering. Did it impact the 49ers play between the lines when the game was going on I doubt it. Knowing the way football players are they want to focus on is fantastic that’s what they do that’s their job.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Cal Bears podcast commentary: Wisconsin’s physical offensive presence stymied Cal all Monday night

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears (10-2) only two loses if you compare them they were equally important coming on the heels of a loss from Monday night to the Wisconsin Badgers (11-1) 68-56. One was not having a credible outside threat in the game with guard Jabiri Bird still on the bench for who knows how long. Without Bird it was difficult to have the offensive output and against Wisconsin your going to lose games against teams who are bigger and better than you are and as athletic as you are.

Wisconsin is a very, very good basketball team and they just outplayed Cal on Monday. When Cal goes back to look at the film the coaches and the players will realize they were missing a lot of easy shots early in the game and that was the problem. For the Badgers it was getting the easy shots, they were getting clean looks at the basket up close and lay ups that were uncontested. The Bears were working on ball strength and they just weren’t getting the results.

For Wisconsin they were getting the results much easier than it was for Cal, the Badgers head coach Bo Ryan was very complimentary he said that Cal head coach Cuonzo Martin’s career was in the Big Ten and he always said that he was always a tenacious defender and played always hard on the court and Ryan hoped that he would coach teams that would be the same way and that’s a very excellent compliment coming from an excellent coach.

The Badgers have beaten Cal in the last three years and they’ve met Wisconsin in a tournament within the last three years. This is an interesting season Kravish came on with great things that were expected and he’s had a great career and has been steadily improving. You thought “wow he’s got all that experience” on the team and you would have high expectations for him. This is not the coach that recruited him and this is not the coach that he’s had the last three years.

There is an adjustment going on here everybody is saying the right things, but Kravish misses Montgomery’s offensive sets and he misses the offense that goes through him under Montgomery. I have to be honest with you this is a hard system to readapt to and Kravish misses Justin Cobbs. The Bears get ready to battle the CSU Bakersfield Raodrunners (2-10) on Sunday night and if it’s competitive for over ten minutes the Bears are in deep trouble. Bakerfield was a national champion as a Division two team a few years ago but since they arrived in Division one ball they are now in waters that are way over their head.

The Roadrunners are ranked 305th amongst the D-One schools in the nation, if this game is competitive for ten minutes I think that coach Martin will pull out the one hair he has left. With the Badgers coming last Monday and how do you prepare for them, how do you put a scout team out there with 6’8, 6’9 players when you don’t have it yourself. The Bears starters are not even that big, so how does Cal get ready to play and prepare offensive sets against a team that big.

The Badgers are not really burly but they transition well, they don’t turn the ball over and neither team turned the ball over and both teams had six turnovers. Wisconsin was averaging over eight per game, which is on of the best in the nation, they don’t commit fouls, they have the five lowest foul call teams. They were number five in the nation with calls against them add the fact that everything that Cal got earlier and they were only getting tough shots you could actually see evidence of that on the stat sheet. The Wisconsin Badgers were a big and tough opponent for Cal on Monday night at Haas Pavilion.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal Men’s basketball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball in Havana? Not so fast

Published on by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Cuba is the only country outside the United States that had a professional baseball team in the United States.The Havana Sugar Kings were a Cuban-based minor league baseball team that played in the Class AAA International League from 1954 to 1960 .

They were affiliated with Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and their home stadium was El Gran Estadio del Cerro(sometimes called Gran Stadium) in Havana, Cuba. The Sugar Kings began life in 1946 as the Havana Cubans, founded by the Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria. They played in the old Class C (later Class B) Florida International League In 1954, Roberto “Bobby” Maduro bought the team, moved it to the International League, and renamed it the Sugar Kings.

Several talented Cuban players and other Latinos who eventually made it to the Major Leagues donned the Sugar Kings uniform, including Luis Arroyo Pompeyo Davalillo, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, Elio Chacon, Daniel Morejon, Preston Gómez, Leo Cárdenas, and Mike Cuellar. The Sugar Kings — led by future major league manager Preston Gómez 1960 was the last year the Cuban team played in theInternational League. That year the teams finished: 1-Toronto Maple Leafs(Clev), 2-Richmond Virginians(New Yankees), 3-Rochester Red Wings(St.Louis), 4- Buffalo Bisons(Phila), 5-Havana Sugar Kings(Cinci), 6-Columbus Jets(Pitts),7-Miami Marlins(Balt), 8-Montreal Royals(LAD).

Preston Gómez who worked for the Los Angeles Angels towards the end of his life, told me that Cuba was the perfect place for expansion if Major League Baseball decided to have a club outside the continental United States; geographical location, easy travel for most teams, just a hop from Miami. Gómez was sent by the baseball commissioner to Cuba to arrange the 1998 exhibition series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National team.

Preston also told me, that the United States will never have a team back in Cuba (at any level) unless Cuba had a totally different type of government.Just days after President Barack Obama made his announcement of the US intentions of re-establishing relations with Cuba President Raúl Castro declared victory for the Cuban Revolution,in a wide-ranging speech, thanking President Obama for “a new chapter” while also reaffirming that restored relations with the United States did not mean the end of Communist rule in Cuba.

In Cuba the 1% is the government. The leaders of the communist nation eat well, they can travel freely in and out of the island, they have all the privileges that they themselves negate the regular Cuban people. So it remains to be seen what really is going to happen between the US and Cuba. Words are just words, unless they translate to action.The fact is that in 1960 Cuba was one of the most advanced countries in Latin America.

A lot of people here in the US still do not understand, that under the current communist dictatorship of over half century in the island of Cuba, President Barack Obama is considered another capitalist pig by thecurrent Cuban government. That is the rhetoric that Cuba has been spilling, even after they lost their biggest friend, the old Soviet Union, who sponsored Cuba for billions of dollars each year, and after 1989 when that country’s system of communism went down the drain, Cuba was left alone with little support. Cuba had a lot to do in Venezuela, especially when Hugo Chávez was alive and became very cozy with Fidel Castro, who Chávez himself considered like a father to him, because of the same communist philosophy their shared.

The decline in world oil prices, today Venezuela is going through a very difficult economic crisis. There is a lot of misunderstanding about Cuba, since there has been non diplomatic relations with that country and no travel really allowed from the US to Cuba since the early 1960’s. Cuba always benefited for its geographic location, just 90 milesfrom US shores. However, the US never colonized Cuba,as a matter of historical fact, America actually liberated Cuba from Spanish colonialism, and though the U.S.influenced the island heavily for decades afterward, the U.S. President recently attempted the moral equivalence between “colonization” and communist tyranny, and that, at the least’is very disingenuous.

Cuba gained its independence from Spain in 1902. Havana had a lot of American influence until 1960, and yes the mafia had a foothold in the entertainment business in Havana, but the same was the case then in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and many other cities in the United States.Havana was Las Vegas, before there was Las Vegas, but most of the Cuban people had absolutely nothing to do with the mob. It is a chapter that Hollywood loves to recreate, but most of those big time movie moguls never visited Cuba and had no idea of the real Cuba before Fidel Castro and his gang.

In 2005 Cuban-American born actor Andy García, Produced and Directed “The Lost City”, a story of his family caught in the middle of a violent revolution,they had to leave and lost everything, but there are far and few movies of that sort. One of the reasons this movie was made is because García’s family lived it in his native Cuba, and obvioulsy he has the means and the name and the respect of Hollywood, to make the movie.

US citizen Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews. After serving 5 years he was recently released and is now back in the United States.

As of today, at the very end of 2014, US. citizens arebarred from traveling to Cuba without government permission under a U.S. trade embargo imposed half a century ago that can only be lifted by Congress. The composition(balance of power) of the US Congress is changing next month, so this story still developing. Through out the years many people asked me why I have not visited Cuba. There is nothing for me to do there, I know what happened, I know the truth, my family left and I still have the deed of the illegaly confiscated property that was taken by the Castro government.

For me to visit Cuba today will bring me more bad than good memories. I know US citizens that go to Cuba, but I have yet met one that stayed in Cuba, some do not like corporations or capitalism, but they rather live here in the US, which is very interesting, because if they were honest to their core, they would stay in Cuba. If you do not want to see Walmarts and McDonalds, I would recommend moving to Cuba and be happy.

Will professional baseball be back in Cuba? Time will tell, the root of the problem in Cuba is not the Cuban people, but their government, they are the ones that have to change, The US has been a democracy for 239 years, Cuba has been a totalitarian communist dictatorship for some 55 years. You can be a communist in the US, we can see the signs in many demostrations on the street here, but you cannot be for democracy in Cuba, and if you are, and the Cuban government finds out, your next home is a prison.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com