KAWAKAMI l Plenty of positive items
No. 4:
The Raiders would be a lot worse if they hadn’t dumped Phillip Buchanon to Houston and Doug Jolley to the Jets last off-season for draft picks and if young defensive backs Fabian Washington and Nnamdi Asomugha and second-year tight end Courtney Anderson weren’t playing like veterans.
Somebody in the Raiders’ organization still knows what he’s doing. A little bit.
No. 5:
Kerry Collins sure is making it easy to decide what to do about his $12 millionplus cap number in 2006.
No. 6:
49ers rookie tackle Adam Snyder is finally starting and, through the bumps, he looks like he can play.
If left tackle Jonas Jennings comes back healthy next year, Snyder moves over and makes a nice bookend right tackle; if Jennings doesn’t, Snyder probably isn’t a disaster for Alex Smith’s blindside. If fellow rookie David Baas can win a
No. 7: I zing him, but 49ers Coach Mike Nolan is an interesting guy, and interesting guys are always necessary at the helm of bad teams.
No. 8: McEnroe has committed to play doubles at the SAP Open in February, his first U.S. tournament action since 1992.
I just typed the words ‘‘SAP Open’’ and ‘‘doubles’’ without breaking into giggles, though the words ‘‘John McEnroe’’ and ‘‘former CNBC talk-show’’ still get me.
No. 9: It hasn’t been artistry, but the Warriors have done exactly what they should’ve through the easy (but busy) part of their schedule.
That’s something. Not everything. But the Warriors of the past would’ve played just guard spot, well, there could be a decent line blooming.
Smith is going to need one.
sketchy enough to
lose another three
or four of these
games against
soft opponents.
Now they’ll
probably be 12-6
after tonight’s
game against
Charlotte, then the Warriors have to buckle down for the hard stuff — shoot better and defend the rim stronger.
No. 10:
Derek Fisher, Andris Biedrins, Ike Diogu and Mickael Pietrus (once his knee heals) lead the Warriors’ most effective combination of bench players since Sarunas Marciulionis and Chris Gatling.
If anything keeps the Warriors above .500 during the brutal final 11 games of December, it’ll be massive production from these guys.
No. 11:
The A’s signed Loaiza in the middle of a big pitching market, by paying market rate; and suddenly they’re dealing from supreme strength in the search for another bat.
Billy Beane is the man with the chips if teams want Barry Zito or Kirk Saarloos (or both), which was definitely not the situation for Beane when he fumbled away Tim Hudson last December.
No. 12:
Stanford vs. Princeton on Dec. 21 in the Newell Challenge at Oakland Arena. Just wonderful.
Have a Merry Sports December, one and all, before I get grumpy again. Contact Tim Kawakami at tkawakami@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5442.