Sports Authority
Adapt Or Else
Adapt or Else Kings, NBA need creative recovery after virus By R.E. Graswich June 2020 In my fourth or fifth year covering the Kings, loss after loss, I thought about ways to make the NBA season more interesting. One obvious trick was to shorten it. I...
Same Name Game
Like many baseball fans, Walt Yost enjoys poking around the cobwebbed cellars of baseball history. He’s a member of the Dusty Baker Sacramento chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, a global fraternity of historians and statisticians united in their devotion to baseball. He loves old baseball stories.
Now he’s told one. His new book, “A Glove and A Prayer,” is a novel that imagines the life of a 1890s baseball vagabond named August Yost. It’s the perfect diversion for baseball fans anchored in the doldrums of sports cancellations caused by coronavirus.
Want To Place A Bet California?
Nothing bonds sports fans better than a friendly wager. Maybe $20. Or $100. No matter the dollar amount, betting on sports quickens the pulse, heightens the intensity and pulls the fan into the action. When you’ve got money riding on the game, the final score really matters.
Unfortunately, California sports fans transform themselves into criminals when they make a sports bet. Sports wagering is illegal in the state, whether online or between two neighbors. The only way to stay within the boundaries of California law is to make your wager in Nevada.
Profitable Handout
Profitable Handout City could cash in on soccer investment By R.E. Graswich March 2020I love it when Sacramento City Council members criticize my work. It means they care. One of my favorite councilmen, Jeff Harris, took exception to a column about the city’s...
Got Your Number
Being a Kings fan is one of the toughest jobs in sports. The team is awful. And it’s hard to find relevant, intelligent media. Lots of web platforms carry information on the Kings. But when it comes to deeper insights, the sports media landscape quickly turns barren.
Three decades ago, I was The Sacramento Bee reporter assigned full time to cover the Kings. My job was to cultivate insight. Unlike today, when player availability to the media is tightly controlled, access wasn’t a problem. I would attend practice each morning and go to shoot-around sessions on game days.
Soccer Handouts
Mayor Kevin Johnson was not a soccer fan. He found the game foreign and silly, a bunch of people kicking a ball around and rarely scoring. Not like basketball. But Johnson was the first Sacramento politician to embrace the idea of bringing Major League Soccer to the Downtown railyards.
He saw the possibilities. Forget the game, he said. This is about economic development.
