Paul Hirsch

Have All Star Games Run Their Course?

May 1, 2012 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

Fan voting begins this month for the Major League Baseball All Star Game to be held on July 10 in Kansas City. With the talent on the field being paid hundreds of millions of dollars in some cases, are all star games still worth the risk for owners and for fans with an emotional stake in their team’s regular season performance?

A hard foul in the NBA All Star Game highlighted players’ attitudes in these games and led some to question if hard play in an exhibition is appropriate. In the week between the NBA All Star Game and the showdown between the Miami Heat and the Lakers in Los Angeles, the primary story line was Kobe vs. Wade, as in what retribution might Dwayne Wade expect for breaking Kobe Bryant’s nose with a hard foul during the All Star exhibition.

As it turned out, the only retribution was 18 first quarter points by Bryant on the way to a game high 33 in the Lakers’ 93-83 win. Bryant wore a clear mask that looked a bit like 1970s hockey goaltender gear to protect his nose. Otherwise, the game was pretty much business as usual. Miami looked like a team at the end of an opposite coast trip missing one of its best players (Chris Bosh) playing a recent league champion experiencing a bit of an uptick. Los Angeles led nearly the entire, drama-free, game.

The Kobe vs. Wade flap occurred because many felt that Wade violated all star game etiquette by fouling Bryant hard in the All Star Game. By all accounts the resultant broken nose was accidental, but a hard foul against a player having a good game is a regular season staple. Many thought it was out of place in all star competition.

An editorial at latimes.com called the foul by Wade “inappropriate.” Bryant’s teammate and fellow all-star Andrew Bynum spoke out in Bryant’s defense after the incident.
“It was an All-Star Game,” Bynum said. “I don’t understand what that was all about. It was crazy.” Fellow Laker Pau Gasol also spoke out on Bryant’s behalf.

The Lakers’ reactions are predictable, but even Bosh seemed to think Wade was a bit more aggressive than necessary. “It was already spicy enough,” he said to NBC Sports.com. “It’ll be something to play on the reels over and over before the game…So I’m sure it will be pumped up a lot.”

The reactions of players on both sides points out a problem with All Star competition in an era when star contracts can be more than the GNP of a typical third world country. The games are played on national television in front of fans paying significant premiums for tickets. Yet, ownership and the players’ main goal seems to be to avoid injury in an exhibition with no impact on the standings.

It’s worse in sports where hitting is fundamental to the game. After this year’s Pro Bowl, which resembled a ballet in shoulder pads, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he would look into the future of the game, and its discontinuation was not out of the question. The NHL All Star Game is a nightmare for goalies. Without any checking or hitting, a sport where a typical score might be 3-2 is turned into a free skate with recent final scores along the lines of 12-9 and 11-10. Any resemblance to a real NHL game is incidental.

Only the Major League Baseball All Star Game serves up an approximation of the real thing. The elements of the game that are missing, breaking up double plays and running over the catcher, are not as central to the competition as aggressive defense in basketball or the violent contact inherent in regular season professional football and hockey. Pitchers are still showing their best stuff and hitters are competing hard in the batters box. It may also help that the winning league earns home field advantage in the World Series.

Goodell is probably on to something when it comes to reevaluating the Pro Bowl. Its TV ratings are low and the players have no motivation to risk injury by playing the game in a way the public is used to seeing NFL competition. That game is probably on its way out.

The hockey game is the culmination of a weekend of skills competitions and is still a showcase on U.S. network television for a league that is playing catch-up with the other three major team sports. A true hockey fan can probably barely watch, but the game is not quite as bad as the Pro Bowl.

The Kobe vs. Wade incident points out the central problem of the NBA All Star Game. Someone who delivers a hard foul like Wade is vilified, and consequently the level of effort expended by all players in the game is called into question. Still, a high scoring playground-style game is somehow more fun in basketball than in hockey or football, and the game consistently delivers highlight reel content for ESPN and the NBA Network. Combine that with the slam dunk contest and all the other activities leading up to the game, and it’s hard to see the NBA making any significant changes. Ownership will just continue to hold its collective breath while its largest investments run and jump up and down the court in a game that doesn’t count.

Dizzy Dean’s career altering broken toe in 1937 and Ted Williams’ broken elbow in 1950 that probably cost the Red Sox that year’s pennant aside, the MLB All Star Game will probably continue as the model pro sports all star event. The Home Run Derby is seen by many as a great way to spend a Monday night in the summer, and now that no one believes that a Pete Rose/Ray Fosse collision at home plate will ever happen again in the All Star Game and with pitchers generally throwing only one or two innings each, the injury risk seems manageable. What fans are seeing is a realistic big league game with a star at every position. That is a tough formula to beat. Happy voting!

San Ramon’s Oxford Advisors Find Scholarships for Student-Athletes Throughout California

April 4, 2012 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

It’s no secret that college gets more expensive every year. Tuition, room & board, books, and fees for a four year school can cost about $26,000 per year at popular CSU’s like Cal Poly or Chico, while the gross cost can run $50,000 or more annually at top private universities. But the bottom line is, how much will the net cost be for you?

The trick, according to Cliff MacDonald who founded the San Ramon college placement service Oxford Advisors, is to get someone else to pay most of the freight. There are billions of dollars available each year from federal, state, and local public sources, as well as private corporations and public foundations. In fact, believe it or not, some of these monies go unused because students and student-athletes do not apply for these grants or scholarships. Moreover, private colleges have millions of dollars in endowments and they use some of these assets to offer merit scholarships to attract students who will make a valuable contribution to their campus.

Thus, like many things in life, those who pay the full sticker price end up subsidizing the athletes, the musicians, the actors, special needs students, minorities and others which the university believes are adding something special to its community. Oxford Advisors matches students’ abilities with the needs of some of the top colleges in the country, and then helps their families to find money to pay a large portion of the college expenses.

Many parents whose children have had success in youth sports dream of athletic scholarships to help them pay for college. MacDonald is uniquely positioned to help make those dreams come true. He has coached youth soccer, baseball and hockey. His work with the San Jose Jr. Sharks Club program in the early 1990’s included qualifying for elite, invitation-only international tournaments throughout Canada, the Midwest and New England.

Each of MacDonald’s three children earned sports-related college scholarships with his help. His hockey-playing son, C.J., went from Amador Valley High School to a prep school in Connecticut which led to a four year scholarship at Wesleyan University where he became a captain of the hockey team. Daughter Candice earned a four-year Division 1 soccer scholarship and also was a 2 time captain at Villanova University, while daughter Caitlin earned a significant scholarship and financial aid package at Dartmouth of the Ivy League, because of her strong academics and soccer skills.

Besides his own children, over the years Cliff has worked with hundreds of student-athletes who have received financial aid or scholarships at four year institutions. “We understand which sports in our region are viewed as particularly strong by college recruiters,” MacDonald said, specifically listing girls’ and boys’ soccer, baseball, girls’ basketball, softball and volleyball. “We have connections with elite club teams and we know how to generate attention for our athletes. The top 1-2 per cent will be discovered by the colleges, but everyone else has to work to be noticed.” MacDonald says he brainstorms with families and pulls out what he knows schools are looking for and then highlights that information in the materials they send to the colleges.

MacDonald’s tactics include detailed resumes carefully formatted to highlight athletic and academic accomplishments, various teams for which the athlete has played, coach’s comments and honors earned. “I strive to get the ducks off the water for my students and then show them how to develop relationships with college coaches,” he said. “I also train my clients in how to write cover letters and conduct themselves in an interview. Nearly everything we do with our students teaches them skills they’ll be able to use the rest of their lives.”

Despite the scholarships available, MacDonald insists that young people should only play sports as long as they are fun. “The scholarship is not the goal,” he said. “Developing character and skills, meeting new friends, having fun, and making lifelong memories are more important. I see far too many cases of parents pushing their children to play a particular sport just because they believe the child has exceptional aptitude, and it rarely works out well. This type of pressure often leads to burn-out, where the teen quits the sport, and usually leads to hard feelings and wasted money.”

MacDonald also pointed out that lots can happen to young athletes. “Kids gain weight, lose weight, stop growing, go through puberty and shift their interests,” MacDonald said. “It doesn’t make sense for parents to focus on athletic scholarships until at least ninth or tenth grade, and more likely when they reach 16 or 17. Before then they should just play as many sports as they can and have some fun.” MacDonald did acknowledge that at East Bay Athletic League schools like Amador, Foothill, San Ramon, Cal High, and Monte Vista, it is difficult for most students to make a team in more than one sport. “The competition is very tough at those schools,” he said.

Although MacDonald has been involved with college admissions for over 25 years, he did not start up Oxford Advisors until 2005. MacDonald and his team provide one-stop shopping for their clients. “Between our staff and our network of partners we can provide strategic college planning, national college searches, specialized SAT and ACT prep, application management, essay consultation, a resource for financial aid; as well as creating distinctive athletic resumes, DVDs and video links to show off a teen’s athletic skills; and even recommending surgeons, physicians and physical therapists if our athletes are injured! The breadth of our services makes us very unique in the college placement field.”

Ideally, MacDonald likes to start with clients during their sophomore year of high school, though he has helped students in their mid-twenties who are stalled in the community college system. “Our process takes at least a year, so if a student doesn’t come to us until their senior year, we can’t do any planning. For we start the application segment in September of the senior year. Yet, we are proud of our systematic or business-like approach and our extraordinary success rates. Nothing is more satisfying for us than placing a student in his or her dream school and using our methods, contacts and resources to help pay most of the expenses. We love hearing how happy they are after we enable them to fulfill their educational dreams!”

Those interested in learning more about Oxford Advisors can call its offices at 925-855-3220 or visit www.Oxford-Advisors.com.

We Can Be Better Fans

March 10, 2012 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

Without sports fanatics there would not be big time college and professional sports. The NFL is a $12 billion dollar industry, Major League Baseball earns more than $7 billion each year and the NBA does about $4 billion. This does not even count what is spent on illegal gambling, fantasy leagues, and sports outside the big three like the NCAA, NASCAR and the NHL.

It’s been a tough 12 months for Bay Area fans. From the Brian Stow incident at Dodger Stadium in the opener against the Giants in March to the mayhem at the Raiders-49ers preseason game, to run ins between Sharks fans and visitors from Canada, to the incidents with visiting fans at 49ers playoff games that led Jed York to issue a no-tolerance open letter and increase security at Candlestick Park, over-the-top behavior from and towards fans has been in the news far too often. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Jan. 24 that twice as many ejections occurred in the wake of the overtime loss to the football Giants as did in the game the week before against New Orleans. Officials say the increase was probably due to the 3:30 p.m. game time which gave fans an extra few hours to lube up before kickoff. Undercover officers dressed as New York fans pointed out miscreants to uniformed police who subsequently led those fans out of the stands.

This season’s NFL playoffs seemed to have created a series of new lows in terms of fan behavior. Besides the well-documented harassment of opposing teams’ fans, 49ers punt returner Kyle Williams has been the subject of multiple death threats after his fumble in overtime set up the game winning field goal for the Giants, giving New York a trip to the Super Bowl.

So is this what we’ve come to? Death threats to athletes who come up short when giving their all, intimidating outnumbered visiting fans, and using the tickets we buy as a license to wreak havoc as we please while undercover cops pick off the unruly?

Fans in our sophisticated community should be better than that. We think fans, especially in our community, can care deeply about the outcome of a game and then let it go if and when the result doesn’t isn’t what we would like. When we’re the visiting fans we can go to a game and not rub it in when the home team fails. This only entices the majority to retaliate when the tide turns. We also think local fans can resist the urge to bully the outnumbered supporters of the visiting team and instead strive to make our stadiums and ballparks comfortable for everyone with a ticket, regardless of how some announcers might encourage their followers to behave.

Mostly, though, we implore sports fanatics everywhere to hold the athletes blameless. They’re almost always doing everything they can to win. In the late 1980s the Rams beat the Giants in an overtime playoff game in the Meadowlands. New York Quarterback Phil Simms had a rough game, and in his press conference afterwards he explained, “I have the ball a lot, and sometimes things go wrong.”

Can’t we accept that it’s usually just as simple as that?

Does A’s Rebuilding Plan Render Team Unwatchable?

January 29, 2012 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

For baseball fans invested in the won-loss record of the Oakland A’s, the 2011-2012 offseason was depressing.

The team traded three former All Stars (pitchers Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey), acquired mostly prospects unfamiliar to the casual baseball fan, and basically said that winning was secondary to the franchise’s quest for a new ballpark in San Jose. Their home field in Oakland is considered to be a relic from a bygone era of multipurpose stadiums with poor sightlines and a far-too-large foul territory that keeps fans further away from the action than any other big league ballpark.

On top of the A’s purposeful decline into a team less likely to play winning baseball, they face division rivals in Anaheim and Texas completely dedicated to winning games. The Angels signed certain Hall of Famer Albert Pujols and ace pitcher C.J. Wilson in early December, while the Rangers are fresh off consecutive trips to the World Series and will take the field in 2012 with their roster largely intact.

Moneyball GM Billy Beane essentially threw in the towel on Christmas Eve when he said, “There wasn’t going to be a move we could make to compete with Texas and Anaheim. Just to come up to Seattle, we’d have to spend an extra $40-50 million.”

Instead, the A’s are trying to follow the roadmap of small market teams like the Cleveland Indians and Houston Astros who successfully timed the building of winning teams to the openings of Jacobs Field and Enron Field, respectively. This led to fantastic attendance spikes and World Series appearances for both franchises. The Indians even sold out more than 400 consecutive games starting with their first season in Jacobs Field.

The difference is that the Indians and the Astros knew their new ballparks would be built. By contrast, the A’s are held up by a territorial rights dispute with the Giants. Former A’s owner Walter Haas ceded any right to Santa Clara County in the early 1990s in order to help the Giants build a new stadium in the South Bay. The Giants lost that election in San Jose but retained the area’s territorial rights and claim to have used them to secure investors when they gained approval and financing for Pacific Bell Park in the late 1990s. The Giants are adamant that they will not harm their ownership group by surrendering the team’s rights to Santa Clara County.

And, of course, the Giants benefit greatly in terms of sponsorship dollars, TV/radio ratings and local interest if the A’s are weak.

While the baseball Commissioner’s Office sorts out that dispute, the A’s languish. Attempts since the team’s last playoff appearance in 2006 to capture lightening in a bottle by signing older free agents have not paid dividends on the field and have increased costs. The A’s reported a loss of between $1-2 million in 2011, even after receiving $30 million in revenue sharing checks from some of the wealthier big league teams. The current strategy is to trade away their most marketable players for other teams’ prospects and sacrifice any chance of a respectable record now for the hope of having those prospects mature into a competitive team for the potential 2015 opening of a so-far mythical new ballpark in San Jose.

So what is in it for the A’s current fans as they watch their team head towards 100 losses? Second baseman Jemile Weeks had an outstanding rookie year and as long as he has fewer than three years service will have to play for close to the major league minimum salary. He embodies the A’s ideal player. Starting pitcher Dallas Braden, who has a perfect game on his resume, is recovering from an arm injury, which makes him nearly impossible to trade. Catcher Kurt Suzuki has come close to making the American League All Star team a couple of times and as of the end of 2011 remains in the green and gold. Otherwise, fans can get behind the development of imported prospects and hope the San Jose stadium is approved before those players’ salaries rise to the point where they too become trade bait.

What the A’s do have going for them is a very attractive schedule with several glamour franchises visiting the Coliseum in 2012. The aging stadium will play host to the Yankees for two series, including Memorial Day weekend and has the Red Sox coming in for the Fourth of July. The Angels and Rangers will play three series in Oakland as division rivals, and interleague play will bring the Dodgers and Giants to the East Bay in June. For all its other flaws, the Coliseum is very convenient to BART, and it’s doubtful fans will have to fight large crowds for most contests as Oakland figures to finish near the bottom again in American League attendance.

So A’s fans can enjoy top quality opponents before intimate crowds with no pressure to buy tickets in advance except for maybe the Yankees, Red Sox and Giants games. If that formula is appealing, you are just the kind of fan that the A’s will draw in 2012.

New Coach, Defense and Ball Protection – Keys to 49ers’ Resurgence

December 31, 2011 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

In August most NFL observers believed the 49ers would be one of the teams most hurt by the NFL lockout. The conventional wisdom was that a new coaching staff would not have sufficient time to install its playbook and the team would flounder as a result. Another long year was expected for the 49er Faithful.

Fast forward to January, and the 49ers have made the playoffs as NFC West Champions. This is their first trip to the NFL postseason since 2002 when Steve Mariucci was coach. Only one player, long snapper Brian Jennings, remains from that team. The 2011 49ers have had a remarkable year, regardless of their performance this month.

What were the keys to the turnaround? Here are the three leading factors according to Off the Bench:

The environment fostered by new coach Jim Harbaugh and his staff
A remarkably stingy defense led by All Pro linebacker Patrick Willis
The ability of the offense, particularly quarterback Alex Smith, to hold onto the ball and cash in on most of its opportunities

Excellent special teams have also played a part, especially the kicking of David Akers and the punting of Andy Lee. Both have a chance to make the Pro Bowl. But specialists don’t get a chance to make an impact unless the factors listed above are in place. Let’s review them one by one.

Coaching: The 49ers made several expensive mistakes before finally Harbaugh. Dennis Erickson, Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary were often outmatched, outfought and outthought by their peers across the field. Reports have surfaced indicating that Erickson was unprepared, Nolan lacked confidence and Singletary was more style than substance.

Harbaugh, on the other hand, has been everything anyone could have hoped for and more. He is the first coach in six years to have put quarterback Smith in a position to succeed. He seems to have a knack for understanding when to gamble and when to pull back, and his defiant nature with the press and the handshake incident with Lions coach Jim Schwartz seemed to have helped rally the troops. For the last several years San Francisco looked like a team that hoped to win. The 49ers now expect to win, and a lot of that is to the credit of their head coach.

Defense: Through November, the 49ers gave up fewer rushing yards than any team in the NFL. They have three times as many interceptions as their opponents. They lead the NFC in fewest total yards allowed. Linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Patrick Willis have more than 100 tackles, and they have created 16 more turnovers than the team has allowed. Against the toughest competition, the 49ers defense has kept the team in the game and allowed the offense time to figure out how to penetrate its opponents.

Offense and Alex Smith: Until this year the most apt comparison to Smith was Giants pitcher Barry Zito. Both appeared to be expensive disappointments and impediments to winning. The Giants’ success in 2010 occurred when Zito was deactivated from the postseason roster. Smith’s emergence this season has ended such comparisons. Going into this season, Smith’s passer rating was 75.3, an historic low for a quarterback who had about four seasons worth of starts. This season it has settled in the low 90s, slightly above league average. Smith’s ability to run away from potential sacks helps slow down opposing defensive lines, and he is among the most successful quarterbacks in putting up points when the team crosses its opponent’s 20 yard line. He is setting career highs in most statistical categories. Harbaugh, a former Pro Bowl quarterback, is considered a catalyst for Smith’s success.

It might be premature to dream of a Super Bowl with the defending champion Packers in the same conference. It is not too early to declare that the 49ers are back among the NFL’s elite and that things should only get better as Harbaugh and his staff get more time to implement their approach.

Andrew Luck and Stanford Bring Rare Local College Football Focus

December 4, 2011 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

The Bay Area is hardly a college football hotbed.

The local schools ostensibly competing for the national title, Cal and Stanford, have stringent admission standards which make it difficult to attract enough elite athletes to compete at the highest levels. And unlike places like Norman, Oklahoma and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; there are loads of professional sports and other entertainment alternatives that tend to distract the focus of local sports fans.

Thanks to Stanford football and its quarterback Andrew Luck, this year could be a major exception to the usual state of affairs. Instead of being a college football backwater, the Bay Area could find itself as the home of the Heisman Trophy winner, the top pick in the NFL draft, and a contender to play in the BCS Championship Game next month.

Stanford was undefeated through October and faced mostly home games the rest of the way. Luck was a Heisman Trophy finalist last year and has been touted as the 2011 frontrunner since he announced last winter that he would return to Stanford for what technically is his redshirt junior season.

Luck’s story is especially compelling. He was widely expected to be the number one choice in the 2011 NFL Draft, which can be worth upwards of $30 million. The only college head coach he had known, Jim Harbaugh, had left to lead the 49ers. Despite all that, he chose to stay in college to pursue his degree in architecture and enjoy the college life for one more year.

“I am committed to earning my degree in architectural design from Stanford University and am on track to accomplish this at the completion of the spring quarter of 2012,” Luck said in a statement at the time of his decision.

And while Luck has been portrayed as an excellent student who fits in well as part of the Stanford community, it is unusual for someone who has been a Heisman runner-up, a finalist for several other prestigious awards, and MVP of the Orange Bowl to come back to college football and accept the risk of injury and the loss of millions of dollars. Even if he did not get hurt, Luck was risking the fate of Matt Leinart who returned for one last year at USC after winning the Heisman and the National Championship. Leinart slipped a bit on the field, fell in the draft, lost some money, was a disappointment with the Arizona Cardinals, and is struggling to regain his touch as a journeyman backup in the NFL.

Unlike Leinart, Luck has been better on the field this year, is avoiding injury and is still in position to cash in. His father, former NFL quarterback and now Athletic Director at the University of West Virginia Oliver Luck, said: “This is a win-win for him. He gets to spend another year at Stanford, be part of a highly-ranked team, finish his degree and enjoy Palo Alto. It’s not like the NFL is going anywhere, it’s one of the best run leagues in the world. It will still be there when he graduates.”

By Dec. 10 Luck will know if he won the Heisman. The BCS Bowl games take place in early January, and Stanford is in line for strong consideration to get a bid. The 2012 NFL Draft which will tell Luck where he will be playing and living the next few years is in April, and the negotiations that could set him and his family financially for several generations will last through the spring. Through all this he will try and finish his degree.

Yes, the next few months will be some of the most memorable of Luck’s life and will put a unique and unusual spotlight on Bay Area college football.

The Higher the High, the Lower the Low – Bay Area Fans Experience a Giant Disappointment

November 6, 2011 by Paul Hirsch 2 Comments

Last season the Giants gave their fans the thrill of a lifetime by capturing the franchise’s first World Championship since its arrival in San Francisco in 1958. The victory parade on Market Street drew a crowd estimated at nearly 1,000,000 people. Fans celebrated The Freak, The Beard, The Panda, and Aubrey Huff’s rally thong.

This year The Freak had a losing record, The Beard hurt his arm, The Panda broke his hand, and the rally thong lost its magic as its owner suffered through arguably his worst season and may force the Giants to face the fact that they spent $23 million on a player whose skills have dissipated at age 34.

The fans, though, performed like champions. All 81 games at AT&T Park were sellouts and the team set an all time attendance record of nearly 3.4 million tickets sold. Even though many of the games were low-scoring snoozers, those at the ballpark remained engaged, loud and hopeful, pretty much until the bitter end.

How did things end so badly for the 2011 Giants? Partly it was the law of averages. Players like Huff, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross got hot at precisely the right time in 2010 to help carry an offense that many considered suspect. Each of those players thudded back to earth this season, and Burrell is suffering from a degenerative foot condition that might end his career. Andres Torres may have proved that career minor leaguers who suddenly have great years in the big leagues past age 30 are unlikely to repeat such a performance, and supporting contributors like Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria who did not return turned out to be sorely missed.

Mostly, though, the downfall of the 2011 Giants could be centered on two key injuries in a three week span. On May 25, Florida Marlins outfielder (and Northern California native) Scott Cousins leveled Giants catcher and reigning National League Rookie of the Year Buster Posey while scoring the winning run in an extra inning game. In the act of blocking the plate, Posey’s left leg was trapped under his 220-pound body leading to torn ligaments and broken bones in his left ankle. He missed the remainder of the season. Sixteen nights later former NL Batting Champion, second baseman Freddy Sanchez, dislocated his shoulder diving for a ground ball, and was also out for the rest of this season.

The Giant offense never recovered. Their total of 570 runs was 29th out of 30 major league teams. The only reason the Giants were able to win 86 games and remain marginally in contention until their last road trip was that their pitching staff was second-best in the National League. Unfortunately, even great pitching cannot overcome an offense that scores one run or fewer in 36 games.

Losing Posey was the biggest blow. Catcher is the most difficult position to fill in a daily lineup, and catchers who contribute significantly with the bat are rare. In 2010 Posey finished 11th in the MVP voting even though he was not called up to the majors until May. In one instant this season the Giants lost a player who figured to contribute 25 homers, perhaps 90 or more RBIs and hit close to .300 while holding down a key defensive position. Posey’s replacements hit less than .200, managed just seven homeruns, and turned a position of great strength into a significant weakness on defense as well as with the bat.

Giant manager Bruce Bochy said taking Posey out of the Giant lineup was, “like taking Johnny Bench out of the Big Red Machine … for us he was that important.”

Giants’ fans have reason to be optimistic for next season. Posey is recovering well from his injury and is expected to be 100 per cent by spring training. The starting rotation should return intact and because of the team’s success at the box office there is plenty of money in the coffers to add a couple of key bats to the lineup. The sentimental loyalty that often comes from winning the World Series won’t be a factor in constructing next season’s roster, and, perhaps most important, the Giants do not have a dominant opponent within their division that can be counted on to win year after year.

As you read this, pitchers and catchers report in about 90 days. In the meantime, it will be fun to watch the Giants rebuild their roster this winter and attempt to get back on top of the baseball world.

Bummed Out by NBA Lockout? Sharks Can Fill Sports Void

October 1, 2011 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

Baseball season will end this month. Football is mainly limited to weekends. Local college basketball teams play only about twice a week. With the NBA lockout you, the dedicated sports fan and Off the Bench reader, will have plenty of spare time to fill this winter.

Why not follow the team that has won more NHL regular season and playoff games than any other team over the past five seasons? That team, the San Jose Sharks, is located down the road and has reloaded this offseason to take another run at its holy grail, The Stanley Cup.

While the players the Sharks have added; Brent Burns, Martin Havlat, Michal Handzus, James Sheppard, Jim Vandermeer, and Colin White are not household names outside of Canada and parts of Europe, suffice to say that among them are a couple of top tier defensemen, penalty killers, and reliable scorers that Sharks General Manager Doug Wilson believes could help the team attain its elusive championship.

“We have high expectations, but we have not yet achieved our goal,” said Wilson of the Stanley Cup title. “We are always seeking ways to get better. We think we have a three-year window with our best players…we try to live each year in the moment and add the pieces we need. Our primary focus is on today.”

Fans tend to have a win-now mentality, which is a good match for Wilson’s approach. So those who follow the Sharks can be assured that management is doing everything it can to win, meaning following the Sharks can be a very satisfying experience.

What has been less satisfying is the annual disappointment in the playoffs. Despite the team’s regular season success it has never played in the Stanley Cup Finals. Not surprisingly, Wilson is proud of what the team has accomplished and is optimistic for the coming season.

“We have been in the final four the last two seasons (though they went 1-8 in those two semi-final series) and in the process we beat one of the most dominant hockey teams, the Detroit Red Wings, twice.

“Last year we got off to a slow start and were 12th in the conference in mid January. We had to finish strong to make the playoffs (the Sharks went 24-4-4 down the stretch and earned the second seed in the Western Conference). That gave us very little margin for error. The rush we put on at the end of the season led to injuries. We will not accept a slow start this season.”

Wilson said that the greatest area of focus this coming season will be improving the penalty kill. The Sharks had been a top five team in that area for most of the past five seasons before dropping to 24th last season. “Handzus, White and Vandemeer are great penalty killers, which is part of why we acquired them. Penalty killing is execution of everyone on the ice. We are driven to get back into the top five.”

To improve in that area, and to acquire top defenseman Burns, the Sharks gave up two big scorers and popular players, Devon Setoguchi and Dany Heatley to the Minnesota Wild in separate deals. “We wish Heatley and Seto all the best,” said Wilson. “We think players like Joe Pavelski and Logan Coture are ready for an expanded role. We don’t think our scoring will fall off.”

The NHL has a hard salary cap, but unlike most good teams the Sharks have never had to dismantle their roster in a salary cap panic. “It starts with our ownership group and the discipline we need to make our players want to play here. We have a full building every night, we are committed to winning, and we try to treat our players fairly. That allows us to structure our contracts the way we do. Players want to win and they want to be in a winning environment.”

Essentially, the Sharks are able to offer players less money in exchange for a winning environment while selling them on the notion that if everyone sacrifices a little the team will keep its best players together and succeed. The franchise cornerstone players, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dan Boyle, have bought into this and the supporting cast has universally followed.

Those who follow the Sharks this winter will get to watch a skilled, championship-starved team play an exciting brand of hockey in front of a passionate fan base. The Warriors haven’t offered that combination in more than 30 years, and this winter they probably won’t even play.

There’s room on the bandwagon for anyone who wants to climb aboard. Who knows, you may even get to bask in that championship glow come June.

Is the Yankee Icon on Career Watch as Performance Starts to Fade?

September 8, 2011 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

It was like old times on May 8 as Derek Jeter powered the Yankees past the Texas Rangers. The 36-year-old shortstop went 4-6, hit two homeruns, drove in three runs and stole a base for what was easily his most complete and productive game in more than a year.

Better yet was the game on July 9 when the Yankee captain recorded his long awaited 3,000th hit. That day he went 5-5, and the milestone hit was a homerun.

The homeruns on May 8 were Jeter’s first in 259 at bats, going back to last August. His weekend performance in Detroit raised his average 34 points to .276. Teammates are testifying to the media that the ball is now jumping of his bat during batting practice, and Jeter himself was saying that he now feels comfortable at the plate, which he says means the hits are sure to follow.

Instead, from May 8 to July 8, Jeter’s average fell about twenty points to .257, and he had no homeruns. His big day on July 9 got him back to .270, an average he essentially maintained through the end of July, but a number that is well below his career mark of .312.

At age 37, Jeter plays the most demanding every day position on the field other than catcher. The other great young shortstops of the late 1990s; Alex Rodriguez, Nomar Garciaparra, and Omar Vizquel, have moved to other positions, the bench, or entirely out of the big leagues. The second half of the 2010 season was a disaster for Jeter. He hit just two homeruns after July 1, and delivered only 16 other extra base hits in three months. His batting average dropped to .270 despite a .330 start in April. He got to fewer balls in the field for the third straight year, and according to the advanced metrics on baseball-reference.com he performed as a below average fielder as measured by runs prevented at his position.

The Yankees have noticed that their shortstop’s career is in decline. Jeter’s contract was up after the 2010 season. That contract paid him $189 million over ten seasons, including $22.6 million for 2010. Sources say that Jeter first asked for a new seven year deal at roughly the same rate. This lead to a protracted, public negotiation during which Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman suggested that if Jeter thought he was worth that much then he was free to test the market with other teams.

Cashman knew that was an empty threat, as Jeter’s prestige and tradition had more value to the Yankees than any other team. No other team would or could pay him anything approaching what the Yankees might pay, even if it was less than Jeter wanted. The parties eventually agreed to a three year contract that will pay Jeter about $16 million each season, with a player option for the fourth year at $8 million plus possible increases for awards and performance that could bump his salary to $17 million for that final year. And while that is still a tremendous amount of money, it is always embarrassing for it to become well known that one’s employer feels that one’s worth is declining.

By any rational measure, Jeter’s skills as a baseball player are on the wane. He is still capable of great games and maybe even the odd excellent month, but the sustained excellence he has shown since winning Rookie of the Year in 1996 is no longer there. The Yankees are profiting from his march to milestones like the 3,000th career hit. That Jeter still commands respect in the Yankee clubhouse is evident by seeing how excited his teammates were with his superb game on Mother’s Day and how they rallied around him when he reached 3,000 hits. As captain and primary team spokesman he takes pressure off his teammates, which they clearly appreciate.

With just performance as a measure, Jeter is merely an overpaid former superstar, and there is no shame in that. He has not yet reached the point where he is hurting the Yankees, in part because they do not have a shortstop ready to step in and give them a better performance than what Jeter can still deliver.

The danger will come in a year or two when the Yankees may pass on a free agent shortstop or a trade for another team’s shortstop in deference to Jeter. Jeter has said he is not interested in changing positions, and the Yankees may not want to pay him $16 million to sit on the bench.

Jeter’s career has been marked by class, dignity, and grace under pressure. His final contribution as a Yankee icon may be to retire in 2013 or 2014, leaving millions on the table, so the Yankees can move forward with someone better able to meet the demands of everyday shortstop. The last chapter of Jeter’s career will be a fascinating process to watch.

Don’t Forget the A’s

August 4, 2011 by Paul Hirsch Leave a Comment

Sometimes it is difficult to remember that the Bay Area has two major league baseball teams. The task of making sure we don’t forget about the team that did not win the World Series last year falls on veteran sports public relations professional Bob Rose, who has 30 years experience working for teams and leagues at the college and professional levels and is now Director of Public Relations for the Oakland A’s.

“We take pride in providing great value to our customers,” Rose said. “We think our promotions and pricing include everyone under the baseball tent.”

Indeed, the A’s go far beyond the traditional giveaways to make attending their games as affordable as possible. Guests on Tuesdays can park for free at the Coliseum, on Wednesdays thousands of tickets are priced at $2, and on Thursdays there are free hot dogs available for the first 10,000 fans.

“The value we provide should resonate more than ever before,” Rose said. “We are sensitive to people who might be struggling with the recession, with unemployment, with underemployment and with just deciding if they can afford to go to a game. We try and be one of the best live entertainment options by remaining affordable.”

Affordability is one thing, but people must also be entertained. A huge advantage held by the A’s is that baseball’s two primary glamour franchises, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox visit the Coliseum at least once each every season. The Giants also visit once a year, making it an easier trip for fans in Alive East Bay territory to see a team many of them followed from childhood.

As the clear second team in this market, Rose has challenges most of his colleagues across major league baseball do not face. The big local sports radio station, the largest Bay Area sports cable TV channel are both dedicated to the Giants, and the ballpark in San Francisco is newer and more picturesque. This forces Rose to get creative in disseminating his message.

“We work extra hard at servicing the media to make sure they have our messages and can provide them to our audience. We also work with our broadcast partners (the radio and TV stations that cover the A’s games) to use the three hours of air time to communicate our story to our fans. Social media is a big part of our strategy. We have thousands of friends on Facebook and we tweet to reach out.” Rose also mentioned that the A’s have a traditional ad campaign with TV, radio, print ads and billboards throughout the region.

Winning of course is the biggest factor in a team’s success, and the A’s have not done a great deal of that lately. The team has not been to the post season since 2006 and has struggled most years to win half its games. “Winning and star players drive free media coverage,” Rose said. “There is no doubt about that.”

Since winning has been a challenge, the A’s have relied on promotions, and being relentless with the media when there is a story. They promote the players who achieve outstanding individual success (like making the All Star team or the perfect game Dallas Braden pitched) or seize upon a fresh young star like new second baseman Jemile Weeks.

“We have to be more aggressive than the Giants because we do not get half their coverage,” Rose said. “We try to be the more organic baseball organization and try to sell the product that is on the field.”

For ALIVE East Bay fans the A’s provide a much lower cost alternative and in some ways a more attractive schedule. Oakland’s ballpark is a shorter ride and there is no bridge to cross to get to a game. We are fortunate to have two teams within easy driving distance and we should remember that both deserve our support, especially if we want to see all the teams from both the American and National League continue to visit the Bay Area.