Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin, Part V
Spring training memories of restaurants and hoops battles … shameless plugs … a throwback to “State of the Barry” … and a previous life covering Oakland preps
"Scribbled notes on a cocktail napkin" is my weekly Sunday feature that's a tribute to the sports columnists I grew up reading who penned Herb Caen-inspired three dot columns. It's an excuse to shamelessly plug my other side projects, post my favorite Immaculate Grid from the week with a story about one of the players, link to stories I found interesting, and string together loose topics on my mind.
I’ll never forget my first year as a San Francisco beat reporter at spring training. The year was 2000. I was 26 years old. The laptop issued to me did not have access to the internet. For people who did use the internet, they used AOL to connect via a telephone line, hoping to find a local number so they wouldn’t get charged a long-distance call.
On my first day in the manager’s office, Dusty Baker sensed my eagerness, or over-eagerness, about pretty much everything. He called me, “Junior” with a light-hearted chuckle. The name stuck. The last time I saw Dusty a few years ago, he still called me Junior.
Another morning, I wasn’t quite as chipper, a little short on questions. Dusty looked at me and said giggling, “Let me guess, Junior, you were out in Tempe last night.”
I don’t know how often they still do this, but one of the fabulous old fun traditions of spring training was a dinner with beat reporters and various members of the team they covered.
My first was legendary. I somehow got seated in the middle of the table. On one end, Giants general manager Brian Sabean held court, telling stories about working for the Yankees under George Steinbrenner. On the other end, Giants assistant general manager Ned Colletti held court, telling stories about working for the Cubs and being around Harry Caray.
My head was on a swivel, going back-and-forth, listening to multiple conversations at the same time. I was in heaven.
I went to Spring Training three times as a high school student, and four more times as a college student, dreaming that one day I’d get paid to be there working and on an expense account. The reality was better than the dreams.
The older reporters – who couldn’t decide whether to call me “Junior” or “The Kid” -- enjoyed taking me to all the famous restaurants in Scottsdale, specifically, Don & Charley’s and the Pink Pony. Every night was like walking into a baseball museum, meeting different players (current and retired), coaches, broadcasters, and other baseball lifers around the Valley of the Sun and hearing their stories. What a life.
I found some newer restaurants to mix into the rotation. Two decades later, I’m relieved to known AZ 88 still exists, although it’s definitely not new anymore.
Then I heard about these basketball games. An apartment complex near Scottsdale Stadium was named “The Center Court” apartments because of a tennis court that, according to the website these days, was once a main (and rare) attraction. I always thought it was because of the indoor basketball court inside the complex. It was about two-thirds the length of an actual 94-foot regulation basketball court, perfect for out-of-shape scribes to get in some cardio after filing their dispatches back home.
It was mostly scribes from the Bay Area. But you never knew who would show up. One day, it’s ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian with his killer crossover. Another day, it’s A’s assistant general manager David Forst, who became a regular, or future A’s manager Ken Macha. My jaw nearly dropped when Lee Smith – yes, the former closer and now Hall of Famer – showed up to play.
I tried guarding Big Lee a few times. Fortunately, he refused to go inside the paint, out of pity for us scribes, and to save himself some running. He called himself “Smitty” and kept an ongoing running dialog the entire game.
“Don’t hurt ’em, Smitty,” Smitty would say, draining a fadeaway 23-footer.
“Where ya at, shorty?” Smitty would say, posting up from 23 feet out, feigning surprise when he’d look down to see me guarding him.
Once, we were short on players, so we improvised a 3-on-2, half-court game. Macha had his team in a 1-2 zone defense. I kept draining jumpers from “the elbow” and Macha switched to a 2-1 zone to try stopping me. Sadly, it worked. I couldn’t find my jumper from the wings. Even on the basketball court, coaches gonna coach.
The battles were heated.
The years are a blur, but I was told a story of former A’s general manager Sandy Alderson needing to get separated from a reporter from Los Angeles who told him, “at ease, soldier,” not realizing Alderson was a former Marine.
I remember when Mark Saxon, my former Oakland Tribune tag team partner, broke a finger, and had to type one-handed for a few months while recovering.
The respective trainers for the A’s and Giants held their breathe about what sportswriter injuries would happen each game that they’d be asked to treat. Ahhh, what a time to be alive and not be in jeopardy of tearing an ACL.
This week’s “Where Ya At?” podcast guest: John Sasaki
I host a podcast for San Diego State’s School of Journalism and Media Studies titled “Where Ya At?” Each week, I interview an alum to learn about their experience at SDSU, their transition from student to professional, and what they do now. The goal is to inspire students and connect alums. You can listen on all podcast platforms, including Spotify.
This week’s guest is John Sasaki, who spent 20 years as a Reporter/Anchor for KTVU TV and is now Communications Director for Oakland Unified School District. It seemed like whenever I watched the KTVU 10 O’Clock News, John was covering the most important story of the day.
John started college at Whittier, played Lacrosse and majored in Economics. Then he transferred to San Diego State and majored in Psychology. So how did he end up in Journalism? A friend stopped him on campus one day and said, “your voice reminds me of Tom Brokaw.”
That convinced him to try Broadcast Journalism.
In the podcast, John explained why he left TV News for a job with Oakland schools. I loved hearing his experience working with the kids in Oakland.
When I wrote for The Oakland Trib, I couldn’t wait to get promoted from Preps to Pros, yet some of my fondest memories are covering high school sports in the Oakland Athletic League. The coaches, parents, kids, everyone, were awesome.
The late Steve Herendeen was my Prep Editor and my biggest cheerleader. Talk about no ego: “The Deen” always let me cover the biggest game of the day, knowing what it meant for my career. How many people would let the kid fresh out of college get top billing on the prep section? The Deen was really special.
It was a little embarrassing, but also super cool, how often that I’d arrive at an OAL game, one of the players would recognize me, and say something like, “The Oakland Tribune’s in the house! You know it’s a big game when the Oakland Tribune’s here!”
This week’s not-so random Immaculate Grid story: Brian Johnson
Speaking of Oakland, Brian Johnson was the ultimate hometown story. He attended Skyline High in Oakland, then went to Stanford to play quarterback on the football team and catcher on the baseball team. [Even back in the 1990s, it was rare to play two sports, but Stanford was one of the few schools that allowed athletes to do it.]
The Giants acquired Johnson in a trade from the Detroit Tigers in July 1997 for Marcus Jensen, who was also a catcher, also from Oakland, and also went to Skyline High. Seriously. You can’t make this up. Two catchers from the same high school in Oakland were traded for each other.
The defining moment of Johnson’s career was a walkoff homer in the 12th inning to beat the Dodgers on Sept. 18, pulling the Giants into a first-place tie. [The night before, I went to Candlestick Park with my buddy Jacob Dalton from SDSU. Barry went deep in that game and the Giants won as well.] On the day of Johnson’s homer, a Thursday, I was working on football previews when I heard Ted Robinson on the radio call Johnson’s homer.
That night, I was watching KTVU (as always) and saw a reporter – I don’t know if it was Sasaki or someone else -- interview Skyline football coach John Beam about his memories of Brian Johnson. I remember being pissed that KTVU got the story and I didn’t. I thought, “duh, always think of the side angle to a big story! That’s how you get bigger assignments!”
These days, Johnson works for The Kaleidoscope Group in Michigan, a diversity company he first discovered as a rookie in 1994 during a labor dispute that led to the cancellation of the World Series.
State of the Barry
Whenever Barry Bonds arrived at Giants camp, that was the story of the day, if not the week. We dubbed it “State of the Barry” since it came a few weeks after the “State of the Union.”
My first year, Barry arrived and told reporters he did some math in the offseason, and he was hopeful he could catch Willie Mays, his Godfather, in career home runs. Barry was at 445 homers at the time. Mays, of course, finished with 660. Barry needed to average 41 homers over the next six years.
Thanks to newspapers.com, I found my story.
It seemed pretty far-fetched at the time. I mean, Barry averaged 38.4 homers in his previous seven seasons with the Giants. He was 36 years old. He only had two years left on his contract. He missed 60 games the previous year. The Giants were moving into a new ballpark that was gonna be tough on lefties. Was he really going to play six more years? And get better? Seemed doubtful, at the time.
Anyone know if Barry ever got close to his Godfather?