This is the year of Bay area sports. From Cinderella stories to powerhouses, the Bay Area has been and will continue to pack a heavy punch for those who compete against our professional teams.
The Golden State Warriors were an almost expected surprise for local basketball fans, with their first playoff appearance and wins in 13 years. Their toppling of the winningest basketball team of the year, in the first round of the playoffs only made this season even sweeter, and the best part is… it ain’t over yet.
The Warriors have been delighting fans with magnificent and sometimes erratic play from veterans, Baron Davis and Jason Richardson, and with the inclusion of sleeper players like Monte Ellis and Matt Barnes, and acquisitions such as Stephen Jackson, Don Nelson’s Warriors of the 2006-2007 season have proved to be quite the spectacle to watch.
A stronger team, yet one that hasn’t fully received the credit it is due over the past few years is the San Jose Sharks, who with each year improve and get closer and closer to getting their names on the prettiest looking trophy in sports, Sir Stanley’s cup.
Jonathan Cheechoo and my favorite player in all of hockey (I have followed his career very closely) Joe Thornton have been lighting up the stat sheets with their amazing ability to assist and get the goal into the net. Evgeni Nabokov and Patrick Marleau along with a veritable cornucopia of talent in the “Shark Tank” have brought this team back from its days as a team that could be counted out year after year. The resurgent Sharks are now contenders for the cup, as they battle off another top ceded team, the Detroit Red Wings. The National Hockey League has been reborn in San Jose and this season has not been a disappointment. Along with the Warriors, this pair of playoff appearances are just the start for the Bay area’s run of success in athletics this year.
While the Warriors being in the playoffs is huge, baseball by the bay is not to be sold short by any stretch of the imagination. Both the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics are capable of making the playoffs this year. For the first time in a good long time the Giants have had a strong bullpen, it won’t blow people away but it will get the job done on a good day, and despite the age of the team, nearly everyone on the team has been healthy thus far and is more than able to generate run support for one of the best starting rotations in the majors.
Barry Zito, Matt Morris, Matt Cain, Noah Lowry and Russ Ortiz can go deep into a game on the mound and relieve the stress of the bullpen, and become less reliant on Armando Benitez and his arthritic body.
Rich Aurillia is back and Barry Bonds is healthy and looking to be back to the form he was in 2003 the last time the Giants made it to the world series, and this team though slightly older is a far better team that the team that lost to the Angels.
The Giants also have another advantage working for them, their deep farm. If any player becomes hurt during the course of the season they have several young prospects just itching for a chance to play in the bigs. Tim Lincecum, who has been compared to the likes of Kevin Brown, is in his early 20s and has a fastball that has been clocked around 100 mph.
The A’s are no different than the Giants, they have fewer big names on the team, but general manager Billy Beane does what he does best, he finds the best player for the cheapest price and always fields a team that will make it to the playoffs or come very close to making the playoffs.
With little in the form of divisional competition the A’s should have an easy time making it into the playoffs. They have a good mix of wily veterans like Milton Bradley, Eric Chavez and Mike Piazza to complement their younger corps of guys like Nick Swisher and Bobby Crosby.
Their strong point is their offensive power, but the pitching staff is nothing to look down on. Anchored by Rich Harden and Dan Haren to hard throwing starters, the A’s starters are also very capable of pitching into the late innings. If there is a jam, the relievers are just as strong, and the A’s have one of the best closers in the game right now with the hard throwing righty Houston Street.
The season is long but both sides of the bay should see lots of production from both teams, and both will make a strong showing in the pennant race once September rolls around, and when September arrives the Bay will have even more to shout about from their teams because football season will be here and the Bay may see at least one playoff team this year.
The Oakland Raiders, in all probability, will not make the playoffs this year, but expect to see vast improvement from the team with the worst record in the NFL last year. For the second time in three years the Bay has had the chance to pick up the first draft pick of the new season, and the Oakland Raiders did not disappoint this year picking up JaMarcus Russell and signing away big, wide receiver, Mike Williams from the Detroit Lions. In the off-season, the Raiders did lose Randy Moss but that seems to be a blessing in disguise. Moss wasn’t producing as much as they would have hoped during his career with the Raiders and he did cost a pretty penny to keep him here.
The Oakland Raiders may not be playoff contenders just yet, due to glaring holes that still need to be shored up on the offense and defense, but there will be a vast improvement in their play. Rest assured that the Raiders will not have the worst record in the NFL this upcoming season.
The San Francisco 49ers will however be a big playoff contender, for a number of reasons. The first being the fact that the 49ers had one of the best drafts they have had in a long time. With seven total picks in the third and fourth round at their disposal they could trade them away or use them to fill in gaps that they had last year. Their first pick of the draft (11 overall), Patrick Willis will do quite nicely as a linebacker in the 3-4 defensive scheme that coach Mike Nolan likes to implement.
However the most important thing that has happened this off-season for the 49ers was the fact that they actually dug deep into their pockets to pick up a large amount of free agents to improve both sides of the ball. On defense they picked up a much needed shutdown cornerback in Nate Clements, and also another powerful and speedy safety in Michael Lewis. Clements will join Ahmed Plummer and Walt Harris, who lead the NFC in interceptions last year at the cornerback position, allowing for a great deal of pressure from the outside even in a nickel defense.
They also improved their linebacking corps, which in my opinion hasn’t been good since Gary Plummer retired. Adding former Patriot, Tully Banta-Cain, a talented backup in New England, who is also very familiar with the 3-4 defense will add speed and awareness to a defensive backfield that was plagued with injuries and disorganization in the past few seasons.
The offense looks to get a great boost too. Alex Smith continues to grow as a leader and player, and Frank Gore has been solidified at the running back position with a contact extension. Vernon Davis will move into his second season with the 49ers, and hopefully not experience a sophomore slump, and the offensive line will have some new young talent to learn from big, guard, Larry Allen.
However the biggest acquisitions for the offense were the picking up of two very talented wide receivers: Ashley Lelie and more recently Darrell Jackson, who has been playing for the division rival, the Seattle Seahawks, for the past seven seasons. Even though Lelie’s production was limited while playing in Atlanta last season and Jackson has been hampered by injuries throughout his career,
they will support Arnaz Battle with their speed and size that will allow Smith to make plays down the field and ease some of the pressure off of Davis and Gore as well.
The 49ers will have plenty of targets this year to duel with a struggle NFC west division that has not had a strong super bowl contender in a while, with the exception of the Seahawks two years ago. They should be in playoff contention if not as division champions, at least as a wildcard team, getting them back into the playoff after a long drought, which most 49ers fans will be more than happy to see end.
What with the Warriors and the recently eliminated Sharks, giving some playoff excitement early in the year, the Giants and A’s will be the teams to watch this summer, Then as the baseball season winds down, football fans will be gearing up for potentially one of the best seasons in the Bay Area in a long time, and to add to all of that the Bay Area is even luckier to get baseball’s all-star game being played at AT&T Park this year. So sit back, watch a few games on TV, or better yet go out to the ball park and enjoy the Bay Area sports orgasm explosion in person.
