49ers exec Policy headlines the 2017 class of inductees
At a time when the 49ers struggle for relevance, a glorious episode of their history lives on. Carmen Policy, the front-office mastermind of Eddie DeBartolo’s ownership, is one of five people to be announced Monday as the latest inductees into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.
The enshrinement banquet will be April 24 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, an evening certain to evoke distinctive images and the Hall’s wide-reaching scope. The class also includes jockey Russell Baze, Olympic volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings, former Giants third baseman Matt Williams and Bill Cartwright, the USF alum who went on to become an NBA mainstay.
Policy joined the 49ers in 1983 as the club’s vice president and counsel, and he proved to be a man of wisdom and perspective as the team scored Super Bowl victories in 1985, 1989 and 1990. He was promoted to president and CEO in 1991,
and the team won another Super Bowl in 1995.
National recognition followed. Policy was named the NFL’s Executive of the Year in 1994 by the Sporting News and Pro Football Weekly in a vote of NFL executives and owners. He was also among the “Most Influential People in Professional Sports” selected by the Sporting News, and it’s safe to say he was coveted by many organizations.
He is a man with charm and personality, but one who could can make hard-line decisions and stand up to controversy. The 49ers were regularly portrayed as a first-class organization, and the list of BASHOF’S inductees serves as a shining reminder. Policy becomes the 10th person associated with the team to be enshrined from that era, joining DeBartolo, Bill Walsh, Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Roger Craig, Dwight Clark and Brent Jones.
Williams’ induction comes as good news for Giants fans, as he was often overshadowed by teammates. Will Clark, Robby Thompson and Williams emerged at roughly the same time, and Williams would later share San Francisco lineups with the imposing Barry Bonds and Kevin Mitchell.
Few players, however, could match Williams’ all-around skills. He was a four-time Gold Glove winner at third base, won four Silver Slugger awards, and made five All-Star teams. He led the National League with 122 RBIs in 1990, and in ’94, a fateful year in which the World Series was canceled, Williams was leading the National League with 43 homers when the game was shut down in August.
The Giants traded Williams to Cleveland and he spent one memorable season there, driving home 105 runs, and hitting .385 in the 1997 World Series against Florida. He spent his final six seasons in Arizona, for whom he was a coach last season, and he drove home nine runs in the 2001 World Series that gave the Diamondbacks their only championship.
If Baze ever was overshadowed, it was only because he stands 5-foot-4. He towered over his fellow jockeys in competition, retiring in June with an all-time record 12,842 wins. In 2006 he passed Laffit Pincay Jr., who had been the sport’s leading rider with 9,530 victories, and Baze kept racing until the age of 57.
Baze was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of successful jockey Joe Baze, and got his start in the state of Washington, but he made his name in Northern California and settled there, currently residing in Hillsborough. Prestige beckoned at tracks around the country, but Baze preferred to work mostly at Golden Gate Fields, where he racked up 54 jockey titles, and Bay Meadows, where he earned 40 more. As he readily admitted, staying local allowed him to find a happy balance of ambition, contentment and financial reward.
Baze always referred to racing as “a chess game,” thrills abounding in reading his horse, gauging the field and, especially, coming from behind to win. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1999. The key to his longevity? “You don’t look back,” he told CNN last year. “You always look forward.”
Walsh Jennings has that rare gift of making her sport appealing to people who don’t much figure to care. Time and again, her Olympic Games appearances became must-see viewing, and in tandem with Misty MayTreanor, she won gold medals in beach volleyball in 2004, 2008 and 2012.
After giving serious thought to retirement, she found a new partner in April Ross, and although they were defeated by Brazil at the ’16 Rio Games, their successful fight for the bronze medal brought countless hugs, tears and admiration.
Walsh Jennings is local all the way, having starred at San Jose’s Archbishop Mitty High School, then moving on to Stanford, where she became the second player in NCAA history to be named first-team AllAmerican in all four seasons she played (1996-99).
Cartwright was a three-time All-American at USF in the 1970s, a 7-foot-1, sharp-elbowed center out of Elk Grove High School (Sacramento county) who had a funny-looking shot but proved to be an asset on both ends of the floor. The Dons’ 1976-77 team, coached by Bob Gaillard, also featured James Hardy and Winford Boynes and finished 29-2, losing to UNLV in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Cartwright was the third overall pick in the 1979 draft, by the Knicks, but his 1988 trade to Chicago proved to be a powerful blessing. He anchored the middle on the Bulls’ three straight championship teams (1991-93) led by Michael Jordan.
After a long coaching career, Cartwright returned to USF last March as director of university initiatives, helping mentor students and develop connections with USF alumni and the San Francisco community. “I don’t think enough people know enough about USF,” he said recently. “It’s very special to me and a great place of learning.”