Author: lleonardbw

2014 Hall of Famers has class ex-A’s Thomas, & ex- Braves Maddux and Glavine

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Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–Some say that most people do not really get what they deserve in life. That is not the case for these three men that were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, in this class of 2014, the greatest Hall of Fame in sports.

The three not only had great numbers, (that helps) and very long careers, but are men of quality and good role models. Any sports reporter, writer, broadcaster, that covered these guys know they are the cream of the crop.

Gregg Maddux won 355 games, that is the eight highest total of wins for a pitcher in Major League history. Tom Glavine won 305, the fourth highest for a left handed pitcher.

Frank Thomas, a first baseman at the beginning of his career, and a designated hitter the remainder of the way, batted for .301 hit a total of 521 home runs and drove in 1,704 (one thousand-seven-hundred-four)runs in a productive19 year career.

There are many other numbers I am not even mentioning here for these three new members of The Hall of Fame. Thomas, after getting the good news, said he thought he was not going to get in, because he is mostly known as a designated hitter, but he is a first baseman and that teams wanted his bat in the lineup as he got older.

Maddux and Glavine where the first two pitchers to be elected together since Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson in the first class of 1939, in that pioneering class,together with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.

Covering these three guys that on July 27 will be officially inducted into Cooperstown, I found not only great class, and professionalism,but the greatest dedication to the game. I called games in which Greg Maddux would throw 87 pitches and finish a game in 2 hours and 12 minutes, that friends, you do not see today.

There are starters that throw 30-40 pitches in one inning today. For me, during the years I have been covering baseball, I do not remember a smarter pitcher with more control that Maddux,who never had great speed on his pitches, but could throw the ball through the eye of a needle.

When I first got started in this business, I remember Jim”Catfish”Hunter, of the Oakland A’s, and later of the NY Yankees, he also had that great mastery of the strike zone, and for some reason I refer to him because of that, although he never attained the great numbers like Maddux.

When I was doing the Giants Spanish radio broadcast, I once asked outfielder Stan Javier. of the Giants, about Maddux: “yes, he doesn’t throw that hard, but his pitches have great movement, and he thinks like the hitter, that is why he is so good” Maddux pitched for 23 years, won 20 or more in two seasons, but between 1988 and 2006 he won 15 or more games, and ended up with a 3.16 earned run average.

Tom Glavine was like a lefty Maddux, because he was not a flame thrower, but could fool the best hitters. He pitched for 22 years, and five times won 20 or more games, and had an earned run average of 3.54. Both were teammates for years on the same Atlanta Braves team, which by coincidence will also have their skipper Bobby Cox, inducted this July.

Frank Thomas who originally went to Auburn to play football, but that school was 3 and 4 deep in football positions, took the advice of a coach who told him he should try baseball, Thomas, a smart man, took the advice.

The years Thomas played for the Oakland Athletics, he was always the ultimate professional. Sometimes he didn’t have the time for an interview or two, because he always follow a steady routine, since he arrived in the clubhouse.

The man worked as hard as anybody, aside from that, God gave him a monster of a body,(6’5″, 240) and is known by many by the nickname, of “The Big Hurt”. And he could do that, some of his home runs still have not landed, I remember a few at the Oakland Coliseum that even after I saw it on the television replay, I could still not believe.

For those older baseball fans, Thomas could hit the ball as high, far and deep as Richie Allen. Frank Thomas never ever was even rumored of taking steroids, Thomas was big as a rookie and big as a veteran, (we cannot say the same for other guys in this game during the past 15 years )his career was as clean as the brand new Chicago White Sox uniform that’s going on display soon at Cooperstown; the same can also be said about Maddux and Glavine.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Museum and does News and Commentary each week

49ers playoff report: Niners trying to avoid repeating rough November outing against Carolina

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The 49ers who pulled off a big win in the negative wind chill last Sunday in Green Bay made it a good game, it was an intense game for the 49ers and the 49ers who came out on top primarily due to a great performance from 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Kaepernick who had success against the Packers during last season’s playoff set a running record at 180 yards not just a playoff record but an NFL record and he was just as good and just as effective and he’s a little bit better with his arm in this game.

While he had only 98 yards in this game he managed to scramble at the most important times in the game when it made the biggest difference, thats what changed the game in this case he made big plays with his feet and arm and led the Niners to victory. That put the 49ers in a position to get into the NFC Championship yet again if they can get past Carolina this Sunday.

As you remember the 49ers played Carolina at the beginning of November and the Panthers came into Candlestick and won 10-9 in one of the most physical games of the season. It was a real tough game for the 49ers. They couldn’t get into the end zone and the Carolina defense really stifled the 49ers offense and it was probably the worse game of Kaepernick’s career as a starter.

Kaepernick didn’t even get past the 100 yard mark in passing yardage and he didn’t do much better on the ground he only had 91 yards passing, threw an interception and threw no touchdowns. It was a bad day all around for the 49ers offense. Lets give credit to the 49ers defense, the 49ers defense did a great job in that game, they gave up ten points but ten points for the 49ers is usually more than enough to get a victory.

In this case it wasn’t, Kaepernick had a lousy game for the 49ers, but so did Panther quaterback Cam Newton. Kaepernick his numbers looked worse than Newton who wasn’t better he had just over 160 yards in the November contest. He didnt throw any touchdown passes, he had one interception and the Panthers scored on a 20 yard plus broken play run.

So for this game coming to Carolina this is going to be a another tight one, the defenses are just reallly good. Just pointing this out for the 49ers in November, Michael Crabtree was not back he was still recovering and Aldon Smtih was out those are two key players for the 49ers and that could be the difference and these are two guys who could have an impact on this game coming back.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Mayor wants to cut pensions but willing to spend money on new stadium

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

SAN JOSE–I remember when San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed became Mayor I got a chance to speak with him about the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum as I’m the vice president of the museum. Reed seems like a very grounded person as he comes from a financial background.

I like this mayor and I don’t know what he’s thinking on the issue of pension reform that the city can’t afford to continue to pay out these retirement checks out but they can afford to pay to build an A’s stadium if they can get the team to move to San Jose. I do believe that Reed wants the A’s in San Jose and he knows what a Major League franchise means to a city.

He’s knows what 81 home dates during the regular season would mean to the city’s revenue and he’s in favor of building a Major League park making San Jose a Major League town, we’ll see how things go for the A’s whose been a very successful franhcise over the decades. Every year the A’s sell a lot of merchandise.

In San Jose you see Sharks merchandise all over the place, when you have MLB it’s makes the town a Major League town. It sounds redundant but that’s the way it is and baseball is not a sport it’s a game. It’s a game that has the World Series and Major League Baseball it is more popular than it ever has been before.

I understand what Reed is doing and he’s a smart guy and he wants the A’s to go to San Jose and it could happen with the city suing MLB and of course the Giants are claiming territorial rights in San Jose. Reed has some good business people behind him in San Jose and he’s running one of the biggest cities in California after Los Angeles and San Diego and San Jose has the third largest populaton in the state.

The state of California is financially in trouble with the pensions too it’s a two edged sword it’s tough when your dealing with a town like San Jose it’s a big town your dealing with problems too but it would be a political victory for Reed if he was to get the A’s.

Reed politically is going to have to see what is best for San Jose and I can not speak for him but the police, fire, and emergency services and civil servants say he’s gunning for the pensions but if he brings the Oakland A’s in downtown San Jose that could be a tremendous asset and Reed has to realize this is a balancing act and we saw what happened in Sacramento when Mayor Kevin Johnson saved the Sacramento Kings.

The mayor will be going into a dog fight with his employees over pension reform but at the same time if he was to land the A’s all that would be forgotten. If he doesn’t get pension reform and fails to get the A’s it would be a political wreck for Reed.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president at the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk

Michelle Richardson on the NCAA

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by Michelle Richardson

This is the first time that the Arizona Wild Cats (15-0) in the post Lute Olsen (the former head coach) era that the Wild Cats have their feet up there strong. Now that the team knows he’s not there now their going to give him his respect and there’s a new regime in charge as the Cats head coach Sean Miller are responding to that stability.

We’re still early in the season it’s January and the conference season is underway and expect Arizona to challenge a lot more as they hold the top rankings in the AP and USA Today polls. With UCLA Steve Holford he’s in his first year as head coach and he’s got something to prove the Pac 12 has always been a top basketball conference.

I’m not sure where the dark forces are coming from Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, but there might be a team that might pop up and you have to ask “hey where did you come from?” Maybe USC is going to be back in their game just wait and see. You can be assured UCLA, Washington, Oregon, they’ll all be in the mix.

Syracuse has always had a solid basketball program and its a shame that the Big East has woken up. The Big East’s loss is the ACC’s gain making the fact that the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC conference more stronger. They get to go up against teams like the Duke, Florida State, North Carolina State, this is going to be a really good basketball program.

Its surprising that Syracuse(12-0) is ranked above North Carolina (9-3) but once you get into that conference schedule things can change. ACC basketball is going to be back and you can expect three to four teams out of the ACC to get to the tournament.

Syracuse is always a powerhouse when you go back to Xavier McDaniel, Derrick Coleman, and Shawn Douglas going back to those days its going to be very interesting to see how they play. The ACC plays very different basketball than what they do in the Big East.

This is going to be great television some of the fans will be getting their Direct TV packages and watch all the ACC basketball and its going to be fun and watching the conference breakdowns. The football bowl games effected basketball TV so were about ready to see how these conference realignments work out and its going to be very good for the ACC and its going to be very good for teams like the Big 12.

Michelle Richardson does commentary on the NCAA each week

Larry Leavitt on Pro Hockey

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by Larry Leavitt

DALY CITY–For the San Francisco Bulls this will be their fifth staight game against the Stockton Thunder they won the first game, they lost the next two and they won Friday night and the game was in Stockton. Which on Friday night the ice was painted by kids I don’t know if I would have done it for a regular season game but maybe a pre season game.

It worked for the Bulls they won and they got the win with a brand new player and it really made a big impact on the team. The Bulls have been getting good protection from the guys up front and also it starts with good goaltending. If you got good strong goaltending you got good strong defense with your forwards and your speed is off the defense. I’m a firm believer in that and good goaltending can work for any hockey team.

It’s back on the road again for the Bulls as they head to Ontario and I don’t envy them having to play Stockton because you know that Stockton is going to want to win the tie breaker and then they have to go onto Ontario for a game Sunday for a 3PM game.

It’s tough on players, it’s tough on everybody the Ontario people probably hoped that the Bulls played their Saturday night game into overtime and that the Bulls would show up to the rink in Ontario exhausted Sunday. That’s what minor leauge hockey is about you put in your time, you put in your dues and hopefully you get called up and finally show your worth it.

San Jose Sharks update: As we speak the Sharks have more guys ending up on the injured reserved list and Tommy Wingels is the latest victim who went head first into the boards the other night and skated one more shift after that shift after that he was done. It’s an upper body injury. The Sharks are not a team to let people know how important an injury is.

The feel good story of the year is center Bracken Kearns who got called up in his eighth NHL game besides playoffs he got his first goal and he backed it up with his second goal in his second game and his third goal in his third game in a row. This has to be a real good story for Kearns.

The Sharks have been hammered by injuries and with all these players out with all these injuries its going to be tough to get through it, the Olympic break is going to be a big help for the Sharks. So far for the Olympic break Joe Pavelski has been picked for the Olympic games. You have to figure Annti Niemi will be representing Finland and Logan Couture will be representing Canada.

Can you imagine if they got Joe Thornton with Brett Burns out there with one of the other great Canadians players that would be incredible. Burns may not be as popular of the candidates but if not there are so many great players. Somebody is going to be disappointed and Bobby Ryan is disappointed some of his players didn’t make it but you can pick so many.

Larry Leavitt covers pro hockey for Sportstalk Radio

Kings downtown arena: Consensus Macy’s building will stand empty without eminent domain

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by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–With the city of Sacramento holding a check of $4.35 million in escrow which was wired to the city from the Sacramento Kings the Kings owners Sacramento Basketball Holdings, the Kings and the city now wait for the owners of the Macy’s building located at the Westfield Downtown Plaza located at the western end of the mall to make a decision to sell the building.

The money would only come into play if the city council approves eminent domain in the case of the Macy’s building property owners CalPERS and U.S. Bank who did reach terms to sell the building last March but the deal fell apart. While the reasons were not clear why CalPERS and U.S. Bank changed their minds money was rumored to be the top reason and that the Macy’s building owners can hold out for more since the city and the Kings are desperate to purchase the building.

The building is crucial for the Kings as part of that land would be used for the new downtown arena, CalPERS said through a statement released to the media that CalPERS “recongnizes the signifcance of the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts and we are confident that we will reach a solution that is in the best interests of everyone involved our members, the tenant and the city of Sacramento.”

Time is of the essence as the NBA has set an October 2017 deadline to get the arena done and ready or the Kings will have to move out of Sacramento, so for the city of Sacramento and the Kings it’s win big or move elsewhere. That win would have to come in two hurdles the first, the Kings and the city face an anti arena movement to try and place a disclaimer on the ballot in June that all future sports and entertainment facilities that are paid for with city funds be approved by the voters first and the second is the eminent domain issue with the Macy’s building owners.

U.S. Bank did not issue any statements regarding the sale of the building but sources say their holding out for more than the $4.35 million escrow that the Kings have the city holding onto. Kings president Chris Granger said the Kings are behind the city council’s effort to use eminent domain to buy and move the CalPERS and U.S.Bank owners via a buyout.

The tone of the CalPERS statement sounds like they’re ready to play ball and that they want to sit down with the city and see what they have to offer and Granger added that the Kings are prepared to use eminent domain, “fully committed to our partnership in every facet.”: City officials have said that in talking with eminent domain attorneys the city would have a strong case seeing that the building would be used for a sporting arena, used for high school and college sporting events, graduations, concerts, the Sacramento Convention and Visitors Bureau and at the very minimum hold up to nine events each year and the tenants would not have to pay.

Taking these community events into account eminent domain attorneys say most judges would rule in favor of eminent domain and that CalPERS and U.S.Bank under such scrutiny would have to sell and move. The city tried using eminent domain years ago once but landowner Moe Mohanna who had control of several K Street properties settled the case before facing eminent domain from the city.

In California the Los Angeles Dodgers used eminent domain to obtain Dodgers Stadium in 1959-60 and the Lakers used eminent domain to gain property ownership where Staples Center sits in downtown Los Angeles. One eminent domain laywer said it’s a matter of time for the Macy’s owners and that under case law “Courts have found that (a sports stadium) is a public use, it’s certainly not new” said Brent Hawkins, a partner of Best, Best, and Krieger law firm in Sacramento in an interview with the Sacramento Bee.

Ken Gimblin covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

49ers report: Sexual orientation questions won’t distract Rodgers playoff game against 49ers

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by David Zizmor

GREEN BAY–For the Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers the questions prompted to him regarding his sexual orientation this past wek might be a slight distraction in his preparation before the game against the San Francisco 49ers this coming Sunday but if it has any impact on the game it’ll be minimal. Guys like Rogers the former Cal quarterback who are professional football players that are MVP caliber quarterbacks generally are pretty good at tuning out all the fluff.

That’s around them but this is kind of a trumped up story at this stage because were just waiting for the playoffs to start. Rogers isn’t going to play any worse because of what a media outlet says about whether he’s gay or straight. It might be an interesting story if we can confirm it one way or the other but to be honest Rogers is going to say he’s straight and the media moves on.

On the timing of this story part of the problem is that Rogers has been injured the last seven weeks so he hasn’t been on the front pages people were more interested in whether he was going to play more than anything else. So once the injury issue is out of the spotlight you move onto the next story and apparently this one was just sitting in the Q.

It’s all speculation and Rogers is denying it and the media should just leave it at as is that there’s no point in speculating it any further the article says he is gay and Rogers says he isn’t and I’m going to take Rogers at his word at this stage there’s really no way to prove it, it’s not that there’s a video tape or a picture to prove it and even those can be doctored and misconstrued.

So if Rogers says he’s straight than he is unless there’s something out there that says otherwise there’s no other reason to believe that Rogers is lying and frankly even if he was who cares it doesn’t change how he plays quarterback and clearly the Packers don’t care because he’s their leader and the Packers do well because Rogers is leading them to victory. So even if he were gay it clearly doesn’t matter because the Packers have won a Super Bowl under the guy and it seems to have no issues in the locker room so it doesn’t make any difference outside of the locker room.

Is Rogers healthy going into Sunday: If there is any doubt about his ability it’s whether he’s fully recovered from his collar bone injury. As everybody knows in a game against Chicago he was tackled hard. He landed on his shoulder broke his collar bone and he’s been out for about seven weeks and missed most of the eighth game where he broke the collar bone.

The question is is he fully recovered from that now, seven to eight weeks is about the normal time a civilian would take to recover more or less from an injury like that. My brother broke his collar bone when he was in college that’s about how long he was laid up with a collar bone injury. He didn’t require sugery which would have necessitated a much longer recovery time.

So the big conroversy was really was he going to come back early or was he going to come back later and he came back on the later side and that’s probably a good thing and he needed more time to recover. Anytime you have an injury like that especially in a game like football where guys are getting tackled and people are falling on top of each other and one long twist of the body can lead to an injury you probably have to be a little sensative to the fact that he was injured months ago and now he’s back.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Kings downtown arena: STOP withdrawal signatures signals momentum for Kings arena

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by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–The campaign by the anti arena group STOP or Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed To Pork which looked like they were picking up some momentum this past summer as it looked as they would have enough signatures to put a disclaimer on the ballot before any new sports or entertainment facilities could be built, that would ask the voter if they apporove public monies to pay for such new buildings.

The campaign was required to present 22,000 signatures to be turned into the Sacramento registrar of voters, so far 14,012 withdrawal cards of the 15,277 forms that had been turned in by the downtownarena.org/Crown Downtown have not been counted. What hurts STOP’s campaign even worse is that there are a good number of reported unregistered voters who will be dropped out of the petition drive if that can be verified by the county registrar.

As of Monday 9,576 were counted as valid voters well short of the 22,000 needed to make the disclaimer a requirement on June ballot. It was also reported that some of the voters that signed the petition were not in the boundaries of Sacramento when the signatures were checked by the register’s office. Also it was said that some of the 34,000 signatures that were turned of those signatures the names might have been of voters names of who didn’t even sign the petition in the first place.

According to Jill LaVine Sacramento county registrar not only were there people who might not have signed the petition or did not live in Sacramento but they also may not have signatures that match against their registered signature in previous balloting or their registration cards on file with the county, “We will verify the voter was an eligible voter in the city limits, at the address listed, on the dates the petition was circulated, and the signature matches. If there is a withdrawal on file, it will link up and that signature will be noted as ‘withdrawn,’ said LaVine.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson also said that STOP will be resposible for the bill for the time and labor from the office of registrar. At one time STOP looked like they would have enough signatures to get the disclaimer on any future ballots but with all these factors now involved the Mayor and the city are planning one final crushing blow to STOP’s efforts by deferring the costs of the registrar’s office to the non-profit group, “(STOP) are not folks who have Sacramento’s best interests in mind. For me this isn’t what it appears to be, this initiative is like a trojan horse, it’s like a bait and switch.” said Johnson in a recent interview with the Sacramento Bee.

Johnson said that Sacramento was misled into thinking that STOP got these signatures legitimately, “we are ready to fight especially attacked from outside our community, we’re not going to be fooled. We’ve been here before.” Hedge fund manager Chris Hansen who tried to buy and move and build a new arena for the Kings in downtown Seattle. Later the NBA ruled that Sacramento should keep it’s team if they can get a new arena built by the 2016 season. Since Hansen lost his bid for the Kings and later he spent $100,000 of his own money for the petiton drive to get the facility subsidy disclaimer on the coming June ballot in Sacramento.

Hansen who would have had another shot at an NBA team in Seattle lost his credibility after it was found out that he was behind the campaign to undermind the Kings aspirations to build a new arena in downtown Sacramento.

Worse Hansen was fined by the registrar of voters for campaign violations to the tune of $50,000. STOP continued the campaign taking the signatures. STOP’s president Jullian Camacho says the mayor is misleading the public over his fight against the signatures, “he’s grasping at straws, if there are outside interests, they are centered at Region Builders (a pro arena group) not in STOP’s organization. Moreover the mayor’s statement is highly indicative of the misinformation that’s plauged this effort, an effort by local folks to be more involved in the long term direction of the city.” said Camacho. STOP turned in roughly 40,000 signatures on Tuesday at the city clerks office.

Ken Gimblin is covering the NBA for Sportstalk radio

Warriors arena at Piers 30-32: Agnos refuels grassroots campaign, Warriors biggest worry

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by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Although no one at the Golden State Warriors front office would admit owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber underneath their confidence in the campaign to build a Warriors new arena at San Francisco’s waterfront are confident that they will be successful in getting the job done one factor that the Warriors have to worry about worse than facing the Miami Heat or even the recently fearsome Toronto Raptors comes in the package of former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos.

Agnos is campaigning door to door grass roots style ahead of any bond measure that the Warriors maybe planning to put on a future San Francisco ballot for development at the Piers 30-32. The first sign of trouble was last November’s campaign for propositons B and C which was to develop condominums at the waterfront location but were voted down by a good margin by San Francisco voters, the Warriors said inspite of the loss there was nothing to worry about.

The Warriors at the time of the November election said there is a huge difference between building condos and a new arena and that voters would go for the arena because it would spell jobs and bring a civic sports pride to the city and create revenues for the city. Agnos said that the arena like the condos will block the spectacular views that Piers 30-32 area provides and that developement for condos and a new arena would not be a fit at the waterfront.

In spite of the loss of 8 Washington the name of the condo campaign for props B and C Warriors owner Joe Lacob is not worried about the Warriors arena development, “this is San Francisco and this is the Bay Area and things take a long time there are a lot of committes and politics” Lacob told Sports Illustrated. Lacob and Gruber appeared to be confident each time they met with the media regarding the new arena development but without mentioning Agnos they know a new basketball arena won’t be a slam dunk

“I would say we could not be doing any better than we are doing now. We have a great group of people working on it, in our staff, architects, everybody. We’re trying like heck to get there by fall of 17 and I still think we’re going to do it” said Lacob. The project will cost $1 billion or more and the development has been receiving opposition from numerous neighbors in the waterfront community commerical and residential. Commerically retail and corporate business while they welcome Warriors fans business they feel strongly about the Piers development and losing the environment of what the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island view provides.

Mayor Agnos said that when he was mayor he had over 22,000 signatures that voted to tear down the Embarcadero freeway after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 and said city voters wanted views to the Bridge and T-Island and while some argued that losing the freeway would create inconvience and gridlock it worked out when the Embarcadero road was built running from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Cal Train station in downtown with Muni running the F lines from downtown to Fisherman’s Wharf.

Now Agnos takes the arguement that while the Warriors would be good for San Francisco a new arena at the piers would not be aesthetically beneifical for the waterfront much in the same way as the freeway was. He argues we took down the freeway for the benefit of the view now do we want to build an arena to block that same view we argued about, “I never dreamed that, 23 years later, after fighting to tear down ugly freeway blight, I would be fighting to protect this priceless restored waterfront from a modern-day real estate gold rush. But Iam.” said Agnos.

Although the Warriors appear not to be worried and have the full backing of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the corporate community in San Francisco, developers, former San Francisco Mayors Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and current Mayor Ed Lee, and a good number of the San Francisco board of supervisors they worry about a former mayor who ran a grass roots campaign in 1989 to tear down a long time freeway and now takes a clipboard house to house and business to business much in the way he campaigned in 89 he plans to stop an arena development of the Warriors dream arena to save the views of the San Francisco waterfront at Piers 30-32.

Warriors arena notes: Sources say that the Warriors best attempt at getting a downtown arena would be at AT&T Park and that the Giants are not in favor of development at that part of the waterfront and would welcome the Warriors to build a new arena at AT&T Park. This was talked before by the Giants but the Warriors want their own building and are not interested in paying rent to a new landlord. Agnos suggested that the Warriors could always build a new arena out where Candlestick Park is located after the city tears down the old stadium, the Warriors didn’t even bother to comment on such an idea.

Ken Gimblin covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

Soccer on television doesn’t do well

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

Back in 1994 during the World Cup USA ’94, I covered that event for Telemundo Bay Area. I had the privilege of interviewing the incomparable Edison Arantes do Nascimento (Pelé); considered the Babe Ruth of Fútbol in the world. Pelé was traveling as a an ambassador of soccer, with the Brazilian team, who won the cup that year. Among my many questions, I asked Pelé was the future of fútbol here in the United States? He told me: “In about twenty years, it will be one of the top sports in this country”.

It is true, a lot of kids are playing soccer nowadays in the United States, but that has not translated to world class talent in the world professional stage for the United States. No sport can succeed today in this country without a big television contract. I have talked about the MLS from the very beginning, the only thing it has that is “major”is the name, but the talent is not. They have tried, bringing great starts, like David Beckham and such.

Since my interview with Pelé in 1994, kids have played and are playing soccer in the US, but how many American born soccer stars do we have? We are knocking on the door of 2014, It has been twenty years since my interview with Pelé. Is Soccer/Fútbol, any competition in television ratings or revenues to the other professional leagues here in the US? No, not even close. The World Cup is it, but that happens every four years, and yes it is the second sporting event in the world, only second to the Summer Olympics.

Many, many words have been spent on other websites, forums and social media theorizing why MLS ratings were poor in the past. FOX Soccer was blamed for its poor production value. FOX upped their game but the ratings didn’t prosper. Many MLS fans argued that NBC would be the answer with its better production values and ability to show games on national television. However, despite better ratings than FOX Soccer (it couldn’t have gotten much worse), those vocal critics of the poor job that FOX did and how NBC would change everything are now silent.
The bottom line is that Major League Soccer is sub par to the other leagues that are available on television.

Even with a more consistent schedule, a night dedicated to a game of the week, and other changes, the fact is that it’s not going to make that much of a difference.
Based on TV ratings, the growth of soccer in the United States has been largely fueled by the US Men’s National Team, the US Women’s National Team, the Mexican national team and English Premier League. Major League Soccer is not on the map compared to the other pro-sports league in the US.

For Telemundo and Univisión it is a big deal, but although this country is becoming more bilingual by the minute, still MLS (Major League Soccer) is not even close to the NFL, MLB. NBA or NHL.

I still believe that for soccer to be a success and a rival to the other leagues here in the United States, this country has to produce American superstars in the world scene, even though it is not a sport in which Americans have been raised with, not a part of this culture, the public in this country wants to see stars. Does US soccer have a LeBron James? Soccer is not indigenous to the country, marketing and the American public do better when they have-home grown stars they can promote, otherwise it will continue to be an imported product. Now, I remember when I first arrived in California, back in 1969, California wines were good, but could not rival those of Europe, today California grows some of the best wines in the world, but that has taken over 40 years. Maybe soccer in the USA can catch up with Europe in ten or 40 years from now.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is in the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio