Welcome to the Daily Bear Dump, a Write for California community board where one can talk about anything – Cal-related or off-topic. Comment threads are sorted by topic. Anything is fine, so long as you’re generally civil.
Sorry, folks, this hat from Fanatics is sold out It’s a real, honest to goodness A’sshat
I cannot believe that I have to this point neglected to wish everyone a Happy Oski's Birthday. The Great One made his debut on this day in 1941 in a 41-0 Golden Bear rout of St. Mary's,
Cal should have scheduled a 13th game against St Mary's for the bye week to celebrate. Probably would be as competitive as some of those games of yore.
Maybe we could get the ink-stained wretches of both schools to play a football game. St. Mary's gave up football in 2003. IIRC, St. Mary's head coach at the time was Vincent White, who played his college ball at LSJU.
Calamo definitely would rate it a 700. I skipped the rating because I only saw the 4th and decided it was in my best interest not to rate the game. So I skipped all of the post game analysis.
i love how people think that when you study astronomy, somehow you are better as astrology too. recently i have just been saying yes to that rather than arguing about it
Better than unkempt grass and weeds that, when they dry out (and they will), provide a direct path for fire to reach the house, garage, shed, etc. and burn them too. Its called greenspace that prevents conflagrations in the wildland interface.
That's not a silly belief in any measure. Lawns are often a disruption to the landscape because the fertilizers and pesticides used to maintain them often harm other parts of the biomes in which lawns exist, to say nothing of the gas and oil often used to cut it. In short, because of the materials used to maintain lawns they are often not beneficial to flora and fauna that can be found nearby.
Yeah, they probably make some sense in perpetually misty England (where they originated), but in places like California where it doesn't rain for half the year, not so much.
If you're actually advocating for lawns in California because lawns represent "defensible greenspace", then I'd like to sell you on the notion that we need to rake our forests and dampen them.
I believe that freshly baked cookies should be free and available to all Americans at all times. I'm expecting a Harris administration to make this a priority.
reminds me of HS days in Moraga when fresh Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough was delivered to our school and baked up in the afternoon for only 35 cents each!
you could get 2 cookies and 2 cartons of milk for less than $1.
Cloudy & 58, with some drizzle, due to the marine layer, but warming and clearing on the way, headed for mostly sunny in the 70s. More of the same predicted for the next week+. Fall has arrived in western Oregon.
Light to moderate rain so far this morning. Looks like a mid-day reprieve then some heavier rain later. I’m not venturing far either. A friend is running the Appalachian Trail and was out in the mountains of North Carolina but is hunkering down at a hotel for a couple days for the storm to pass.
Update: I found the lull and got out for a bit of exercise. Heavier rain from a band closer to the center of the storm will be here in a couple hours. Mostly I wanted to go by the Kennedy Center to see the musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra walking the picket line. Tomorrow is the season opening gala so interesting times.
Helene, which is a tropical storm, is hitting me right now. It is dark and angry looking now. Officially, weather services says 21 mph winds but I'm looking at the trees right now and saying that is way low. I ain't going anywhere today.
If that's accurate, there's a creeping movement towards Harris. I will note that in all of those states (which are considered the swing states in this election), I have the sense that Harris has gained at least 1% to 2% in the last two weeks. The most surprising may be Nevada, which shows a 7% lead for Harris, given that Nevada has often been portrayed as tied or leaning slightly for Trump.
The aggregators are basically showing that, a creeping movement towards Harris since the debate. These particular polls are the rosiest in Nevada and Arizona for her; other ones show it much closer or Trump leading (especially in AZ).
I don't trust polls this year. The race is super closer no matter which poll you look at. And they all say different things. This, plus the last two election cycles just prove that polls are an imperfect science.
I'll go you one better - I don't trust the press in this election year. I haven't trusted the press in any election year starting in 2000. See Bush v. Gore for background.
It's a shitty place to be when you KNOW that the only thing standing between where we are now and a hostile government is a fair and free election.
agreed about not trusting the polls. the only thing we can say for sure that it is a lot closer now that Harris is the nominee.
my guess is that both candidates will reach some saturation point and there will be 2-3 pct of undecided's in all the polls and since that is in the margin of error for many polls it will just go down to the wire. tense, election night TV watching ..
Carlos Correa and the Twins are 2 games behind in the Wildcard race with four games to go, before yesterday's game. The go into extra innings but fall behind by two runs in the 13rd. And this is the effort Carlos Correa gave as the final batter:
Almost certainly, though I think they tried to spin it as Correa's injury history hadn't been a recurring subject of discussion during negotiations.
I also think "buyer's remorse" is a different way of saying "cold feet" in this instance. Seeing as how the contract was dependent on the outcome of the physical, the Giants hadn't actually bought Correa's services before the physical. I'll also stipulate that this is hairsplitting. A lot of potato, potahto.
This is the hardest piece I’ve had to write during my time at Athletics Nation.
As of Mason Miller’s final pitch to clinch the final 3-2 victory, the Oakland A’s are officially gone. They’re over. The “Athletics” survive only as a shell of a franchise, held hostage by a billionaire loser without an ounce of empathy left in his heart. He goes by the disgraced name of John Fisher. The team will go on to play in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento on 130-degree turf. They might eventually, but probably won’t, play in a soulless domed stadium on the Las Vegas strip. But they certainly won’t be playing baseball in Oakland for as long as the Fisher name remains attached to the franchise.
Giants have an off-day, laughing that they didn't relinquish the San Jose territory back to the A's, who gave it to the Giants so they could stay in the Bay.
LOS ANGELES — Plenty of big names came through for the Dodgers in a five-run seventh inning, turning a two-run deficit into a 7-2 win over the Padres on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. That clinched the Dodgers third straight National League West title and 11th in 12 seasons.
So many stories recently about all the pro teams that used to be in Oakland. Shedding more than a tear for those great memories. I was living in Bowles Hall during the 1975 Warriors NBA championship.
Even more than the sadness, even more than the anger and the despair and the disgust, there is loneliness. As the A's final season in Oakland winds down, the Coliseum's endless concrete seems to contract, the life of the place leaving like a long sigh. Game after game, the collection of fans, tiny dots on a huge map, sit in near-penitential quiet. The random "Sell the team" chants, once hearty and frequent, have taken on the tone of plaintive wails, like desperate pleas from the bottom of a well.
I feel like Oakland will not have another professional sports team without a substantial civic renaissance. Its facilities are old, it lacks the tax base, its fan basin is too spread out to attend games regularly, and doesn't stack up well to dozens of other cities.
The issue with Oakland trying to get another team now is that the concept of media-rights "territories" has only grown stronger in the days since the Bay Area became a two-team market in baseball and football. If another MLB team tried to move in, the Giants would fight VERY hard against it, and the other owners would likely go along and reject any proposal (the better to protect their own territories). The Bay is now served by at least one team in all the major sports, so there's a big hurdle in trying to get a new one.
Maybe they could try to get an existing team to move like the Warriors did back in the day, but with them and the Giants owning their own buildings in SF that seems extremely unlikely to happen. I doubt the Sharks or 49ers would want to give up their Silicon Valley foothold either.
I would push back on your narrative here, as several of your points are incorrect. However, because I am still in the throws of grief on this, exhausted from attending yesterday’s cathartic final game, and am p.o.-ed that the first observations of some of my fellow WFC folks are repeating the national polarized attitudes about Oakland, I’ll let Damon speak for me: https://youtu.be/r5o1ycBagao?si=vpsmOQilIqd53E-I
You have to have decent accessible infrastructure (not just stadium/arena, but also parking, major thoroughfares, etc.), and surrounding support services, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, stores, etc., and preferably not a street security/crime problem, in order to attract patrons on a consistent basis. If a community doesn't realize and provide for that, attracting or retaining teams and their patrons is not possible. It's amazing how difficult to grasp this concept is in so many places.
The Coliseum site has four infrastructure points in its favor -
1. nearby access to a freeway (I-880 via 66th Ave. exit and Hegenberger Rd. exit)
2. nearby access to major surface streets (66th Ave., Oakport St., San Leandro St. and Hegenberger Rd.)
3. nearby access to Oakland International Airport
4. nearby access to public transportation (Coliseum BART station, AC Transit stops on San Leandro St., AirBART to OAK)
There used to be restaurants and hotels also close by, but because City Hall has neglected this part of Oakland, that has fallen away. Some of this blame goes to a string of Oakland mayors.
o Elihu Harris for going all in on luring the Raiders back to Oakland at the expense of the A's.
o Jerry Brown refused to countenance a downtown stadium for the A's, preferring instead to work on building 10,000 units of housing in downtown Oakland. Big missed opportunity.
o Ronald Dellums, who was about as disinterested as anyone as Mayor of Oakland. Dellums was barely competent (probably because he was a legislator trying to be an executive).
o Jean Quan, because she was incompetent, and couldn't deliver *anything* on Coliseum City which could have been a game changer.
o Libby Schaaf, who simply couldn't imagine or get together the forces necessary to make the necessary improvements and, frankly, didn't see the urgency.
o Sheng Thao who was stuck with the leftovers of failed attempts from her predecessors and, who was overmatched.
If the Haas family still owned the team, this never would have happened. The Haas family actually cared about the community. Those were the glory years of the Oakland A's franchise.
What really screwed them was Manfred giving the team to his buddy Fisher rather than Joe Lacob. But then, I'd bet the A's would be in a new stadium and the Ws would be languishing depending on who else wanted to buy them.
Common theme here, incompetent civic/government management.
That, unfortunately, is a common phenomena in numerous communities, and not just as it pertains to sports/entertainment/college industry endeavors. And incompetence has a tendency to spill over between areas of interest, creating problems for each other in the end.
Sure, it’s not surrounded by restaurants, bars, etc., though those are just a short BART ride away. Also, the Oakland Coliseum is easier to access by public transportation, closer to a major airport, has WAY more parking than Oracle Park and has been a great venue for me to get to for the last twenty years. Do you guys even attend games? And, FWIW the players love playing there. They don’t love playing for John Fisher.
Attend mostly college events, but have been to Oracle & Santa Clara, as well as several others in the west (Seattle, PDX, LA, some LV, Phoenix, SLC) over time. Oracle is a challenge as well, but at least its a destination, and has more in the immediate neighborhood than Oakland Coliseum.
You have just acknowledged you’re not really familiar with the Coliseum game day experience. Many of my Cal peers and workmates here in Oakland have attended A’s games for the past forty years and there hasn’t really been a problem enjoying ourselves immensely. Even inside the stadium there are a few cool spots to enjoy a cool brew, like the Treehouse in left field. It’s so easy to get to the Coliseum by BART. Every stadium has its strengths. The Coliseum is in an industrial area. Oakland is an industrial town. I embrace it.
I am familiar with what's involved with getting to, or going by, and what you have described is a closed ecosystem that works for locals that don't find local public transportation an added obstacle, but also one not inviting to visitors and outlying clientel.
That, and the fact that there were at least some positives to a game there (more foul ball territory than exists in some states not being one of them!), makes sycasey's point that there was something to work with, and better leadership that modernized the experience and addressed the challenges could have been successful, but the lack thereof doomed it for everyone.
That is sad, unless you are a RiverCat fan looking forward to the opportunity to witness winning games against the Angels & Mariners in person.
in terms of civic renaissance, my observation is that downtown Oakland is cool again. good bars, restaurants, liveliness at night. not sure if this translates into Oakland pro-sports because that might just be spillover $$ from SF and Silicon Valley.
The Raiders had no problem selling out the Coliseum. The Warriors even in their down decades sold out the arena. Downtown Oakland is and was a short BART ride away, easy to have a great meal at one the city’s many diverse restaurants then get to the game without having to worry about parking. The East Bay has plentry of A’s fans, but just like any community, when you crap all over it, there are consequences.
was watching most of the game yesterday. certainly sad and bit emotional for me in a way that i did not expect.
the 9th inning was nuts, with people throwing stuff and delaying the game. it seemed like there was a 50% chance of a riot! even though i am sure that most people were there to peacefully enjoy one last game
The post game talk by the coach thanking the fans was nice.
The crowd was raucous, the mood festive and the fans engaged from the first pitch. The afternoon started early. The parking lot, scheduled to open at 8 a.m. -- more than 4½ hours before first pitch -- instead opened at 7 a.m. after the line of cars waiting to get into the stadium backed up traffic on I-880.
i have one more episode to go in season 2. this started off very slow and confusing and hard to tell who was who. this season has come together nicely with sharper focus on some of the main characters.
been putting off watching the LOTR season 2 since i dont like mixing 2 fantasy shows at once.
In a matchup that everyone has been waiting for - a conference game between Washington Huskies and Rutgers in Piscataway NJ. Rutgers is favored by 1.5 points. 8/5 Eastern/Pacific on Fox
Rutgers has shown some promise, and Washington has shown some considerable uncertainty about their offense. And it is a long road trip on a short week for a team that played a later game last Saturday. And a lot of people in a lot of the country need to be persuaded to to bet on the Huskies.
Having matriculated at RU, I am fairly certain that Rutgers football is the East Coast version of Cal football. Just when things get interesting, the wheels come off.
Army beat Temple 42-14. In fitting manner, Army is strong by ground rather than air - piling up 417 yards on 57 attempts (7.3 average). Temple had negative 5 yards on the ground.
one item that dropped off my resume a long time ago was a semester as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams for an introduction to international relations class
CLAREMONT – Returning to the road for the first of four straight away from home Thursday at Pomona-Pitzer, the No. 6 California men's water polo team dominated down the stretch to take a 15-10 win.
The Golden Bears (8-3) took control of the game late in the third quarter, eventually ending it on an 8-2 run. Junior Nik Mirkovic and senior Max Casabella finished with three goals apiece. Senior goalkeeper Kai Seed registered eight saves, all coming in the second half.
WOODSIDE – Despite a solid start Thursday at Menlo Country Club, the California men's and women's golf teams fell to Stanford 4-3 in the fifth edition of the Big Match.
Cal's pairings of Ziqin (Eric) Zhou and Jieming Yang, Kuangyu (Tony) Chen and Adora Liu and Daniel Heo and Claudia Lara Miravitlles earned match victories, but the Golden Bears weren't able to make it four wins in five tries over their rivals in the annual event.
BERKELEY – The No. 22 California women's soccer team became the first Cal program to win an ACC contest on home soil defeating No. 16 Pitt 1-0 Thursday afternoon at Edwards Stadium. Sophomore forward Soleil Dimry provided the game-winning goal in the 47th minute, the first score of her career.
CARY, N.C. – The California women's tennis tandem of Jessica Alsola and Mao Mushika won Thursday at the ITA All-American Championships to advance to Friday's doubles quarterfinals. A win in that match would qualify the Golden Bears duo for the NCAA Doubles Championship.
TULSA, Okla. – California men's tennis seniors Alex Chang and Mikey Wright defeated Vanderbilt's Henry Ruger and Hugo Coquelin on Thursday to reach the doubles quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships and move one step closer to qualifying for the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Fresh off earning its first point in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the California men's soccer team (3-4-1, 0-2-1 ACC) travels to face third-ranked North Carolina in the program's second road trip to the Tar Heel State this season.
The Golden Bears competed in the first ACC competition of any Cal team when they played at North Carolina State on Sept. 6.
California rugby has announced its schedule for the 2024-25 season, beginning with a pair of fall sevens tournaments before turning its focus to a full slate of 15-a-side action.
Now in its 143rd year in program history, Cal rugby is the oldest Intercollegiate Athletics sport on campus. Head coach Jack Clark enters his 42nd year as head of the program in 2024-25, while associate head coach Tom Billups is in his 26th season with the Golden Bears.
Drive comes in many forms. It can come from desire, fear, and pride, among other factors. For senior Karlie Lema of the No. 22 California women's soccer team, who leads the nation in goals and points, it comes from her competitive genes and a childhood's worth of contests, many of which took place in the home.
Cal gets the commitment of local ATH John Tofi Jr. Tofi is a 6'6" SS/TE at Riordan, who is slated to convert to OLB. Hopefully Cal can get a package deal via his younger brother Tommy Tofi, a 6'7" 350 lb 4/5 star offensive lineman - a junior at Riordan.
I cannot believe that I have to this point neglected to wish everyone a Happy Oski's Birthday. The Great One made his debut on this day in 1941 in a 41-0 Golden Bear rout of St. Mary's,
God, and I thought I was old with now a 7 at the beginning of my age. Happy birthday!
Cal should have scheduled a 13th game against St Mary's for the bye week to celebrate. Probably would be as competitive as some of those games of yore.
Maybe we could get the ink-stained wretches of both schools to play a football game. St. Mary's gave up football in 2003. IIRC, St. Mary's head coach at the time was Vincent White, who played his college ball at LSJU.
And yet against a team of St Mary's students Cal still wouldn't pull away until the middle of the 3rd.
Calamo would still rate the game a 700, but it would still land well within the range of Cal rockfights.
Did Berkelium ever copyright the term? If not, WFC should probably have Twist file papers to lock it up.
Calamo definitely would rate it a 700. I skipped the rating because I only saw the 4th and decided it was in my best interest not to rate the game. So I skipped all of the post game analysis.
happy birthday Oski!
A STRONGLY HELD BUT SOMEWHAT SILLY BELIEF
Astrology - The fact that others strongly believe in it.
i love how people think that when you study astronomy, somehow you are better as astrology too. recently i have just been saying yes to that rather than arguing about it
also, it is amazing how prevalent astrology is in daily life and social interactions.
I believe in Steven Vogt.
I believe that lawns are stupid.
Better than unkempt grass and weeds that, when they dry out (and they will), provide a direct path for fire to reach the house, garage, shed, etc. and burn them too. Its called greenspace that prevents conflagrations in the wildland interface.
That's not a silly belief in any measure. Lawns are often a disruption to the landscape because the fertilizers and pesticides used to maintain them often harm other parts of the biomes in which lawns exist, to say nothing of the gas and oil often used to cut it. In short, because of the materials used to maintain lawns they are often not beneficial to flora and fauna that can be found nearby.
Not to mention, it’s a bad idea to have a lawn in a water starved region.
Yeah, they probably make some sense in perpetually misty England (where they originated), but in places like California where it doesn't rain for half the year, not so much.
And yet California is a region where we have one of the biggest problems with burning down neighborhoods lacking defensible greenspace.
If you're actually advocating for lawns in California because lawns represent "defensible greenspace", then I'd like to sell you on the notion that we need to rake our forests and dampen them.
O. M. F. G.
never use both onion and garlics at once in Italian cooking (maybe not silly)
i am sure that this is not even true and yet i have heard it plenty of times.
I believe that freshly baked cookies should be free and available to all Americans at all times. I'm expecting a Harris administration to make this a priority.
I'm in.
Finally, an Oski Disciple proposal that we can all get behind!
reminds me of HS days in Moraga when fresh Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough was delivered to our school and baked up in the afternoon for only 35 cents each!
you could get 2 cookies and 2 cartons of milk for less than $1.
And the friday donuts and the cheese zombies! I think it was 1 donut for 50 cents?
right. there were cinnamon rolls and zombies all week (right?) and donuts on Fridays. those old fashioned donuts were some of the best ever.
i almost always got the cinnamon rolls. was not a zombie guy
Yeah I think the cinnamon rolls and zombies were all week. Sometimes there would be sausage zombies.
WEATHER
Cloudy & 58, with some drizzle, due to the marine layer, but warming and clearing on the way, headed for mostly sunny in the 70s. More of the same predicted for the next week+. Fall has arrived in western Oregon.
Cool (59 deg. F) and sunny in Oakland this morning with a projected high of 83 deg. F. Similar when I left home in North Berkeley.
90+ in the East Bay today, then 76 on Sat, 79 on Sun, 99 on Tues. Ugh.
In Corpus Christi, TX, visiting family. It's hot. Too far west to be affected by Helene. Stay safe if you are in the storm path!
Light to moderate rain so far this morning. Looks like a mid-day reprieve then some heavier rain later. I’m not venturing far either. A friend is running the Appalachian Trail and was out in the mountains of North Carolina but is hunkering down at a hotel for a couple days for the storm to pass.
Update: I found the lull and got out for a bit of exercise. Heavier rain from a band closer to the center of the storm will be here in a couple hours. Mostly I wanted to go by the Kennedy Center to see the musicians from the National Symphony Orchestra walking the picket line. Tomorrow is the season opening gala so interesting times.
Helene, which is a tropical storm, is hitting me right now. It is dark and angry looking now. Officially, weather services says 21 mph winds but I'm looking at the trees right now and saying that is way low. I ain't going anywhere today.
normally cloudy day in NYC area. the rain seems to have let up a bit and the weather for the Jets tailgate on Sun looks like it will be pretty ideal.
100p start, so start tailgating around 1100a i guess. gates open at 800a, our tailgate hosts have about 75+ people coming and get there around 900a.
OUR CRUMBLING DEMOCRACY
Bloomberg/Morning consult poll:
Pennsylvania [Harris +5]
Georgia [tied]
Michigan [Harris +3]
North Carolina [Harris +2]
Arizona [Harris +3]
Wisconsin [Harris +3]
Nevada [Harris +7]
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4902948-kamala-harris-donald-trump-swing-state-polling/
If that's accurate, there's a creeping movement towards Harris. I will note that in all of those states (which are considered the swing states in this election), I have the sense that Harris has gained at least 1% to 2% in the last two weeks. The most surprising may be Nevada, which shows a 7% lead for Harris, given that Nevada has often been portrayed as tied or leaning slightly for Trump.
39 days to November 5.
The aggregators are basically showing that, a creeping movement towards Harris since the debate. These particular polls are the rosiest in Nevada and Arizona for her; other ones show it much closer or Trump leading (especially in AZ).
I don't trust polls this year. The race is super closer no matter which poll you look at. And they all say different things. This, plus the last two election cycles just prove that polls are an imperfect science.
I'll go you one better - I don't trust the press in this election year. I haven't trusted the press in any election year starting in 2000. See Bush v. Gore for background.
It's a shitty place to be when you KNOW that the only thing standing between where we are now and a hostile government is a fair and free election.
agreed about not trusting the polls. the only thing we can say for sure that it is a lot closer now that Harris is the nominee.
my guess is that both candidates will reach some saturation point and there will be 2-3 pct of undecided's in all the polls and since that is in the margin of error for many polls it will just go down to the wire. tense, election night TV watching ..
New York civil case against Trump with a half billion dollar ruling against him appears to be in trouble as the Appellate court questions the ruling
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/26/trump-civil-fraud-appeal-oral-arguments-00181339
PRO
Carlos Correa and the Twins are 2 games behind in the Wildcard race with four games to go, before yesterday's game. The go into extra innings but fall behind by two runs in the 13rd. And this is the effort Carlos Correa gave as the final batter:
https://twitter.com/tlschwerz/status/1839646485475917927
I'll give that one to Farhan.
Do you think the Giants had buyers remorse? Said they weren't comfortable with the injury history AFTER Correa signed on the dotted line?
Almost certainly, though I think they tried to spin it as Correa's injury history hadn't been a recurring subject of discussion during negotiations.
I also think "buyer's remorse" is a different way of saying "cold feet" in this instance. Seeing as how the contract was dependent on the outcome of the physical, the Giants hadn't actually bought Correa's services before the physical. I'll also stipulate that this is hairsplitting. A lot of potato, potahto.
A’s win, Oakland endures in bittersweet victory to send off Coliseum
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2024/9/26/24255464/oakland-athletics-texas-rangers-last-coliseum-game-jt-ginn-jj-bleday-mason-miller
This is the hardest piece I’ve had to write during my time at Athletics Nation.
As of Mason Miller’s final pitch to clinch the final 3-2 victory, the Oakland A’s are officially gone. They’re over. The “Athletics” survive only as a shell of a franchise, held hostage by a billionaire loser without an ounce of empathy left in his heart. He goes by the disgraced name of John Fisher. The team will go on to play in a minor league ballpark in Sacramento on 130-degree turf. They might eventually, but probably won’t, play in a soulless domed stadium on the Las Vegas strip. But they certainly won’t be playing baseball in Oakland for as long as the Fisher name remains attached to the franchise.
Giants have an off-day, laughing that they didn't relinquish the San Jose territory back to the A's, who gave it to the Giants so they could stay in the Bay.
Dodgers finish the job at home, clinch NL West by beating Padres
https://www.truebluela.com/2024/9/26/24255194/dodgers-division-clinch-padres
LOS ANGELES — Plenty of big names came through for the Dodgers in a five-run seventh inning, turning a two-run deficit into a 7-2 win over the Padres on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. That clinched the Dodgers third straight National League West title and 11th in 12 seasons.
Cowboys squeak out a win over the Giants 20-15. New York only punted once, but ended up with 5 field goals
https://www.espn.com/nfl/game/_/gameId/401671812/cowboys-giants
White Sox: "I'm getting better. I don't want to go on the cart. I feel fine. I think I'll go for a walk. I feel happy. I feel happy."
https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/401570845
RIP Oakland A's
https://oaklandside.org/2024/09/26/cartoonist-draws-end-of-era-for-oakland-athletics/
Says it better than I ever could have.
TL; DR - It's about the fans, stupid. (MLB = stupid)
So many stories recently about all the pro teams that used to be in Oakland. Shedding more than a tear for those great memories. I was living in Bowles Hall during the 1975 Warriors NBA championship.
https://www.kcra.com/article/athletics-all-pro-sports-teams-that-left-oakland/62370304
Great article by Tim Keown
Oakland A's fans say painful farewell ahead of move to Las Vegas
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/41386662/fans-goodbye-oakland-leaving-coliseum-moving-las-vegas
Even more than the sadness, even more than the anger and the despair and the disgust, there is loneliness. As the A's final season in Oakland winds down, the Coliseum's endless concrete seems to contract, the life of the place leaving like a long sigh. Game after game, the collection of fans, tiny dots on a huge map, sit in near-penitential quiet. The random "Sell the team" chants, once hearty and frequent, have taken on the tone of plaintive wails, like desperate pleas from the bottom of a well.
I feel like Oakland will not have another professional sports team without a substantial civic renaissance. Its facilities are old, it lacks the tax base, its fan basin is too spread out to attend games regularly, and doesn't stack up well to dozens of other cities.
The issue with Oakland trying to get another team now is that the concept of media-rights "territories" has only grown stronger in the days since the Bay Area became a two-team market in baseball and football. If another MLB team tried to move in, the Giants would fight VERY hard against it, and the other owners would likely go along and reject any proposal (the better to protect their own territories). The Bay is now served by at least one team in all the major sports, so there's a big hurdle in trying to get a new one.
Maybe they could try to get an existing team to move like the Warriors did back in the day, but with them and the Giants owning their own buildings in SF that seems extremely unlikely to happen. I doubt the Sharks or 49ers would want to give up their Silicon Valley foothold either.
I would push back on your narrative here, as several of your points are incorrect. However, because I am still in the throws of grief on this, exhausted from attending yesterday’s cathartic final game, and am p.o.-ed that the first observations of some of my fellow WFC folks are repeating the national polarized attitudes about Oakland, I’ll let Damon speak for me: https://youtu.be/r5o1ycBagao?si=vpsmOQilIqd53E-I
You have to have decent accessible infrastructure (not just stadium/arena, but also parking, major thoroughfares, etc.), and surrounding support services, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, stores, etc., and preferably not a street security/crime problem, in order to attract patrons on a consistent basis. If a community doesn't realize and provide for that, attracting or retaining teams and their patrons is not possible. It's amazing how difficult to grasp this concept is in so many places.
The Coliseum site has four infrastructure points in its favor -
1. nearby access to a freeway (I-880 via 66th Ave. exit and Hegenberger Rd. exit)
2. nearby access to major surface streets (66th Ave., Oakport St., San Leandro St. and Hegenberger Rd.)
3. nearby access to Oakland International Airport
4. nearby access to public transportation (Coliseum BART station, AC Transit stops on San Leandro St., AirBART to OAK)
There used to be restaurants and hotels also close by, but because City Hall has neglected this part of Oakland, that has fallen away. Some of this blame goes to a string of Oakland mayors.
o Elihu Harris for going all in on luring the Raiders back to Oakland at the expense of the A's.
o Jerry Brown refused to countenance a downtown stadium for the A's, preferring instead to work on building 10,000 units of housing in downtown Oakland. Big missed opportunity.
o Ronald Dellums, who was about as disinterested as anyone as Mayor of Oakland. Dellums was barely competent (probably because he was a legislator trying to be an executive).
o Jean Quan, because she was incompetent, and couldn't deliver *anything* on Coliseum City which could have been a game changer.
o Libby Schaaf, who simply couldn't imagine or get together the forces necessary to make the necessary improvements and, frankly, didn't see the urgency.
o Sheng Thao who was stuck with the leftovers of failed attempts from her predecessors and, who was overmatched.
Yeah, just about all of these leaders were either incompetent or (like Brown and Schaaf) had bigger fish to fry.
That said, I think a solution was possible if Fisher and crew had actually been willing to work on it. They weren't.
If the Haas family still owned the team, this never would have happened. The Haas family actually cared about the community. Those were the glory years of the Oakland A's franchise.
What really screwed them was Manfred giving the team to his buddy Fisher rather than Joe Lacob. But then, I'd bet the A's would be in a new stadium and the Ws would be languishing depending on who else wanted to buy them.
Common theme here, incompetent civic/government management.
That, unfortunately, is a common phenomena in numerous communities, and not just as it pertains to sports/entertainment/college industry endeavors. And incompetence has a tendency to spill over between areas of interest, creating problems for each other in the end.
Sure, it’s not surrounded by restaurants, bars, etc., though those are just a short BART ride away. Also, the Oakland Coliseum is easier to access by public transportation, closer to a major airport, has WAY more parking than Oracle Park and has been a great venue for me to get to for the last twenty years. Do you guys even attend games? And, FWIW the players love playing there. They don’t love playing for John Fisher.
Attend mostly college events, but have been to Oracle & Santa Clara, as well as several others in the west (Seattle, PDX, LA, some LV, Phoenix, SLC) over time. Oracle is a challenge as well, but at least its a destination, and has more in the immediate neighborhood than Oakland Coliseum.
You have just acknowledged you’re not really familiar with the Coliseum game day experience. Many of my Cal peers and workmates here in Oakland have attended A’s games for the past forty years and there hasn’t really been a problem enjoying ourselves immensely. Even inside the stadium there are a few cool spots to enjoy a cool brew, like the Treehouse in left field. It’s so easy to get to the Coliseum by BART. Every stadium has its strengths. The Coliseum is in an industrial area. Oakland is an industrial town. I embrace it.
I am familiar with what's involved with getting to, or going by, and what you have described is a closed ecosystem that works for locals that don't find local public transportation an added obstacle, but also one not inviting to visitors and outlying clientel.
That, and the fact that there were at least some positives to a game there (more foul ball territory than exists in some states not being one of them!), makes sycasey's point that there was something to work with, and better leadership that modernized the experience and addressed the challenges could have been successful, but the lack thereof doomed it for everyone.
That is sad, unless you are a RiverCat fan looking forward to the opportunity to witness winning games against the Angels & Mariners in person.
that sounds about right.
in terms of civic renaissance, my observation is that downtown Oakland is cool again. good bars, restaurants, liveliness at night. not sure if this translates into Oakland pro-sports because that might just be spillover $$ from SF and Silicon Valley.
The Raiders had no problem selling out the Coliseum. The Warriors even in their down decades sold out the arena. Downtown Oakland is and was a short BART ride away, easy to have a great meal at one the city’s many diverse restaurants then get to the game without having to worry about parking. The East Bay has plentry of A’s fans, but just like any community, when you crap all over it, there are consequences.
This ^^^. Especially the last sentence.
was watching most of the game yesterday. certainly sad and bit emotional for me in a way that i did not expect.
the 9th inning was nuts, with people throwing stuff and delaying the game. it seemed like there was a 50% chance of a riot! even though i am sure that most people were there to peacefully enjoy one last game
The post game talk by the coach thanking the fans was nice.
I watched about half the game. How is it possible Krazy George hasn’t aged a bit?
Crazy George is and was a zombie. They don't age in the traditional sense.
Yeah, when he walked by my section yesterday, he looked great.
some article i read ..
The crowd was raucous, the mood festive and the fans engaged from the first pitch. The afternoon started early. The parking lot, scheduled to open at 8 a.m. -- more than 4½ hours before first pitch -- instead opened at 7 a.m. after the line of cars waiting to get into the stadium backed up traffic on I-880.
DBD AV CLUB
House of the Dragon Season 2 (HBO 14+)
i have one more episode to go in season 2. this started off very slow and confusing and hard to tell who was who. this season has come together nicely with sharper focus on some of the main characters.
been putting off watching the LOTR season 2 since i dont like mixing 2 fantasy shows at once.
Season 2, Episode 7 was the finest episode of this entire HOTD series.
dragons everywhere!
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
In a matchup that everyone has been waiting for - a conference game between Washington Huskies and Rutgers in Piscataway NJ. Rutgers is favored by 1.5 points. 8/5 Eastern/Pacific on Fox
Honestly, I don't understand that line.
Rutgers has shown some promise, and Washington has shown some considerable uncertainty about their offense. And it is a long road trip on a short week for a team that played a later game last Saturday. And a lot of people in a lot of the country need to be persuaded to to bet on the Huskies.
Having matriculated at RU, I am fairly certain that Rutgers football is the East Coast version of Cal football. Just when things get interesting, the wheels come off.
Tonight in ACC: UVA @ #7 Miami (-17.5). 7:30/4:30 Eastern/Pacific on ESPN
I think it’s Virginia Tech not UVA.
Army beat Temple 42-14. In fitting manner, Army is strong by ground rather than air - piling up 417 yards on 57 attempts (7.3 average). Temple had negative 5 yards on the ground.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/matchup/_/gameId/401645331
App State/Liberty game cancelled due to damage from Hurricane Helene. The game will not be rescheduled.
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41474913/helene-forces-cancelation-liberty-app-state-football-game
Memphis: We turned down the Pac-12 because OSU and Wazzu's offer sucked
https://www.commercialappeal.com/videos/sports/college/memphis-tigers/2024/09/26/memphis-ad-ed-scott-pac-12-conference/75403472007/
Which indicates that if they upped their offer a realignment could still happen.
However, the gulf that would have to be closed is substantial.
upcoming college visit schedule of HS senior applying to architecture programs
- BAC Boston Architectural College
- Lehigh University
- Roger Williams
after that i think we are finally done and hopefully applications will mostly be sent by the early Nov 1 deadline.
one item that dropped off my resume a long time ago was a semester as an adjunct professor at Roger Williams for an introduction to international relations class
CAL
Anyone going to the MBB open scrimmage tonight?
[MPOLO] No. 6 Bears Down Pomona-Pitzer
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/mens-water-polo-no-6-bears-down-pomona-pitzer.aspx
CLAREMONT – Returning to the road for the first of four straight away from home Thursday at Pomona-Pitzer, the No. 6 California men's water polo team dominated down the stretch to take a 15-10 win.
The Golden Bears (8-3) took control of the game late in the third quarter, eventually ending it on an 8-2 run. Junior Nik Mirkovic and senior Max Casabella finished with three goals apiece. Senior goalkeeper Kai Seed registered eight saves, all coming in the second half.
[MGOLF] Cal Falls In Big Match
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/mens-golf-cal-falls-in-big-match.aspx
WOODSIDE – Despite a solid start Thursday at Menlo Country Club, the California men's and women's golf teams fell to Stanford 4-3 in the fifth edition of the Big Match.
Cal's pairings of Ziqin (Eric) Zhou and Jieming Yang, Kuangyu (Tony) Chen and Adora Liu and Daniel Heo and Claudia Lara Miravitlles earned match victories, but the Golden Bears weren't able to make it four wins in five tries over their rivals in the annual event.
[WSOC] No. 22 Cal Blanks No. 16 Pitt 1-0 In ACC Home Opener
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/womens-soccer-no-22-cal-blanks-no-16-pitt-1-0-in-acc-home-opener.aspx
BERKELEY – The No. 22 California women's soccer team became the first Cal program to win an ACC contest on home soil defeating No. 16 Pitt 1-0 Thursday afternoon at Edwards Stadium. Sophomore forward Soleil Dimry provided the game-winning goal in the 47th minute, the first score of her career.
[WTEN] Alsola, Mushika Move Closer To NCAA Berth At All-Americans
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/womens-tennis-alsola-mushika-move-closer-to-ncaa-berth-at-all-americans.aspx
CARY, N.C. – The California women's tennis tandem of Jessica Alsola and Mao Mushika won Thursday at the ITA All-American Championships to advance to Friday's doubles quarterfinals. A win in that match would qualify the Golden Bears duo for the NCAA Doubles Championship.
[MTEN] Wright, Chang Reach Quarterfinals At ITA All-Americans
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/mens-tennis-wright-chang-reach-quarterfinals-at-ita-all-americans.aspx
TULSA, Okla. – California men's tennis seniors Alex Chang and Mikey Wright defeated Vanderbilt's Henry Ruger and Hugo Coquelin on Thursday to reach the doubles quarterfinals of the ITA All-American Championships and move one step closer to qualifying for the NCAA Doubles Championship.
[MSOC] Cal Back In Tar Heel State To Face No. 3 UNC
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/mens-soccer-cal-back-in-tar-heel-state-to-face-no-3-unc.aspx
Fresh off earning its first point in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the California men's soccer team (3-4-1, 0-2-1 ACC) travels to face third-ranked North Carolina in the program's second road trip to the Tar Heel State this season.
The Golden Bears competed in the first ACC competition of any Cal team when they played at North Carolina State on Sept. 6.
[RUGBY] Cal Rugby Announces 2024-25 Schedule
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/cal-rugby-announces-2024-25-schedule.aspx
California rugby has announced its schedule for the 2024-25 season, beginning with a pair of fall sevens tournaments before turning its focus to a full slate of 15-a-side action.
Now in its 143rd year in program history, Cal rugby is the oldest Intercollegiate Athletics sport on campus. Head coach Jack Clark enters his 42nd year as head of the program in 2024-25, while associate head coach Tom Billups is in his 26th season with the Golden Bears.
[WSOC] Letting It Fly
https://calbears.com/news/2024/9/26/letting-it-fly.aspx
Drive comes in many forms. It can come from desire, fear, and pride, among other factors. For senior Karlie Lema of the No. 22 California women's soccer team, who leads the nation in goals and points, it comes from her competitive genes and a childhood's worth of contests, many of which took place in the home.
We have a bye this week so no missed field goals!
Extra time to practice kicking wide and low.
Somehow Wilcox will come out of the BYE week with even more injuries than when he went in.
Go Bears!!!
Cal gets the commitment of local ATH John Tofi Jr. Tofi is a 6'6" SS/TE at Riordan, who is slated to convert to OLB. Hopefully Cal can get a package deal via his younger brother Tommy Tofi, a 6'7" 350 lb 4/5 star offensive lineman - a junior at Riordan.