Nobody on this 49ers team has experienced the expectations of the 49ers' glory years

The 49ers had it easy this season.

And I mean that in a nice way.

When I traveled with and covered the 49ers for the Marin I.J in their last three Super Bowl seasons, the franchise, at its peak, was smothered with expectations the size of Montana, the state not the quarterback or the Scarface or that “Achy Breaky Heart” guy’s daughter.

I mean we’re talking megabyte Madden Cruiser-sized expectations. They were an ominous cloud over hovering over the 49ers like Chaz Bono over a dance floor. You wondered when they would crash and succumb to the pressure.

It wasn’t enough to just win games during those glory years. No, sir. The 49ers had to win them with style points. With authority. With pristine perfection. Their games were scrutinized and analyzed like every promise in a presidential debate. They were like super models on the NFL runway being criticized for not wolfing down cheeseburgers.

Those expectations crushed Bill Walsh. They forced the team to trade iconic Joe Montana in order to get better. They put King Kong on Steve Young’s back. They led the franchise to try to replace George Seifert with Mike Shanahan, mere hours after Seifert coached the 49ers to his second and their fifth and last Super Bowl win.

Thank you, man. May I have another?

Those expectations were passed onto 49ers fans. The 49ers would win games in bunches, home and away, routinely 10 a year, and yet people would dial in on Monday and fret about what’s wrong with the team. They took nit-picking to needle-in-a-haystack proportions.

Imagine how trying and tiring it was for those 49ers teams? They had to compete harder than Charlie Sheen parties. They had to play division games in New Orleans and Atlanta, not Seattle and Phoenix. The Rams for the most part were formidable. The 49ers won one NFC championship game in bone-chilling Chicago. They had to beat Dallas – again – for another.

They had superstars with egos bigger than Donald Trump’s steroid hair and an owner who was beloved when the team won championships and he lavished them with gaudy Super Bowl rings, all-expense paid Hawaiian vacations and Neiman-Marcus certificates. But lose a big game and he might attack something like an innocent Coke machine or an insensitive Packers fan.

Every 49ers season began with Super Bowl expectations, not aspirations. It was Super Bowl-or- bust a lip.

That is why this 49ers season is so remarkable. It’s so refreshing. No one expected this. No one. We saw this one coming down the tracks like we saw how a nation’s media would bow to … Tim Tebow?!

All the while the 49ers have won under the national radar and without expectations. The Packers couldn’t lose forever and that took up everybody’s time. Then Tebow kept completing passes to the Almighty Receiver in crunch time and mesmerized the nation.

While everyone was looking elsewhere, the 49ers snuck into the playoffs without too much fuss or recognition.

Now read this and roll it around in your mind: The 49ers are one win from the Super Bowl playing at home on Sunday against a team this season that lost to the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins at home.

Who knew?

This is a magical time. Like Buster Posey and the This Is Torture Giants of 2011. Like Captain Jack and the We Believe Warriors of 2007. Like Huey News and the Heart-Of-Rock-And-Roll News of the 80s.

There is a sudden love affair with this 49ers team. Their losses this season stung but the hard feelings lasted about as long Kris Humphries on Kim Kardashian’s couch.

Maybe the expectations have changed this week now the 49ers won’t have to go to Green Bay are playing in prime time back in the Big Apple. But, really, how many of you expected Alex Smith last week to lead the 49ers on two 80-plus yard touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, much less one. C’mon. Show your hands. Admit it. You didn’t see that coming. Shock then awe.

And that’s what makes it all so beautiful. The lower the expectations, the greater the reward. Alex Smith was a No. 1 pick who never lived up expectations and never figured to still be here this year after last year. Joe Montana was the 82nd pick who never encountered any such expectations until he won a Super Bowl.

Dwight Clark’s “Catch” got the 49ers by the Cowboys and over the proverbial hump. But, beyond that hump, came constant expectations. The 1984 team started the rise. The 1989 team raised it another level by going 18-1 and winning a Super Bowl practically in its own back yard, at Stanford Stadium.

The expectations for the 49ers then went into orbit until the Mike Nolan/Mike Singletary Error lowered them.

It wasn’t until this season that expectations realistically returned to Earth. The 49ers hired a promising new head coach, Jim Harbaugh, but, because of the NFL lockout, he had only seven weeks to practice with his new team before the season started. He and his team ultimately recaptured the hearts and imagination of 49er Faithful and with that came confidence and a passion that had 49ers fans chanting “Defense” before Drew Brees took his first snap last week.

Feels pretty good to be a 49ers fan today, huh?

The expectations are now rising again with the Giants in town. There is still wonderment about this team – can they do it again and wouldn’t it be swell if they did? – but there is not the notion that the world will end if they don’t .

Whew. Isn’t this refreshing?

Me and Muhammad Ali

The first time I laid eyes on Muhammad Ali was in 1973 when he was getting into an elevator in the Prudential Center in Boston where I was going to college.

It was my first brush with greatness (other than seeing Johnny Cash in the Bangor, Maine airport terminal) but there were about 20 people between me and Ali.

He was that famous. He had that large of an entourage.

I saw only one of his fights live and it’s one I’m sure people never remember. It was in the middle of Mile High Stadium in Denver and his opponent was the late Lyle Alzado. The Denver Broncos’ defensive star was holding out of training camp, trying to get a new contract, when he somehow convinced Ali to get into the ring with him for an exhibition match on July 14, 1979.

Alzado, a former Golden Gloves boxer in South Dakota, said he was considering retiring as a NFL player to become a professional boxer and insisted his fight with Ali was not a stunt to call attention to holding out with the Broncos.

Wink. Wink.

Anyway, I was covering the fight at ringside for the Loveland (Colo.) Daily Reporter-Herald and the ring was staged in the middle of the field at the 50-yard line. Ali, who weighed something like 230 pounds at the time, was out of shape so he just toyed with Alzado, who was a Chuck Wepner-like brawler.

Ali won the exhibition with shear skill, though Alzado made a nice account of himself. He wasn’t bad, but it was obvious he should keep his day job, which he did with the Broncos.

That was the last time I saw Ali in person. He turned 70 years old this week and he reminds me of my youth growing up in Maine where I first knew him as Cassius Clay and he was beating Sonny Liston and the only way then we heard about it was via radio. This is before ESPN and cable TV and we had only three local television stations we could watch. The first time I saw Clay on TV was on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”

There of course was a fascination about Clay because he ran his mouth. He was so brash but so good and the legend grew.

I’ll always remember the Opening Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympiad in Atlanta and the mystery surrounding whom would be chosen to light the Olympic torch. When Ali appeared to do it, there was just one word that overcame me in that moment.

Perfect.

Bravo for 49ers fans in 2012 but not like Broncos fans in 1977

I covered four of the five 49ers Super Bowl seasons, but wasn’t around the San Francisco Bay Area when the Niners won their first one.
I’m hearing that the surprising rise of the 49ers this season rivals the excitement of the 1981 season when they won their first one.
However, nothing I’ve seen or heard will approach the fanaticism of the Denver Broncos’ first Super Bowl season in 1977 when I was living and working in Colorado. “Orange Crush” loving Broncos fans didn’t just paint their faces to show their crazy support of their team. There were stories of people so obsessed with the team’s Super Bowl quest that season that they were literally painting their cars and houses orange.
I was living and working in Illinois in 1986 covering the Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl Shuffle season and the excitement of that never matched what I saw and heard and felt in Colorado in 1977.
That said it was so great and gratifying to hear 49ers fans chatting “Defense” the very first time Drew Brees and the Saints had the ball on Saturday. That showed me how invested 49ers fans were into the game.

· Best thing about the weekend’s results? No more Tebow (over) analysis and no more Discount Double Check commercials (I only hope)

· The 49ers amazing “Hags-to-Harbaugh” season has largely been overshadowed by Tebow-mania and Aaron Rodgers and the Packers this season so beating the New York Giants on Sunday should assure that the 49ers will finally get their due respect and recognition.

· Get ready for Spike Lee, San Francisco. He’s on the Giants bandwagon riding West this week. Pay no attention to him.

· As much as I hate all New York professional sports teams, I think Eli Manning, in big games and pressure situations (under a blitz), is every bit as good as his brother Peyton.

· Are the Giants destined to go to the Super Bowl if Madonna is going to be there?

· Is it me or was Joe Buck excitedly rooting for the Giants to win today? My guess is he was secretly wishing for a trip to San Francisco rather than a return trip to Green Bay

· Thank you to Tom Brady for turning Tebow Time into Te-blow out Time.

· I’m a Tim Tebow fan but not a fan of the media who have spent the past 10 weeks flip-flopping trying to (over) analyze him.

· Media Overkill? Although Brady had a playoff record performance against Tebow and the Denver Broncos, there were clearly 3-4 times more TV cameramen following Tebow off the field than the Patriots quarterback.

· Did anyone watch the Playoff Game Nobody Cared About between the Ravens and Texans? I thought so.

Larkin, Bagwell shine above all first-timers on this year's Baseball Hall of Fame ballot

What do you think of Jeromy Burnitz?

How ‘about Vinny Castilla?

Or Brian Jordan? Javy Lopez? Bill Mueller? Terry Mulholland? Phil Nevin? Brad Radke? Tim Salmon? Ruben Sierra? Bernie Williams? Tony Womack? Eric Young?

OK, let me ask you this: When I mention any of those above-mentioned names does the phrase “Hall of Famer” come to mind?

Exactly my point.

Those 13 players appear on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year and none of them are going to get my vote. No offense. They were all good and talented players but not slam dunk Hall of Fame players.

Bernie Williams batted .297 and played on four World Championships with the Yankees. He was a key player for the Yankees but more a complimentary player than a star player, unless you throw-in a guitar. But he never won an MVP award. He was on the top 10 twice. That’s it.

But because he played in New York and is baseball’s all-time leader in RBIs in the post-season, some voters will think he is Hall of Fame worthy.

Not this one.

The other first-year guys? Castilla I remember him for hitting a bunch of home runs playing in home-run friendly Coors Field. Jordan? Great athlete. Lopez? Great-hitting catcher on a great Braves’ pitching staff. Mueller? Brad Radke? I didn’t even know he retired. Was Red Sox third baseman who got game-tying hit off Mariano Rivera in bottom of ninth inning in Game 4 of ALCS in 2004 against New York Yankees and we all know what happened after that. Mulholland? I was at Shea Stadium the night a ground ball got wedged in his glove so he tossed the ball AND the glove to Bob Brenly, who was playing first base for the Giants that night. Ruben Sierra? Traded for Jose Canseco.

I think of them and not once does “Hall of Fame” come to mind. But some of them, if not most, will get at least one Hall of Fame vote. Bret Boone and Benito Santiago got one last year. B.J. Surhoff got two. Former Yankee Tino Martinez got six. Kirk “Woody” Rueter didn’t a check mark on any of the 581 Hall of Fame ballots submitted and he’s a Hall of Fame guy.

Thus, I’m going to vote again for the same two guys I like who didn’t make it in the Hall of Fame last year: Former Reds shortstop Barry Larkin (who was third in voting last year in his first year on the ballot) and former Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell who hit .297 with 449 career home runs and 1529 RBIs. He was a unanimous winner of the National League MVP in 1994 and finished in the top 10 five other times.

Larkin and Bagwell had great careers. Hall of Fame careers in my mind.

No LSU-Alabama rematch

I know the SEC thinks college football revolves around them like the universe around the sun or TV cameras around the Kardashians, but I think I speak for the rest of us:

No LSU-Alabama rematch in the BCS championship game.

It was an incredible defensive battle between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams on Earth tonight but let’s be real. We crave offense like smart phones and the Tigers and Tide, with two weeks to prepare for each other, looked too offensively challenged.

Alabama had the best player on the field, one of best in the country, and he didn’t come close to scoring a touchdown. The Crimson Tide had two place kickers and neither could kick a field goal for his life.

And LSU’s best offensive weapon in the game of the century was arguably its punter.

I’m all for LSU being in the national championship game but it needs an opponent with a contrasting style as an opponent: Oklahoma State, Stanford, even Boise State.

What it's like to be a Red Sox fan

I just sent a text to my 18-year-old son in college who was threatening to shoot himself.

Jokingly, I think.

“This, my son,” I wrote, “is what it’s like to be Red Sox fan. Get used to it.”

This is the Olde Towne team I fell in love with in 1967 and died with in 1975. And 1978. And 1986. And I could go on and on.

While the rest of my die-hard Red Sox Nation waited 86 years for its world championship, my oldest son waited 11 years and then he got another one three years later. The kid is spoiled. He’s never had to live through something like this.

I’ll give you the short version: Remarkably the Red Sox were all set to win and make the playoffs last night. But, in the back of the crazed minds in the Red Sox Nation, we knew their season was like a terminally ill patient. It was a just matter of time. It was inevitable there was not going to be a happy ending.

The Red Sox led their game and the Rays trailed theirs and then the rain came. It is agonizing enough to be a Red Sox fan hoping for a Yankees win – any Yankees win – but it’s even worse to feel like the Yankees were all along ready to pull the rug out from under us.

The Rays, down to their last strike of the season, rallied from being nine games down in the wild card standings and seven runs down with six outs to go to make the playoffs. The Yankees had runners at first and third and no outs in the top of the 12th and didn’t score. The Red Sox had runners at first and third and no outs in the top of the ninth and didn’t score.

Yet the Red Sox were one strike from living to another day when the Orioles rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth. The Red Sox then walked off the field and into their clubhouse and watched Evan Longoria end their season with a Pesky Pole-like strike down the leftfield line to beat the Yankees in the bottom of the 12th.

It was alternately the most exciting and most excruciating day of regular-season baseball in my life.

No tears. But then the texts started coming.

“I watched every pitch,” my son typed

“I’ve lived through every season. I will live through this,” I wrote back.

“There’s no more baseball. I can’t even comprehend what just happened,” he typed.

“It’s Red Sox baseball history in a nutshell,” I wrote back.

“We were supposed to reverse it,” he typed.

“It’s not the Curse of the Bambino anymore,” I wrote. “It’s just a curse.”

Get used to it.

Ugly is now beautiful for 49ers

Please, please do not complain 49ers fans.

That 13-8 win over the Cincinnati Bengals today may have been orangutan-butt ugly but the 49ers typically and routinely have been losing those types of games the past eight years or so.

They deserve to win one.

As unimpressive as the offense has been, they have a winning record (2-1) and their upcoming schedule looks less daunting. Eagles quarterback Michael Vick has a broken right hand and Philly’s Dream Team is more Scream Team right now. And I’m not yet sold on the Detroit Lions.
As ugly as the 49ers have looked at times, they might have a 6-2 or 5-3 record at the halfway point this season and that’s mighty pretty in the NFC West.