Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

After seeing his team fall to 0-4 on the young season, Oakland Raiders General Manager Reggie McKenzie decided it was time for a change.

McKenzie fired Dennis Allen, who was in his third year as the head coach of the Raiders; however after a 38-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium, it was decided that there was going to be a change.

Allen was out as head coach, and was replaced on an interim basis by Assistant Head Coach Tony Sparano.

With the bye week come and gone, the Raiders will return to the practice field in preparation for their home game against the San Diego Chargers.

Following the Chargers, the Arizona Cardinals and former teammate Carson Palmer makes his first appearance at the Coliseum since leaving the team after the 2012 season.

After back-to-back road games against the Cleveland Browns and the defending World Champion Seattle Seahawks, the Raiders return to the Coliseum to face longtime rival Denver Broncos.

By Jeremy Kahn

With the National League Championship Series within reach, the San Francisco Giants will send their ace to the mound.

Madison Bumgarner, who at just the age of 24 is looking for what could be his third World Series ring in his career.

Bumgarner, who joined the Giants during the 2009 season helped lead the Giants to their first World Series championship since 1954 when he won the pivotal Game Four of the 2010 World Series against the Texas Rangers at the Ballpark of Arlington.

After the Giants returned to the World Series in 2012, where they faced the Detroit Tigers, Bumgarner went seven innings, allowing just two hits and the Giants won Game Two by the final of 2-0.

Bumgarner’s opponent that night was current Washington Nationals pitcher Doug Fister, who as fate would have it stands in the Giants way of advancing to the NLCS for the third time in the last five years.

If the Giants do advance to the NLCS, it could be a rematch of the 2012 NLCS, as they could face the St. Louis Cardinals or they could face their longtime rivals in the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team they have never faced in the postseason.

By George Devine, Sr.

After beating Washington State, 60-59 in a wild road game, the Golden Bears return home to host Washington at 3 p.m. PDT on Saturday, October 11. Both teams are 4-1. Cal is beginning to receive votes in national polls for the first time since the penultimate year of the Jeff Tedford era in 2011.

The key to Cal’s offense, of course, is QB Jared Goff, who has been helped by the offensive line to have time to find and reach his receivers. The Washington defense would like to have something to say about that. The secondary will be of particular importance given the length of Goff’s passes. His longest against the Cougs was 55 yards and his total on the day was 527.

In their only loss, last weekend to Stanford (20-13), the Huskies showed unusually strong defense. Key players for UDub are OLB Shaq Thompson, who returned a Cardinal fumble for a TD, and CB Marcus Peters, in addition to DE Hau’oli Kikaha.

Cal’s remaining games will be:

Saturday, 10.18 vs. UCLA, time TBD

Thursday, 10.24 vs. Oregon, 7 p.m., at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara

Saturday, 11.1 @ Oregon State, TBD

Thursday, 11.13 @ USC, TBD

Saturday, 11.22, BIG GAME vs. Stanford, TBD

Saturday 11.29 vs. BYU, TBD

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, October 4, 2014

Everett Golson’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Ben Koyack with 1 minute and 9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, gave Notre Dame a stunning 17-14 come-from-behind football victory over Stanford on a rainy Saturday afternoon at South Bend, Indiana.

Two minutes earlier, the Cardinal (No. 14, 3-1 overall) had regained the lead on an 11-yard touchdown run up the middle by Raymound Wright that put Stanford up 14-10.

The two teams were scoreless for a nearly 20-minute stretch until Fighting Irish kicker Kyle Brindza booted a 45-yard field goal at 8:45 of the fourth quarter, giving Notre Dame (No. 9, 4-0) a 10-7 lead.

After a pass interference penalty set up the Fighting Irish’s go-ahead touchdown, Stanford moved to ball to mid-field, but Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan was flagged for intentional grounding as time expired. Since it was an offensive penalty, the game ended.

Stanford took the first lead of the game when Hogan ran 10 yards for a Cardinal touchdown with 4:18 left in the first quarter. The Cardinal held that lead until a Golson touchdown pass of 17 yards to Chris Brown at 3:20 of the third quarter tied the game at 7-7.

Golson completed 20 of 43 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Hogan finished the day 18 of 36 for 158 yards and was picked off twice.

Cam McDaniel was Notre Dame’s top rusher, gaining 42 yards on 15 carries. Wright led the Cardinal with 28 rushing yards on eight attempts.

Notre Dame had the edge in total yards, 370 to 204.

Next Saturday, Stanford returns home to Pac-12 play, hosting Washington State. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

By Jeremy Kahn

When Brandon Belt came to the plate in the top of the 18th inning, he just wanted to reach base in any way.

Belt did better than that, as he hit a solo home run leading off the top of the 18th inning and the San Francisco Giants came from behind to take a 2-0 lead in the National League Division Series with a 2-1 victory over the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park.

With the victory, the Giants move within one victory from advancing to their third National League Championship in the past five years.

Belt took a Tanner Roark pitch and put into the first deck of the right field seats to stun the Nationals fans, but sent the Giants dugout and allegiances of fans into hysteria.

The six hour and 23 minute game broke the record for longest game in postseason history, and tied the record for most innings.

This was the Giants 10th consecutive victory of the postseason, extending their National League record and are now three wins behind the New York Yankees for most consecutive postseason victories with 13.

Yusmeiro Petit, who came on in the bottom of the 12th inning for the Giants was lights out, as he went six strong innings, allowing just one hit, walking three and struck out seven and took the win.

The Giants were down to their final out against Jordan Zimmerman, who was lights out for the Nationals, as he retired 20 in a row before allowing a walk to Joe Panik in the top of the ninth inning.

That walk allowed by Zimmerman brought out Nationals manager Matt Williams, who brought on his closer Drew Storen to face Buster Posey for the potential final out of the game.

Posey did not oblige, as on the first pitch he saw from Storen, he hit into left field, advancing Panik to second base to bring up the hot hitting Pablo Sandoval, whose 12-game postseason hitting streak was on the line.

Sandoval took a Storen offering and put it down the left field line, and into the corner to easily score Panik from second base. Posey came around third base, and Bryce Harper threw a great relay to Ian Desmond, who in turn threw to Wilson Ramos, who tagged Posey out at the plate.

Bruce Bochy challenged the call, and after a two and a half minute review, the play stood and the inning was over.

In the bottom of the 10th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera was called out looking at strike three and after throwing his helmet and bat to the ground, he was ejected by home plate umpire Vic Carapazza. Williams came out to defend Cabrera; however he was then kicked out of the game by Carapazza.

Tim Hudson went seven and two-thirds for the Giants, as he allowed one run on seven hits, walking no one and striking out eight.

Zimmerman went eight and two-thirds for the Nationals, allowing one run on just three hits, walking one and striking out six.

Anthony Rendon drove in the Nationals only run of the game in the bottom of the third inning on a ball that scooted just under the glove of a diving Brandon Crawford.

By: Phillip Torres

SANTA CLARA- The San Francisco 49ers (2-2) will host Alex Smith and the Kansas City Chiefs (2-2) on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium. Both teams are coming off of big wins against big name teams in week four of the NFL season.

The 49ers handed the Philadelphia Eagles their first of the season with a come from behind, 26-21 victory for the first regular season win at Levi’s Stadium. The defense played spectacular against a high powered Eagles offense. 2013 rushing king Lesean McCoy was held in check as the running game was close to nothing for Philly.

The Chiefs are coming off a major upset victory over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Kansas City blew out the Pats 41-14 in a game where Tom Brady was eventually benched.

The biggest storyline for the game on Sunday afternoon is the return of for 49ers number one overall pick Alex Smith. Although Smith took six years to finally turn things around, the quarterback out of the University of Utah helped turn the 49ers into the powerhouse team that they are today.

Smith lead San Francisco to the NFC Championship game in 2011 and was off to a fantastic start in 2012 before suffering a concussion that opened the door for Colin Kaepernick to take over as the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

A lot of critics say that Alex Smith was unfairly taken from his job, but Kaepernick’s play spoke for its self. The dual threat quarterback from the University of Nevada took the 49ers to within one completes pass of winning the franchise’s sixth Lombardi trophy.

Coach Jim Harbaugh continuously stated, “We’re going with the quarterback with the hot hand right now.”

Kaepernick stayed hot all season after his dominance of the Chicago Bears on Monday football in his first career start in 2012. He has started evrr game for the Red and Gold ever since.

Expect to see a lot of questions about Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick, and vice versa on Sunday night after the ball game. The two quarterbacks will forever be compared to one another.

By Jeremy Harness

Madison Bumgarner made sure that at least one Bay Area baseball team held on to a big lead in a playoff game.

A night after the A’s suffered a massive collapse in the American League wild-card game, the Giants stomped all over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League’s play-in, 8-0, at PNC Park.

Bumgarner had all his stuff working all night long, and that left the Pirates without any answers and spending all nine innings chasing his pitches to no avail. In all, the big lefty surrendered only four hits and one walk while amassing 10 strikeouts in a thoroughly-dominant complete-game gem.

The Giants will now head to Washington to face the National League East champion Nationals in the five-game Division Series, which starts Friday.

“Nothing special, just trying to make pitches,” Bumgarner said. “Last time against those guys, I didn’t do a good job of that. I was behind in the count a lot, putting those guys in a lot of good situations to hit in. (Wednesday) night, we were able to get ahead and make pitches.”

In the top of the fourth, the Giants loaded the bases with nobody out against Pittsburgh starter Edinson Volquez, before the right-hander hung a breaking ball in front of the plate to shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Crawford didn’t miss it, and he sent the mistake into the first few rows of the right-field bleachers to become the first shortstop in MLB history to hit a grand slam in the postseason and give the Giants an instant 4-0 lead, and all the runs that Bumgarner needed.

At the same time, the blow sucked the life right out of the once-lively crowd at PNC Park, and it was never the same again.

The only other real noise the crowd generated was in the eighth inning, as the Pirates got a small ally going against Bumgarner, which he quickly extinguished to bring the audience back down.

“With all the great shortstops that have played before, that’s pretty special,” Crawford said. “I’m happy to be able to do it.

“The last thing on my mind was probably hitting the home run,” he continued. “I was just trying to hit something good enough to get Pablo (Sandoval) home (from third base). I figured that would be good enough for Madison.

It certainly was, and Bumgarner took it from there.

Meanwhile, Volquez lasted only five-plus innings while giving up five runs on five hits, and it only got worse for the Pirates from that point on.

After scoring another run off Volquez in the sixth, the Giants taxed Pittsburgh’s bullpen for two more runs in the seventh and one more in the eighth. By that time, most who had occupied the luxury seats behind the plate were long gone, never to return.

By Jeremy Kahn

Well after just into the 2014 NFL season, the Oakland Raiders decided to changes things up with their coaching staff.

Dennis Allen, who was in just his third season as the head coach of the Raiders was informed via telephone that his services were no longer needed by the team and he was fired.

Going back to last season, the Raiders have lost 10 games in a row and off to their worst start since 2006, where they finished 2-14 and were guaranteed the first pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, which turned out to be JaMarcus Russell.

In Allen’s 36 games as the head coach of the Raiders, he finishes with a record of 8-28 and in nine of those losses, the Raiders lost by 20 points or more, including a 24-point loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London.

Since the trade of Jon Gruden after the 2001 season to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will enter their game on October 12 against the San Diego Chargers with their eighth different head coach on the sidelines.

Following Gruden, it was Bill Callahan for two seasons, then Norv Turner for two seasons, former Raiders offensive lineman and former coach Art Shell wore the headset for one tumultuous season that saw the Raiders go 2-14, Lane Kiffin for a season and then was fired with cause after the fourth game of the season, then Tom Cable took over until being let go at the end of the 2010 season, Hue Jackson was on the sidelines for one season and then Allen.

By Jeremy Kahn

Entering the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons, the San Francisco Giants are facing an opponent that they last faced in 1971.

Coming off their first division championship since division play began just two years earlier, the Giants faced the Pittsburgh Pirates, who were in the midst of three straight National Eastern Division Championships from 1970-1972 under Danny Murtaugh.

Led by Roberto Clemente, former Encinal (Alameda) High School star Willie Stargell, the Pirates advanced to their first World Series since 1960 after defeating the Giants three games to one.

Over the past 43 seasons, there are many links between these two teams; however just one comes to the mind of both Pirates and Giants fans.

After helping lead the Pirates to three straight division championships under Jim Leyland, the most highly anticipated free agent of the 1992 class left Pittsburgh and returned to the place that his father and godfather played and that free agent’s name was Barry Bonds.

While in Pittsburgh, the talented leftfielder won two National League Most Valuable Player Awards, and along with Bobby Bonilla, Jose Lind, Andy Van Slyke and the pitching arm of Doug Drabek, the Pirates advanced to the National League Championship Series from 1990-1992.

Unfortunately, the Pirates season would end with heartbreak in each of those years, as the Cincinnati Reds defeated them in six games in the 1990 NLCS and to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1976.

In that World Series, they would sweep the heavily favored Oakland A’s in four straight games for their first World Series Championship since the days of the Big Red Machine of 1976.

The following season, the Pirates would face the upstart Atlanta Braves, who finished last in the National League Western Division in 1990 and became the first National League team to ever go from worst to first in one season.

That Braves team led by David Justice, Chipper Jones, David Justice and the arms of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, the Braves defeated the Pirates in a thrilling seven game series.

In would be in the next NLCS that would be a classic of all ages, as the Braves came back from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the Pirates 3-2, when former Pirates first baseman Sid Bream slid under the tag of Mike LaValliere to beat the throw from Bonds and send the Braves for the second straight year.

Following that series, Bonds left Pittsburgh for the Giants and the Pirates failed to make the postseason until 2013, a span of 21 seasons.

On the other hand, the Giants with Bonds in the lineup, made the playoffs three times, including a trip to the 2002 World Series, where they lost to the Anaheim Angels in seven games.

Between 2003 and 2013, the Giants returned to the postseason on two different occasions, where they won the World Series both 2010 and 2012, their first World Championships since moving to San Francisco in 1958.