June 2009 Archives

I wrote a column for Sunday asking if the Giants are for real. They are, in a sense. Did you know they have the second best record in the NL? They do. They are vastly improved and may be a wildcard team, although I don't think they could proceed far in the postseason if they get into it. When my column gets posted I will link to it here.

I'm going on vacation and will return for the NFL training camps and preseason. I won't post blogs on the Cohn Zohn as much as I do now. I will post occasionally as I try to decompress after a long year. I wish you a healthy and prosperous July.

Lowell

This is about Stephen Curry mania, the latest Warriors foolishness. I refuse to be caught up in Curry-mania and these are the reasons.

1: Curry is an offensive player. But the Warriors already have plenty of offense. They need a big guy who can rebound and defend. So Curry is off the main point.

2: We hear the Warriors were going to package the 7th pick in a trade with the Suns but when Curry came to them, they pulled the pick off the table. This means Don Nelson is excited about Curry. Nelson is always excited about new players before they play for him. Then he gets down on them. Recent examples -- Marco Belinelli, Anthony Randolph, Jamal Crawford. So Nelson is in the love affair stage with Curry but that will end sometime in training camp.

3: Curry may be good -- he's not THAT good -- but the Warriors generally find a way to screw things up. It will be interesting to see if and how they louse this one up. The dramatic possibilities are enormous. Monta Ellis locks himself in a closet and cries. Ellis refuses to pass the ball to Curry. Hey, use your imaginations.

This Curry draft pick will not matter a hill of beans until we see what else the Warriors do. They need a power forward who does power forward things. That is the key. So far the Warriors haven't found the key. They're still fumbling with the lock.

This you should know. I asked Larry Riley Role if Curry will be the W's point guard of the future. Riley said not necessarily. He made it clear Curry is a backup and may not play much until Dec. or January.

Which means Curry is not an impact pick and not a team changer.

"I have to be willing to work and make mistakes and learn how to be productive on the floor," he said of his backup role. "A lot of things I have to learn."

Of course, he may still be traded to Phoenix along with Biedrins, Belinelli and Wright for Amare Stoudemire. The Suns seem to like Curry and soon they will need a point. The Warriors really need Stoudemire, who would make them good as opposed to what they are now. If the Warriors end up making Curry part of that trade, good. 

Asked if he expects to get traded, Curry said, "I just spoke with Larry Riley and he didn't mention it. So I'm going to sleep as a Warrior." The trade can't get finalized until July 8, so he's sleep as a Warrior for more than a week. After that, who knows?.

To read my column on drafting Curry click here.

Today I got to spend a day of my summer vacation with my dad at his work - the Warriors practice facility. They had three big screen tv's set up tuned into ESPN for the draft coverage, so instead of watching with my friends in Westwood, I got to watch with Bay Area Celebs Tim Kawakami, Marcus Thompson II, and Ray Ratto. Pretty cool.

Before the draft, Ratto walked over to my dad and me to say hello. We were all a bit tense because the draft is exciting and writing brings out adrenaline, so we began arguing over who the Warriors would pick. I actually got to argue with THE Ray Ratto, like we were on Chronicle Live or something. He insisted the Warriors would take Jordan Hill. I respectfully disagreed. He bet me a beer he was so sure. He was wrong. Ray Ratto owes me a beer. I want the world to know that.

The Warriors took Stephen Curry with the 7th pick. And that's good and that's bad. He is a great shooter and will fit in perfectly with Monta Ellis on offense. He has more range on his jump shot than Ellis. He also will push Ellis at point guard -- and that's good.

But at 6-3 he's a relative shrimp and he's not a good defender. If the W's play him and Ellis together they will have the worst defensive backcourt in the league.

There is all this talk the Warriors are trying to get Amare Stoudemire. He would be better for the W's than Curry. I can't believe Don Nelson is going to just leave things like this. Stay tuned.

My kid Iggy is here sitting right next to me at W's HQ and he agrees with everything I just wrote.

This is what I'm hoping about the Warriors and the draft. I hope they pick whoever they pick at No. 7. And then I want them to trade the pick right then and there for an impact player. I know this sounds weird and I doubt it will happen. But I don't see any player they take making a big impact in 2009-2010. I want the Warriors to do something wow, something that makes a mark on the league. I want Nellie to be Nellie.

If the Warriors simply take the forward, Hill, Don Nelson will ride him all season and ruin his confidence as Nelson does with rookies. Where's the future in that? The Warriors need to be creative. Can they?

I'll be at Warriors HQ for the draft and I'll get back to you later along with my kid Iggy who's on break from UCLA for a week and will be my guest expert. Go Bruins -- I mean Warriors.

Manny Ramirez is playing at Triple-A Albuquerque getting ready for his return to the Dodgers. They made a big deal out of his minor league stint on TV. The announcers for espn explained he had two at bats and got in his swings. They made it sound like he was rehabbing from an injury.

But of course he's not rehabbing from an injury. He's rehabbing from cheating. He is a cheater, the current cheater in a long line of baseball cheaters. The Albuquerque team had its biggest crowd ever to see the rehabbing cheater. Good for the team and good for the fans. But baseball never should let him play in the minors and be treated like a hero. He should get baseball ready by playing catch in his driveway, not in front of paying fans. This should not be an honor -- the Manny Return Tour. It's supposed to be a punishment. What a joke.

Rickey Henderson was one of 12 players from the 1989 championship team who showed up for the A's reunion. It was a pathetic show by the A's leadership who don't seem to care about their history. Or maybe they're just amateurish and don't do things right.

Here's Rickey on why he's not around the Coliseum more: "I'd love to be here, me being a native and Dave (Stewart) being a native. I don't think they (the A's) ask their ballplayers like certain other teams, like the Yankees. They don't get involved with their players that played the game, let them be a part of this organization."

I thought you'd like this next one. It's Rickey on coming back to the A's from the Yankees during the 1989 season: "The Giants was the first offer that I had to come back to the Bay Area. We had the deal made. But when we asked what did they want me to do for the club they wanted me to play right field and bat fifth and the deal was off."

Imagine that. Rickey could have played for the Giants in the Series. If he did maybe the Giants would have won. 

Shame on the Oakland A's. This afternoon they're holding the 20th reunion for the 1989 championship team, one of baseball's great teams. Recently, the Giants held the reunion for the team that lost to the A's in the World Series.

The Giants made a big fuss over the occasion and got a great turnout of players. The A's will have 11 or 12 players depending on whether Rickey H. shows up. This is pathetic. The A's don't honor their past and they do things in an amateurish way. They should be ashamed. As recently as a month ago they didn't even have a firm date for this event and they invited players too late for some to change plans. Eck won't be here. Dave Parker won't be here. The Giants had their deal set up in the offseason. What a poor show by the A's. I will be there later and will tell you how it goes. To read my column on the A's shame click here.

Here's some of the Q&A with Larry Riley from this morning.

Is this your opportunity to make a mark in this league?

Not really. It's been about working with teams. It isn't about me. Is that opportunity there? Yeah, it's stupid not to say it's there. But that's not really the motivating factor as much as trying to win games and putting the team together. I'm 64. That finally got out. I think people thought I was a little younger. It probably comes at the right time for me because I've got a few years left but I'm not going to end up being a general manager with 20 or 30 years experience and have some glorious record. It's too late for that for me. Frankly I'm enjoying the job because of the relationship with coaches and front office. I'm not looking at it as something that's the end of my life. It's important to me. You can't minimize that. Unless something changes I'm not going to be suicidal if things go badly and if they go well there's a lot of credit that has to be given to the players and the coaches and the whole organization and I'm just a piece of it."

As a general manager are you more conservative or risk taking?

Probably more conservative. If I take a risk it'll be a big one with a high reward or it will fall flat. I don't see doing a lot of that but there might be one out there that you look at and say "hey this is a piece that turns the franchise" and I would certainly look at doing that. It would be slow on my part. Some things I move quickly on but not often. I would deliberate quite a bit.

Would you acquire a guy who becomes a free agent in a year?

I think the only way that would happen is if you are allowed to negotiate beyond that point. It would be difficult for me to bring in a free agent whose contract expires the next summer and he walks away because you would give up a great deal in order to get that person. I can't do that. I've got to know there's some real likelihood that's not going to happen. In order to get one of those guys you have to trade one of your best players and maybe a draft pick and then that guy walks away, you're toast."

This is what Don Nelson told the media this morning about Monta Ellis playing point guard for the W's:

"It would be good because of his size (a shrimp) if he could do that. He needs to develop a little bit better passing skills. I think he can do that. Does that make him a point guard? At his size it's hard to be a fulltime 2 guard at 6-2. There just aren't many of them around, small 2 guards. He sees himself as a guard. There's some reluctance to take that next step in his mind. I don't think he'll ever be a fulltime point guard. I think he'll be a guard. It's not just score the ball. You've got to take care of your teammates a little more and have a feel for that."

My kid Iggy, home for a week from UCLA, said he thinks Nelson will draft a small forward who can distribute the ball. Iggy says Nelson doesn't care if he has a point. He wants guys who can shoot and pass the ball. Iggy says Nelson is deking everyone. We'll find out Thursday.

Moneyball the movie just became Moneyball the non-movie. They stopped production on it before it even started. That's good because as far as I could tell there never was a movie.

There was no story, no narrative no nothing. On top of that there is no moneyball. It's a debunked theory, especially this season. So the movie would be kind of a joke. Now there's no movie. 

I hate stories like this. The A's just lost a three-year-old class action lawsuit because of what they did one Mother's Day, lost a quarter of a million dollars plus court costs. They had the temerity to offer presents to moms -- hats -- on Mother's Day.

Some guy, a lawyer, asked for a hat and didn't get one and he started the lawsuit on the grounds of sex discrimination. And he just won a preliminary settlement.

So let me say I'm not a lawyer and don't understand law stuff. There may be things about sex discrimination that escape me. But come on, it was Mother's Day for heaven's sake. The guy didn't deserve a hat. If this guy came on Father's Day I'm sure the A's would have given him a hat. Why did he have to make such a fuss?

Is giving women hats on Mother's Day -- and not giving hats to men -- such a horrible act? I don't think so. Women are different from men. I've always rather liked that difference. Women have their special days and men have theirs. Differences are good and they are allowable. Everyone does not have to be the same and get treated the same every single day. I'm sorry but they don't. If a man does not get a Mother's Day gift he is not being discriminated against. It is not wrong to honor women and not men on Mother's Day.

This year the A's did not give gender-specific gifts on Mother's Day. They don't want another lawsuit. They gave a tote bag to the first 10,000 fans. You know what, I think fan No. 10,001 should have started a class-action suit for fans over the number of 10,000. It was a clear case of number discrimination.

Good for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. He suspended Donte Stallworth indefinitely for killing a man while driving under the influence. Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days in the slammer and made a cash settlement with the victim's family. Still...

Stallworth drove drunk and killed someone. Michael Vick is suspended and he didn't even kill a person. He killed dogs. You could say Vick killed dogs in a premediated manner and what Stallworth did was not premeditated. Sure. But Stallworth chose to drink and then chose to drive drunk. That's premeditated in a way. And he killed someone. He does not deserve to play in a league which is trying to stress character. He got what he deserves.

After the Giants trounced the A's last weekend I wrote a column saying the Giants were approaching a defining week with series against the Angels and Rangers. These are two good hitting teams and they would test Giants pitching. So far the Giants failed the test. It didn't help they had to pitch Zito and Sanchez against the Angels.

A while back you might have thought the Giants could trade Sanchez for a bat -- they desperately need a bat in the middle of the order. Well forget that. The Giants are even thinking of putting Sanchez in the bullpen and his trade value is zilch. The Giants have only two locked in reliable starters.

I also wrote they needed to win at least half of the Angels/Rangers games to show they're for real. That means they need to sweep Texas. Can they?

This is the 2nd worst word announcers use and I can't believe I forgot it in an earlier post.

"Situation."

I want to tear my eyes out when I hear it.

The batter's in a 3-2 situation.

What's wrong with it's a 3-2 count?

In football it's a third down situation.

Really? What about it's third down?

Or it's a bases loaded situation or it's a field goal situation or situationwise they're in trouble.

This is the deal with Giants starting pitching.

You always can depend on Lincecum and Cain in a big game.

You sometimes can depend on the Unit in a big game.

You NEVER can depend on Zito or Sanchez in a big game.

Jonathan Sanchez tonight against the Angels -- good grief

I hate when sports announcers use the word "wise." It's not even a word. It's a part of a word. They say pitchingwise, or hittingwise or runningwise or wisewise. I hear this stuff and I feel I'm in language hell. Why do they say this?

I also don't like "good speed" or "upside" or "he's a character guy" or "good success" or "at the end of the day" or "in the final analysis" or "he's got some pop" or "he's got fire in his belly" or "physicality" or "verticality." I go on vacation in a week and I'm grumpywise.

Two sources are reporting that Don Nelson and his sidekick Larry (Little Nellie) Riley flew back to Atlanta to kiss up to Monta Ellis -- Kawakami, God love him, is one of these sources. It seems Ellis was in a snit. He doesn't want the Warriors to draft a point guard. He wants to be the point guard. His ego is all tied up with being the point guard. This despite the fact that he's not a good point guard, never was, never will be.

Fact is, Ellis is a 2 guard except he's too much of a shrimp by NBA standards to be a 2 guard. He's sort of a man without a natural position. That makes it all the more agonizing that Nelson and Little Nellie thought it necessary to kiss up to the guy who ruined the team last season. Bad message to give Ellis. The Warriors need a point guard. Can they get, say, Baron Davis? To read my column on Big Nellie, Little Nellie and Monta click here.

I used to think Barry Zito was a punk. When I grew up in NY punk meant someone with no guts. When he took himself out of that playoff game with the A's that got me to thinking he was a punk. And the last few years with the Giants he was afraid to put his ball over the plate, always nibbled the corners and walked a tof of guys. So, yes, I thought he had no guts.

I've changed my mind. He challenges hitters now and works hard and sometimes goes deep into games. In fairness to Zito, his apparent timidness was not lack of guts. It was lack of confidence in his stuff. Now that his stuff seems to be better he has more guts. Let's see if that carries over tonight against the Angels.

Next week the A's are having their own reunion. They're honoring their 1989 world championship team in a series against the Giants. Tuesday June 23 is the big night.

Mark McGwire was invited but won't attend. Jose Canseco was invited but hasn't responded. No one cares about Canseco, a snitch. I'm sure his teammates can't stand his guts.

McGwire is a different story. His teammates like him. I wish he would attend and stop being a recluse. The A's are giving away McGwire jerseys on Monday June 22. A jersey is nice. The real McGwire would be better.

Watched the A's/Giants game on TV Sat night and Kruk and Fosse were on with Jon Miller. It was a treat to have these two old ballplayers, a pitcher and a catcher, discuss the game. They were fabulous at talking about pitching, what pitchers do and how they think.

And there was something else. Fosse and Kruk seemed to be competing with each other. I could be wrong but I don't think so. They're former athletes and they are competitive and want to perform, and that made for terrific creative interesting commentary by both of them. Competition is a good thing.

The A's just announced Eric Chavez is having back surgery. He should be out the rest of the season but could come back next season. Come on, already. Eric Chavez no longer is a major league ballplayer. He is a major league rehabilitator. The teams plays. He rehabs. The A's pay him to rehab. At a certain point he must admit to himself he is a rehabber and not a player and then he has to retire.

Will Clark talked and talked Friday night at the reunion of the Giants 1989 NL championship team. 

I thought I'd give you a sample of Clark, give you something I didn't put in my reunion column. Here's Clark: "Travis Ishikawa goes 0 for 4 and I see him drinking a power drink. I go over to him and say, 'You can't drown an 0 for 4 with a power drink. Drink a beer.' "

Better than anything this shows the culture shift between then and now. I mean, can you imagine Babe Ruth gulping a power drink? To read my column on the reunion click here.

This entry is not about sports, so if you're interested in sports only, please skip this one. I don't want to disappoint you.

It's about the crazy man, the crazy man I observed on BART Friday night when I took the train from Oakland to SF for the Giants/A's game. In New York, where I grew up, there is always a crazy man on the subway -- at least there used to be; I don't live there any more. The crazy man -- there must have been thousands of them -- was part of the experience and he never bothered me. I came to feel comfortable with the crazy man. There aren't as many crazy men in the Bay Area, which of course is a good thing.

OK, so I'm on BART looking out the window. The crazy man gets up and starts shouting at everyone in the car. He's shouting in Spanish. He's really going to town. I can't make out much but I sure make out the words for fight and kill. This guy is off his rocker. He goes on this way through the tunnel and into the city. He doesn't accost anyone or harm anyone. He just rants, rants like that guy in the NY subway I saw when I was 16. "I've been to the moon," this crazy guy told me years ago on the Brighton Line. "And I'm going again."

So the crazy guy on Friday kept ranting in Spanish and for some reason I thought about people who conduct loud public conversations on cell phones. The plane lands and all the cell phones come out. "Did the material come in for the sewer job?" "Did John stand up Judy for their date?" "How's Harry's prostate?" And I thought how I never want to hear this stuff, how people impose their business on me, how the world is becoming less private.

And I realized I prefer the crazy man to cell phone talkers every day. At least he has an excuse.

This weekend the Giants are hosting a reunion of their 1989 world series team. These are the Giants who will attend:

Hank Greenwald

Ron Fairly

Al Rosen

Mike Murphy

Trainers Mark Letendre and Greg Lynn

Wendell Kim

Bill Fahey

Norm Sherry

Roger Craig

Ernie Camacho

Ed Jurak

Randy Mccament

Pat Sheridan

Donnell Nixon

Mike Lacoss

Craig Lefferts

Kelly Downs

Greg Litton

Atlee Hammaker

Scott Garrelts

Rick Reuschel

Don Robinson

Bob Knepper

Candy Maldonado

Dave Dravecky

Mike Krukow

Robby Thompson

Kevin Mitchell

Will Clark

Nice list. They are making these people available to the media this afternoon. I want to write a column for Sunday about one of them, was thinking of Craig or Mitchell.

I just finished a column for tomorrow rating the Bay Area's sports franchises, with grades. I rate the San Jose Sharks the highest, but I don't think that's as great as it sounds. They play in San Jose, still a minor sports area, and they play hockey, the least major of the major sports. So good for the Sharks, but I'm more interested in the other teams. Here they are in ascending order.

Warriors: Grade F

Raiders: Grade D-

A's: Grade D+

49ers: Grade C-

Giants: Grade C

These teams seriously need to raise their grades. To read my column on rating franchises click here.

I just finished a column for tomorrow about fans. I like fans some of the time. I am not a fan, haven't been for 30 years, but I know how fans think. That's why their attitude about Manny Ramirez doesn't surprise me. He has about a million votes for the All Star team. That puts him in 5th place for NL outfielders.

Of course he doesn't belong anywhere near the team or the game. He got caught cheating and he is serving a 50 game suspension. How does that qualify him for the game? Even Joe Torre his manager says he shouldn't participate.

Does that stop the fans voting for him? No way. So to the fans I say, God love you. I understand. All other parts of life are tricky and complicated. You don't want sports to be complicated too. You want to see Manny play and you vote for him with no moral qualms. I do not fault you for that. I do praise you, however, for not voting him No. 1.

I have to stop messing around with this blog today because I have to write a column. But I can't resist this one. When I was at 49er practice this morning some guy walked over to the field carrying two broom sticks and attached to each was a football.

The broom sticks were sawed off, say around 3 to 4 feet and right at the end was a football. I asked Ostler what they were and he didn't know either. We tried to figure it out. Finally we asked a Niner PR guy and he said the coaches use them in drills that require snapping -- like defensive linemen take off at the snap. The coach, who may be old or maybe has bad knees doesn't want to bend. So coaches have balls at the end of poles they can pull -- they sort of twitch them -- and the linemen take off. I told Ostler players call the ball the rock. In that case, he said, they should call the ball on a stick the rock on a rod.

Here is a transcript provided by the 49ers of Shaun Hill's post practice remarks from this morning. I had my recorder with me and was going to transcribe this stuff myself, but the 49ers (unlike the Raiders) provide this transcripts. 

One more thing. Both Hill and Alex Smith looked good in practice. Hill looked better in the two minute drill which makes you think he functions better in game-like situations.

I am a big Alex Smith fan but I think the team should name Hill the starter and see how he does in real games. They can name him whenever they want -- no hurry. If Hill falters Smith will get his chance. If Hill does not falter the Niners won't need Smith to get a chance. To read my column on Hill click here.

OK, here goes with Hill:

On how he feels he did today:

"Today, just like every day, some good and some things that needed to be corrected. But, for the most part, I felt like the whole offense is starting to get it, starting to click a little better. And it does, it takes time on the offensive side of the ball."

On how the quarterback competition is different for him this time around:

"To be honest with you, I try not to think about it too much. I'm just going out there and trying to improve every day. Do whatever I have to do to be the best I can be. I've really tried to put that thought on the backburner and just try to concentrate on myself and what I'm doing out there."

On the fact that he's never been handed the No. 1 job anywhere else:

"Ever. Ever, anywhere."

On whether he's used to the insecurity:

"Well, there really is no insecurity. You're talking about insecurity with the position, not internally?"

Yes.

"I'm definitely used to that. Every single level I've been on, that's the way it's been. I'm kind of used to that I guess."

On what he feels he's proven thus far on the field:

"Well, what I've proven on the field? I feel like I've proven that I can win, and I can win with this team. Obviously, winning is the most important thing."

On whether he thinks the QB competition is starting to heat up:

"I don't know where everybody is, as far as making a decision. I think that's where you're going with that. Like I said, I don't feel it any different. I'm just trying to concentrate on myself out there. But, that might be. You'd have to ask somebody else."

On whether he feels the reputation as a poor practice player is unfair:

"I don't care too much about it. I don't think about it. Whenever I am asked the question, I always think back to, well, I never would have made it in the NFL if I was a bad practice player. That was the only way I was ever able to prove myself and make teams. So, I personally don't buy into it too much."

On whether he ever goes out there with his shoes untied just to look bad:

"Just to look bad? On purpose, definitely not."

On how important it is to show what he's got in practice:

"It's very important. Right now, this is the only place that we can show anything. There's no game for a few months, so this is the only place where we can show what we have. Obviously, practices are very important."

On whether it's hard not to look and see that Alex Smith is throwing the ball well:

"No. I like seeing him throw the ball well. He is. He's throwing it well. It's got a lot of zip on it right now, and his accuracy is coming back. He's looking good out there. I like what I see out there."

On why he likes what he sees in Alex Smith:

"Because he's a teammate. I like to see my teammates do well. He's a friend and all of those things. We are competing against each other, but we're also rooting for each other out there. I don't go out there wishing ill will on him, by any means. I like to see our offense go out there and execute. Obviously, he's a big part of that."

On what he thinks of the 49ers ruling out the possibility of singing Michael Vick:

"I didn't even know where we stood on that, to be honest with you. I guess that's good."

On what he thinks his intangibles are:

"I think intangibles as its defined are the uncoachable aspects of the position, the things that aren't measured. So, I think that's what they're talking about. Leadership and just being able to move the ball, move the offense and going out and winning, those are things I've always prided myself on. Obviously, I'm not the most gifted guy out there, not one of the most gifted guys at the position. So, intangibles are very, very important to me."

On when he goes out there for games, does he react differently than when he's in practice:

"No. I feel like I bring the same mentality to practice. The thing that's different is when you're in practice and you have two bad plays in a row, all of a sudden you're whole period looks bad. In a game, you have two bad plays in a row, third down you get a completion, now you're rolling. Now you're rolling. It's first-and-10. All of a sudden, those two plays are gone. You're driving, things like that. I think, more than anything, it's just continuing to go. I don't ever want to take my foot off the throttle. I think that's sometimes how I maybe get the illusion that I'm a bad practice player. There might be a couple of ugly things here and there, but in a game when you're out there playing, one good play makes up for those and you're driving. In practice situations, it's not always like that."

On the two-minute drill and whether that highlights his forte:

"I like to take a lot of pride in that and I always have. But, same thing, first and second down, might look completely ugly. Even third down might, but fourth down, you get a completion and a first down all of a sudden all of that stuff is erased, and you're moving. So, that's the mentality in two minute. Just keep going, keep going, keep going, and something good is going to happen. Obviously, we're having a few, as Jimmy [Raye] says 'self-inflicted wounds' that we have to clean up, but, for the most part, guys are doing a great job out there just hanging in there after a bad play and just pushing through it."

On whether his style of play is going to be any different in Jimmy Raye's offense than last year's:

"Yeah, there are going to be some differences. We've definitely mixed in our drops more: three-step, five-step, seven-step. Whereas last year was predominantly seven-step. So this is nice to be able to have all three of those, as well as play actions - every kind of play action you could imagine, we have. So, that is nice, and I think it fits us well."

On whether that puts more of a premium on the quarterback making decisions on the fly:

"Yeah. He does ask us to take a little bit more control, a more charge of the offense than we've had in the past. So, that's nice. There's more on our shoulders, but we really like that. That's something that quarterbacks really enjoy."

On how important it is for the offense to know they have a good kicker on the team:

"We know that Joe Nedney, line him up for a game-winner and it's going through. And that's obviously very important. The guy has range too. So, when we're in those two-minute drills right there, we kind of look over and as [Special Teams Coordinator] Al [Everest], 'Al, what's our yard marker? 32?' That's kind of the average. He's like, 'No, 35.' So, that's obviously nice. That's a big plus."

On what the special teams guys do during mini camps:

"I think they do more than people think they do. They put in a lot of time out here, him and Andy [Lee] and Brian Jennings, all three. They put in a lot of time together out here kicking in the offseason and things like that. Obviously, there's not as many of the team reps for them right now, but they're definitely getting their work in. All three of those guys are great assets to this team."

On what he thinks Brandon Jones contributes to the team:

"Brandon is showing an awful lot there in the last few days. He's got some wheels and he's got much stronger hands than I thought. Coming in, he's really surprised me with how strong his hands are in traffic, going up and making plays. So, he has some range to him, and he's shown that the last few days."

On the tight end being more involved in the offense this season:

"Yeah, we are very talented at the tight end group from top to bottom. So yeah they are going to be a big addition to this offense and a big part of this offense."

On the tight end being a nice outlet compared to the wide receivers:

"No question. We feel like we can get a good matchup so they are going to benefit us, our tight ends against linebackers. They're tacklers and they're run stoppers first and pass defenders second. So if we can take advantage of that, then that would be a huge plus for us."

On if running a drive feels like driving a car when he is running a drive:

"Yeah, it does a little bit. You always have to keep on the gas pedal, definitely. That's exactly how it feels. If you get a big play and all of the sudden that accelerator hits, that's a good analogy."

On if it feels like he's going really fast:

"At times, as far as my thinking as far as big plays happen, yeah. You feel like you are going fast."

On if the thinking is slow and methodical:

"That's the key to playing quarterback. Playing any position, especially on offense is being able to go out and play fast, but the thinking and everything like that, it's just slow the game down."

On if where he's playing it's important to slow the game down:

"Absolutely, the more you get to play, the slower it gets and things like that, without a doubt. Playing experience is huge in slowing it down for you."

I just drove down to Santa Clara for Niner practice. On the way down I listened to Gary Radnich whom I enjoy. One thing I noticed. He referred to Al Davis as Mr. Davis, did it a few times. I've heard that a lot, people called Al Davis Mr. Davis.

Al doesn't ask for this. It's just what people do. They don't call Billy Beane Mr. Beane or Bill Neukom Mr. Neukom and they didn't call Bill Walsh Mr. Walsh. So what gives with Al Davis?

I just asked three sportswriters in this media trailer why and I got three answers: He's old and Mr. is a sign of respect. People fear him so they call him Mr. Al is a friendly name and people don't feel friendly to him so they call him Mr. instead of Al.

Fair enough but this is just sports. I call everyone by his/her first name and I expect them to do that with me. Have a nice day. Al.

Zohn reader Shane Buettner raises an important point. He says the A's are not really a small market team; they are cheap. He raises this issue in relation to my Billy Beane interview -- Billy continually referred to the A's as a small market team.

Are they? Well, all other markets with two teams are definitely not small market -- New York, Chicago, L.A. The A's and Giants fit into that company. Plus the Giants are big market -- although they may have thought of themselves as small market when they played at Candlestick.

There is population in the East Bay. Looked at this way, the A's are small minded not small market. They do things on the cheap and they want to collect the revenue sharing check.

But -- and this is a definite but -- the A's can't get the corporate sponsorship in Oakland they could in SF or San Jose, and their ballpark is not a big market park anymore. So this is a complicated issue, although I wish the A's weren't so cheap.

A personal note: The San Francisco Peninsula Press Club gave out Bay Area journalism awards last night. These awards are for all the Bay Area papers and there's fierce competition. I came second in sports column writing. I am proud of that because there are some really good columnists around here. I came first the previous three years.

Life is funny. I did a long interview with Billy Beane on Friday about how bad the A's are and now they're on a good winning streak. He never seemed offended by my questions, in fact he indulged me. Maybe he knows something I don't know although it's early to say the A's are going to be contenders.

It helps that Matt Holliday is coming on as a hitter, something the A's needed and something the team hoped for. I sure hope they keep him the entire season.

A note about Beane. One thing I especially like about him. You can banter with him and you can argue with him. He doesn't get offended. He likes the give and take. I'll tell you two other Bay Area managers/coaches you could do that with.

Frank Robinson. You could shout at him and joke with him and he liked it and it was fun. Same with Don Nelson. He likes a spirited give and take. I love covering guys like them.

I sat down with Billy Beane before Friday's game against the Orioles to discuss the present state of the A's and the team's future. Here is our Q&A:

Beane: You don't have to worry about nailing me (with my questions). I've been doing this a long time. I've been nailed. I've been praised.

Cohn: Are you emotionally detached from that sort of thing?

Beane: No. I just know it's part of the business - given the choice (he laughs). You may remember an article you wrote on Sandy one of his last years. You went after Sandy pretty hard. I'm sure you praised him during his tenure here.

Cohn: I think he's a brilliant guy. He's a tough and fair leader and he makes hard decisions. And I respect that.

Beane: He was a great mentor. Still is.

Cohn: In spring training you seemed optimistic. Is this season going as you expected it to and how do you feel about it?

Beane: Perfectly fair question. Once we left Arizona we lost our opening-day starter and we lost our closer. And since then we've lost our third baseman, we lost second baseman, we lost our backup third baseman and blah blah blah and on and on. I think there was a hope and an expectation we would have better health than last year. That hasn't happened. And it's impacted us and to say otherwise I don't think would be honest with the situation. Certainly I can say it because I live it. We haven't fielded the team we anticipated. Unfortunately that's been the case the last few years. That being said the most important thing for us this year is to start to develop some people that are going to be here a long time. The only way we're going to be successful, the only way we've ever been successful with this franchise - and this goes back to the 80s teams - is developing a group of young players. The 80s had the McGwires, the Cansecos, the Walt Weisses and then they were added to, three Rookies of the Year. The same thing happened in the 90s the Hudsons, the Mulders, the Zitos, Tejada and Chavez. Once those guys were established then we added players to create a very good team. For us we need to recreate a young foundation in this marketplace to sustain any success. What I'm happy with now as we sit here is I think we're making a lot of progress in probably the most difficult and the most important thing for any baseball team and particularly our baseball team, which is developing a starting staff. We have five rookies basically. Dallas isn't technically a rookie but I don't know if he's even got a year of service time in. And we've got the youngest rotation in the big leagues. As we've gone through the first two months of the season I think they're starting to show themselves pretty well. That I'm happy with. But I'm not happy with the injuries. Any time you're in last nobody's happy regardless of the reason you're there, no one's happy.

Cohn: Have you scaled down your expectations for this season? Let me give some context. I interviewed Macha this spring and afterward he said, "I think the A's are going to come in first. That's a really good team over there."

Beane: It's a different team now than then. I think Kenny was probably seeing the same thing. If you put Chavez at third. If you have Garciaparra floating around playing first, playing third as depth. You have Ellis who's out for almost five weeks now, Duchscherer who was an All Star pitcher the last two years. Devine your closer. If you get those guys back in the mix there's no question you have a different viewpoint. I think that's what Kenny was looking at. It's what we were looking at too. That being said one of the reasons we need to recreate a core is some of the injuries we've had the last few years and the ones we've had this year are the same guys. Quite frankly doing this job long enough, the greatest predictor of future health is somebody's past health. If you have an injury history you're likely to have an injury future. That's just the way it is. We weren't going to be able to out in Eric's case and find another gold-glove third baseman who hits home runs. It's not that easy to find. The optimism was based on the idea those guys would be on the field. They're not. We've been forced to sort of make changes on the fly.

Cohn: I assume you have to reevaluate Eric Chavez and next year he may not be part of the core of this team.

Beane: Eric's realistic. I'm realistic. Obviously we'd like to have him back. He's in the last year of his contract next year. Given the past few years I think we have to be somewhat realistic about going forward, what we're going to do with that position. To just go on and hope for another year probably isn't a great business plan.

Cohn: I understand what you're doing with your pitching. I believe in it. What about the other eight guys? Would I assume Nomar is hurt and we may not see him? And Giambi?

Beane: Jason's got one year. Duke's a free agent. Cabrera's on a one-year deal. Ellis has got two years and an option. Sweeney's a young guy. Jack, this is his third year. I'm just going around the diamond. Cunningham's obviously a rookie. Travis Buck is only a second year. There's a few guys whose contracts expire at the end of the year but there's still quite a few young guys. We always with a young team want to have some veteran presence around. Those individual questions I'll probably better answer at the end of the year. If your team is young and homegrown that's cost effective for this market. That's difficult to do but it's the ultimate goal. The past history in Oakland, the 80s teams really took off when those young guys came up and established the base and the same thing in the 90s and the early part of this decade.

Cohn: Do you have players in your minor-league system who can come up? Are you confident in them?

Beane: We have a good system. It's just now starting to mature. We've got some position players. One of the kids we got in the Blanton deal last year along with Outman, Adrian Cardenas is hitting .386. He's an infielder, second baseman. There may be a time we'll consider him at third because he's such a good hitter with a real good throwing arm. And Jamile Weeks so we do have some kids coming. Other objective sources, the Baseball Americas and people who evaluate, last year we were evaluated as one of the top five systems in the game. We need to keep adding to that. Our farm system had become pretty depleted over the last decade. We put everything we had into the major-league team trying to stay successful and we had not been as conscious of reinvesting at the minor-league level the way a small-market team has to. You're kind of choosing and we wanted to take advantage of the group of players we had here.

Cohn: If the season continues more or less like this and you're not going to be a contender in the division, do you at a certain point make a decision -- I need to play younger people and not older people? As a result, Holliday is expendable. Maybe Jason is expendable. At a certain point do we say I tried it's not going to work, I want to play Aaron Cunningham.

Beane: Normally had I not known you as long as I've been here, and if you were an out-of-town reporter asking me that, I'd say it's really a waste of time to speculate on that question. But I will answer it for you. It's really not simple. I'll take Matt because he's the highest profile guy we got. People are going to ask that question from this point going forward. Obviously you want to win as many games and you're always trying to compete and you're always trying to win the division no matter what your chances are. But as I said earlier for us it's really important to develop these young pitchers and part of that development process is having guys around them that give them a better chance of succeeding. Matt certainly fits into that category. Now from a future standpoint going forward because that's part of your question - "OK that's great but you worry about four or five years down the road not just these next few months." In Matt's case, at the end of the season he's going to be a high-profile free agent, we would receive two first-round picks for Matt if he goes somewhere else. (Note: It's a little more complicated than this.) Those are really valuable to a club like ours. So there would have to be a lot for us to be inspired to do something with him. We like the value of having him here. Having him out there when a Brett Anderson takes the mound and he's in Chicago and you've got Giambi in the lineup and you've got Holliday in the lineup there's a sense of comfort for a young pitcher. I do think that's important. Just to leave a kid who's got two months in the major leagues completely naked with a whole group of players behind him who are also developing that makes it really difficult. All that will go into our thinking as we go forward. It's almost like a poker game. Your cards are in or your cards are out. It's just not black and white. There's this assumption you're going to trade players because you want younger players but the younger players you may get in return may not be as valuable as the two first-round picks. I say first-round pick, it's just a term. Let me attach something tangible to it. Eric Chavez was a first-round pick for us, Mulder was a first-round pick for us, Zito was a first-round pick for us. If you go around the diamond with some of the players we built our team around, McGwire was a first-round pick, Walt Weiss was a first-round pick. The foundation of small-market teams really comes from that first-round pick. Receiving two of them that's a pretty big hurdle for someone to jump as far as trying to acquire him (Holliday).

Cohn: You always seem to me lighthearted and vivacious.

Beane: I'm not always lighthearted.

Cohn: Do you go through periods where you think this season didn't work out and I'm angry at myself?

Beane: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Listen, I'm responsible for the entire organization and in some respects the success of the organization probably lies on my shoulders more than anybody, which means there are people who work from the top to the bottom of this organization that are somewhat reliant upon me making good decisions. I'm every bit as competitive as I always was. I've been doing this job long enough to realize there are cycles. I've been through all the cycles, up down, up down. In some respects it is part of our market. Everyone's tired of hearing this is part of the market. I'll say it. I'll leave it at that. I choose the challenges of this market and I am aware we are going to have good moments if we do our job right and there's going to be trying times. If I hadn't gone through it, it would be more difficult. But I know the cycles. I know you're going to make mistakes but we're not going to let those mistakes paralyze us into not doing something. Having done this job long enough, great times never last and bad times never last. The best thing you can do is maintain that balance in your decision making. If you made bad decisions examine why you made them and try and correct them. I love this job a ton. I love the challenges. There's times you go gosh, if some teams have injuries they just go out and get (players), they have four or five guys. But winning here is incredibly satisfying beyond the fact that you're doing it with less and I get to live here. I love living here. Living in the Bay Area there is perspective and when you walk into Starbucks whether you've had a good game or a bad game there is some perspective with the people. There are some markets - I have friends who are in bigger baseball markets - it's not that easy to go out. You're either the greatest guy in the town or the worst guy.

Cohn: I have emails from people who say Billy prefers to stay in Oakland because there's less pressure.

Beane: No. No. Believe me, pressure is self-induced. People say when you stay in a small market you don't want the pressure of having more money. Listen, when you run a major-league sports franchise people on a daily basis don't get up and say, "It's OK they lost because their payroll's only X." It doesn't happen. The expectation level in every market is the same. So I don't buy that.

Cohn: When you say you are not always vivacious, when things don't go well do you sit at home with the blinds drawn?

Beane: No. I don't take my job home. It's a learned thing. I don't talk about work at home unless I have to because of a phone call. I rarely take phone calls at night. I've learned to separate the two. You know, I want to live a long time. If anything my wife gets into it at home and sometimes I say, "Let's talk about the Niners."

Cohn: Do you expect your team to be significantly better next year?

Beane: That's a tough question to answer. It's not like I'm avoiding the question. The most enjoyable part of this job is when you're getting better, your young players are making progress, you can see that progress and you know you've got the next few years ahead of you. I want us to have progress that's not just tangible to me. I want it so that every fan goes wow. So that everyone can say that. I can't answer that because I don't know but I look at the Chicago series. These are things you hold onto. You throw essentially four rookies in Chicago with a team that was playing great going into their home park and you pitch the way we did, that gets you excited. When you see that you start, OK, when they handle themselves the way they did that's the fun part of the job. Mulder was a 5 ERA guy his first year. Certainly mid 5's (5.44) and the next year you saw this huge jump. When that starts to happen that's when you can start projecting. If anything I think we're making progress with that. Look at our past, for us to be successful our pitching needs to come from within. It has to from a cost standpoint and even from an injury standpoint. Younger pitchers by and large are going to stay healthier and we can afford them in this market for a block of time. The fact that we've got five very good young starting pitchers, we think, puts us more than 50 percent of the way there.

Cohn: Is Bob Geren the manager for this team going forward?

Beane: Until a manager is given players that are good enough to consistently win it's hard to hold them responsible. Ultimately that's my responsibility - to give him good players. Quite frankly for Bob we haven't done that. The idea that we can slash the payroll, trade the best players and expect him to perform at an ALCS level is not completely fair. We had a team in spring training but he's never really had that team. He and the staff will be more responsible when we feel like we've given him players or he has players in the field that are good enough to win. To read my column on Beane click here.

So you know about the Danica Patrick controversy, right? Dan Patrick interviewed her before the Indy 500 and asked, "If you could take a performance enhancing drug and not get caught would you do it if it allowed you to win Indy?"

She replied: "Well then it's not cheating, is it, if nobody finds out?"

There was a big furor and then she came out and said she was joking. I thought she was full of baloney and had gone into spin mode. I thought she really meant it's OK to cheat but later she pretended she was joking. Then I listened to the interview online. And I really believe she was joking. The whole interview was full of yucks. Dan Patrick asked her about her tattoo on her butt. Then he asked about drugs and I felt as I listened she was answering him in kind. I hope so.

My feeling is give her a break. She wasn't saying it's OK to take PEDs. But her joke stunk.

It was a game worthy of Randy Johnson and his 300th win. He pitched six innings and gave up one unearned run total. He is not overpowering anymore. But he's a man who knows his craft and he outsmarted the Nationals. He is not a career Giant so, in a sense, his achievement is for all of baseball, not just for Giants fans.

That's OK, as it should be. He got his 300th with the Giants and that gives their season a mark of distinction and frankly it makes the Giants look smart for signing him. It will be interesting to see how many wins he gets this season. I'm saying 15.

Jed York just held a conference call about the proposed Santa Clara stadium for the 49ers. He explained the Santa Clara city council approved the stadium plan, although he still needs the voters to approve it. "I would equate this with clinching the division," he said.

Right off I have to tell you my preference. I want the Niners to stay in SF. Mostly because they are the San Francisco 49ers. Having said that, I wish Jed well and believe he's done an earnest, skillful job at moving this project ahead, although the best case for opening a stadium is 2014 - that's if the voters of Santa Clara vote in favor of the stadium a year from now in depressed economic times. Would you?

York says the stadium will bring all sorts of money to Santa Clara. He'll try to make that case to the citizens of that city. "We feel confident we can win because we think this is a great deal for Santa Clara. The city manager has supported this project. It will create thousands of new jobs and generate new revenue in tax revenue. Looking at the economic situation in our country, there aren't a lot of $900 million stimulus packages. Santa Clara should be commended for coming up with a deal."

He said no specific deal is on the table from SF, although if Santa Clara turns him down he said his next best option is to spruce up Candlestick, tearing down part of the building and completely redoing that part. "We're open to listening to the City of San Francisco," he said. But he's hardly listening at this time. He said the new Santa Clara stadium would be able to host a Super Bowl. He also said he's had no substantive discussions with the Raiders about sharing the new facility. He said he wants to keep open the sharing option. He said he has a good working relationship with the Raiders.

Oh, one more thing. Jed said there definitely will be seat licenses as part of this deal. That means you have to pay a fee before you even can buy tickets. He didn't say what a license will cost, but it won't be bubblegum money. The fee is the price for progress.

The world won't come to an end because LeBron James refused to shake hands with the Magic after the Cavs got eliminated from the playoffs and the world won't end because he refused to addres the media in a postgame news conference. And you certainly can understand why James didn't do either. He was disappointed and wanted to be left alone.

But come on. This guy needs to grow up and show some manners. Other great players get eliminated every year and they shake hands with their opponents just as they shake hands before the game. A man of stature would get over his disappointment for a moment and congratulate a winner just as tennis losers shake hands at the net at Wimbledon. James walking away is like a loser refusing to come to the net. It makes everyone feel creey.

At least that act of rudeness was spontaneous. Stiffing the media later on was premeditated. In a standard player contract it says players have media obligations. That means obligations to you the fans to explain what happened. James skipped out on a job requirement. I'm not saying the league should fine him. I don't care. I'm saying he needs to grow up.

I just finished writing a column about the movie they're going to make on Billy Beane and the book Moneyball. To read the column click here.

Look, I think Billy is a fascinating guy. But I wonder why they're making a movie about him. He never has won anything, never even been to the World Series. His Moneyball concept, the center of the book and I guess the movie, has been largely discredited with the A's languishing in last place.

Brad Pitt will play Billy. Why? Steven Soderbergh will direct. Why? He did Sex Lies and Videotape, a terrific movie. And his movie The Girlfriend Experience is in theaters now -- it's kinky and weird and interesting. But why is he doing this?

This movie will call attention to what Moneyball is not, not to what it's supposed to be. To read Monte Poole's excellent column on this subject, seeing things much as I do, click here.