From the Sacramento Bee Sport's Page, November 20, 2012
Basketball
I'm not arguing that Geoff Petrie shouldn't go, but for Sacto Bee reporter AileneVoisin to write the words, "give Petrie the boot," about a man who put together one of the great sports memories in Sacramento history, lacks, to put in mildly, grace and sensitivity and, perhaps, a misunderstanding of the dynamics that govern the 21st century NBA.
So what if Geoff Petrie doesn't have the Twitter, Facebook, personality that Voisin seems to say defines good management? That sounds like good sense to me, as we are awash in such technological blather. Yada, yada, yada, who cares? The problem that faces Geoff, the one he has not addressed, which is at the core of his downfall - should it happen - has far more to do with an ownership without the financial resources to allow Geoff any flexibility to work the increasingly complicated NBA marketplace.
Sports is like any major organization in business, in politics, in education; the buck must stop at the top, the very top. Geoff is one step removed from the top of the hierarchy. Let's lay the blame where it belongs first, fix that problem, give the Maloofs "the boot," and bring in ownership with financial muscle. If Geoff can't cut it after that, then, of course, he needs to go.
Football
Colin Kaepernick is the 49ers quarterback of the future. I make this statement based less on his maginificent performance last night against the Bears, as on his personality, body language, and leadership demenor. Years and years ago, I remember when Rick Barry arrived at the Warriors training camp, a first round draft choice from the U of Miami. I'd just come off an All-Star year, and was looking forward to many more. It was not to be. It only took me a couple of pre season practices to see that Rick was the real deal, The Star, which he turned out to be. You can feel stardom as well as see it. Ask any athlete. It's not cockiness, it's a kind of electricity. I'm afraid Alex Smith is going to have to come to that realization that Colin is the man.
I've always love poems sports metaphor poems, in which sports and the true subject are intertwined.
Here's one of my favorites.
The Stadium by William Heyen
The stadium is filled
for this is the third night the moon
has not appeared as even a thin sickle.
We light the candles we were told to bring.
The diamond is lit red with torches.
Children run the bases.
A voice, as though from a tomb,
leads us to the last amen of a hymn.
Whole sections of the bleachers begin to moan.
The clergy files from the dugout
to the makeshift communion rails
that line the infield grass.
We've known, all our lives,
that we would gather here in the stadium
on just such a night,
that even the bravest among us
would weep softly in the dark aisles,
catching their difficult breath.
