Post by TheShadow on Aug 19, 2007 12:22:33 GMT -5
www.orovillemr.com
by Dave Newhouse
SOMETHING'S OUT of kilter with our local sports teams. The Oakland A's usually are in the middle of their revved-up postseason drive by now. Instead, they need binoculars to see first place in the American League West.
Must be The Fremont Curse.
And the San Francisco Giants are so far down in last place in the National League West, even if Barry Zito started earning the $126 million that he was overpaid as inducement to leave Oakland, it wouldn't matter.
Felipe Alou's managing can't be blamed any longer.
And the Oakland Raiders' new coach, baby-faced Lane Kiffin, has a viral infection. A bad bottle of Napa red?
What's going on here?
The Warriors even made the playoffs. Is anything believable anymore?
Though I no longer write in the sports section, 48 years as a sportswriter doesn't wash away overnight. I still care about the Bay Area sports scene, so when things are awry, I go see Ricky and Tina Ricardo.
The Ricardos are the lifeblood of Ricky's Sports Theater & Grill, or just plain Ricky's, in San Leandro. As sports bars go, Ricky's is primo. But don't just take my word for it: Sports Illustrated voted Ricky's the No. 2 sports bar in America, right behind the Fours Bar & Grille in Boston.
Surely, Ricky's would unravel all the local craziness.
"The older clientele's not used to a lot of change," Ricky Ricardo Jr. said of his barpatrons. "The younger people go with the changes. But it's been going on a long time, the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn and the Giants leaving New York."
And the A's leaving Philadelphia and Kansas City, too.
"You hate to see the A's move south (to Fremont)," he said. "You hate to see that happen, but when the Raiders left Northern California for Los Angeles, that was the devastating thing.
"It's more money, and more money, and more money. It used to be that football players had to get part-time jobs. Now the difference between a guy working a 40-hour week job and a player is huge — a different bracket, and a different perspective, that the youth of today sees."
At Ricky's, everything Oakland is first violin, and everything San Francisco and San Jose is second and third fiddle. But this perfect sports bar is, make no mistake, a Silver-and-Black shrine to everything Rai-duhs.
"Raider fans come from all over the world," said Ricardo. "I have fans who fly in from Japan and England. I see Raider fans from every state. Low tide, high tide, they're here."
Now if the Raiders can just get an offensive line and a special teams coach who actually can make a difference, maybe
7-9.
After a 12-year drought, the Warriors made the playoffs. Suddenly, Ricky's came alive with basketball fever.
"For our business, this was amazing — a-maaaay-zing," said Ricardo. "I haven't see this in a long time. The fans want the Warriors to do well, and everyone liked the way they played."
The Giants are struggling, not because of Barry Bonds getting old, but because they haven't produced a NL Rookie of the Year position player since Robby Thompson in 1986. The A's bring up solid rookies regularly, while the Giants scouting system reeks, and that's why the club relies on old fogies.
Felipe Alou was considered too old, and expendable, even though he's brighter and more perceptive than most managers half his age.
However, the A's hitting has become pathetic.
Must be The Fremont Curse.
There's been a major change in the Ricardo household, though. Wife Tina hasn't exactly abandoned her Tampa Bay Bucs' jersey — she hasn't forgiven the Raiders for letting Jon Gruden get away — but she now has a Raiders jersey with "Kiffin" on the back.
That's because Kiffin reminds her of Gruden — young, blond, handsome, ambitious.
"She even calls him Laney," said her husband. "He took her to an A's-Yankees game. He's a regular guy."
Kiffin has been inside Ricky's — sometimes with his assistants, sometimes with his family — no less than 10 times. Tina is melting.
"I told Laney, 'I got you up for six games (wins),'" she said. "He looked at me, and I said, 'Most people have you up for two.' But he asked me to wear my Raider jersey to the first game, and I said I would."
The times, they are a-changin'.