Prior to seeing the Blazers play the Kings on New Years Day, I took a slight detour to the northern California coast to get a therapeutic dose of nature. The state may have its share of problems, but it’s got some things, such as the tallest trees on earth and ocean sunsets to die for, …
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Though my last two trips down to Sacramento have seen losses for the NBA Kings, there is a feeling of optimism there perhaps greater than any since Chris Webber and Mike Bibby brought the Kings within a questionably officiated 2002 Western Conference Finals Game 6 to a likely championship. At 19-18, the Kings are just …
The Portland Literary Festival was a hopping place a few weeks ago. Its biggest event was a visit by Tom Hanks, who last year had published Uncommon Type, a book of short stories with a recurring theme of antique typewriters. His talk, which required special tickets, was sold out weeks in advance, and the line …
Last July, the Carr Fire burned almost 400 square miles and forced nearly forty thousand residents of Redding, CA, including myself, to evacuate. The center of it was Whiskeytown Lake, about ten miles from my abode, and five months later there are wide swathes of landscape that look as if World War I passed over …
For the second straight year, the Golden State Warriors have been a difficult team to assess during the regular season. They still have the best starting lineup of any team in the NBA, and when they are at their best, no team in either conference can match up with them. The problem, however, is that …
Willie McCovey, Hall-of-Fame first baseman and left-handed slugger extraordinaire for the San Francisco Giants, passed away yesterday at 80. Rest in peace. – Chuck Strom
For those who are not yet of a certain age, it’s easy to forget that Steve Martin was once the most popular comedian in America. His stand-up appearances filled baseball stadiums, and his guest-host appearances on Saturday Night Live were must-see appointment television events that routinely added a million viewers to the show’s ratings. After …
It may be a sign of climate change that the old Mark Twain joke about cold summers in San Francisco no longer seems to apply, at least during day games at AT&T Park. It was roasting in the upper deck behind home plate on Saturday, even for those of us used to the dry summer …
The Golden State Warriors’ sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 NBA Finals suggested an inevitability to their 2018 championship, especially after the final game when most of the second half was garbage time. For those who watched the Warriors throughout the playoffs and the regular season, however, the result was anything but assured. …
The Portland Trail Blazers are no strangers to early NBA playoff exits, but this one hurts more than most. Unlike the Blazers of recent years, this team had all of its stars healthy and a higher seed that allowed them not only home court in the first round but the privilege of not facing the …
Paid a visit to the San Francisco Giants yesterday as they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-2 on Sunday. The win brought the Giants record for April to 14-14, suggesting that the jury is still out on whether their off-season makeover will bear fruit. The defending National League champion Dodgers have had their own share …
One of the best parts of playoffs in the NBA is that teams step up their pageantry a notch. The banners are more plentiful outside the arena, the excitement of the crowd is more palpable, and the lights out introductions are astounding. In this case, the fans were all issued, in addition to T-shirts draped …
As of this writing, the Portland Trail Blazers have lost their last four games and play the streaking Utah Jazz tonight in their final game of the NBA regular season. A win will clinch the #3 seed for the Blazers, and a loss might put them as low as #5 and send them on the …
Generally there are two kinds of biographies: those that skate on the surface and those that do their homework and dive deeply into the subject’s life. The biography, Tiger Woods, published this last week by investigative journalists Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian, just in time for the Masters, falls into the second category. In addition …
Last Tuesday night, I took my daughter Jillian to see the Sacramento Kings play the Dallas Mavericks. She had never seen an NBA game, and the tickets were cheap for two lottery teams playing a game with absolutely no bearing on the playoffs. The Mavericks won 103-97, but the evening was most notable in that …
No surprise that my bracket was busted in the first round of March Madness. It was a little shocking at first that my pick for national champion, Virginia, didn’t even make it past their first game, but as I watched the second half of their game against UMBC, I was more puzzled how the Cavaliers had managed …
Most natives of Portland don’t need to be told that they live in a sea of natural beauty, but they may not be aware just how close some of the outdoor wonders are to their doorsteps. One of these is the Tualatin RIver National Wildlife Refuge, just off of Highway 99W a few miles southwest …
One of the first things you notice when the Golden State Warriors come to town is that their fans travel well. There were as many blue and gold jerseys as Blazer black and red outside the Moda Center before Friday night’s game, and the majority of them had the familiar number 30 for Stephen Curry, …
Just today, Yahoo! broke the story of federal documents identifying an extensive list of NCAA schools and players that have been involved in the recent recruiting scandals that have been investigated by the FBI. You can find their post here: https://sports.yahoo.com/exclusive-federal-documents-detail-sweeping-potential-ncaa-violations-involving-high-profile-players-schools-103338484.html One reason I’ve preferred professional sports to the NCAA is that the former make …
The Oklahoma City Thunder came to Sacramento on Thursday night at 33-26, fifth best in the NBA’s Western Conference, but they are a more dangerous team than their record suggests. For the first quarter in their matchup with the Kings, the Thunder were their better selves, shooting over 80 percent from the floor and building …
Though the Reverend Billy Graham passed away Wednesday morning at 99 years of age, his failing health had taken him from public view for the last few years, and it was almost more of a surprise that he had remained a resident of our earthly realm up until then. For those younger than a certain …
Last week, Terry Gross of NPR’s Fresh Air interviewed Finn Murphy, whose memoir, The Long Haul, was published last year. The interview was so entertaining that I immediately downloaded the book, and I was not disappointed. From its title and cover, one might think that the book would be a celebration of the open road …
Last Wednesday, in their last game before the All-Star Break, the Portland Trail Blazers hosted the Golden State Warriors in a game that was not only a barn-burner but also illustrated the current state of both teams, who would meet in the first round of the playoffs if their current #7 and #2 seedings were …
The Philadelphia Eagles finally have a Lombardi Trophy to bring home, their first championship since Concrete Charlie Bednarik sat on Green Bay’s Jim Taylor to win it all in 1960. Hats off to them. They played unafraid, especially Nick Foles, and it took all of their successful gambles to beat the Patriots. Their only mistake …
Lady Bird, the coming-of-age movie set in Sacramento, CA, has a stubborn disinclination to satisfy normal expectations. Whenever you expect the story to follow a certain path, it goes somewhere else, and whenever you think you know its characters, they always find a way to surprise you. This lack of cliche, along with the movie’s …
The NFC Championship Game has just concluded as of this writing, with the Nick Foles-led Philadelphia Eagles beating the Minnesota Vikings by a shocking score of 38-7. The Eagles will travel to Minnesota to meet the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, thus ruining Minnesota’s dreams of winning a Lombardi Trophy in their own …
After the Portland Trailblazers’ win over the Indiana Pacers last Thursday night, comedian Cedric the Entertainer got up from his courtside seat afterward and took Coach Terry Stotts’ place at the podium for the postgame press conference: Thanks to the graciousness of the Trailblazers, I’ve been in that briefing room a couple of times. Usually, …
After the Minnesota Vikings’ miracle win in last night’s divisional playoff with the New Orleans Saints, ESPN was historically astute enough to replay footage of the original Hail Mary play from December 1975, when Drew Pearson of the Dallas Cowboys pushed off Vikings cornerback Nate Wright and caught Roger Staubach’s desperation pass from midfield for …
For those who aren’t obsessive about sports, ESPN posted an article last Friday on the alleged circumstances behind the New England Patriots’ trade of Jimmy Garoppolo, now known to Bay Area fans as the return of Joe Montana, to the San Francisco 49ers last October. The article suggests that the trade, which happened suddenly and …
LeBron James, like his predecessors Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, is a star whose appearance in any city draws fans to an NBA arena like pilgrims to Mecca, and like the latter, he is a sight to behold in person at least once in your life. Accordingly, there were a lot of LeBron …