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Michael Duca's Sports Commentary
By Michael Duca June 5, 2008 |
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Tortorella high on Sharks short list: I'm glad to see former Sharks head coach Ron Wilson land on his feet. There was never a question in my mind that he would. Wilson, who landed work with the Maple Leafs, is one of the winningest coaches in hockey. Wilson is not going to go without a job for a long period of time. Certainly sort of being a misplaced Canadian, somehow winding up in South Carolina strictly because there's 12 months of golf a year available down there. Wilson in many ways is going back home to be in Toronto and he's not far from being in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I'm pretty sure he'll be taking up residence there when he finishes up his coaching career. I wish him all the best. The firing of Wilson by the Sharks was surprising. The way the Sharks lost to Dallas was disheartening because once again they didn't get past the second round. It was a much different way of not getting past the second round than they did in the past. Those sudden death overtime losses made it a very close series. The Sharks came back and put on a pretty good show in winning game five and since the Sharks had dispelled that demon, that they had no heart, that they were going to lay down and pull a no fold in the playoffs, that maybe things will continue. This is like every other sport, there's somewhere between 12 and 55 guys who wear uniforms and come to work, and one who wears a suit and the suit always gets fired because that's the easy way to do it. Will Tortorella have a good shot at the Sharks job: The rumblings at the Sharks are that the Sharks will not make any coaching decisions until well after the Stanley Cup finals. The Sharks want to tap somebody on the shoulder behind the Penguins bench. At least give them a serious interview, one of the Pens assistant coaches is in the running and the Sharks as an organization see Mike Ricci as a possible future solution, but I think that they probably want him to be an assistant coach. In the next couple of years I wouldn't be surprised to see him behind the bench next year with the Pens assistant as the head guy and that too is going to help the Pens. If the Sharks pick someone like one of the assistants from behind the Pittsburgh bench, then you got somebody whose looking for his first job as head coach. Doug Wilson is not going to have a Mike Ricci sitting behind the bench with him learning how to do it. So maybe the Tortorella idea is going to be the one that plays out because you have arrived at an opportunity, not only to learn from a guy whose done it for quite a while, but they both can speak Italian to each other when nobody's listening. Pistons ready to start the fire sale: When Pistons General Manager Joe Dumars said that everyone is up for grabs on the Pistons, that was a red flag. Flip Saunders had his red flag day already and Dumars is looking for more flags to hand out. Dumars said of fired head coach Flip Saunders, "If we’re not willing to give him an extension, I don't want him to be here for a least one more year as a lame duck under the kind of circumstances that we got here." Basically Dumars said everybody is in play, everybody on the Pistons roster is available as of this morning. Except, of course, Coach Saunders who’s already been shown the exit door. Saunders was three wins away from having the most victories in the NBA during his three year tenure. The problem was that he followed Larry Brown, the old Pistons head coach, who won a championship in his two years. So people are expecting you to put the team over the top, and you've given the same talent. You will be asking, "Gee how come you can't do it and this other guy can do it?" Then the situations change, people get older, talent levels move around, and other teams get better; it might be a little unrealistic for Detroit to expect to go out and improve on what the Celtics did to turn that team around this year. I don't know how long that massive trade that the Celtics made is going to serve them because the guys that the Celts got are all pretty well established veterans with 10 or more years under their belt. A year or two from now Boston is going to be a pretty tough team to beat. Michael Curry under consideration: For Saunders, following Larry Brown around was like trying to follow John Wooden around at UCLA. Now anyone who makes good on that threat to blow up the Detroit roster, they’ll need about two or three years to establish themselves. Curry is an assistant coach only and there is a world of difference of being a head coach. There is a difference in how you have to handle the media, there is a difference in the face of adversity in the way you handle the media. There certainly is a big difference between coaching the defense or coaching the offense with a big man and now suddenly being able to put the program together for everybody. It's a bigger challenge to move into a head coaching position then most people realize or to become a baseball manager or a head football coach, it's an executive position, and that's why not many people succeed in their first season. They might not have success the first time around and that's why many guys don't succeed at that level. The first experience is usually a learning experience we learn a lot when we fail and most folks fail at something like that in their first go around. Lovable losers are mighty lovable: The Chicago Cubs are in first; but hold the phone, you’re probably wondering if the ghost of Leo Duroushcer and Adolpho Phillips are going to come back and bite you somewhere unpleasant in the month of September. The Cubs seem to be the run away team right now, although the Brewers are beginning to play up to the potential that everyone expected them to and they have won six straight games as of Tuesday. The interesting thing about the Cubs is that they’re winning games at home. The Cubs have the best home record in baseball, the question is whether or not if the Cubs will be able to continue that as summer goes on and they play more games away from the friendly confines which have been extremely friendly so far. The schedule makers have skewed things around for a lot of teams; if you look at what’s going on here in the Bay Area, the A's are playing 18 of 21 games at home in a stretch that's going on right now. The Red Sox played almost twice as many games on the road as they have at home and have made two trips to the west coast plus one to Japan and only one trip to the east coast. While it's fun to look at the standings in the 6th of June, you can't always predict what you’re going to see by that because you're going to have to pay some attention to where teams have played. Last note from our sponsor: ACME Chophouse located at Pac Bell Park last Sunday had a close call. The sewage backed up in the restaurant after Sunday's ball game against Arizona. The back up forced sewage to leak about five inches deep onto the hardwood flooring which restaurant staff spent most of the night having to clean up. Needless to say, the food stuffs had to go to the local garbage cans. Initial reports had the Chophouse closing its doors for all of June and July for floor repairs and clean up. After evaluation of the floors, which are the most crucial part of the re-opening, that might alter the two month delay to maybe as soon as a couple of weeks. After the dust settles and or, err, the swamp in this case, the floor damage might not be as bad as expected and the restaurant could be open for business as soon as the Giants get back from this current road trip. Read Michael Duca each week for Q's and A's on Giants and A's baseball. |
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