Rickey could steal bases and our hearts

And so once more in this terrible year, we lose another Bay Area baseball legend. This time it was the greatest base stealer of all time and perhaps the greatest Oakland Athletics player of all time. Rickey Henderson died Friday, five days short of his 66th birthday, which would have been on Christmas. Willie Mays died in June, followed by another of the San Francisco Giants Hall of Famers, Orlando Cepeda. Now Rickey, of pneumonia. 

Presumably, Henderson was in a hospital bed. Had he been on the basepaths, the Grim Reaper wouldn’t have caught him. After all, few throws from catchers ever did.

When his 25-year major league career came to a close in 2003, Henderson had 1,406 steals, 130 of which set the single-season record in 1982. Then in 1991, when he broke Lou Brock’s all-time stolen base record, Rickey famously celebrated by grabbing the base and holding it aloft. A fan of Mohammed Ali, Henderson was not exactly a paragon of humility. “I’m the greatest,” he boasted. And he was.

Henderson also is the all-time runs-scored leader with 2,295. And what’s more important in baseball for the team at bat than scoring runs? 

Henderson grew up in Oakland, attending Oakland Tech High and playing both football and baseball. He hoped one day to be on his hometown team, the Oakland A’s, and was wildly successful. The team would name the playing surface at their now departed home, the Oakland Coliseum, Rickey Henderson Field. Sadly, that’s all gone, the franchise having been shifted to Sacramento. 

Henderson and former teammate, Dave Stewart, another A’s star, came to the team’s final game at Oakland in October, remembering the good days, as now we will Henderson.

When he was enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009, his first year of eligibility, Henderson, who also played for the Yankees and several other teams, said, “That was something I always wanted to be, and now that the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has voted me into the Baseball Hall of Fame, my journey as a player is complete. I am now in the class of the greatest players of all time and at this moment, I am very, very humbled.” 

Even though his words don’t make him seem that way, Rickey was a comfortable presence in the clubhouse, a not-unwilling interview. He understood the need for an athlete to be cooperative as well as talented.

Stolen bases became less important in baseball during the middle of the 20th century. Ty Cobb’s record of 96 steals was set in 1915 and was not broken until Maury Wills raised the mark to 104 in 1962. Brock stole 118 in 1974.

And then along came Henderson, dynamic and exciting, winning games and in 1990 winning American League Most Valuable Player Award. 

He didn’t exactly change the game, but he certainly made it more thrilling. He gave opponents a run for their money. He’s gone, and so is the field named for him, but the great memories will always remain.

Thanks, Rickey.

Mets, Dodgers show that money is a key to the Postseason

So here in the wasteland of baseball—but ain’t the weather beautiful?—we try to accept the fact the Dodgers are where the Giants are not, in the postseason. And we wonder whether the new guy, Buster Posey, is as surprised by what has happened.

Or what hasn’t.

Now, as the newly appointed director of baseball operations, his task is clear: to do what his predecessor, Farhan Zaidi, could not—build a Giants team that can overtake the dreaded Dodgers.

Posey of course was an MVP catcher and a major contributor when (sigh!) the franchise from San Francisco finished ahead of the one from Los Angeles and every other team in the majors. One thing Giants fans must hope is that when Posey goes out to get players, he will be accompanied by a large amount of money.

Poverty doesn’t work anymore in baseball. The New York Mets have the largest payroll in the sport, and that’s the reason they are facing the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. Dodgers and Yankees are also among the top spenders. It’s been proven that, with rare exceptions in baseball, you get what you pay for.

The San Diego Padres thought they would be getting the place where the Dodgers are now, and they had a 2-1 lead over L.A. in the division series, but San Diego choked it away or got stopped by Dodger pitching that reminded people of the Sandy Koufax-Don Drysdale era of the early 1960s.

What might strike Giants fans as humorous is the way the Padres and their supporters have stolen a page from the book of Giants-Dodgers history. Before the playoffs, San Diego was flooded with posters and T-shirts with the words “Beat LA.”

Giants fans have chanted that for decades, to no avail, rather than a positive slogan like “Let’s go Giants.”

Early on, when the Dodgers recorded 33 consecutive scoreless innings, starting with the Padres and running on into the Mets, LA seemed unbeatable. It is hard to win when you don’t score, but one of the great cliches in baseball is momentum only lasts until the end of the game. The guy who hit a home run one day is quite likely to strike out three days the next. 

Even superstars can begin to struggle. The great Shohei Ohtani, who is a lock for National League most valuable player after hitting 50 home runs and stealing 50 bases, has only two hits in the two games against New York. Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernandez tried to interview Ohtani after his hitless second game against the Mets Monday, but Ohtani wouldn’t talk. He had three hitless at-bats and now is 0 for 19 in the playoffs with the bases empty, but he is six for eight with runners on base. He is batting .222 in the postseason.

However, he and the Dodgers are in the Postseason. Unlike the team from San Francisco. Maybe next year… Buster Posey may have an effect.

Giants replace Zaidi (a baseball man) with Posey (a baseball player)

So the San Francisco Giants have decided to replace executive Farhan Zaidi, a baseball man, with Buster Posey, a baseball player.

And the question after consecutive losing seasons is not so much why but why not?

That Zaidi schooled in the beauty and agony of analytics couldn’t turn the Giants into winners in his five seasons as their director of baseball operations, probably wasn’t entirely his fault. Still, you can’t finish under .500 three years in a row and get pounded by the dreaded, despised Los Angeles Dodgers, without some consequences.

Posey, an MVP and star catcher of the Giants’ World Series Teams of 2010, 2012, 2014, was one of the most popular players of the recent era. Whether that popularity translates into success in the front office remains to be seen. After retirement, Posey, who has a young family and resides in Georgia where he grew up, has worked for the Giants in an advisory role. The plan was for him always to move up into a power position, but who knew it would be this quickly.

Everyone understands how dominant the Dodgers have been—although they only have one World Series title in the last few years—and that has made it unsettling for the Giants’ situation.  The San Diego Padres came along with the intent of catching L.A., and in the process have made life more difficult for San Francisco.

The Dodgers and Padres have slugged it out and as expected both are in the postseason.  However, the Giants failed to get to the playoffs and maybe even worse, were unable to win as many games as they lost. The Giants, indeed attempted to sign big-name free agents, including this year the remarkable Shohei Ohtani, but were unable to make a blockbuster deal that in retrospect would have given Zaidi job security as well as a place in baseball lore. Zaidi repeatedly said the Giants budget was large enough to sign Carlos Correa in 2023 or Ohtani in 2024 but those deals never came to fruition.

One of the frequent rumors in baseball is that top players don’t want to come to San Francisco for one reason or another, having nothing to do with baseball in particular, but the city’s reputation as a haven for the disenfranchised. And yet when Oracle Park is packed and fans are cheering, that seems to be less of an issue, as most likely it gets down to the team winning or losing. They stopped winning with Zaidi in charge. Will they be able to restart when Posey takes over?

We will know sooner than later.

The A’s saga is over, however the sadness will always remain

And so, Major League Baseball in Oakland has come to an end. The final moment was recorded at 3:06 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday. The deceased was surrounded by a gathering of 46,889 at his former residence, the Coliseum. Death was attributed to a combination of financial stubbornness and political incompetence, a pattern too familiar when it comes to sports teams in Oakland.

Mourners are required to travel to Sacramento for viewing. There may be some satisfaction that the Athletics won the last game at what now is their former home, defeating the Texas Rangers, 3-2.

We have gone through the painful reasons for the disappointment. Does it make any of us feel better to despise the apparent chief villain in all of this, who forced the move, John Fisher?  Perhaps that caustic farewell speech he sent to A’s season ticket holders, very unsympathetic about the team’s move, probably is enough to not offer forgiveness.

You have read about the exploits of the players and managers who were so much a part of the A’s since they arrived from Kansas City in 1968. People such as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rolly Fingers, and Ricky Henderson.

Not to be forgotten, however, are those who never wore a uniform and to me are so much a part of this franchise. Steve Vucinich was the Oakland kid who became a batboy and then for decades, until retirement, was the clubhouse and equipment manager.

As the story goes, Vuchinich was trying to hook up with the A’s. Joe DiMaggio was a coach and vice president of the team. And when told that Vuchinich went to St. Joseph’s High in Alameda, “He’s Catholic?” said DiMaggio. “Hire him.”  

It turned out to be a great hire. 

Wednesday night he was interviewed on the A’s radio network about his historical 50-year career. Bay Area newspapers were known for saving money. They covered road games only because the team picked up the travel bill. But when the A’s arrived in Oakland, owner Charlie Finley wouldn’t go along with that idea. That meant only one person, the late Ron Bergman, of the then Oakland Tribune went on the road with the A’s. He was an intense, talented guy, not afraid to report the facts, and those facts included the fights inside the A’s clubhouse. He was the epitome of an honest journalist and admired by the rest of us who weren’t on the scene and jealous of Bergman’s items.

The A’s are fleeing, the Coliseum never again will be used for baseball, and we just have to accept the consequences. Life and baseball are both unfair. The line drives are caught and the bloopers drop in for hits. We learn to accept it. 

Still, to me, having no Major League Baseball in Oakland is unacceptable.

Giants-A’s—An End to “Baysball”

“Baysball,” lt was nicknamed—a sporting rivalry that was without bitterness but not without spirit. The Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants crossing bridges to play a meaningful game.

Chicago Cubs fans never would support the White Sox. As you know, the head of the Red Sox calls the NY Yankees the Evil Empire.

It hasn’t been that way in Northern California.

During the 1989 World Series, known as the Earthquake World Series, between Oakland and San Francisco, The New York Times ran a story on how different it was here.

The headline was something like “A region in love with itself.”  And you did see those caps with A’s on one side and Giants on the other? It would never happen in any other area.

Which, of course, is quite accurate.

So is the fact Sunday’s game at the Coliseum was the last between the A’s and the Giants before Oakland shifts to Sacramento. “Interstate 80 match-up” doesn’t have the same poetry as Baysball. 

Putting it into perspective, the Giants ending up with a 4-2 victory in 10 innings doesn’t seem to mean as much as the sad news that the series—as we knew it—was done.

We’re left with memories that mean so much to baseball. It’s difficult to think of the A’s without relating to the Giants, who by 10 years preceded the A’s by moving to the area. The Athletics came with heavy baggage.

They were owned by troublesome Charles O Finley—who could build a winning ballclub along with dozens of enemies.

The day in 1968 those Kansas City Athletics—who in an earlier time had already been in Philadelphia—announced they were coming to Oakland. Sen. Stuart Symington said, “Oakland is the luckiest town since Hiroshima.”  If you don’t know your history go to Google.

Finley got on people’s nerves, underpaid his players, and won. Meanwhile the Giants, who successfully attempted to keep Oakland from the West Bay claiming territorial rights to everywhere from San Jose to Marin, were not winning. 

Oakland, with players such as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Joe Rudy took back-to-back-to-back World Series Titles in 1972, 1973, and 1974.  

Indeed, the Athletics were in the Coliseum, which they were forced to share with the Raiders, while the Giants had a stadium under construction. That didn’t stop the A’s from lording it over San Francisco, putting signs on AC Transit buses that, to paraphrase, said “While they were building a ballpark we were winning championships.”

It was all in good fun, and isn’t that the idea of sports?  We will be missing that, and we’ll be missing A’s vs Giants. We will all be poorer for the way “Baysball” has been taken from us.

Olympics will offer a perfect contrast to the Giants

The start of the Olympic Games would seem to arrive at a perfect time for the San Francisco Giants to slip out of the news before they slip out of the wild card race. If being below the .500 mark, they actually are in it.

There was excitement when the Giants entered the All-Star break after a mini-burst. But then the games began, and San Francisco dropped two of three to the Rockies (unacceptable) and three out of four to the Dodgers (understandable). 

There are truisms in what could be called California’s sporting rivalries. The 49ers always find a way to defeat the Rams. The Giants always find a way to lose to the Dodgers. 

Yes, that’s a figure of speech. The Giants literally don’t always lose to the dreaded Dodgers, but this season they dropped 8 of 11. Including the one Thursday, 6-4, when after San Francisco rallied to tie, LA won on back-to-back home runs in the eighth, with one of those homers coming off the bat of Shohei Ohtani.

Look, I know the Giants have won three World Series in the last several decades compared to one by the Dodgers. But there is no question that baseball in the West belongs to the Dodgers. The Angels and Padres are no less the pretenders than the Giants.

Turn on Kruk and Kuip and virtually before you get the TV volume adjusted, the Giants trail the Dodgers, 1-0.  You wonder, 'Hmm, is this live or a recording?' Inevitably, it’s live—the same story repeated.  

The Giants now may have a healthy and effective pitching rotation. Robbie Ray in his first game for the team—and for any team—after a long recovery from Tommy John surgery was possibly better than anyone might have wished. That offered optimism. But for the most part, the hitting has been inconsistent. The 8 runs the Giants scored Wednesday were equal to what they had in the other three games against the Dodgers combined. They were thunderous before Ohtani. Boom. Sigh.   

The Giants need to trade for a power hitter, right?  As do numerous teams as the trade deadline approaches. Do not be surprised if the Dodgers get the player in whom the Giants are interested. But do be surprised if the Giants front office makes a blockbuster deal. That’s rarely been the Giants' way.     

Bob Melvin, in his first season as Giants manager, sounded properly frustrated by the series-ending defeat Thursday. The Giants struck out a total of 16 times. That’s atrocious, even when Clayton Kershaw was making a comeback start for the Dodgers.

“It was a pretty deflating game,” conceded Melvin.

Maybe he ought to try taking a break by watching the Olympics.

It’s messy for the A’s as usual, but they still beat the Phillies

The mess for the Oakland Athletics seems to be getting messier. Not on the field where it should matter, but in the off-balanced world of stadium envy and franchise shifting

Baseball has reached that mythical half-season period known as the All-Star break. But what’s been broken, other than the usual number of bats, is the promise the sport belongs to the fans. Particularly those in Oakland, who are losing their team, slowly but unfortunately, surely.  

Try repeating the idea that the team belongs to the people who attend the games and that the owner is “merely a caretaker”. What A’s owner, John Fisher, is taking is the team out of Oakland.

The plan is the A’s eventually will be moved some 80 miles or so to Sacramento as a way stop before then heading another 500 plus miles to the Nevada desert. The A’s then are going to Las Vegas, where it’s been 110 degrees or hotter for 10 consecutive days. The wish most likely is in time the weather will cool down if the unfortunate scheme to take the A's out of Northern California will not.

Then again Las Vegas will have a domed ballpark, if and when it is constructed. The team, while filled with individuals whose primary benefit has been affordability, very well can hit, run and just when you least expect it, win. Sunday the A’s overwhelmed arguably the best team in the majors, the Philadelphia Phillies, 18-3 (that’s the Phillies not the Eagles to be clear) and took two of three games. A few days earlier the Phillies swept the Dodgers in three games.

True this isn’t football or basketball. In baseball, the bottom dwellers often do well against the top teams. Still, what the A’s did, Lawrence Butler hitting three home runs in what legitimately could be called a rout, is worthy of recognition. So are the impending troubles the A’s could face in moving to Sacramento, where the natural grass could be replaced by artificial turf at Sutter Health Park, where they will be sharing the complex with the minor league River Cats, the Giants triple-A farm team. It would be the only artificially turfed stadium without a roof in the Majors, meaning summer temperatures would be uncomfortable because of the heat reflected off the playing surface. 

“Decisions needed to be made sooner rather than later because there’s a lot of work to be done to assure the well-being of the players who are going to have to make adjustments to accommodate the decisions the league is making,” Tony Clark, director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle,

If that sounds confusing, what else would you expect when the A’s are involved? It has never been easy from the time the late Charlie Finley brought them to Oakland from Kansas City.

But the old A’s won 3 consecutive World Series titles in Oakland.  Amazing how cursed this franchise seems to be off the diamond.

Special memories of a special ballplayer, the great Mays

The only man who could have caught it, hit it. Such a perfect summation of Willie Mays’ baseball skills.

Bob Stevens wrote it for the San Francisco Chronicle after a Mays blast climbed over an opposing outfielder for an extra-base hit – was it at Milwaukee if memory serves?  

It was one of the first lines I thought about when I heard Tuesday afternoon Mays had died at 93.

The bell tolls for thee. Only two days ago there was a story about Mays, aging and fragile, not being able to attend the ceremonies at Rickwood Park in Alabama where he played as a youth when the sport was segregated.

Now a scheduled game at Rickwood on Thursday between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals will serve as a memorial event.

The 660 home runs, the 339 stolen bases, the numbers that make baseball the game that it is will be properly documented elsewhere. Here the choice is to dwell on the recollections of a kid who on his way to becoming a sports columnist had the great luck of getting to know Mays from afar and close up.

Back, back, back. Special memories. 

They started when I was in High School and was able to catch the catch on TV of the ’54 World Series. Yes, you have seen it dozens of times in the intervening years, but I saw it live when it happened. After that, it was hard not to be a Mays fan. I saw him in person for the first time in 1961 when I was based in Fort Ord and drove the 100-plus miles to Candlestick Park. It was an evening when the pleasant temperature belied all the horror stories about the weather. Willie was roaming the outfield. I thought of that musical tribute by Terry Cashman, 'Willie, Mickey and the Duke.' The other two mentioned in the song were also Hall of Famers—Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider.

Willie was not an easy interview for a new guy.  I read how he favored the New York writers, and then he was comfortable with Stevens and Charles Einstein. I felt like an outsider. But in time my assignments as a golf writer for The Chronicle and then the Examiner proved advantageous.   

Willie loved the game until he grew old and then was unable to follow the flight of the ball because of eye trouble. He played when the opportunities were available.

During Spring Training, with the help of long-time Giants’ equipment manager, Mike Murphy, I would sit with Mays and he would pump me about certain golfers, primarily Tiger Woods, who had all the talent that Mays had in baseball. One superior athlete finding a reason to admire another.

When Don and Charlie’s was the gathering spot in Scottsdale, I, like every other journalist, would visit the place frequently. Mays and co-author James Hirsch produced a biography—Willie had been reluctant to do one—that came out in 2010. An agent brought Willie and a load of books to Don and Charlie’s, and Willie was autographing copies for his delighted fans. Willie, in a wonderful mood, asked my grandson, Ben, if he wanted him to sign a book. But Ben, 2 ½ at the time, shyly demurred. No problem—Willie signed it anyway. 

A great souvenir from the great Mays.

In baseball’s board game, Oakland A’s become the Sacramento A’s

So the Philadelphia-Kansas City-Oakland-Las Vegas Athletics are moving to Sacramento, another wicked maneuver for baseball, which was called America’s Pastime but is little more than a board game for bored rich Americans.

Wasn’t it Bud Selig during his occupancy of the commissioner’s office who told us the sport belongs to the fans while the club owners are merely caretakers? Yeah, we all make mistakes, even millionaires. Especially so many of them, excluding the revered Haas family — who left their fingerprints and sad legacies on the game.

It was one of the French generals in World War I who was trying to explain what went wrong, they said “Ah, they handed me a disaster.”

Which is what baseball on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay was destined to become. It all started with Charles Oscar Finley, a country bumpkin with money who was able to haul the financially staggering Philadelphia Athletics to K.C.

When Finley, a penurious sort, couldn’t get what he wanted in KC — a new ballpark — it was off to Californ-i-a. Missouri senator Stuart Symington called Oakland The luckiest city since Hiroshima. Pretty good foresight.

The A’s became Oakland’s response to the San Francisco Giants, “our team.” The little city was in the Big League. That Finley had no front office but it didn’t matter because he had Reggie Jackson,  Catfish Hunter and Cap’n Sal Bando. And they also had 3 consecutive World Series Championships. Match that Giants.

What the A’s couldn’t match was a corporate backing or government backing for a new ballpark. Still, the fans cheered for their team. Still, the drums pounded in left centerfield. Still, Oakland was A’s territory.

But it also had been Raiders territory. Al Davis, loved/despised, had taken his teams — and some said the heart and soul of the region — to Southern California. He brought the team back. For a price, of course. He wanted the Coliseum not just improved but restyled, a huge section of seats built on the 50-yard line, which unfortunately also was for baseball, was the center field bleachers. Thus we had a new monument, Mt. Davis.

That distorted the baseball park. That, and overflowing toilets in the clubhouse and dugouts made it obvious the Coliseum needed to be replaced.

But talk is one thing. And in the East Bay, action is not just another thing, but rare. The line about Northern California is that it is easy to get issues voted down but virtually impossible to get them approved.

Where the owner, John Fisher, stood on all this was hard to determine. He wanted a new place to play but didn’t seem to want to get involved in how that would come about.  He was oblivious and seemingly uninvolved.

The A’s have the worst team in baseball — one win through Wednesday — as they had the worst team, by far, in 2023.

The thought seems to be to let them fall apart and because it is Oakland, and not a city like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. It is going to become a reality. The team with a roster that probably belongs in the Minor Leagues, is disgracefully undermanned.  Major League Baseball is very much responsible for this. It has allowed the A’s to become what they are, a franchise now doomed to become the Sacramento A’s.

Giants better off without troubles Ohtani could bring

The San Francisco Giants have a new manager and apparently an improved pitching staff. What they don’t have is Shohei Ohtani. Thank heaven for small favors.

Ohtani may be the best player in baseball. He may hit 60 homers this season. May pitch several no-hitters. And he may be a problem as big as one of those Sumo champions. Come to think of it, he already is. So many of us, who are Giants fans (guilty your honor), rued the day Ohtani bypassed the Giants and signed what? A 100-zillion-dollar contract with the despised Los Angeles Dodgers.

Drat, the good folks up here north of Fresno and west of the Sierra, were thinking, those wealthy Dodgers, that celebrity audience and endless success. They did again to our sad little group from the ballpark by the Bay.

Is there no justice in the sporting world? There very well might be, and it’s named Ippei Mizuhara.

He was the interpreter and friend (some friend) who has worked with Ohtani all these years since Shohei came from Japan in 2018 to win two American League MVP awards with the Angels. Ippei is alleged to have bet millions on sports, bringing to the game nightmares of Pete Rose and placing Shohani in a situation of which he contends he was unaware.

In a prepared 12-minute statement Monday, ESPN properly thought it was so newsworthy it unpardonably interrupted the “Pardon The Interruption” show, Ohtani said he never bet on sports or anything else nor been asked to make bets for others. Ohani accused Mizuhara of “theft and fraud”  related to payments made from Ohtani’s account to an illegal Orange County bookmaking firm.  

Just think if the Giants had been unfortunate enough to sign Ohtani. They’d be dealing with all the legal mess along with the unpopular departure of longtime public address lady, Renel Brooks-Moon.

How much agony can a fan base take?

As this Ohtani drama unfolded I kept thinking of the film “Lost in Translation,” where a faded American movie star, portrayed by who else, Bill Murray, and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo. It has nothing to do with baseball, gambling or theft, but in part offers a window into cultural differences between two societies on either side of the Pacific.

On this side where the Giants and Dodgers are based — is it ironic the Dodgers opened their season last week in Asia, albeit Korea, not Japan? — Ohtani will be hounded and pestered even more than when he merely was a superstar.

The Dodgers, players and fans, probably are better equipped to handle the Ohtani mess than others, we’ll learn in time. He’s a great athlete, but after what’s happened and considering what might happen, the Giants can do without his baggage. Although they would like his bat.

Did Giants really have any chance for Ohtani?

San Francisco Giants fans have to look at it this way: In 10 years Shohei Ohtani again will be a free agent, and the team can make another worthless attempt to sign him.

Deep down where your frosty memories of a night game at Candlestick Park are hidden, you probably never really thought the Giants would get Ohtani.

That this whole come-on was a creation of some imaginative screenwriter.

The best attraction in baseball leaving southern California, with all those movie stars, sushi restaurants and LeBron James? No way.

This was just another case of the Dodgers finishing ahead of the Giants, which except for that rare year, 2007, has been a constant. And a pain.

The Dodgers didn’t need Ohtani, and the woebegone Giants did. As if in the game of baseball or the game of life, need is taken into consideration.

The L.A. media already are lording it over the unfortunate Bay Area, which in a matter of weeks has lost both a baseball team, the bewitched Oakland Athletics, and now any chance hopes for a man who pounds balls into the seats when he’s not pounding fastballs past confused batters.

“Can you believe it?” was the headline on the L.A.Times internet page minutes after the signing. “Shohei Ohtani, baseball’s new Babe Ruth is a Dodger.”

What we can believe is the Giants are headed for a season, when they’re doomed to be crushed by the Dodgers and stuck without any attraction.

When supposedly the Giants were a legitimate candidate in the Ohtani sweepstakes if ranking behind the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Cubs, new San Francisco manager Bob Melvin said the team needs star power.

But who do they acquire, and how do they acquire him? They made failed attempts to sign, in chronological order, Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge and now another, Ohtani. It’s like the boy who cried wolf (Ruth?) colloquially, ain’t nobody there.

Giants president Farhan Zaidi is well versed in analytics, but the people in stands — or the ones you’re attempting to get into the stands — are more interested in personalities, ball players with a tang, you might say,

That’s what made Ohtani so valuable. Not only could he perform, but he was fascinating, having come from a foreign land to dominate America’s pastime.

When Tiger Woods was a regular on the golf tour you needed to be in front of the TV screen any time he came to the tee. Same thing now with Ohtani, who can hit a home run with any swing.

Shohei is the showman, the guy every ball club wishes it had on the roster and now the Dodgers do

Tough luck to every other team in the National League, especially the Giants.

Who will be the new face of the Giants?

Fce of the franchise. The label is so brief. And so significant.

The franchise might be a team, such as the Warriors, where Steph Curry has earned the position Or a sport, golf, and even though his playing is limited, it’s still Tiger Woods.

It can be a him, as LeBron James. Or a her, as Naomi Osaka. Either way, it’s the person who makes a difference. On the court or ice or field or floor. At the gate. More than infrequently that person is one and the same. 

Bob Melvin, for two months now manager of the — you wouldn’t be far off using the term woebegone — San Francisco Giants, understands perfectly. He said San Francisco is a star-powered town. Ergo, the Giants need some stars.

True, easier said than done, and the competition to sign or acquire the biggest names, starting with the player everyone wants and some — including the Giants — can afford, Shohei Ohtani.   

The Los Angeles Dodgers, the “Beat L.A.” Dodgers, who a few days ago implied, if not stating directly, they wouldn’t be in a bidding war for Ohtani, aha, admit they will bid for Ohtani.

Of course, from a biased NorCal view the hugely loaded, obscenely successful Dodgers (until it comes to the World Series) are less in need than the Giants.  

So too chasing Ohtani are the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs, teams as well as the dreaded Dodgers, and the Giants which apparently have any chance of signing Ohtani.

Melvin, Giants president Farhan Zaidi and virtually every other executive from the major leagues—as well as agents, media people and various rumors — showed up to the baseball winter meetings in Nashville that ended Thursday. 

There was a considerable amount of conversation but little action. At least action involving the Giants. Those involved kept saying once Ohtani makes his decision, the figurative floodgates would open. Transactions would, like that, take place one after another. Maybe.

The Giants, who Wednesday conveniently announced tickets for the 2024 season were on sale, were presumably hoping they would have a new player or two.

If not Ohtani, then young pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell or center fielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger. He once was with the Dodgers.

After the decline, following the 2021 season, when they won a team-record 107 games, the Giants have searched for power hitters and starting pitchers. And victories. Attendance shriveled and finally in the final days of the 2023 season, manager Gabe Kapler was fired. 

The front office knew it was time to get players who could get wins and attention. It had failed previously trying to sign top-notch free agents who might win games and capture fans, Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa.

Now they are trying again for a player who could be the new face for a team desperately seeking one.

Bad day in Oakland; traffic stays, A’s don’t

This was Oakland on Thursday. Some jerks shut down the westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge, keeping many of us from going to work or leaving town.

Some others—dare we also call them jerks?—were in the process of making sure the Athletics baseball team would not be staying in town.  

True, those who Wednesday tossed their car keys into San Francisco Bay (anybody got a fit for a Rolls Royce?) and caused chaos had little to do with the A’s receiving permission to flee to Las Vegas.  

Other than a massive degree of inconvenience.

Life is timing, we’re told, and although we had been advised (warned? threatened?) that the departure of the Athletics was inevitable, who could imagine approval would come on the very morning of the massive protest on the span?

You want a ticket to Gaza or Opening Day?

Now we’ll have a landmark, of sorts, to remind us about the uncaring lords of baseball (sorry; they do care about dollars.)  

How often have we heard from the hypocritical owners who so often tell us they are merely caretakers and that the game belongs to the guys (and ladies) who cheer the teams?  

In the East Bay, the fans and the team were kicked around and forced to take refuge in a stadium designed for football, and forced to play where the dugout was full of furry little animals and the stands were empty of humans.

It reached a point with the A’s where the roster was comprised of ball players who were either barely out of the minors or still belonged in. Sure they lost more than 100 games in the seasons of 2022 and 2023. It was as if the majors were intent on having the A’s move. The NBA calls it tanking.

The A’s were kicked around and mismanaged after years of winning championships. We are told the game supposedly belongs to the fans. Well, check out the words that merge with the actions of the man who is the prime owner of the A’s, John Fisher. 

After the baseball meeting down in Texas, said without a dissenting vote, Fisher had the A’s office in Oakland issue a letter of apology. For what? Leaving a city that used to break records (three consecutive World Series triumphs)  sobbing with a broken heart.

Indeed the A’s may not have a legitimate ballpark in which to play in Las Vegas until 2028, but Fisher doesn’t care. He’s worth more than a billion, and that’s not in poker chips.  

They used to say sport is the opera of the poor, since those without wealth couldn’t afford to go to The Met. These days you’ve got to have a bankroll to attend almost any event.

A’s fans spent many dollars and all of their hopes on the team which let them down and soon headed to a new locale.  

So sad. So lousy.

Can the Giants get Ohtani?

It’s not an issue of money. At least that’s the word from the San Francisco Giants. They have plenty. What they lack is a team that makes the postseason and draws national attention.

Unlike the Los Angeles Dodgers, who as the Giants (and so many other teams), are actively pursuing the most attractive of free agents, Shohei Ohtani.

The major league general managers convened a few days ago in Scottsdale, Arizona, which happens to be where the Giants home for spring training. And, what else, they were pestered about the big guy who hits home runs and throws fastballs (or did until elbow surgery).

 So this was headlined in the Los Angeles Times: “The Dodgers want Shohei Ohtani. But how far will they go in a potential bidding war?”

And this was the headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Giants preparing for full-court press on free-agent superstar Shohei Ohtani.”

You would guess (and hope if you’re one of the frustrated souls who does little but chant, “Beat L.A.”) that in this competition the Giants have the edge. But the history of free agency has not been favorable for the Giants, or has everyone forgotten the recent saga of Aaron Judge?

A Northern Californian, Judge stopped by for a moment or two and then (sigh) re-signed with his former team, the New York Yankees.

Ohtani, now 29, is not a one-man team. But he was close, a unanimous American League MVP in 2021, and a pitcher who could (should?) have been a Cy Young Award winner.

Maybe more than the statistics he produces as a two-way sensation for the Los Angeles Angels is the excitement—and fans—he has brought to the American sport since arriving from Japan in 2017.  

He has helped make what was known as “America’s Pastime,” into an international attraction. In Japan he’s God. In the U.S. he’s a hero, arguably the best two-way player since Babe Ruth, who you may not remember began as a pitcher and then became “The Sultan of Swat.”

Ruth, as the story goes, was asked in the early 1920s, if he deserved to be earning more money than President Herbert Hoover and answered, “Why not? I had a better year.” 

In a matter of days, Shohei Otani, about to be offered a contract that may be as huge as $400 million a season, will be earning more than anyone in the history of baseball.

After several seasons with the Angels, Ohtani may prefer to remain in southern California, meaning going to the Dodgers. Or maybe he can be persuaded to head north to the Giants.

Ohtani in 2023 batted .304 and led the American League with 44 home runs. His pitching ended with the injury. His appeal, however, is unending.

That all goes into the thinking of the Giants and the Dodgers.

“We’ve got a good amount of payroll flexibility,” said Giants’ president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. “So anybody we think can be an impact player, even on a long-term deal, we’re going to be looking at.”

In free agency looking is fine. Signing is essential.

Unexpected: Melvin new Giants manager

The Warriors lost their first game, which was unexpected. The 49ers lost their last game, which was unexpected. And, oh yeah somewhere among Steph Curry and Brock Purdy, the Giants named Bob Melvin their manager. 

Which was unexpected until a few days ago when it was disclosed that Melvin was unhappy in his role as manager of the San Diego Padres.

Then things became what they are in baseball, an activity that one of its practitioners, the late, great Yogi Berra, once told us “You don’t know nothing.” Melvin was expected to be available, if not necessarily in that order.

A manager can’t get hits or throw shutouts, but he can be a hit, and that’s what the Giants, searching for their place in the Bay Area’s crowded sporting landscape, very much need.

If not as much as a home run hitter.

Bo Mel, as he’s called, knows the territory, and growing up on the Peninsula while also playing ball at Cal and no less managing Oakland Athletics to the playoffs (if never the World Series), we know him.

What we don’t know is what sort of roster he’ll have. But you presume he wouldn’t have taken the job, even for a former colleague of Giants president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, with whom Mevin worked at the A’s unless changes would occur.

The Giants’ wish to sign Aaron Judge (yet another Northern Californian)  disappeared last spring, but there are other sluggers around, several on the Padres.

Maybe Melvin could help pry loose one of those high-priced players from the Padres, not that the Giants should expect help from the team that Melvin just extricated himself after a rumored strained relationship with A.J. Preller, head of baseball operations in San Diego.

Still, as everyone knows—and was verified in the two league championships that elevated the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks to the World Series—pitching wins.

The Giants have some pitching. They just need more.  

Apropos of nothing, but perhaps pertinent to everything, is the man who preceded Melvin as Padres manager in Bruce Bochy, who moved on to win three World Series for the Giants and now is in another with Texas.

San Francisco, the season of 2023 was rolling along until it mattered in September, then it tumbled from leading the wild card race to nowhere. How much that had to do with their very disciplined and analytics-based manager, Gabe Kapler being fired, is debatable.

Unless you’re Zaidi, who if only to prove he and the organization were intent on both keeping the Giants competitive and in a tough market, relevant.

Bob Melvin seems to be both the fortunate choice and the perfect one. No question he will get attention. Will he be able to get wins?

For underpaid A’s, satisfaction is a sweep of Giants

There was something appropriate, if not ironic, that Brandon Crawford, who grew up in the East Bay, and plays for San Francisco, made the final out in what almost certainly will be the final game in Oakland between the Athletics and the Giants.

The result was almost insignificant. Almost.

The A’s, seemingly the worst team in the majors (at least they have the worst record by far), beat the Giants on Sunday, 8-6, to sweep the two-game series.

Sure, the Giants are attempting to retain their lead in the National League Wild Card standings, so any loss, to the A’s or any other franchise, is damaging. But we’re dealing with the big picture here, the one from which the A’s will be eradicated — or moved to Las Vegas. As if there is any difference.

That the A’s drew some 27,000 fans Sunday to the very maligned Coliseum after more than 37,000 Saturday, continues the idea the A’s should not be dragged away to Nevada or anywhere else.

Yet, the individual who owns the team — dare we refer to him as a gentleman? — is determined to upend the status quo, and because, for the most part, he’ll be universally supported, is destined to get his way — and get the money.

Sometime long-ago sport was called the “opera of the poor.” That was when tickets to say, “Rigoletto,” were expensive and those seats in the bleachers could be purchased on a working person’s salary. But as we know too well, nowadays the price of court-side locations at Lakers and Warriors games, for a start, requires a large withdrawal from the bank.

That said, the loyal patrons who are willing to buy, e.g. those remarkably determined A’s fans, deserve something more than to have their favorite team hauled off to a location where the locker rooms are marble and the field is sprinkled with sequins of gold.

Not that the highbrows involved in the academic side of festivities are much different. The appearance of the A’s this past weekend was timed unfortunately with what has become the complete disruption of intercollegiate athletics. What used to be the Pac-12, which billed itself as the “Conference of Champions” has been, well, destroyed. 

Yes, for money.

And does this have any connection to the Lakers giving Anthony Davis a contract extension worth $186 million? Indeed it does. True, it’s another sport, but dollars are dollars, and that figure alone is about double the Oakland A’s annual payroll.

It’s a different world, one sadly that probably will be filled with slot machines and croupiers for the A’s. All their fans can do is find satisfaction that their team won what looks like their final game in Oakland against the Giants.

Salty words on a rock which tell A’s story

It’s a large rock, a boulder really, near the base of a steep hill in Oakland’s Montclair District, layered with dozens of painted messages, for a birthday or maybe a graduation — feel good stuff.

Feel good stuff, congratulatory. Now the congratulatory has become accusatory.

Or worse, downright vicious.

Oakland is about to have its last major league sporting franchise hijacked off to Las Vegas, and some of the people who are incensed feel helpless and have resorted to angry words in green and yellow on the boulder.

“Liar. Cheater. Fraud,” the list reads. “Manfred. Kaval. Fisher. The 3 stooges.”

The references, as if anyone in sports or the East Bay isn’t aware, are to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, A’s president Dave Kaval and A’s owner John Fisher.  

Unless one of those three or their operatives stop by the boulder with buckets of enamel from Kelly-Moore in the wee small hours — the rock usually is painted after midnight — the unpleasant descriptions may last longer in Oakland than the Athletics.

Maybe the only problem with the naming of people responsible for the seemingly inevitable departure of the A’s is that not all the guilty were included.  

The former and current mayors of Oakland, while giving lip service to the Hey-our-little-town-can’t-compete-against-the-casinos, didn’t show many initiatives.

And as we warned the reason Fisher reportedly is worth a couple billion dollars is because he has no interest in using any of that fortune to finance a new baseball stadium.

Not that the majority of those wealthy enough to list a sports team among their assets are any different. 

We keep hearing from those in charge that the teams belong to the fans, and those in charge are merely caretakers. The rest of us should take care not to fall for so much nonsense.

For the owners, sports are constructed on finance, which is acceptable if, as in the case of Los Angels Rams owner Stan Kroenke, you are willing to bankroll a stadium.  

Often all a fan can offer is loyalty, without which our games wouldn’t exist. There was no more loyal a fan base than that of the Oakland Raiders who stuck out their tongues and took off for Las Vegas.

Just as the A’s are in the process of doing.

The entire Athletics situation appears conspiratorial, a plot borrowed from the 1989 film “Major League,” in which a former showgirl out of — where else? — Las Vegas inherits the Cleveland Indians, purposely allows them to lose games and fans then move to another city.

Well, the A’s started reducing their roster by trading or failing to re-sign the stars who brought the spectators and won games. They are en route to the worst record in a century. The only item, or person, they lack is the inimitable Bob Uecker, whose portrayal — “Just a little bit outside” — was worthy of an Oscar if not the Hall of Fame.

All this doesn’t keep the Athletics in Oakland, however. Neither do the salty words about the three individuals painted on the boulder in the Montclair district. 

Unfortunately.

Giants decide to play (and pay) with the big boys

Here are two truisms. One: If you want to play with the big boys, you have to play like the big boys. Two: in wine, cars and baseball players, you get what you pay for — with exceptions.

Yes, the salaries of sport are growing more exorbitant by the hour, as are prices of virtually everything, including necessities, which may include baseball, depending on your viewpoint. No, it’s not to be equated with, say, gasoline, but those summer evenings would be empty without the game.

For the San Francisco Giants, the deal was awarded to the free agent shortstop Carlos Correa, a contract reportedly worth $350 million, which isn’t bad for not being Aaron Judge.

Who, with his Northern California background and Ruthian glamour, supposedly was the guy the Giants would have preferred but couldn’t pry away from the dreaded New York Yankees.

“Chicks dig the long ball” was the message in a commercial ages ago. As do most in baseball, a game in which everyone now swings for the fences and the hit-and-run is on the verge of extinction.

Correa is a home run hitter, and one of those in the middle of the infield as well as the middle of the lineup is a particular blessing.

Shortstops once were thought of as lean, lithe individuals who could start a rally or keep one going. The infield power came from the guys at the corners, first and third basemen. But as demonstrated by Brandon Crawford, both the image and responsibility have changed.

What happens now to Crawford, a longtime member of the Giants, who through his play — MVP votes attest to the fullness of his career — and engaging personality and intelligence have made him a fan favorite? He may go to third or the outfield. For sure, he won’t be at shortstop. The Giants aren’t giving Correa a king’s ransom to be a backup.

The Giants were overdue for a move after the slippage last season, when they fell to an even and (looking around at the always inescapable Dodgers and recently bombastic Padres) mediocre finish in 2022.

Perhaps they weren’t tumbling into irrelevancy (that word belongs to the draft placement of a surprising 49er rookie quarterback), but they had lost some of their appeal as well as far too many games.

Attendance at Oracle Park had declined, if not precipitously then at least notably. Empty seats were common if not prevalent. It’s embarrassing when there are more spectators in the right field stands wearing blue and cheering for that franchise from L.A.

Will Correa fix that problem? He’s a beginning, along with the acquisition of outfielder Mitch Haniger and pitcher Ross Stripling and maybe the former Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea.

The other day on the ESPN show “Pardon the Interruption,” co-host Tony Kornheiser suggested that signing Correa might end up better for the Giants than signing Judge.

Just talk, of course, but the kind of talk needed by a team desperate to get back into the limelight.

‘Say Hey’ says it all about Willie

SAN FRANCISCO — What a great few days for baseball stars from the Bay: Dusty Baker on the tube and on top of the world (Series); Willlie Mays on the silver screen and always on our minds; Barry Bonds on stage and on target.

On Saturday night there was Dusty in Houston, finally clasping the long-missing World Series title. Twenty-four hours later, we were at the century-old Castro Theater in San Francisco, and there was the documentary “Say Hey, Willie Mays!” and in attendance for what was the local premiere was Bonds, Willie’s godson and, of course, the single-season home run champion.

The film, directed by Nelson George, offers some material we’ve seen over the years — not that anyone wouldn’t want another chance to catch The Catch in the 1954 World Series — and other stories not as well known, such as the racism Mays encountered when attempting to buy a home in the City.

Mays, now 91, was only a kid from Alabama, still a segregated state, when he joined the New York Giants in 1950, but he was brilliant virtually from the start. The actress Tallulah Bankhead said, “There are only two geniuses the world — Willie Mays and Will Shakespeare.”

Shakespeare didn’t give interviews.

So much of Mays’ genius, certainly, is physical. He was a so-called five-tool player — hit, run, hit with power, catch and throw — as we see again after he chased down Vic Wertz’s towering drive in the ’54 World Series. Willie spun around and fired the ball back to the infield.

I came to San Francisco in 1965, when Mays still was hitting home runs. The Giants came here in 1958, and Mays has a tough time adjusting — not to the game but to the Candlestick Park winds that, as mentioned in the documentary, kept his long balls from clearing the fences.

San Francisco was Joe DiMaggio’s town. He grew up here and played minor league ball here, years before the Giants arrived.

So when Mays came here in ’58, long after DiMaggio’s retirement following the 1951 season, the press looked back and not forward. Willie was not appreciated, Tallulah Bankhead to the contrary.

DiMaggio was damn good. His 56-game hitting streak in 1941 surely never will be broken. After Joe left the game, he would make public appearances and be introduced as “America’s greatest living ball player.”

But Joe was no Willie Mays, and he wasn’t forced to play home games at Candlestick Park as Mays was. 

George’s documentary, which will be streamed on HBO, doesn’t forget that Reggie Jackson played in Oakland and is a Hall of Famer, or Dusty Baker, who after the World Series win is destined to be one. 

Barry Bonds said the documentary “basically is about mentoring, about growing wiser and more proficient as we mature.”

The plan certainly worked for Willie Mays.

Dare we add, “Say hey?”

Will this be the ‘Dustino’ World Series for Baker?

The nickname seemed perfect at the time, “Dustino,” created by Rod Beck, one of Dusty Baker’s relief pitchers when enough talent and a bit of good fortune were part of the landscape for the San Francisco Giants.

It was 2002, and ahead was a World Series, one in which — talk about fortune — Darren Baker, Dusty’s then 3-year-old son, was hoisted out of harm’s way at home plate by an alert J.T. Snow.

But destiny, Dustiny, Dustino, whatever, did not last.

A 5-0 lead in Game 6 disappeared. And then in Game 7 so did the Series. Now, 20 years and four teams later, Baker, 73, at last may get his first World Series championship — as a manager. At least his team, the Houston Astros, is favored over the Philadelphia Phillies.

It’s not correct to call Baker the accidental manager, but after the Giants and four other teams Baker was briefly unemployed and baseball was in a bind.

The Astros were involved in a cheating scandal, having sent illegal signals, and in the midst of firing various individuals, including the manager.

What to do to restore honesty and confidence to the sport? Bring in reliable, proven, honest Johnnie Baker, better known as Dusty.

It would be only poetic justice if the guy who very much is the man in manager would get the title. He has more managerial victories, 2,093, than anyone without a Series win.

People often ask sporting journalists whether they root for the teams they cover. In most cases, the answer is no. You want to cheer? Go find a seat in the stands.

But we often root for individuals, those who understand our jobs, and through that understanding make the work and the relationships more professional.

Dusty belongs in that category. The door to his office always was open when he managed the Giants, and presumably it has been with other teams.

True, nobody forces you to manage, but managing is a test of a person. He decides which athletes to play and if they fail, well, somebody has to be the target. As you know, they fire the manager, not the centerfielder.

Baker has handled himself and situations with control, which is the most one can demand of a leader. He’s been there — won a playoff MVP award — and done virtually everything.

Except managed a World Series champion. And that could be rectified in a matter of days.

"We love going out there every single day and competing for him,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman told Paul Newberry of the Associated Press. “He loves this team. He loves winning. He loves the game of baseball. And a hundred percent we want to win for him.” It’s a cliché, but Baker has nothing to prove, not even to himself. Sometimes things work out — and sometimes, as with the sixth game in 2002, they don’t.

“You can’t rush it before it gets here," he said in an analogy about winning, “because it isn’t here yet. You’ve just gotta put yourself in a position to do it.”

Dusty Baker has been in that position for too long.