Beyond the games, area’s anxious times
Health issues affecting Kerr, Bochy, Bumgarner, Posey give fans pause
It’s a different kind of conversation in the Bay Area’s sporting circles these days, laced with shock and concern. Conventional topics beckon — the Warriors’ playoff run, Christian Arroyo’s arrival, the 49ers’ draft options — but it comes back to this: Have we ever had such a strange year in sports? With such disturbing ramifications? The Bay Area’s Mount Rushmore surely includes Steve Kerr, Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and Bruce Bochy (it’s a jampacked Rushmore, no doubt), but just now, we ponder not their accomplishments, but the rest of their lives.
In terms of performance, we’ve had worse years in the Bay Area. Take 1979, for instance. The A’s finished 54108 and drew 306,763 fans for the season. The Giants were 71-91, riddled with dissension, and fired manager Joe Altobelli in September. The Warriors were reasonably entertaining, but they finished sixth (and last) in the Pacific Division at 38-44. The Raiders lost three of their first four games, finished fourth in the AFC West and watched the playoffs from home.
And the 49ers, on the verge of greatness, went 2-14 in head coach Bill Walsh’s first season with the franchise.
In retrospect, those are just a bunch of numbers. People get over things, look ahead to better times. What’s happening now is plainly troubling, and seemingly without letup.
The Warriors did their head coach a huge favor by sweeping their first-round series in
Portland on Monday night. They won’t play again until Sunday, at the earliest (it would be Tuesday if Clippers-Jazz goes the full seven games), giving Kerr a chance to address his condition with the best available specialists, no distractions in play. He surely will be in touch with the team, but this is an in-season opportunity that rarely comes along, and he needs some answers about the spinal-fluid leaks that have tormented him for far too long.
Those close to Kerr, especially general manager Bob Myers, don’t lose sight of his ongoing crisis. I caught up with Myers in a corner of Oracle Arena on May 30, when the Warriors beat Oklahoma City in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. People were hugging and high-fiving all around him; it was one of the greatest wins in franchise history. In a brief chat, Myers quietly offered a sobering reminder that Kerr was nowhere close to recovery, and that his noble stance and perseverance should never be taken for granted.
It’s amazing, to all of us in the media, how Kerr remains so consistently funny, generous and informative in his interviews. No matter how much discomfort he might feel, he’ll take time to acknowledge remarkable feats in other sports, speak out against social injustice or make clear his disgust with the Trump administration. Kerr remains the complete man, even in his broken state. And yet we realize that his condition, so alarmingly relentless, could lead to retirement.
As for Bochy, who has undergone three heart procedures over the past three years, we get a look into the character and toughness of the Giants’ leader, and how effortlessly he puts everyone at ease when the subject of his health arises. Baseball is his tonic, his healer. He smiled broadly and often Monday night as the Giants, finally looking like themselves, knocked off the Dodgers.
Still, whenever those dugout shots find coaches Ron Wotus and Dave Righetti in conference, you wonder how the future unfolds. With either of those men, the Giants would be left in capable hands. You just hope it’s a natural progression, nothing immediate, with Bochy getting the full measure of his managerial career before retiring to the easy chair.
Bochy was a big-league catcher for nine years, and like all of his contemporaries, he took some wicked shots to the head (Pete Rose once leveled Bochy in a frightening home-plate collision that sent him flying). As such — and with the benefit of progressive thinking toward concussions — Bochy fully understands what Posey means to the Giants, and what the future holds. Now we’re all thinking along with the club, wondering about the first-base option as Posey clings to his principles. And there is no easy answer.
If the Giants leave a big decision up to Posey, they’ll know it’s the right call. That wouldn’t be the case with Bumgarner, so humbled by his decision to go dirt-biking in Denver. As we worry about the health of Kerr, Bochy and Posey, it’s a little bit different with Bumgarner. He’ll pitch again, and he’ll do it this season whether the Giants are contending or not. He needs to get back on the horse, so to speak (he can relate), and be the able town sheriff.
Will he ever be quite the same? Will the Giants? That’s the Bay Area’s state of mind right now, on so many fronts. The mythical Mount Rushmore is covered with scaffolding, workers trying to finesse a resurrection. And the chips keep falling.