Category Archives: sports

blog, news, race, sports

Baseball’s poetics: Down the stretch with the “2-1″ Giants, and then Velez scores

I have refrained from commenting too much on the Giants this year. I’ve watched or listened to every game, and lived and died with every one run victory.

Last night may have been the last straw for this SF native.  

Maybe the difference was that it was the Dodgers and Lincecum was on the mound for us. These are always meaningful games beyond the standings. Once again, Timmy was brilliant. But for a Giants pitcher to win a game by himself, he has to be brilliant plus.

The Giants staked him a 1 run lead.

A one-run-lead should be like giving salad to meat-eaters. It’s just the appetizer, right?

For the Giants, it’s the whole meal.

It takes four runs for the Giants to be bullet-proof. Unfortunately, this season it takes them four games to score that many.

Last night the Giants barely got three hits.

For this reason, I dub the 2011 team  “2-1” Giants.  No typo, it’s “Two to one.”  It’s emblematic of the ideal score and the most vigorous display of team offense this year. When we win, that is. Otherwise, it’s 2-1, Giants lose. Like last night.

We have been talking about this lack of offense for the last 5 years at least.  

“Get a slugger” has long been a refrain since the lament, “When Benjie Molina bats cleanup you’re in trouble.” But the Giants have always managed to be entertaining.  Hapless, nerf-bat swinging, not so-giant Giants.  I watched, I rooted, I cried. Losing was the norm. Close, but not close enough. Whatcha going to do? Root for the A’s?

Then 2010 came and the timely hitting and the luck played out. I went to every post-season game, to the parade, bought every T-shirt, the works.

Our reward in 2011 has been  a return to pre-2010. No laughers here. It’s baseball by the pitch. When you have a pitching team, that’s the way it is. You score one run, and your pitchers have to hold.  Makes for a tense,  frustrating game, because arms can’t score.

Love the K’s. But you can’t throw the ball over the fence and call it a home run for our side.

And when the defense fails and a cheap run for the other team scores, a pinprick turns into a dagger.

That happened last night with the Dodgers and their pinch-runner, Eugenio Velez.

Velez was part of those pre-2010 Giants teams,  the ones that made us sift and sort the Giants of the future. Would it be Bowker? Would it be pre-panda Panda?  Freddy Lewis?  Velez? Who would be Giant enough?

Velez had his shot. He did things with his bat and his speed, then he  undid most of it with his glove.  He had his time as a stick-figure lovable hero.  Amy G had him on. I was always bothered by how they pronounced his name. “Ay-you-henio? ” “You-henio” seems more like it. “Gene”?  “Gino”? The guy didn’t get to nickname status. No panda, no baby giraffe. No gazelle (for his speed).

When he was out of a job and found guys like Burriss and Ford back, it must have been tough for him. How oddly satisfying it must have been for him to put his spikes on home plate and score the run that would put the Giants eight-and-a-half games back.

That’s baseball’s poetics, folks. The tragedy has a beginning, middle and end.

The Giants were like a mythic tale last year. This year, they’re still an entertaining  page turner, but just a summer read, and now not likely at all to go deep into October.

blog, news, sports

NBA Finals: Mavs beat Heat, as James/Wade “Dream Combo” fizzles

I worked in Dallas when the Mavs got their start.  My office in the old Union Station was across the street from the brand new Reunion Arena, and I was there to cover the very first game.

So of course, in these finals, I had a soft spot for the 2011 Mavs with Cuban as their owner, BayArea guy Jason Kidd at the point, and Dirk Nowitzki as their superstar.

If only the Miami Heat had a star of that quality. They certainly didn’t have a team that knew how to win when it mattered.

A lot was made of the Heat this year, what with the pre-fab superstar roster of James, Wade and Bosh. At some point, we all realized there was no Big 3 (Bosh is a nice player, but that’s all). And the Big 2? They didn’t know how to play together as solo superstars. Their idea of team work? Lay back and let the others do their thing.

I feel sad for both James and Wade. Had they not meddled and tried to put together their concept of a “dream team,” they would have had a better chance at winning a championship for themselves staying put.  Certainly James in Cleveland as a  solo super-star with an OK supporting staff could have beaten the Mavs.  Mostly because James would have had to really play all the time.

Unfortunately, James lacks the maturity and know-how to play in a system where he is a part of a team. He has to be the dominant guy. He should have stayed in Cleveland.  Same thing for Wade. They didn’t know how to be supporting super stars. They need to be the principals–on separate teams. 

That’s how the NBA works best.  Especially if the game is still played with one ball. 

I also feel sorry for Eric Spoelstra, the first Filipino American NBA head coach ever. That the Heat didn’t have it isn’t his fault. Let’s hope he doesn’t get scapegoated for the failed chemistry of LeBron/Wade and anyone else.  That’s a failed alchemy.

blog, diversity, race, sports

The biggest perpetrator of an Asian American slur just retired: Shaquille O’Neal

When the sports shows did their retrospectives this week, bet you didn’t see this on his highlight reel?

But can you name a bigger perp of an Asian American slur than Shaquille O’Neal?

No amount of Yao Ming posterizations can make up for what he did. But it is undeniably a  piece of Asian American pop culture history.

Get the story of the incident Shaq would love to forget. 

Check out the blog at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund: www.aaldef.org/blog

blog, news, race, sports

Boxing as karaoke: Mosley’s puffed up face shows you can go through the motions against Manny Pacquiao in a lacklustre fight and still end up looking like dog crap

Anyone who ordered the pay-per-view  fight last Saturday between Manny Pacquiao and Sugar SHAME Mosley (my new nickname for the loser) would be correct in demanding your money back.

At least if you were in Vegas, you could have won your money back betting the fight. For the rest of us, we were taken in by the promoters.

You wanted a fight? For the masses of Filipinos throughout the world watching via satellite, what we saw could only be described as a glorified sparring contest at best, a fraud at worst.

It was like karaoke boxing. Not really boxing, but it sort of looked and sounded like it. And everyone was drunk and had a good time anyway, right? Not exactly.

For our money we all deserved to see a real genuine battle between two men who actually punch at each other. We don’t watch boxing to see how sportsmanlike the boxers are in their etiquette.  We watch to see two brave opponents beat each other to the pulp. But in this title bout, no less, we had Pacquiao and Mosley practically hugging and winking at each other, love-tapping their gloves at the start and finish of each round.

Now I see why many people have turned to MMA. There’s no pussyfooting  there. And if there was, you could really tell.

In boxing, all the worse evasive things were on display in Saturday’s  championship fight. Mosley didn’t land many punches because he didn’t throw many. He was on the run most of the fight. The ring isn’t the place to do your roadwork.  

Even M.P., our hero, seemed to go at it in cruise control. When Pacquiao knocked down  Mosley in the 3rd round, one expected to see  Pacman  go for the kill. Instead, Pacquiao seemed to let Mosley continue the charade. M.P surely didn’t fight like his life depended on it. 

Pacquiao did seem to wake up when Mosley stepped on his foot then pushed him down.  Counted as a knockdown, the unfairness of it all seemed to inspire Pacquiao to step up the assault.  A matter of honor, I guess. But by then, he was so far ahead, there was just no point.

And that is the problem for both fighters. For Mosley, who should do everyone a favor and go off and retire, there was no point in this fight, other than to collect his massive pay day.

For Pacquiao,  it’s getting to be the same thing. There is no one left to fight except Floyd Mayweather, who continues to make unreasonable demands that make booking the “dream fight” more and more unlikely.

Mayweather may have wanted to look at how Pacquiao handled a seemingly stronger, larger opponent (as if he didn’t have ample evidence). But there was something about the aging Mosley that seemed to make many people doubt Pacquiao.  The pay-per-view seemed particularly biased toward Mosley, as if this would be the comeuppance for Pacquiao, the smaller man.

By the end, sportscaster James Brown, who is related by marriage to Filipina Loida Lewis, was apologizing for having bought into the Mosley hype. He should be. Another doubter of Filipino prowess fights the dust.

I imagine even Mayweather was looking at the fight as a barometer of how well he’d do against Pacquaio.  Mayweather had beaten Mosley recently, but not as easy as the Pacman did.

Seeing Mosley, his battered face puffed up and swollen,  say that he was surprised by Pacquiao’s power probably didn’t make Mayweather call his agent and say, “Let’s book this fight.”

I’ve always said Pacquiao should quit while he still has his head.  It’s no different now. He has so much to give to the world beyond yellow boxing gloves. Let’s hope he quits now.  

After Mosley, I don’t care to see any more. Readers will note that as an avid Pacquiao follower I was mum on this fight prior to Saturday. It just didn’t seem worth talking about.  Now the fight’s  real value emerges.

It could be Pacquiao’s last.

If it is, it wouldn’t surprise me.

Manny has nothing else to prove in the ring.

For the sport, he should quit now.

But for his accountant, his bank statement, and his entire entourage, the beat goes on.