Worries about Longoria’s age are just plain-old nonsense
Darting here and there …
• Worst aspect of the Evan Longoria trade: We’ll never get to see Crick and Krook in the same Giants bullpen. Moreover, we’ll never get to hear Kruk interviewing Crick and Krook.
• Beyond that, good deal. Flabbergasting how many fans are obsessed with Longoria’s age and the notion that the Giants once again have an old-man fixation by taking on a third baseman who’s only 32. Blasted millennial whippersnappers!
• Particularly for someone twice as old, it’s always difficult to hear an athlete that age branded as hopelessly past his prime. Look, down years for players in their early 30s don’t necessarily mean they are irreversibly on the decline and primed for a pine box.
• Athletic aging depends on the athlete. Just ask the NBA’s best player, LeBron James, about decrepitude. He turns 33 next week, and seems to be doing just fine with the process.
• Then there’s Tom Brady, who’s making 40 look like the new 30.
• OK, you want a baseball one, same position? Mike Schmidt led the National League in home runs and RBIs three times between ages 32 and 36, which will be Longoria’s age window with the Giants. In fact, on the back end at 36, Schmidt hit 37 homers with 119 RBIs, won the Gold Glove and was National League MVP.
• Justin Turner, Dodgers: He’s
33. Turner just completed the first year of a four-year deal, hit .322 with 21 bombs and was an All-Star. Check Chipper Jones in his mid-30s. Adrian Beltre, for goodness sake. This is too easy.
• Yeah, sure the Giants could have stuck with Pablo Sandoval as their starting third baseman — he’s actually a year younger than Longoria — and taken another shot at 98 losses.
• Just getting out of the worst, most depressing and most empty ballpark in America in St. Petersburg, Florida, has to make Longoria feel at least 10 years younger.
• Jimmy G vs. the Jaguars sounds like something out of West Side Story, but it should be quite fun to watch Garoppolo go against Jacksonville and the best defense he has faced yet. Betting he’s up to it.
• Meanwhile, Derek Carr and the Raiders will be in Philadelphia getting completely eliminated from playoff contention, whether they win or not. And after that Dallas finish, we’re going with “or not.”
• Bipartisan silver-and-black conundrum: Republicans passed the tax bill, but it was a Democrat from Nevada who insisted that tax-free municipal bonds for stadium construction be preserved in the measure, which will keep the Raiders’ move to Vegas on course. Moral: Vote independent?
• RIP Dick Enberg, the most versatile elite broadcaster ever. Football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf … heck, we absolutely adored Sports Challenge. You whippersnappers should just YouTube an episode, and fortunately, there are plenty online to enjoy.
• Enberg’s greatest gift: He brought a fan’s enthusiasm to any sport he was describing. He never seemed to lose sight that they were only games, and that you can really have a ball just watching great athletes perform.
• You must possess the sturdiest of positive attitudes to do playby-play for the San Diego Padres in your late 70s and extract nothing but joy from it. “And here comes Ryan Schimpf striding to the plate with two on and two out!”
• If the Warriors are so horrible for competitive balance, why are TV ratings for the NBA up 25 percent on TNT? We know it’s not because of Charles Barkley’s wisdom.
• Meanwhile, half of the NFL’s 32 teams are between 8-6 and 5-9, including the entire AFC West. There’s a reason NFL TV ratings are down 8.4 percent, and it’s not guys kneeling. It’s bland football with too many commercials. Parity stinks.
• Well, here come the “if only Chris Paul hadn’t gotten hurt” suppositions. Only this time with the Rockets, not the Clippers. C.P., now there’s a 32-year-old guy you can worry about.
• We would have nominated Jason Kidd for the Basketball Hall of Fame when he was at St. Joseph High in Alameda. Laying stomach down on the floor, we once saw him toss a perfect no-look, two-hand pass behind his head to an in-stride cutter for a dunk. Still our best assist ever witnessed.
• Finally, we completely understand Kobe Bryant retiring two numbers. When we go, and that could be at any moment, we’re retiring both pen and pencil.