Jock Blogs

Murph: This is going to be a blast, no matter which side you’re on

James Harden is a Brooklyn Net. God bless the NBA.

Murph: It’s been four years with Shanahan and Lynch, so where are we exactly?

I suppose I should start the Lightly-Read 2021 Jock Blog with a smoldering hot take about how the 49ers’ 6-10 season was a sign of decline, how a reboot is in order, and how Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch should be on the hot seat.

Murph: Reflecting on the biggest sports takeaway of 2020

Brian Murphy

Here it is, the last Jock Blog of 2020.

Murph: The story of Alex Smith is unlike any in the history of Bay Area sports

Brian Murphy

The 49ers play against Alex Smith this Sunday.

Murph: The 49ers’ lousy season has somehow gotten worse

Brian Murphy

So 2020, the year with a million pejorative adjectives attached to it, actually just got *worse* for the 49ers.

Murph: As we try to accept Klay situation, a look to the Warriors’ future

Brian Murphy

This Jock Blog is being penned just 24 hours after the first phone alert that Klay Thompson — no, not Klay! — went down in a pickup basketball game in Los Angeles with what was feared to be a significant heel injury.

Murph: If you’re looking for normalcy in 2020, Tiger at Augusta should do the trick

Brian Murphy

Can’t tell you how many Jock Blogs in the last eight months have centered around the search for normalcy

Murph: Would the Giants really trade Brandon Crawford to Yankees?

Brian Murphy

What we need is a good old-fashioned Hot Stove League session.

Murph: We’ll never forget Kevin Cash’s decision in Game 6, but maybe that’s a good thing for baseball

Brian Murphy

Devoted readers of the LRJB (Lightly-Read Jock Blog, for you newcomers) could see this one coming like a Cody Bellinger two-cheeked swing for the fence.

Murph: I’m singing a slightly different tune after seeing the NL Designated Hitter experiment

Brian Murphy

To endorse the return of “No-DH” ball in the National League is not a knee-jerk thing, it’s not a howling repudiation of the designated hitter.

Murph: I understand the Jimmy G frustration, here’s why I’m not there yet

Brian Murphy

I get it, we live in a world where we have to feed the ‘Take Machine’. I understand.

Murph: Can 49ers have the season they want to have?

Brian Murphy

Of all people, I didn’t expect our Murph & Mac platinum member “Friend of the Program” (Gentleman) Jim Nantz to knock me for a loop about the 2020 49ers.

Murph: A dispatch from Oracle Park, where we miss our fellow Giants fans

Brian Murphy

No, the Jock Blog does not usually use datelines. But this one is different. This one is written from the ballpark.

Murph: The ethical quandary of Pac-12, Big Ten returning to football

Brian Murphy

Loving college football on Saturdays isn’t a totally clean ethical experience in 2020.

Murph: A simple love letter to the return of 49ers football

Brian Murphy

For a region going thru an apocalyptic nightmare of air quality, fire destruction and a crippling pandemic, we sure do it have good on the sports scene.

Murph: The San Francisco Giants’ hitting improvements are not slight, they’re drastic

Brian Murphy

The discovery of hitting the baseball for the San Francisco Giants.

Murph: The Dodgers honored their history on Wednesday night

Brian Murphy

Here’s a sentence you may never see again in the Jock Blog…

Murph: The Fernando Tatis Jr. mess is more nuanced than most are saying

Brian Murphy

Move over, Bobby Thomson. It’s really Fernando Tatis, Jr. who hit The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.

Murph: The 49ers are the safest bet in our lives right now

Brian Murphy

For five months now, we sports fans have dealt with life in the pandemic. What we’re dealing with includes cardboard cutouts, Gabe Kapler in a mask, and now an autumn without the Cal marching band in Strawberry Canyon. That’s pretty weird stuff.

Murph: The Curious Case of Gabe Kapler

Brian Murphy

And all of us getting to know Kapler, a man hired nearly ten months ago, a man yet to manage a game for the beloved Gigantes, and a dude already morphing through different iterations as a fan base watches.