8 Resolutions For Bay Area Sports This New Year

Now that we've all indulged heavily on delicious treats, both edible and inedible, it's time to rejoice in what we've seen over the past two weeks. It is definitely not time to focus on the moves your favorite baseball team may or may not have made, and it's definitely not time to focus on the egg that your favorite college football team may or may not have laid in San Diego. No, no, no.... instead, we'll focus on the positives. Though they may be few in number, there have been great things going on in the sports world over the last two weeks even if you're an East San Francisco Bay Area fan like I am. So, in case you've been stuffing your face with figgy pudding over the last two weeks, here's your friendly sports update.... of positives....



Even I feel bad for this poor guy

1. The NBA started... the Warriors have hope.
2. The Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Outback Bowl made for a memorable day-after-New-Year's-Day.
3. The 49ers are in the playoffs.

So hey, we've got that going for us. But fear not, this year provides new hope for everyone, and here's a list of 8 resolutions our hometown teams and fans should make to help them succeed in the new year.

Cal Men's Basketball: It's happening

Judging by the amount of people at last nights game, I'm not sure you knew. Cal Basketball, however, is in full swing. People should be paying more attention than they currently are because this year, this team could bring home a Pac-12 title and get pretty deep in the tournament. That's right, you heard correctly. Cal basketball is good.

In the fourth year of his tenure, Mike Montgomery is playing with a team of his design, and it shows. Almost every player on the court is playing with energy and a defense first mindset. I can't look at a single one of them and put them down for being selfish or lazy. In the three games they've played so far, they've crushed their opposition and allowed their bench players to get on the floor for invaluable early season experience. This is maybe the deepest team I've seen since following Cal basketball These guys deserve your attention. They are currently ranked #22 in the nation. These guys are going to make some noise, I highly suggest joining them.

Everbody Was Working for Last Weekend

And it wasn't too good to us, was it?

Actually, if you don't care about the Giants or Golden Bears, it wasn't half bad.

The Niners played an amazing defensive game to win in Cincinnati. The Raiders defense looked better than the Jets as they won at home. AND, most importantly, the A's took two of three from the Angels. One win even included a 4 run ninth inning rally off of Jordan Walden.

I'm sure Frankie will soon write a novel on how the Giants let this season slip away, so I won't touch upon their series down in the Desert. However, here's a snippet of what I believe was said in the dugout on Friday.

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Bochy: OK, so we have to sweep this series to have any hope of postseason play.

Assistant Coach #1: Right, so let's make sure we put our best team out there on the field.

Bochy, as eyelids start to droop: Right, Rags, who's throwing for us?

Rags: Cain, so we got a good shot at winning this one.

Bochy: Good. YAWN. Muellins, let's get our best lineup on the field.

Muellins: Look, Cain will only get 1 run of support no matter who we put out there, so let's go ragtag, it will look more awesome when we write the script for Moneyball 2: Sabey Sabes Strikes Back.

Bochy: (Grumbles as he starts crawling back into his cave for hibernation) We'll make everyone remember how we are still better than the A's.... So who we got?

Muellins: I thought we'd play three rookies, bat the two September callups leadoff and cleanup, and start a guy at third who hasn't played a full season since 2009.

Bochy: Gwarrrf.

...After the game...

Cain and Lincecum: Man, screw this, let's sign with Texas.

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Because I like weekends: But I'm No Nostradamus

You could say I did get 3 of those predictions right and 2 half right last weekend. So I actually feel pretty good about my performance. The Rays are still 2 games back of the Red Sox. Cam Newton, though passing for an obscene amount of yards, threw three interceptions and did not earn a win. The Steelers didn't have as much trouble as I thought, but did win. Florida State was destroyed. The 'Canes beat OSU, but by a lot more than I thought they would.

So, needless to say, I'm still the smartest man alive. Well, not really, but I did ok.

Bears Beat Buffs, Barely

Ah, sweet alliteration. Who doesn't love it? Probably the Colorado Buffaloes, who did everything they could to beat the California Golden Bears on Saturday. Though the Bears eventually triumphed, 36-33 in overtime, things may have been exposed that we would have rather not seen.

The Bears committed to stopping Rodney Stewart and the Colorado running game. They also decided they would not let Tyler Hansen use his feet. What resulted? Only 78 yards on 24 carries for Stewart, and only 26 yards on 7 carries for Hansen. So, that was good. Unfortunately, Hansen was able to throw for 474 yards, 284 of them were caught by WR Paul Richardson. Both figures are school records.



Oh Yeah, Keenan Allen is still really, really good.

Pac-12 Inaugural Season Standings Prediction

Yes, college football returns in a little over two weeks and hopefully will distract myself and some others of you from the debacle that is Bay Area baseball. How do we see the Pac-12 falling this year? Will it be favorable to the Bears? Read on to find out.

To begin, let's make sure we all understand how the Pac-12 will work. In the North, we have the Washingtons, Oregons, and NorCal squads. In the South, the Mountains, Arizonas, and SoCal teams. Each team will play the five other teams in its division, plus 4 of the teams in the other division. In the case of the Northern California schools, each year will see them miss one Mountain and one Arizona school. This year, the Golden Bears will play both Mountain schools, but the Colorado game will be a non-conference match.

Once the regular season ends, a game will be played between the winner of the North and South to determine who will be crowned the Pac-12 champion and in effect earn a trip to the Rose Bowl.



After the jump, an idea, from a California fan, of how it all shakes out.

Cal Baseball: The Golden Team

It’s been said many times by many people: this is the ultimate story book season for the University of California baseball team. With the win over Texas A&M yesterday, the Bears stayed alive to be in the final six spots in the College World Series. The heroes? Not Pac-10 Player of the Year Tony Renda. Not junior standouts Chadd Krist or Marcus Semien. A couple of freshmen did the Aggies in. Kyle Porter pitched six outstanding innings in his fourth career start as a college pitcher, and held one of the most potent offenses in the nation to only three runs. Derek Campbell, only starting at second base because of a quad injury suffered by Renda, had clutch hits and clutch plays at second in the winning effort.

Every game a different player steps up. Every game a new hero rises. The Golden Bears are a team that finally believes in itself. Manager David Esquer has had great talent before, but it has never translated into a College World Series appearance until this year. This year, faced with adversity and uncertainty, California has everything to prove, and the desire to win is palpable. They wanted this last season to be the best they’ve ever had, and it shows on the field. Especially now, that the donors have shown their support and belief, this team plays like the champions they are. They don’t look like they’re just happy to be in Omaha. They’re playing with fire in their eyes and hearts, and the enthusiasm is proving to be contagious.

Will they win the whole thing? That’s still left to be seen. However, they’re still alive, and that’s more that can be said of all but five other programs. On Thursday afternoon in Omaha, the Bears get to have a rematch against number one seed Virginia, who defeated them in the first game of this double elimination round. I’m sure the game will be hard fought, as this Golden Bear baseball team embodies the spirit of the timeless quote, “The Bear will not quit. The Bear will not die.” If Disney doesn’t pick this up as a family film in the next five years, I’d be utterly stunned. But I encourage all of you to watch the game Thursday, as I’m pretty sure the real thing is going to be even better than a movie could possibly be.

CAL IN THE CWS! / A's v. ChiSox Thoughts

I'm sure you all know by now, but California, yes, that California Golden Bear baseball team has advanced through the regionals and earned a berth in the College World Series for the first time since 1992. That's right, the Bears haven't been to Omaha since George H.W. Bush's last year in office. The freshmen on this team were not alive when this program last was here. Think about that. Insane.

Talk about your ultimate Cinderella story. A program that was on the precipice of elimination has made it to the promised land. If Disney doesn't make a movie out of this in the next year or two starring Justin Bieber as Tony Renda, they will have seriously missed an opportunity, and instead I will make it.

Who Doesn't Love a Top Ten?

At We're In This Thing, we obviously do. So, here are my top ten sports stories of 2010.


10. Butler v. Duke
The premier basketball story of the year. The Cinderella that almost was. Just getting there was amazing, to come as close as they did to winning, well... you can't do much better. It's hard for me to articulate exactly what it means. We are entering an age where the mid-majors have come to play. Between Memphis, Butler, San Diego State, Gonzaga, and others, we're soon to see more teams come out and play in the tourney. Better teams mean better pizza, I mean basketball. It's hard not to be excited for it.

9. Concussions and Hits
The NFL is at a crossroads. Gooddell has done everything in his power to screw things up. Now, with what seems to be a rise in vicious hits coupled with new evidence about the long term effects of head injury, football as we know it is about to be redefined. For better or for worse, its going to be a whole different game in the next few years.

8. Year of the Pitcher
Though it wasn't 1968, 2010 featured beautiful pitching all season. And fantastically, from unlikely sources. Dallas Braden, Matt Garza, Ubaldo, Morrow... all now added in the same breath as fantastic performances from Doc Halladay, Lee, King Felix, Big Time Timmy Jim. We saw something special.

7. Armando Galarraga
I think it's all been said before. Jim Joyce missed a call that would have given a starter fighting for his spot in the rotation a perfecto. It's a great story. I think a recent article from ESPN's Outside the Lines really captures the story best.
LINK

6. TCU and Boise State and Why the BCS is terrible
Really, enough said. This does not only apply to them. It also applies to the Nevada's, the BYU's etc. Why the hell were nine Big 12 teams in bowls? It's a subject that has been beaten to death. The only way to do it is a playoff. End of story. But, with the Rose Bowl win by TCU, a much stronger case has been made.

5. World Cup
Yeah, it happened this summer. Remember? South Africa? Yeah. What I saw in the streets of the USA over the summer was exciting. A world event is exciting every time it happens. I believe that the World Cup upstaged the Olympics. Yeah, those happened this year too. Vancouver? Yeah. If it wasn't here before, soccer has a place in the states.

4. The New PGA
OK, I admit it. I like golf. Though the sports media wants to tell you it's about Tiger's story, the new PGA commercial is actually sending the right message. It's about everyone else again. Phil, Rory, Paul, Justin, Lee, Ernie, Retief. How many last names did you get? It's a big field out there, anyone can win every weekend. Though it may not have the romance of such a dominant player, it was a very interesting season to watch, and it will precipitate an even more interesting 2011 as Tiger tries to make his comeback.

3. Saints Win the Superbowl
It was the story of a franchise who had never won anything, in a city that needed hope. It was poetic. It was a long time coming. It was ballsy, after going down in the first half and coming out with the onside kick. Though my counterpart will argue that the previous Super Bowl was much more entertaining, and maybe it was, this one had the bigger stories behind it.

2. Bears Win Pac-10
This was a pet choice for me. Because most people forgot about it, it needed to be said. The Golden Bear men's basketball team won the Pacific-10 Conference for the first time since 1959. WHAT?! We got to see two of the best Golden Bears in history perform at an amazingly high level, and two more finish fabulous careers. Confetti is a nice thing.

1. Giants Win the World Series
Really, not enough can be said about what we witnessed this summer. A ragtag bunch of young players and free agents nobody else wanted did what everyone thought they couldn't do. i have a feeling Frank might expand on this further, but yes. It is absolutely my top story of the year.

Argue as you see fit