Category: Sports

Wheels coming off the wagon?

Various sources are reporting that the talks between the Maloofs and the JPA are stalling over parking spaces. In a stunning turn of events, the pro-arena campaign is now saying that it will press on with or without the Kings:

“We still consider [the Maloofs] part of our team, but it is our arena, and we will decide where it goes, and the public has said loud and clear that the best place for the arena is in the railyard,” said Assistant City Manager John Dangberg

Again I ask how and when we made our voice “loud and clear” on the arena issue. This is starting to completely unravel into a major scandal. What are these idiots doing? More later…

Arena boosters distance themselves from Maloofs, voters

I don’t blame the Arena supportes for distancing themselves from Joe Maloof’s apparently off-the-cuff prepared statement last week about the possibility of the railyard site not materializing. But in doing so they bury a key point of the agreement they made with the Maloofs: namely that the railyard site might not materialize and that “we may have to consider alternative locations in Sacramento.” They know it’s true because they signed the document, things Dignan’s not supposed to touch. Oops, sorry.

Campaign chairperson Sandy Smoley told News10 in a written statement. “The community has decided that the best place for its new arena is at the old Sacramento railyards, and we have no doubt that this is where it will be.

The community decided that? When was that, was I out of the country when we decided that?
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Joe Maloof drops railyard arena bomb

UPDATED 9/6/06 at 8:00 pm

To quote Conan O’Brien, you just can’t make this stuff up; you wouldn’t want to, it would waste everyone’s time.

Kings Owner Joe Maloof’s statement: “We share the vision that everyone here has. The future would be fantastic to have a new arena downtown to revitalize the railyards. But it isn’t going to be easy. The site has been vacant for decades because it’s such a difficult site to develop. There are a lot of moving parts: The railroad, the developer, the cleanup, and all the work the city and county have got to get done. We believe it can happen, we believe an arena can help make it happen, but we want to make sure the people are aware that we will do our best. If for some reason it can’t happen at this site, we may have to consider alternative locations in Sacramento.”

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The Maloofs like losing

Racehorses, it has been said, are the perfect sports franchise. They always try their best, they don’t shoot their mouth off and they never renegotiate their contracts. Maybe that’s why the Maloofs dipped a toe into horse-racing, with a 5-year-old colt named King Palm.

The horse is something special: He can’t win, and he has nine straight second-place finishes. From the Bloodhorse online:

The streak is believed to be a Thoroughbred record, but no one seems to know for sure.

“I don’t know anyone who keeps track of seconds,” said trainer Vladimir Cerin, who has never seen anything like it in his 27 years of conditioning.

“It’s actually easier to win nine in a row – if you have a really good horse – than finish second nine times like that,” he added. “You have to beat everybody else except one horse each race. We’re trying to win every time, but something always seems to happen.”

The Maloof brothers – George Jr., Joe, Gavin and Phil – see the irony that King Palm has the same bridesmaid tendencies as their NBA franchise. The Kings are perennial playoff contenders without a crown.

“It’s hilarious,” Gavin Maloof said. “It’s the only time I’ve ever been happy about finishing second in my life. Everybody into racing knows our horse.”

Downtown stadiums

I’m sitting in a room on the 21st floor of the Omni in San Diego, looking down into PetCo Park, where the Padres are playing the Giants. I can tell every time Bonds makes an appearance — the boos rock the ballpark and practically vibrate the foundation of the hotel (which has a four-floor skywalk into the park).

Why am I not at the game? Three tickets, four people (late entry to our party), so I opted to stay “home” and get some work done. (The Omni has to be one of the most efficient business hotel chains around, totally dedicated to helping you get everything you want done, from hooking to fast, flawlessw WiFi in every room to getting your 14-year-old niece some tourist options to get her out of your hair for a while. Oh, and great handmade chips!)

Sounds like the seventh-inning stretch down there now …
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Rah Rah Hall!!

In researching the below “beat the heat” post, I came across info about the city swim league and it brought back a wave of nostalgia for my days as a Glenn Hall River Rat. There seems to have been some contraction in the City’s recreational swim league since those days. Apparently now there are only 6 teams–Glenn Hall, Clunie, Oki/Sim, and then 3 conglomerates of Cabrillo/Mangan/Meadowview/Kennedy, Tahoe/McClatchy/Johnson/Southside and Doyle/Johnston/Natomas.

I do remember a Cabrillo/Mangan/Sim combo team, but I also distinctly remember teams existing at Southside, Doyle, Oki, and Tahoe. (Of course, since almost all of the older pool facilities look identical I might be misremembering.)
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Going, going, gone …

Perfect summer evening for baseball, and so on impulse I rounded up some friends last night and headed for Raley Field to watch the RiverCats play the Salt Lake City Bees. Maybe it’s me, but … where did the fun go?

To be sure, you couldn’t fault the weather, Sacramento’s best: just a hint of summer warmth with an overlay of classic Delta breeze. Raley Field still looks as adorable as ever, with its center field neon and center-right view of the Tower Bridge lit artfully by both nature and SMUD power. The field itself is crisp and clean, with sharp white chalk lines as always striking against the dark valley loam. The food was great (no sense complaining about ballpark prices — they are what they are), the play was good and the ‘Cats beat the Bees, thanks to a lovely grandslam midway through.

So what was the problem?
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The party’s over, and I’m already late

This town moves pretty fast… local sports enthusiast Heckasac beat me to the punch on…Sunday’s Sacbee end-of-season report cards on the Kings (what was in the blogwater Monday morning, Sacto?). Sam Amick’s grading system seems horribly skewed toward performance in the playoffs, ignoring the 82 games that got the team there. For example, Wells… didn’t he miss, like 30 games? Miller gets a C, and Bibby gets a B? I just have to ask, what’s up with that, Sacramento?

Two Apiece

Can anybody recommend a pharmacy that delivers to your place of work? Because I’ve got what might prove to be a fatal case of Kings Fever, and I know I’m not the only one!!