Sports Builds Character

The beauty of sports is sometimes a little hard to see when your team comes up short.

But Sunday brought two "oh-so-close" moments that serve as a reminder of how fine the line is between victory and defeat.

First, the U.S. women's soccer team learned exactly how it felt to lose one after its stirring quarterfinal win over Brazil. The World Cup final saw Japan beat the U.S. for the first time ever. Japan had been 0--22-3 against the American women, and its World Cup win was remarkably similar to the U.S.-Brazil victory. Late goals in regulation and overtime followed by a shootout win--the kind of win that is inevitably described as proof that the winning team is plucky, mentally tough, and wouldn't say die.

But does that mean the losing side was wimpy, weak, and full of quitters?

Of course not. But it does hurt to lose. Just ask Tyler Farrar, the American cyclist who won a stage of the Tour de France earlier this month and had a shot at another win on Sunday. But Farrar's last-second burst just failed to catch the sport's most dominating sprinter, Mark Cavendish. Afterward, Farrar was disconsolate, seeming near tears as he discussed the win that got away.

For both Farrar and the U.S. women, there will always be personal questions about whether they did enough, whether they "gave the game away", whether it would turn out the same way if they got a second chance.

But the beauty of sport is that it doesn't matter. We can talk or write about it ad nauseum but nothing changes the reality of the final score.

Shut Up. Please, Shut Up

I'm not sure I can put it any better than Twitter user @dean13 who, back in June, managed to squeeze this thought into 140 characters:

Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up, Bobby Valentine. Shut up.

Exactly.

The downside to the Giants winning the World Series is the fact that they've become hot stuff for the network folks, guaranteeing more appearances on the Saturday Fox broadcasts and the Sunday night ESPN games.

I say "downside" because this means Bay Area viewers lose the capable and comfortable Kruk & Kuip, and get stuck instead with motormouths like Valentine. "Insufferable" is a good place to start when describing this guy. "Ceaseless" is a good place to start when describing his chatter.

The wizards at ESPN decided to empty their broadcast booth of two Hall of Famers (Jon Miller and Joe Morgan) so they could stuff in Dan Shulman, Valentine, and Orel Hershiser. As far as I can tell, Shulman calls a very good game. But it's hard to hear him because Valentine doesn't leave much room (fill-in play-by-play guy Dave O'Brien got the same treatment in last night's Giants-Mets game).

The first couple times I caught this act, I figured somebody upstairs would hear it too and rein Valentine in. No such luck. And it's not just how much Valentine talks; it's often what he says. For example, last night, he took pains to criticize the Giants outfielders for the way they were aligned in a late-inning situation. As a former major league manager, Valentine ought to know that the outfielders don't position themselves; there's a bench coach worrying about those details. For a guy who seems to want to show everyone how much he knows, he misses the mark pretty often.

I have friends who used to cringe when Morgan would mangle the language or launch into another self-serving story. But at least he occasionally shut up.

Another Idea For Timmy

Florida Marlins manager Jack McKeon is griping about Tim Lincecum's All Star status. It's silly, of course; McKeon's in his 80's and has been around the game long enough to know better.

Lincecum's stats are not great this year, but they're not awful, either. After his mediocre July 4th start against the Padres, Timmy is 6-7 with a 3.14 ERA. On a team that scores more runs, he could easily have 10 or 11 wins. His WHIP is at 1.19, which is about in line with his career average (and better than what he posted last year).

Giants and NL All-Star manager Bruce Bochy need not defend his choice of Lincecum to join a pitching staff that also includes San Francisco teammates Matt Cain, Brian Wilson, and Ryan Vogelsong. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Gwen Knapp does an able job of explaining why in today's piece. In short, Gwen points out an obvious fact: Lincecum is one of those transcendent athletes who the fans deserve to see. Some guys are automatic All-Stars in my book: Jeter, Pujols, Mariano Rivera. Unless they're injured or truly awful, they have to be there.

But my esteemed colleague Steve Bitker tosses out another point of view. Maybe, Steve suggests, Lincecum should be left off the All-Star roster this year for his own good. Part of Lincecum's charm is the fact that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. We thrill to his highs, but right now, he seems a bit worn out. Steve argues that Lincecum might benefit from an All-Star break--time away from baseball, time to recharge his mental battery.

I'd sure miss seeing him on the All-Star mound, but a refreshed Timmy would be a fine sight for the rest of the Giants season.

Something You've Never Seen Before

There's an old line about baseball: "You go out to the ballpark every day and you'll see something you've never seen before."

It's probably a wee bit of an overstatement, but last night's game at AT&T Park was truly historic. Before some fans had even found their seats, the Minnesota Twins had scored 8 first-inning runs against the Giants. The 8 straight hits to start the game marked a first in Giants history--New York or San Francisco. And Giants starter Madison Bumgarner became the first pitcher in over a century to give up 9 hits without recording two outs.

If you bleed orange and black, this was not a pretty thing to watch. But if you take the long view as a baseball fan, you should hold onto your ticket stub. Of the tens of thousands of ballgames played since 1900, this one was unique.

For Bumgarner, a young guy with tremendous promise, this game may turn into the kind of scar that serves a purpose. As soon as the last out had been recorded, Bumgarner was telling reporters that he'd absorbed a lesson: when you leave pitches over the plate, big league hitters will hit them.

To be sure, Bumgarner could have been out of the inning with less bloodshed. There was an infield single in there, a couple of ground balls with eyes, and a ball that dropped fair by inches down the left-field line. But there are no mulligans in baseball.

The Giants are struggling right now; the loss knocked them out of first place in the NL West. With their anemic offense, this game was truly over before they even came to bat. Yet the beauty of baseball is this: today or tomorrow, it could just as easily be their turn to make history.

You never know what you'll see at the ballpark.

A Bold Stroke

There are those rolling their eyes in the perennial "There go the Warriors again" reaction.

But I think the decision to hire unproven Mark Jackson to coach the Golden State Warriors is exactly the sort of bold stroke the franchise needs to become relevant again.

Jackson's resume includes exactly zero coaching experience and to some, that makes him unfit for the job. Of course, the usual pro sports practice of retreading coaches who've been less-than-successful elsewhere doesn't seem like that hot an idea either.

The Warriors' new owners, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Joe Lacob and Hollywood mogul Peter Guber, understand how to calculate a risk/reward ratio. The Jackson hiring carries little downside (let's say he fails miserably and the Warriors miss the playoffs...whoops...miss the playoffs again) while the upside is pretty well unlimited.

Jackson's lack of sideline experience may or may not be a real issue. This is a guy who was an acknowledged leader and student of the game throughout a long NBA career, and who has spent the last several years watching NBA games and picking coaches' minds as a TV analyst. Do Bay Area fans need to be reminded of the Bob Brenly story? The former Giants catcher had never managed at any level when he swapped a TV job for the Diamondbacks managing gig and led them to a World Series championship in his first season.

Plus, the Warriors pulled off a coup by nabbing Mike Malone as an assistant coach. Malone is a highly-regarded defensive mind and reports indicated he was on the Lakers' short list before they hired their own new head coach.

Albert Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Einstein never coached in the NBA, either, but Jerry West did. The NBA legend is acting as an adviser to the Warriors ownership and he gets it. West tells San Jose Mercury-News writer Tim Kawakami why he likes the Jackson-Malone hirings, and it pretty much comes down to this: winners take risks. Losers stand pat.

You look at it that way, and this Warriors move is a no-brainer.

Enough's Enough

Nobody can really enjoy watching Giants catcher Buster Posey have his season ended in a horrible home plate collision. It's ugly, and the sight of Posey writhing in pain afterward is even uglier.

Yet plenty of baseball fans seem willing to say, "Well, too bad. That's baseball." For a hundred years, collisions at the plate have been part of the game, they say. That's true, but I'm here to argue that it's time for this to stop.

I hold no malice toward Scott Cousins of the Florida Marlins for barreling into Posey. He did what Major League ballplayers do on that sort of play: he tried to run the catcher over. In his own words, "I decided to try and knock the ball loose." In other words, his goal on the play was to separate Posey from the ball he was trying to catch. If you watch the video, you'll see that Cousins' path isn't really to the plate--it's toward Posey's head.

In the big leagues, that's a heads-up play and it makes you a hero in the clubhouse. In high school and college baseball, it makes you "out at the plate". The NCAA realized that bigger, faster, more aggressive players were creating greater havoc in home plate collisions and that player safety was at risk on each of these plays.

The NCAA's "Collision Rule" (Rule 8.7 in the college baseball rulebook) was amended before the 2011 season, and it makes one thing clear: runners trying to score have to try to score, not try to dislodge the ball from the catcher. The rule reads, in part, "Contact above the waist that was initiated by the base runner shall not be judged as an attempt to reach the base or plate."

A runner who violates Rule 8.7 is out, and if the umpire finds the contact flagrant or malicious, is also out of the game--ejected.

Posey's agent, Jeff Berry, has already served notice that he'll ask Major League Baseball to do something about home plate collisions. As he points out, it's ironic that the NFL has just toughened its rules to punish players who take headshots at defenseless receivers, yet MLB persists in applauding players who mow down catchers.

Again, I don't fault Scott Cousins (and I'll bet Buster Posey doesn't, either). He was playing within the rules. But it's way past time for those rules to change.

A Crazy Game

For San Jose Sharks fans, it's a familiar feeling. A very good team that didn't quite measure up when it counted.

For the second straight year, the Sharks saw their season end in the conference finals. The team that beat them last year went on to win the Stanley Cup. I'd say there's a pretty good chance the team that beat them this year will do so too.

When you lose a series 4-1, as the Sharks did to the Vancouver Canucks, it's tempting to say that anyone who says it could have gone the other way is a whiny loser. But this series was a lot closer than 4-1. The series-ending game was largely dominated by the Sharks, who just didn't get the bounces and breaks--and no bounce was any weirder than the one that led to the winning goal.

People who've watched more hockey than I have say they can't recall a crazier series-ending goal: a puck that it seems was only seen by one player, Vancouver's Kevin Bieksa, after a zany bounce off a stanchion in the rinkside glass. Bieksa's shot was one of the ugliest you'll ever see, but a thing of pure beauty to the roaring crowd in Vancouver.

Now begins the annual flogging of the Sharks, a team upon which high expectations are heaped year after year. There will be those who blame Patrick Marleau or Dany Heatley. Both are high-paid forwards who are expected to score. Marleau suffered the pathetic rantings of former teammate Jeremy Roenick earlier in the playoffs, and answered by scoring 7 points in the Vancouver series. Heatley's effort in Game 5 can't be questioned, even if he never broke through on the scoresheet.

Sports can be cruel in its finality. The fact that the Sharks didn't win doesn't make them losers, and a calm assessment of the team's strengths should reveal that the best thing to do is probably to stand pat. The core of the team is set. Young forward Jamie McGinn, notably, becomes a restricted free agent and I can't imagine the team failing to re-sign him after the postseason energy he displayed.

Dump on the Sharks for failing to win it all, if you must, but do remember that this team has taken the Bay Area deep into spring hockey pretty regularly. If Vancouver ends up winning the Cup, it'll be a bittersweet balm, but at least the Sharks will know that they were right there with the eventual champions.