Stanford’s Shaw quietly enters legend territory

Darting here and there …

Best-kept secret of The Big Game: David Shaw can become the winningest head football coach in Stanford history by beating Cal Saturday, passing the legendary Pop Warner. Not that the school would deign to make a big deal out of that, of course. Baffling.

If Stanford can’t beat a publicity tom-tom for Shaw’s stupendous milestone, how is it ever going to get Bryce Love the Heisman? Guess Shaw will just have to take over and give Love the ball 25-30 times.

We have so much respect and admiration for Shaw beyond his incredible accomplishments. From the outset, he said Stanford was his dream job, never wanted to go anywhere else, and in the upset of upsets as far as college coaching goes, he actually wasn’t lying.

Shaw enters the 120th Big Game with a 71-20 record at Stanford. Warner was 71-18-8 from 1924 to 1932. So while ol’ Pop has a razor-thin edge in win percentage, Shaw got to 71 in fewer games. Either way, break a mark that has stood for 85 years, the coach merits a special shoulder-pad ride, eh fellas?

Three-time Pac-12 Conference coach of the year. Three conference titles, a couple of Rose Bowl wins. Has never lost to Cal as the head man in seven tries, going for a record eight in a row. More career wins than Chuck Taylor, John Ralston, Bill Walsh, Jack Elway, Dennis Green, Ty Willingham or Jim Harbaugh. You need more? OK, how about humble, nice guy?

Yep, 72, that’s an impressive number of wins in 6½ seasons. It would come close to matching the number of emails we have received from Stanford alums whining about Shaw’s conservative game plans.

Suddenly, it looks as if the Warriors actually might prefer to meet LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals again. The Boston Celtics are no joke, and they do something pretty well that the Cavs don’t — defend.

Most teams can’t hold the Warriors to 88 points over three quarters and Boston did it for an entire game. Stop the presses.

Sorry, the version of Jaylen Brown we saw against Golden State never played at Cal.

There’s a percentage of Warriors fans who believe their team can’t lose unless there’s heavy referee interference and bias. No, the refs weren’t great, but they didn’t decide the outcome. Many decried the foul shot disparity of Boston’s victory, totally ignoring the notion that such a development can actually happen when you commit more fouls!

Here’s the postgame Steve Kerr rubber-stamp: “We were committing a lot of silly fouls.” Indeed, and then the Warriors got burned by a phantom call or two at the finish. Happens.

49ers great Ronnie Lott, critiquing the Warriors’ loss on KNBR, didn’t say one word about the officiating. Instead, he said the Warriors will learn and be better for the defeat. Right, like when you build a 17-point lead in each half, at least one of those should be followed up by a knockout.

We wonder what A’s mascot Stomper thinks about repealing the ban on African elephant trophies. Just guessing he would love to stomp somebody.

Stomper might not be too crazy about that Ryon Healy trade, either. He would be joining a large number of A’s fans we have heard from who think Billy Beane and David Forst got shorted on this one.

Emilio Pagan had better live up to his promise as a setup reliever, because Healy could turn out to be an Andre Ethier level of mistake playing for Seattle. Granted, he had no position in Oakland with Matt Olson and Matt Chapman set to man the corners long-term, but the general view is the A’s could have gotten more for him. Agreed.

We would chastise the Giants more than the A’s about Healy, though. You say you need a third baseman and righthanded power at a low cost? Why weren’t they all over this guy if his availability was common knowledge? Impressive young hitter with five years of club control remaining? Big whiff.

Of course, it has been 20 years now since the A’s and Giants actually made a trade (Ernest Riles for Darren Lewis). They should talk more often.

But there’s still much beauty to baseball: A 5-foot-6 guy beat out a 6-foot-8 guy for MVP.

Finally, the Raiders and Patriots should re-enact “The Tuck Rule” play when they meet in Mexico City on Sunday. Hope for a fumble call this time, because there’s pretty much no chance for an interception. Tom Brady has only thrown two in 2017, and the Raiders still have picked off none.