1 Month Down, 5 more to go for the Giants

Baseball season is back and sure to excite all baseball fans and their favorite teams. However, I'm less than excited about what is happening to the San Francisco Giants. It's their 50th anniversary here on the West Coast and a few changes have happened since last season came to a close. It has mostly been a turn for the worst.

Since last season ended, the main concern for Giants fans has been the end of the Barry Bonds era. Fourteen years of watching Bonds play in a Giants uniform saddens us fans because there will be no one that the Giants will sign that has the same passion for the game and hitting home runs. He is still the reigning home run king with 762 for his career after breaking the record previously held by Hank Aaron. The single-season home run record has also been broken after it was held by the Cardinals' Mark McGuire. In his later years, Bonds won four National League MVP from 2001 to 2004. Since then he has slowed down even though he was on his way to breraking the home run record. He was able to represent the Giants as an All-Star when the midsummer classic was held at AT&T Park. He broke the record in mid-August and was crowned the new home run king, though baseball fans outside the Bay Area didn't approve of what he's done. Like several other players, he is a member of the steroids era in baseball. As the Giants' season ended, Barry Bonds ended his 14-year career with the Giants and hopes to play with another team in 2008, but the question is "who is going to sign him?" So far, nothing new in that category yet.

The 2008 baseball season is currently underway and one month has passed. The Giants are 12-17 going into the month of May. There have been a few cons of the way the season has progressed: 1. key players like Noah Lowry, Omar Vizquel, and a few others began the season on the disabled list and/or made the DL after injuries plagued them during the first two weeks; 2. the Giants' "ace" pitcher Barry Zito is off to a dismal 0-6 start. His poor performance and shorter outings have allowed the Giants to demote Zito from the rotation to the bullpen in order for him to get back the mechanics he lost since signing with the Giants last year. As May begins and the season progresses, we have yet to see how this season will end for them.

Barry Bonds' presence may no longer be felt inside AT&T Park since there is barely anything left to remember him by, but fans have not given up on their team. The Giants have had losing seasons for the past three years. A new chapter of Giants baseball has just begun. Only five more months to go and we don't know how this season will end. The only way to find out is to [in the words of former Giant Jeff Kent] "enjoy the game more!"

A change is coming to The City's southern sector

Photo source: San Francisco Examiner (online).

I've lived in The City for a long time. My neighborhood is near a community that consists of old, run-down housing developments where high-crime activity takes place. San Francisco's Cow Palace, a livestock and rodeo arena, sits near that area also. It is the only nearby state-owned public facility outside of downtown San Francisco. For almost 70 years, the Cow Palace was the place to go to for any events, although major indoor sports events have come and gone. A nearby drive-in theater/flea market was held near the facility but is no longer there. A condominium near the Palace used to be a bowling alley but was closed down due to increasing crime activity. The Cow Palace stands alone as the only public facility with so much parking spaces. However, a change will take place in that area.
According to Monday's Examiner, the Cow Palace would be bought by the city of San Francisco from the state. The City's acquisition of their age-old arena also promises a neighborhood grocery store at a portion of the Cow Palace's parking lot. There hasn't been a grocery store in the area since the old El Rancho Market went out of business years ago. Along with the grocery store, more housing, currently under construction, and a shopping promenade would help serve the needs of residents in the neighboring communities, including San Francisco's Sunnydale, Visitacion Valley and Bayshore, and Daly City's hilltop housing communities on San Bruno Mountain.
This kind of change would help improve the image of some of the neighboring communities. It would also bring jobs for neighbors who struggle to make a living. I believe it would also make it safe for more Cow Palace guests to attend any scheduled events. But we have yet to see what the result will be from this change.

Another issue regarding the 49ers' new stadium plans.

Photo source: http://www.netnax.com/myspace-layouts/nfl/san-francisco-49ers.

The San Francisco 49ers' plans for a new stadium was brought up again last week. I read an article from sports writer Glenn Dickey in last Friday's Examiner newspaper and it looks like team owner Dr. John York once again is failing to cooperate with the city of San Francisco on talks of building a new stadium on the former Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard.

Rooting for the 49ers as my home team has declined since 2003. When it was announced in November 2006 that the ownership wants to relocate the team to a new stadium in Santa Clara, that's the time when I started to lose faith. As the news headlines of the stadium plans continued to come up in both the Examiner and the Chronicle, I decided to follow along with the stories. I would like to see the 49ers play in a new stadium in San Francisco. Right now that realization is on hold because of what is transpiring between the 49ers' ownership and The City. So much for the new stadium set to be built at Candlestick Point. In 1997, voters approved a $1 million bond measure to build a new stadium near the old facility. However, nothing happened since and I found out a few years ago that the previous owner was involved in a gambling scandal that cost him his ownership of the franchise. Since then The City and the 49ers continued their talks about the stadium plans up until November 2006, when news broke out that the team decided to relocate south to Santa Clara, where their current training facility is located.

Right now I am on the side of The City, Newsom, Feinstein and Migden, and it is up them and the NFL to keep our hometown team in San Francisco, playing in San Francisco. If the 49ers do play in Santa Clara, not only will they lose more home games but they will lose a huge percentage of their fan base and the battle to Feinstein if they misuse The City's identity in Santa Clara.