The New York Times has provided an interactive map of Major League Baseball fan team preferences by zip code, and as it turns out there is only one place where the Giants do not have at least 50 percent of the population in the greater Bay Area. That is the 94577 zip code, which is in the heart of San Leandro. The Coliseum zip code has a 57-25 Giants advantage (Yankees 5 percent), Jack London Square is 56-18 (Red Sox 6), and Cisco Field is 61-15 (Dodgers 5).
In short, once the A’s are done punching the Coliseum commission and the Oakland political structure in the face for trying to strongarm them, they may as well take the first stadium site that crops up for them. Except of course the one in San Jose which is, as we know, VER-BOTEN.
[RATTO: A's, Coliseum Authority trapped in the same car]
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And now, the end of the clever minor league jersey rainbow has been reached. The Brooklyn Cyclones are doing a Star Wars night with a blood red Sith jersey and Brooklyn written across the front in Aurebesh.
But west of there, in State College, Pennsylvania, the State College Spikes are welcoming Fresh Prince of Bel Air alum Alfonso Ribeiro and honoring him with FPOBA opening credits jerseys.
In other words, we have lost our way as a nation. Again.
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Oscar Robertson, who should know, opined about the otherwise tedious subject of Carmelo Anthony on Sirius XM Radio Thursday, saying among other things, “I would leave today (if I were Carmelo. Let me tell you why: Wherever that kid has gone, when he was at Denver, they had a team that fooled around with the ball, fooled around with the ball, then all of the sudden when they needed a basket, threw it to Carmelo. Then, when he shot the ball, they said he shot too much. Then when he didn't shoot they said he didn't shoot enough.”
This doesn’t count the number of times they only fooled around a little, gave him the ball and then watched as he never gave it back. Everybody bears blame here, but the key point to be made is, this is who Anthony is now, and when Phil Jackson and Jimmy Dolan stop squabbling about men in suits, that will be where the real battle begins.
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Slurred Speech Fight!
Bernie Kosar, who was replaced on Cleveland Browns pregame telecasts by Solomon Wilcots, reacted Thursday by saying he was fired because of a “slurred speech impairment, which is a direct result of the many concussions I received while playing in the NFL.”
This was denied by the station’s general manager, who said, “Nowhere in our discussions with Bernie or the Browns has anything ever been said about his speech impairment due to concussions. We felt there was a better role for Bernie than doing just four preseason games and we completely understand Bernie's iconic status with Browns fans.”
Oddly, nobody has a problem with the concussion problem itself, only that one of the symptoms can be heard by other people. And that’s your modern NFL.
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And finally, two stories that may have some connection. A disgruntled Manchester United fan who had the legend “Moyes Out” tattooed across his behind to protest manager David Moyes has now added “Job Complete” to his right (dominant) cheek and Tweeted out the result.
Of course he has.
Meanwhile, Spanish police confiscated a batch of hallucinogenic drugs at the port in Alicante which were disguised as chocolates molded to look like the shape and detail of the Barcelona club crest. According to the cops, one person was arrested for distributing the chocolatey weirdness and was promptly dubbed “Willy Wonka.”
Now why do I think the butt artist and the brain tinkerer have a customer/proprietor relationship? And if not, why shouldn’t they?
