Bay Area Sports Scene Mostly Dismal

If it weren't for the Giants pulling off a 56-year miracle winning the World Series and Stanford football logging a once-in-a-lifetime season, Bay Area sports would be tottering close to total insignificance.

Listen to sports talk radio around here and you'll familiarize yourself with a lot of angry people.

The 49ers? One can only imagine the utter disgust echoed by its fanbase if Stanford's Jim Harbaugh hadn't signed up (for $5 million a year) to coach a team that has gone nearly a decade without making the playoffs. And what does that tell you about your team when the most dynamic employee is the head coach?

The Raiders? Fans of the Pride and Poise Boys (talk about irrelevant nicknames) turned wildly optimistic after an 8-8 season, then Al Davis didn't rehire head coach Tom Cable and many of their key players are free agents who might be going elsewhere. Where else in the country does the local pro team get blacked out for all its home games?

The Warriors? Finally, new ownership and the hint of a turnaround. Well, not so fast. Once again we see a high-scoring team, hardly defensive-minded and possessing no inside presence. Yes, that's the smirking Don Nelson seen sun-bathing in Hawaii.

The Sharks? After a nice run of near Stanley Cup final appearances, San Jose has regressed to just a run-of-the-mill NHL team. And the fans aren't happy.

The A's? There was baseball played in the East Bay last season, although few knew about it. Pitching was excellent, but the offense made reading War and Peace seem exciting. It's not good when the central topic surrounding your team is to what city it might relocate.

Stanford and Cal basketball? Neither teams are bad, just sort of plain. Cal won its first Pac-10 title in eons last season, but lost most of the good players to graduation. Stanford doesn't seem capable of recaputuring the glory of all those  March Madness appearances.

Cal football? The Bears keep churning out NFL players with little impact on its conference.

Squint a little and focus on that bright light far away and maybe Bay Area sports isn't doomed to mediocrity.

Let's start with the Giants. Once you've won the big enchilada it should take a couple of years for the glow to dim. And that's if the team doesn't win. With that pitching staff, and young players like Buster Posey and Brandon Belt finally being produced by the farm system, the Giants hardly seem poised for a collapse.

Remember, the NL West is not the AL East. The Giants have taken over as the biggest spenders in the division thank's to the McCourt divorce in Dodgerland, where dysfunction has filtered from the court room to the diamond. The Padres shocked everyone last year, but stalled at the end and then got rid of its best player in Adrian Gonzalez. And the Padres don't want to spend money. Colorado is a factor in the division with the best shortstop in the game and a superstar outfielder, but Arizona continues to stagger through yet another round of musical management chairs and a switch in organization philosophy.

The worst part, strictly for selfish reasons, is the non-playing part of a World Champion experience. Ticket prices (dynamic pricing is another name for get as much as you can while you can) will soar through the roof, and that's if you can get a ticket.  The only place harder to obtain tickets than AT@TPark this season will be the Giants spring training games in Scottsdale. Already the upcoming KNBR-driven Giants Fanfest is promising a crowd of 40,000. That line over there extending from the first base dugout to the left field bleachers? That's the line for Nate Schierholtz's autograph.

When it comes to the 49ers one has to remember just six words: Joe Montana, Super Bowl and Eddie DeBartolo. Can that level of success be reached again? It will be tough, but the key is to think small at the begginng. Think new quarterback (an old quarterback like Donovan McNabb is fine), think half passing and half running and think how hard can it be to get good in the NFC West. The next couple of drafts are very, very important.

Al Davis is the problem for the Raiders. He's thick-headed, his is  the only opinion that counts and he happens to own the team. Just work around that detail. It would be nice to have some stability in the coaching ranks, but there is talent on this team. Whether it sticks around through a lockout and the daily soap opera script written by its owner who knows. The Raiders did go to the Super Bowl nine years ago. Miracles do happen.

I'm a Warriors fan, which means I will watch a team that plays pretty good at home, awful on the road and suffers through an innumerable number of injuries. Last season was like watching a D-League all-star team.  The new owners promise success and did fork out a hefty sum for forward David Lee, who will not be an all-star for the Warriors. The team has two quality players in Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry, but they're both guards. An inside player who can score and rebound has been a need for 20 years. It doesn't appear Andris Biedrins or Epi Udoh are the answer. And the Warriors luck in the draft is horrid. A Blake Griffin on the Warriors? It doesn't seem like it will ever happen.Warrior fans would settle for another Chris Webber.

The A's are a nice cheap team in a four-team division that this year lost out to Texas. Some offensive punch has been added in David DeJesus and Josh Willingham. But the player they need  — Adrian Beltre — turned down back-to-back offseason offers only to sign with Texas. Ouch. The impeccable front office decisions also took a massive hit with the failure to recognize the talents of Carlos Gonzalez. The A's will be competitive in the AL West. Will they win it? Maybe. It's a long season. But an exciting season?

I know little about hockey, but I watch the Sharks every postseason. I may not get that chance this year. Critics say the Sharks are soft and too predictable on offense. One thing I know about hockey, is like most sports teams can go through good and bad stretches. And you definitely want to be hot at the end. Hockey is a process. There's time for the Sharks to reassert themselves.

Pro sports are a nice diversion from the routine of daily life. Except of course, if watching those teams leads to an upset stomach and hypertension. Welcome to the world of San Francisco Bay Area sports.

Want a nice alternative at an inexpensive price? Try a Sonoma State men's and women's basketball doubleheader or a Rancho Cotate contest. Sometimes you forget athletics isn't always about money.