Author: lleonardbw

Warriors arena at Piers 30-32: With height measure voted down new arena might have a shot at piers

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by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Waterfront advocates lost a major volley after putting up a strong fight and nearly getting a ballot measure for the June election that would ask voters if there should be a height restriction for waterfront buidlings. Propositon B was voted down by the San Francisco Democratic party in a 13-12 vote to keep the measure off the ballot.

The measure would require voter approval for any new buildings at the waterfront over 40-105 feet, the party wanted to keep the measure off the ballot because without it it would allow development proposals such as the Golden State Warriors proposed arena at Piers 30-32 who almost considered looking at other alternatives. The Warriors want to build at Piers 30-32 a new 12 story arena, a 17 story luxury condo, and a ten story hotel.

The condo and hotel would be built across the street from Piers 30-32 where the new Warriors arena would play. The condo and hotel would be owned by the Warriors and the condo and hotel would help pay for the new arena. The political machine of San Francisco came out and got the vote out with the political help of the local trade unions who want jobs and to get the contstruction for the new arena.

The Union memebers called Proposition B a job killer if the ballot measure made the June election and with the knowledge that the voters would surely vote to restrict the height limit at the waterfront no unlimited height they would miss out on construction jobs for the new arena. With the party voting down the measure it could create a path for construction on the new arena, condo and hotel for the Warriors.

Committee member Hene Kelly who voted for the measure said that the proposition was not anti labor, “I do not beleive Proposition B is an enemy of the building trades.” There were other committee members who chose to abstain and did not vote in the narrow vote. Jon Golinger who is running the Yes on Proposition B campaign said that this was all politics with the real estate establishment of San Francisco, “It’s a sign that the real estate lobby is fully in control of this Democratic Party.”

The measure now goes to a legal challenge which will be argued in front of San Francisco Superior Court Judge Marla Miller. The hearing is designed to strike the measure from appearing in the June election. The lawsuit was filed by Tim Colen executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, Michael Theriault, a leader of the Building and Construction Trades and Corrine Woods, a neighbor of the project site.

The Giants who said they wanted to construct a retail and condo complex at a parking lot by AT&T Park are underwriting the lawsuit. The Giants are in the fight for keeping the height limit measure off the ballot and it means profit for the team if they can get the complex started. The Warriors were mentioned for constructing the new arena in the Giants lot A if they can’t build at Piers 30-32 but with no height restriction in place the Warriors could construct at Piers 30-32 if the judge throws out the proposition on Monday.

Ken Gimblin is covering the arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for Sportstalk radio

Sharks commentary: Sharks liked the homecooking; get ready for some ice time back east

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by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–Taking a quick review of the Sharks this past week last Thursday in their 5-3 comeback win over the Pittsburgh Penguins they didn’t look bad they were playing even with the Penguins and they were trying to control the puck. When they were even with the Pens the way they caught up was they played more physical and they played much faster. Everybody was on board and everybody was back checking and forechecking.

They all carried the load easily and the Sharks played that NHL style the way they wanted to play,the Pens after the game in San Jose traveled cross country and beat the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night and the Pens came in against the Sharks on the rear end of their road trip. As far as the Sharks are concerned they faced the Pens and the Montreal Canadiens and they had a very successful homestand.

The Sharks who concluded the homestand against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday start a three game road trip in Columbus (Thursday), NY Islanders (Friday) and New York Rangers (Sunday). The Sharks have had 12 games against east coast teams either at home or away. The Sharks really made their last homestand count with great play against the Penguins and Canadiens. The loss to Carolina was a close one to start the stand in a 3-2 overtime loss.

The Sharks have been doing a great job playing their game, the only down side would be their getting more short handed goals than their power play goals in the last 16 games, it’s not a great stat to have but their having a winning record and they’ll take it as the Sharks are hot winning five of their last seven games.

The thing is the Sharks have to realize they have to get the power play going that’s something that could come back and bite them when they need a power play goal. They did catch the Canadiens at SAP Center when the Habs were tired and at the end of the trip as well. The Candiens are struggling losing three of their last four games and ending the trip with a 4-0 shutout loss to the Sharks on Saturday.

On the trip they were able to beat a first place Anaheim Ducks team by a goal on Wednesday March 5th 4-3 at the Honda Center but their previous game with the Kings at Staples the Canadiens ran into a tough defensive battle and lost a low scoring game 2-1. They also got beat bad in a three goal loss to the Phoenix Coyotes 5-3 the game before they came to San Jose. All in all the Canadiens are glad to get out of San Jose with their sweaters on and get ready to host the Boston Bruins on the 12th.

The Sharks really got tested on Tuesday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a first period that saw two Sharks goals get called back by the on ice official, the second goal that got called back was later ruled a goal and not a second too soon as that one gave San Jose the lead 2-1. The Maple Leafs brought some of their top stars into the rink for the contest as the Leafs are no slouch being second in the Atlantic and with Triple Crown offensive team leader Phil Kessel at the helm Kessel who leads the Leafs in points (73), goals (34), and assists (39).

Larry Leavitt does commentary on the Sharks and the NHL each week for Sportstalk radio

Morris Phillips and Michael Duca on Cal Basketball: Can Bears survive in the tournaments first game Thursday

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by Morris Phillips and Michael Duca

BERKELEY–As a group the Cal Bears are tired and they shot only 39 percent in beating Colorado by one point in their last regular game of the season 66-65. The game before they shot 39 percent against Utah in that loss and like Stanford they go into that conference tournament having lost three out of four and the Bears Justin Cobbs hasn’t played as well as he could play.

In spots he’s been incredible down the stretch and on Saturday he was great and the game in Arizona Cobbs was outplayed by Jahid Carson and Nick Johnson. Those are his contemporaries that not only Cal fans are hoping that he can outplay but NBA scouts in evaluating Cobbs looking how he fares in these individual match ups. With other players who project to be NBA players.

So for Cal it’s not been such a good stretch for them and the composition of the team would suggest just as much with half the team being freshman and half the team that plays. Half the rotation players are freshman and the injuries to Jabari Bird and Ricky Kreklow during the season didn’t help as well. You could argue that Cal head coach Mike Montgomery has got more out of this group than anybody else could have.

This year it doesn’t look like whatever he got out of them is going to be good enough to put them in the NCAA. In the recruiting class there’s one of the top players nationally in Oakland and we keep hearing that Ivan Rabb of Bishop O’Dowd is their key target and as well he should be.

Rabb is 6’10 and a great jumper and has great athletic presence in the paint right here in their own back yard and he’s on a list of 12 and Cal would like a shot at him. That’s been the issue for Cal of the six years of Montgomery the team has had good players, not great players and the results have been just about the same.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal basketball for Sportstalk radio

That’s Amaurys News and Commentary: Kings looking to get immient domain land parcel for arena build

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That’s Amaurys News and Commentary

PHOENIX AZ–The Sacramento Kings are very close to getting their new arena under construction they only need to sort out the remaining parcel land with the old Macy’s building located between the downtown plaza mall and Old Sacramento in front of the Holiday Inn. Once done the Kings are able to break ground.

The Kings are still haggling with the owners of the property U.S. Bank and the other owner CalPERS. CalPERS says their willing to sell their share but U.S. Bank is fighting immient domain and said it would be difficult to recoup the price that the Kings are willing to buy the building for.

In comparision to the Warriors situation the Warriors need to convince San Francisco voters that they need a 12 story building at Piers 30-32 waterfront location. That drive is not going so well and there have been talks about the team buidling at AT&T Park or by nearby UCSF owned by Salesforce just off of Third Street.

In the Kings case once they get past the U.S. Bankers for the Macy’s building they can begin construction, they don’t have to deal with the environmentalists, they don’t have to worry about the views, the view of the bay or the bridge views like the Warriors do. This is the closest the Kings have come to getting their new building once they settle with U.S. Bank on the sales price.

The Warriors situation is different and it looks like Warrior owners Peter Gruber and Joe Lacob could be in for a long, long fight here. They’ll need the best attorneys possibly the business law dream team version as opposed to O.J.’s dream team of attorneys from L.A. Especially Gruber who knows all those big shot attorneys down there in L.A.

Both basketball teams are hoping to get an new arena built and the Kings are hoping to get their new arena built and ready by the 2016 season and the Warriors who have to deal with lots of opposition in the waterfront neighborhood of the city to get their arena built as the arguement alone concerning the height of the arena and the building of a condo and hotel owned by the Warriors across the street is also causing a political stir.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland Athletics baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

Warriors commentary: Improved bench thanks to Blake, Green, and Crawford gives starters breather

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–It’s great that the Warriors are finally showcasing their depth early in the season their second unit, their bench team was just not complete they hadn’t figured out what their rotation is going to be. There were going to all kinds of combinations of guys and it just didn’t seemed to be working. For the Warriors week end and week out, part of that was becuase they didn’t have a legitment back up point guard.

The Warriors didn’t have a true point guard who could distribute and that kind of hampered any kind of efforts on the part of the bench to get any kind of flow going. To get the flow going you need someone who could direct traffic and the Warriors just didn’t have anybody.

The Warriors had Tony Douglas who gave the Warriors some hope to be successful back there, give credit to Bob Myers he’s been very open to making changes on the fly. As the season progressed the first move was getting George Crawford from the Celtics for a very cheap price and he wasn’t great as a point guard option that was kind of a failed experience, the guy can score off the bench.

They hope that Douglas can fill in for five to 15 minutes and at one point and when that became pretty obvious in January Myers hit the phones again and when Kent Bazemore and Marshawn Brooks went to the Los Angeles Lakers to get Steve Blake off of that sinking Lakers team which is really a genius move. Blake is a very solid true point guard he’s a guy who can dish.

By putting Blake at the point Crawford slides over to Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green and comes in as the three and the four. Jermaine O’Neal could be at the center spot that is a solid second unit. It’s not going to necessarily beat eveybody everytime out. These guys can score their dynamic they can hold their own through 15-20 minutes in a game and give the starters a rest.

You can push those guys in the line up every now and then and give the starters a rest and have them play with the other starters. Blake could go in with the first team or Green, having Blake back is giving the Warriors a full deep bench. That is one of the big reasons why the Warriors have a resurgence here in February and March because they’re able to get quality minutes that they weren’t getting before.

The Warriors had the worst scoring bench in the league in fact if you look at the scoring of the bench in the last three or four weeks that’s not the case any more the bench is probably in the middle of the pack if not higher.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio

Michelle Richardson on the NCAA: Witchita State playing undisputed champion like basketball

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by Michelle Richardson

Witchita State (34-0) vs. Indiana State (23-10): The thing that I said about college basketball is the regular season is one thing but when March Madness arrives anything can happen. Witchita State is no joke and everybody continued to look beyond the Shockers that is the most insulting part. The people who looked beyond them and it was kind of inseparable but Witchita State has continued to make some changes.

They played Indiana State on Sunday the Sycamores are averaging 71 points per game, the Shockers are averaging 75, the Sycamores are allowing 67 points per game and the Shockers are allowing 59 points per game. Indiana State’s home record is 11-2 and for Witchita State they are 18-0. The road record for Indiana State 9-7 and for Witchita they’re 12-0.

Witchita State took a 33 game win streak into the game against Indiana State, the Sycamores were on a two game win streak. This was a game that was close and no one gave up any kind of ground and it was close on the scoreboard. It’s going to be interesting Witchta State beat Indiana State twice this season with their first meeting on January 18 Witchita wins that one by 20 68-48. The Shockers defeated the Sycamores 65-58 at Indiana State back on Feb 5th.

Duke 93 (24-7) North Carolina (23-8) 81: This was a great ball game but Duke came out on top, Duke has been searching and they have really been making the moves and they want to get in the big dance and their number four. They took the first half 40-37.

Then after that first half Duke kept after them with the help of Jabari Parker who finished with 30 points, Rodney Hood with 24 points, and Quinn Cook with 11. Parker was on fire 11 rebounds, Parker was really all over the place on both ends of the court. Hood had two turnovers but got two rebounds.

Duke had 54 points just from their two starters and Cook who had the 11 points with the top three scorers, North Carolina couldn’t match the fire power of Duke. On offense for Carolina Marcus Paige 24 points, Brice Johnson 15, and James Michael McAdoo 13 points.

San Diego 51 (27-3) New Mexico (24-6) 48: There is a chance that these two teams will meet again and probably for the Conference Championship. Expect to see both of these teams in the NCAA Tournament in different brackets, San Diego is ranked number ten and New Mexico is ranked at 21.

New Mexico is hoping that they don’t get knocked out of the top 25, they played good basketball New Mexico’s top scorers in the match Cameron Bairstow had 20, Alex Kirk 14, and Kendall Williams with seven. Finals for the top three in San Diego’s winning cause, Xavier Thames 23, Winston Shepard eight, and Josh Davis with six.

This was just that kind of game where you had a top scorer like Thames and everyone else on the San Diego roster followed him with single digits in the win.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week for Sportstalk radio

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips on Cal basketball: An end to a very disappointing inconsistent regular season for Bears

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by Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears (18-12) finally put an end to a very disappointing season and one that is one of the most disappointing teams that head coach Mike Montgomery has had since being at Cal. To give you an idea how underachieving his team is three days ago the Brooklyn Nets signed former Cal star Jorge Gutierrez to a ten day contract and you can be assured that Gutierrez will end up sticking with that team.

Gutierrez was the first player that Montgomery ever recruited at Cal and he has turned out to be a quintessential Montgomery player who wakes up in the morning with rug burns on his elbows from nights where he has dived on the floor from many falls. For some reason you don’t see that from anyone on this Cal team this year. You don’t see the intensity from this team who ran a six game losing streak after beating Arizona at home and who started another losing streak at three games after beating USC in the last meeting of the season between the Trojans and Bears.

They let other teams take advantage of the Bears athletic ability on the floor and take away their skill sets play after play, game after game particularily after that Arizona win at home, the Bears have been simply very disappointing to watch. This is without question the most inconsistent and disappointing Cal team that has ever played under coach Montgomery.

They’ve got the ability that doesn’t materialize, that doesn’t show up, they had incredible intensity against Arizona at home and beat that perfect team by a Justin Cobbs buzzer beater, but doesn’t have anything against Arizona State and they lost to Utah. It’s no knock on Utah but Utah who has won only three road games in the conference in three years and while Cal was never more than six points behind them during that game.

The Bears never ever, ever had a defense and put on a little polish and took over the game, and they were out rebounded, they we’re out boarded, they were out played, all night long by the Sun Devils and at Haas Pavilion. That was embarrassing and that was really embarrassing at home and it’s super embarrassing on Senior day.

The Bears needed that win against Colorado on the last regular game of the season and you would think with two seniors graduating you would think they would want to come forward and make some kind of threat against Colorado of some kind. The Bears should have taken some kind of control against Utah and neither one of them did. It was just simply deplorable to watch.

The Golden Bears had some great moments earlier this season and it’s just a waste of talent to watch them finish up the season this way. You had Richard Solomon averaging a double double, and Solomon is one of six players in the country that is averaging a double double and if you got one of those players at the very minimum you should have been unbeatable at home.

If we’re not mistaken the Bears have lost three conference games at home and Cal never loses three conference games at home. Maybe they can make hay out of some of the tournament games.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips cover Cal basketball for Sportstalk Radio

Warriors commentary: Taking a look at the bench behind Curry and Thompson

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–Its not a coincidence that a lot of this improvement and of greater consistency came number one after Jermaine O’Neal really came back healthy and number two after the Warriors traded for Steve Blake. The Warriors had that great road trip in January where they went 6-1 and they won in all manner of ways.

The Warriors on that trip beat some good teams and they came back from that road trip just like they were right in the running not only for the division but for the championship. They were a team to contend with and then they laid an egg on that homestand in late January early February. It’s especially tough because the Warriors have a such a tough homecourt advantage.

The fans who support the Warriors are so fantastic that you wonder and start scratching your head whats going on with this team? Their good but their losing to bottom feeders and they was no rhyme or reason to it. If there was part of the reason was it was the help. They’ve been suffering through a series injuries, it wasn’t any big injuries but it was guys getting hurt.

Players were getting hurt, dinged up, banged up and missing games and missing a couple of weeks, so it was tough on the rotation set and number two they didn’t have a good rotation. You think back at the beginning of the season their back court was not what it was. I’m not talking about Stephen Curry and Clay Thompson because they’ve been here all season.

We’re talking about the back ups, the bench behind Curry and Thomposon the Warriors didn’t have anybody who could fill in for Curry or Thompson. They had Tony Douglas a player they thought would fill in at point guard for Curry when Curry needed a rest and Douglas just didn’t cut it and he got traded for Jordan Crawford from Boston whose really not a bad player but he’s not really a point guard.

If you watch Crawford play he’s a guy whose a gunner, whose best off the bench as a two guard, and the Warriors were running him out there as a one also. So expecting Crawford to come in and run the offense just wasn’t going to work because that’s not what he does. He’s just not very good at it.

When the Warriors traded for Blake a few weeks ago, what it did is completely set that second unit, Blake is a true point guard. He’s a guy who distributes, he has his spurts, he’s a guy who sets the offense he can score that’s for sure but he’s a true point guard. Crawford was never a point guard, he’s always been a two.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk Radio

Perspective: The 1989 Oakland A’s baseball season 25 years later

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Amaury Pi-González

“That’s Amaury News and Commentary”

PHOENIX–One of the nice things about baseball, is that if you stay long enough, and the good Lord gives you a long life, you can have a lot of experiences, seen thousands of games, and talk to people who have not, and either were not born, or just in another line of work.

The 1989 baseball season for the A’s was a truly unforgettable season. Just to think that it culminated with an earthquake and against the Giants, is enough to make a movie, not like Money-ball, but a very interesting one nonetheless, and with a lot of real drama.

As I walk in the Athletics press box during the years, I find more and more people that were 2 years old, not born, or not following baseball in 1989 and that memorable year. But most people alive today, that were 8 years or so in 1989 here in the Bay Area, remember one thing; they remember what they were doing on October 17, 1989 around 5:05 PM.

Some of us where working the game at Candlestick Park, my young engineer was Erwin Higueros, now broadcasting Giants games, my broadcast partner was Evelio Areas Mendoza, he is living and retired in Nicaragua.

I remember just a year before 1989, Gene Hogan, General Manager of KNTA 1430AM radio in Santa Clara called me to his office, as I was doing Sports there and told me he wanted to introduced me to a young disc jockey who loved baseball, Erwin was working the midnight to 5 AM shift, playing music for lonely people.

Most people(not all) who listen to music on the radio those hours are lonely, suffer from insomnia, or simply have no life.

Evelio Mendoza,I knew from the early 1980’s when I was sports director of KIQI 1010 AM radio in San Francisco. In those years KIQI 1010AM featured live news,traffic,weather and sports for four hours each morning. I knew Evelio could do baseball, because I listened to his tapes of play by play from the Nicaraguan leagues, prior to arriving in the United States.

The three of us were installed almost with our heads touching the roof at Candlestick Park, a real auxiliary broadcast booth, just built for that World Series. Evelio suffered from high blood pressure and after the first shake, I looked at his face it was as red as a tomato, I thought he was having a heart attack. Erwin much younger, looked at me very scared and didn’t know what to do, we lost our broadcast line and we were “off the air”like most stations doing remote from Candlestick that afternoon.

After the game was stopped by the quake, we were informed by then Commissioner Fay Vincent that the Series will be “postponed” as it was for eleven days.

I had to drive from San Francisco to Fremont, where I had my house, there was my wife,and my two sons 10 and 9 years old. The Bay Bridge was closed, and it was complete mayhem, as I had to drive the 101 south all the way to the Dumbarton Bridge, with very very heavy traffic, to get home.

Just outside of Candlestick Park next to the freeway, there was A’s superstar José Canseco filling his car tank with gasoline, and he was wearing his uniform. I had to stop at my parents retirement home in the San Francisco Mission District first. They were very nervous but doing well, I then had to drive to Fremont. It took me all afternoon to get back home. I think I got home like at 10:30 maybe later.

This season the Oakland A’s will have a 1989 reunion on July 19, World Series Champion team. Yes, it has been almost 25 years since that memorable World Series, which the A’s took by sweeping the San Francisco Giants in four games.

The Oakland Athletics broadcast team that 1989 World Series: On the radio: Bill King who died in 2005, and Lon Simmons, retired and living in Maui, Hawaii. Monte Moore and Ray Fosse on television. Amaury Pi-González and Evelio Areas Mendoza on Spanish radio. Today some 25 years later, Ray Fosse and yours truly are currently, the only ones remaining on the Oakland Athletics broadcast.

Amaury Pi-González is Spanish play by play announcer for the Oakland Athletics,KIQI 1010AM radio and also travels to Anaheim were he is play by play in Spanish for Fox Sports West/Prime TIcket, Angels television.

Sharks report: Canadiens and Sharks spell big physical draw as second place teams do battle on Saturday

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by Larry Leavitt

SAN JOSE–The media access for the San Jose Sharks and visiting the Monteal Canadiens will be off the charts on Saturday night, if the game isn’t the big thing, the amount of broadcasters that the Canadiens will have at SAP Center certainly will be. The Canadiens will have French TV, French Radio, English Radio, English TV, and for Sharks radio and TV just in English.

It reminded me how tough it is to get access to any arena in Canada to see the NHL for example, when the Winnipeg Jets tickets first went on sale after returning to Winnipeg after having moved to Phoenix. Their tickets sold out within minutes for the entire season. There is now a waiting list to get tickets indvidual or season. It was interesting to look at that whole way to go get tickets when your in Canada.

The Canadiens made a few trades before the deadline and they did really well and what you have to look forward to is the Sharks playing to the level of their position. Unfortunately when they played Buffalo at the end of February they lost a tough game there after beating Philadelphia the previous night.

The Sharks lost to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night in overtime 3-2 and they should have won those games but they didn’t because they really didn’t play a good game and they didn’t play up to the level that they should have. They see Pittsburgh who they played on Thursday night as a big measuring stick.

That will be the tell tale sign on how this game on Saturday goes. They can play a good game against Montreal and they can carry it through the rest of the homestand as the Sharks wrap up the homestand against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.The Canadiens bring in their ace goaltender Carey Price with 2.33 goals against average.

Price is one of the big reasons why the Canadiens are in second place and having a good season, he plays real loose and Price’s game is how loose he plays most people really don’t know him that well and he’s been to the NHL All-Star game a few times but at the All-Star game he really doesn’t play goalie he just kind of stands there.

Price was mic’d up one year they broadcast the game and he joked with the guys and and made some moves just to be in the way during the shooting contest. One thing about Price coming off the Olympic break Price hasn’t missed a step. Price hasn’t allowed anything to effect him since the Olympic break or his concentration and he came back not missing a step.

Larry Leavitt does Sharks commentary each week for Sportstalk radio