Grab Bag: 49ers win a rock fight, ugly loss for Cal Bears, SF Giants eliminated from playoffs, Laver Cup tennis fun at Chase! Bosa update! Superman review! And my fave Redford movie!

San Francisco 49ers:

No Purdy, no Kittle, and no Jennings. Mac Jones will take the QB helm for San Francisco's first home game of the 2025 season against the Arizona Cardinals.

1st Quarter stats: 1 yard rushing, 6 yards passing, had the ball for 2:13 the entire quarter, but 0-0. YIKES!

Both 49er defensive ends, Nick Bosa and Mykal Williams (#1 draft pick), out with injuries.

2nd Quarter: Cards march down the field on 10 plays, but have to settle for a field goal. Niners do the same, and kicker Eddie Pineiro makes his 38 yard field goal to tie the game 3-3, with about four minutes left in the first half. 49ers get in a late field goal to give San Francisco a 6-3 lead going into halftime. Niner offense needs to improve though, as they only had nine yards rushing, 1/5 on 3rd downs, and had the ball for just under nine minutes for the first half- not good.

3rd Quarter: Arizona takes 6:35 minutes, 14 plays and 77 yards to get denied the TD, and settles for a 28 yard field goal to tie the game up at 6-6. Niners march down to the 2 yard line but cannot convert , and turn the ball over on downs as Cards defense makes their goal-line stand! 6-6 it remains, going into the 4th quarter. 4th Quarter: Opens with the Niners defense almost getting a safety for 2 points, but DA RULES say: both the player and the ball must be in the end zone for a safety. Cards QB Murray threw the ball outside of the end zone! Niners get the ball, and go six plays, 48 yards with fullback Kyle Juszczyk catching the throw from Mac Jones for a 49er Touchdown! Six plays, 48 yards, in 3:09 minutes. the highlight being WR Ricky Pearsall's amazing sideline catch for 34 yards to put the Niners at 1st and goal! 13-6 49ers!

Next possession Niners commit a 33 yard pass interference penalty to put the Cards offense on the 1 yard, where the Cards capitalize and score the touchdown! Score tied 13-13 with 8:37 left! Mac Jones throws an interception as the team was in field goal range, and Arizona has the ball with 5 minutes left! But Niners linebacker Fred Warner bats the pass down, and Cards have to punt! Niners on their own 3 yard line, Cards rush Jones and Arizona gets the safety! Cards 15 Niners 13 with three minutes to go, and insult to injury, Niners have to kick the ball back to Arizona!

Niners defense makes a great play to force the Cards to punt, Niners have 1:46 and 1 time out remaining! Mac Jones leads the Niners down the field, with the big play being a 20 yard catch and run by Christian McCaffrey (CMC!) to put the Niners in position for the winning field goal with four seconds to go...Pineiro kicks the ball 35 yards through the uprights, and the San Francisco 49ers WIN, 16-15 to go 3-0 to start the season! The Jacksonville Jaguars come to Levi's next weekend!

Update: Bosa is out for the SEASON with a torn ACL in his right knee. Had the same injury a few seasons ago in his left knee.

Ricky Pearsall- making the wild catches to lead the Niners to a win!

California Golden Bears: Well, the shine of the first three games got blackened out as Cal travelled to San Diego State to play the Aztecs, and got absolutely bullied and humiliated, losing to the Aztecs, 34-0 late Saturday night. It was so bad that I bailed on the game at the start of the 4th quarter with the Aztecs up, 27-0!! A harbinger of things to come was on Cal's opening drive which was 75 yards 19 plays, and over 10 minutes off the clock in the first quarter....AND DID NOT SCORE! The best way to break down this foul, odious, stinker of a game is by grading each of the Cal Bears units: Defense: Grade: F. No answer to the Aztecs running game, and gave up big plays due to soft coverage, as San Diego's offensive line was stout and had their way all night with Cal's defensive line. Offense: Grade F. The Aztecs defense basically showed no respect for the Bears run game, and Cal's freshman sensation quarterback got a rough education from the Aztecs, throwing two interceptions and was constantly harassed and sacked by the Aztecs defense. Cal could not get any rhythm during this whole game, and credit has to be given to the San Diego State Aztecs, they simply just played better, and rougher than the Bears did. Cal absolutely cannot play like they did in this dumpster fire of the game, as now the Bears start playing ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) games starting next weekend against Boston College.

PS my mood was most foul, but my partner, an Aztec graduate, did not rub the ugly loss in.

No other big upsets except for Indiana absolutely destroying 9th ranked Illinois, 63-10! Former Cal QB Fernando Mendoza had another game with five touchdowns!

San Francisco Giants: In Tuesday night's loss, the SF Giants were officially eliminated from the MLB Playoffs. i've said my peace in previous posts about this season, but this isa nice summation of the Giantes 2025 season. Definitely worth a read! https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/mlb/san-francisco-giants/bob-melvin-logan-webb/1876701/ Laver Cup: The tennis tourneys we know for rankings is over, so there are a few tourneys that are for charity or bragging rights, and one of them is the Laver Cup, which is Europe vs the World of a select few players for a 3 day weekend tourney at Chase Center. World player and US player beat Carlos Alcaraz in a singles match on Saturday, so Carlos needs to win his match on Sunday for Team Europe. I was a good boy and did not stalk Carlos around San Francisco this past weekend, but I do love this pic of him, sporting a platinum blonde look, visiting the island that most folks find themselves pronouncing his name! If you want to know if Europe or the World won, check out this link below! The players seems to have had. great time in San Francisco! https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/taylor-fritz-alex-de-minaur-lead-team-world-to-third-laver-cup-title

Carlos knew what he was doing visiting this place! PS I'm trying out new horizontal features on this site!

Culture Club:

Superman: When this new version of a Superman came out, I was hesitant, and really not interested in seeing another rehash of this story. Well, I was pleasantly surprised! First off, if this film had been titled "Superman and Krypto" it would have been accurate, as that dog definitely steals the scenes he is in! Another thing i liked what producer/director James Gunn did was jump over all the backstory of the origins of Superman and went straight into the world knows who he is (not the Clark Kent part), and in the opening scroll, says "3 hours ago, Superman lost his fight against the Hammer". So my expectations were immediately tossed aside so I was able to watch a new Superman movie, without the rehashing of what so many fans know! There are parts of the movie that sagged for me (pocket universe stuff), but besides the big battles and threats to Metropolis and elsewhere in the world (that other storyline reminded me of a current conflict in the Middle East), I loved the little details, like the garage door opener (so LOL'ed on that) and the squirrel save! Superman does have some help from the "Justice Gang", with a Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Mr. Terrific, who I loved (he is the tech guy- and has a fantastically filmed action scene in the middle of the movie! The music during this scene made it even better!). The script was mostly solid, and some editing could have been done (end fight scene was too long), but overall an enjoyable experience. Also, the soundtrack will bring back memories, I got ferklempt on one sequence! The performances: David Corenswet was very good, both with the angsty scenes and the comical scenes with Krypto ("get the toy"). Rachel Brosnahan held her own as Lois Lane, and what Gunn did with Jimmy Olsen's character was a MAJOR upgrade from any other Superman movie or TV show (that was a pleasant surprise!). Saving the best for last, Nickolas Hoult as Lex Luthor was fantastic, as Gunn wrote Lex as a PURE villain, no daddy issues, or some sad story that made Lex who he is today, and Hoult has Lex embrace that ego-driven villainy, at one point midway thru the movie, Lex does such an awful thing to an innocent, I was in NO MOOD to be told of any redeeming qualities about Lex Luthor! Was pleasantly surprised to get a true Lex Luthor evil villain! Oh, there is a great line at the end of the film, that cracked me up because it was really cool! Overall, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this version of Superman, Now showing on HBO!

Actor/Director/Producer and father of the Sundance Film festival Robert Redford passed away recently. Known for his good looks, blond hair and charm, Redford became a bonafide Hollywood star, with a LONG list of successful and critically acclaimed films. My favorite flick of his though is one of his earlier ones where he (so handsome!) and Jane Fonda play newlyweds on what old Hollywood would call a "screw-ball comedy", Barefoot in the Park, released in 1967!!

Flyboy is coming in this weekend, so we will remember Mr. Redford by watching this classic (by MY standards!), as this movie is just so much fun;a joy-bomb! I could also see Ms. Christina Ashton play out a couple of scenes from the film! :) Here's a classic , very late 1960's cheesy trailer, with full voiceover! Jason, when in New York does a stoop qualify as a flight? :) :)

Have a great weekend, and to those attending Folsom Street Fair, beware of the fogburn amongst those whips and chains! Oh, if I can pull it off, I'll have a very fun, special Grab Bag next week! NO F1, so I have time! :)