Category: Sports

River Cats, get excited yeah!!!

#1 FAN!!!
I can't believe I have used this photo twice.

As the soon-to-be only game in town, this is the perfect week for the River Cats to open their 2011 campaign. This week also has the advantage of being the week that every other team is starting their season.

The Bee’s Appetizers blog has a roundup of new food items at Raley Field, including a “baked potato dog.”

The roster will feature several players from last year’s division title winning team.

The home opener is Thursday against the hated Tacoma Rainiers, and will feature $2 Miller beers!

Let’s hear from you, River Cats fans: What are you most looking forward to about the River Cats season?

Blog: Kings move a done deal?

Matthew McGuire, who blogs at From the Capitol, seems to have info that the Kings move to Anaheim is a done deal. Other than The Wall, on which this has been written for weeks, I don’t actually see that news anywhere else so I’m interested to see what develops.

Also don’t you love hearing that the Maloofs are willing to pay “whatever it takes” to the Lakers and Clips to get them to sign off on the relocation deal?

Abu Dhabi do a number on Sactown

I’ve never read a more heartless editorial. Steve Dilbeck of Abu Dhabi’s The National seems to think that the Kings woke up last week in Sacramento after a bender and need to get the fuck out of Dodge.

Get this: free agents do not want to live in isolated Sacramento; they do want to live on a bluff overlooking the Pacific.

He sounds like some kind of median income Nazi who only knows about basketball from the dictionary and only knows Sacramento from the map. Don’t they have like, slavery in Abu Dhabi? I’ll take Sacramento, ocean view bluffs or not.

Do or die week for Kings?

Mayor Johnson is still sounding optimistic about keeping the Kings in town and apparently March 1 is the deadline for the Kings to file a relocation request. Notes from Bill Bradley and Voisin (interesting note about Stern’s Sacramento-is-Seattle reference) and Sam Amick are worrisome, while Ryan Lillis and the Here We Stay folks provide optimism on the subject.

If this goes the wrong way and we lose the team, will I regret agitating against raising taxes to pay for a shady deal to build the railyard arena? I spent some time this morning rereading some of my posts from that period of time and I maintain my stance. I am aware that Oklahoma City is somewhat of a success story, with the city now owning Ford Arena. I’m not 100% sure that there wouldn’t have been some kind of deal involving a tax increase in return for city ownership of the arena that I couldn’t have supported. But the amount of concessions Sacramento City and County leaders were willing to give the Maloofs made the 2006 deal a bad one for citizens, IMHO. And if we had known this situation would be a direct result it would have made that deal even more distasteful.

Surely you don’t lack for places on the Internet to answer this question but what do you think? How do you see this thing playing out?

Maloofs open to “all options” for Kings

Regarding what to do with the Kings, dumping them on Anaheim or Vegas is now an option. I can’t really see Anaheimians attending Kings games, but maybe an underwhelming last place basketball team that is currently showing it can waste even a rookie of the year is just what that area needs. It doesn’t sound like the Maloofs are as secure in Vegas as they once were, so if they move there it won’t be for the same reasons it would have been a few years ago. I also can’t see the NBA going for contraction but it would fit the storyline of the day and age we’re in.

It would probably take at least 2 years to move the franchise to Vegas. At this point the grieving process, once the other shoe drops, will only take about 2 days…

Hitting the reset button

We at the Sac Rag realize none of you care about the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team, but you can’t help but be depressed moved bummed out by this post-game press conference after another ugly loss.

The sad state of the Kings is making national news and while a coaching change seems to make sense, owner Joe Maloof is denying anyone is on their way out.

When pressed, Maloof said definitively that Petrie and Westphal will be in their positions for the remainder of the 2010-11 season regardless of how many games the team loses. “Yes,” Maloof said. “We’re not making any moves. The answer is yes.” A person with direct knowledge of recent statements by a high-ranking member of the organization painted a different picture, telling CBSSports.com that frustration with the Kings’ 5-22 record had reached a breaking point. At one point after the Kings’ 84-79 home loss to the Bucks Thursday night, owner Gavin Maloof was overheard in the tunnel saying that the culture of the organization had to change. “It’s time to hit the reset button,” Gavin Maloof said, according to the source.

Maybe the NBA could take over this team, too?

Kings assistant coach arrested on DUI charges

OK, what’s the deal? Kings assistant coach, Mario Elie, was arrested for driving under the influence early this morning. Granted, you’d celebrate, too, if your team won a game after sporting the league’s worst record.

“We are very concerned and disappointed in regard to Mario’s arrest for DUI. This is an ugly form of history repeating itself. We expect better, knowing at the same time there are limits to how far you can go to protect people from themselves. In spite of all of this, we still respect Mario’s right to due process,” said Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie.

Man, Geoff must be simply swapping out the names each time with these statements. I did enjoy the line about protecting people from themselves. That’s good stuff.

The last few Kings players/coaches who have been arrested are no longer with the team. If the phone rings, Mario, don’t answer it!

Is it Sacramento? Is it professional sports? Is it professional sports in Sacramento?

@SacramentoKings you’re not even fun to watch

The Sacramento Kings (yeah, they are still around, who knew?) are looking to reward “influencers” who tweet about them with the “royal” treatment during Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.

“These influencers have tremendous online reach — they live to talk on Twitter,” Garth Holsinger, Klout vice president of global sales and business development, said in a news release. “The buzz comes in the form of a huge conversation on Twitter, Facebook and other major social networks.”

Will tweeting about the Kings make them play better? Can an influencer make them not cough up a 13 point halftime lead at home? Can the hash mark them enough to make the games exciting?

One person will be chosen to sit in on Coach Paul Westphal’s postgame news conference.

Oh, joy, that will be a scream. This person will get to listen to Westphal try and spin something positive out of another horrible performance. “Yeah, we’re doing some really positive things right now…we just need to execute down the stretch and not turn the ball over so much.”

Go professional sports!

Another DUI for Kings player

Another member of the Sacramento Kings was arrested Thursday night for driving under the influence. I know, blah, blah, yawn, yawn.

What does interest me though are the comments and statements that make up these articles.

…said in the team statement Friday that his client is cooperating fully with police in nearby Rocklin.

Really? So we should think a little more of his client because he’s not kicking and screaming and telling everyone to eff off?

In a press release, Wright said, “I’m sorry for having gotten myself into this situation. I sincerely apologize to my teammates and coaches, the Sacramento Kings Organization, the Sacramento community and my family.”

In your prepared statement the best you could come up with was “having gotten myself into this situation”? And in the history of doing something wrong, how many people have not apologized afterward?

Now *that* would be a headline.

Sac Ra’mento gets Flo Rida

As usual, I am 1 to 101 weeks late on the goings on in Sacramento, but I was reminded today that popular rapper Flo Rida will perform both during Fan Fest and at halftime when the Sacramento Mountain Lions (1-2) play host to the Las Vegas Locomotives (2-1) in a key game for both teams Friday at 8 p.m. Pacific at Hornet Stadium.

Flo Rida will perform on the “Coors Light Entertainment Stage” in Lot 8 of the Hornet Stadium parking lot during Fan Fest, which begins at 5 p.m. He then will perform a 12-minute set at halftime inside the stadium. “I’m excited to come to Sacramento and turn it out for the crowd at the Mountain Lions game,” Flo Rida said last week. “I’m going to bring the energy, get the fans out of their seats and have the players ready to go. The Locomotives won’t know what hit them.”

Is this a big score for Sacramento? I don’t follow popular music at all, but I would guess that for a fledgling professional football league like the UFL, this has to be good for business. Has anyone been to a game? Apparently, their first home game played to a sold out crowd at Sac State’s Hornet Stadium and lead to a traffic nightmare. This is being addressed for the October 15th game.

Also, a $40,000 scholarship will be awarded to a college student if he or she is able to kick a field goal. Students with proper identification will receive $5 off tickets to Friday’s game. And, tickets for Friday’s game are just $10 for California state employees.

Anyone that has ever tried to kick a field goal knows that it is extremely difficult to do. Even from 30 yards out. Any joker can get lucky with a half court shot at a Kings game, but knocking it through the uprights would be fun to see.