Sports Authority

I’ve been tracking down the greatest single athletic performance in Sacramento history. The honor goes to Charlie Loeb. Nobody else comes close.

Loeb achieved a local sporting record that can’t be beat. He did it at Fourth and K streets in front of children, drunks, community leaders, pickpockets and cops.

Like any great athlete, Loeb had fans who loved him and detractors who hated him.

One group of detractors were church women. They were disgusted by Charlie. Another local group, the Capital Klan No. 126, Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, denounced Charlie.

I got an email from someone who thinks I’m too critical of the Kings. A reader named Debbie Sharp writes, “You must thrive on negativity! Some of us are hardcore Kings fans! Apparently not you.”

I’ve heard these complaints since 1984 when I went to Kansas City to investigate Kings fans who were about to lose their basketball team.

I found a Missouri Kings fan club and talked to eight or nine people upset about the franchise moving to Sacramento.

Max Baer loved to cruise Broadway in his convertible wearing nothing but swim trunks. The car was a yellow Pontiac Chieftain, a gift from his pal Larry Cameron.

Cameron was a North Sacramento auto dealer and scratch golfer. In the 1960s, he subdivided his ranch near Highway 50 and named it Cameron Park.

Max Baer was famous long before he met Larry Cameron. Baer was the world heavyweight boxing champ and a movie star. He could live anywhere. He chose Eighth Avenue, behind McClatchy High School.

Baer, wife Mary and children Maxie Jr., Jim and Maudie settled into a 4,270-square-foot, four-bedroom home with a balcony along the second floor.

What a pathetic year in local sports. The Cal Expo Board of Directors and California Horse Racing Board destroyed horse racing and set the stage for Sacramento State University to embarrass itself.

Two sleepy state bureaucracies blew opportunities to expand thoroughbred and harness racing in Sacramento. Instead, they set aside a slice of Cal Expo for Sac State’s football fantasies.

The biggest off-season Kings news happened in July and had nothing to do with the Kings. This was rare for an NBA team that controls its destiny by driving off cliffs.

The news concerned Mike Brown, the coach fired by the Kings at Christmas. The dismissal was a gift for Brown, whose poorest career decision came in 2022 when he agreed to coach the Kings.

There was no doubt Brown would quickly resurface after he was shoved out by Kings lead owner Vivek Ranadive. The question was where Brown would land.

I went to a minor league soccer game this summer and had the best time ever. Better than a thousand big league games I watched as a sportswriter freeloading on a press pass.

The game was in Albuquerque at a place called—deep breath—Rio Grande Credit Union Field at Isotopes Park. A minor league baseball yard. Newer, upscale cousin of Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento.

The home team, strutting in black and gold flecked jerseys, was New Mexico United of the United Soccer League Championship level. Rival to Sac Republic.

I forget the score. Had to look up names for the stadium and league. Nobody at the game mentioned formal names. Names didn’t matter.