Tour de Sports Lounge — a hodge-podge of local sports

The Daily Journal sports staff will be in a state of doldrums for about the next month. There will be some summer baseball still being played, along with summer passing leagues and camps for high school football teams, but in about two-and-half weeks, we’ll see the shutdown of high school activities in what is a mandatory dead period in the Central Coast Section.

While the local sports scene is relatively light, the world of professional sports is in high gear and there is plenty to talk about. This column will be a hodge-podge of goings-on around the Bay Area pro sports scene.

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Golden State Warriors social media lost its collective mind Sunday with the performance of James Wiseman during the Las Vegas summer league. It was the first organized action for the 2020 second-overall draft pick since his rookie season as multiple knee injuries kept him out of the second half of the 2020-21 and the entire 2021-22 season.

He certainly showed out Sunday, throwing down a couple of dunks, blocking a couple shots, altering several others and grabbing a handful or rebounds in limited minutes.

But many of the same people who are raving about Wiseman are the same people who say they don’t put much stock in summer league play. So which is it? Does summer league success only count when it’s a player on your favorite team?

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The San Francisco Giants certainly showed some moxie Saturday and Sunday, beating the San Diego Padres to split the four-game series and move two games above .500.

And they did in two completely different ways. Saturday, playing on national television, starting pitcher Carlos Rodon put together one of the most electric starts in MLB this season, working a complete-game three-hitter while striking out a dozen and retiring 22 of the final 23 batters he faced. Granted, he and the Giants needed an eight-inning, two-run home run from Wilmer Flores to give Rodon the victory, but it was arguably the most clutch win of the season.

The Giants then followed that with one of their most complete games of the season. Alex Wood picked up where Rodon left off, working seven innings of no-run baseball, taking a no-hitter into the sixth. The offense, meanwhile, pounded out 12 runs on 17 hits, including two more bombs off the bat of Flores.

Could those wins catapult the Giants back into serious playoff discussion? They’ll definitely get a chance to build up a head of steam heading into the All-Star break with a three-game set with Arizona in San Francisco beginning Monday. The Milwaukee Brewers, which lead the National League Central Division, will come in for a weekend series.

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NFL training camp is just around the corner and over the weekend, longtime NFL reporter Mike Silver reported his sources told him the 49ers’ nominal starting quarterback Trey Lance was suffering from arm fatigue.

Many quickly pooh-poohed the report and why not? How can a guy, who has spent the last 10 years of his life throwing footballs, suddenly be suffering with a bad arm? It just doesn’t make sense. It’s not like he’s a baseball pitcher, throwing 100 balls per start. I can’t imagine the 49ers coaching staff working their prized draft pick to the point he is suffering an arm injury.

Maybe it’s a case of misdirection from the 49ers front office, just screwing around with a reporter. It’s also a slow time in the NFL, so maybe it’s a case of a reporter looking for clicks and reactions.

If that is the case, well done.

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How different would the prospects of the Oakland A’s be if Joe Lacob had been able to buy the team?

A story came out in the San Francisco Chronicle this weekend that said Lacob had a deal in place to buy the A’s in 2005 for $180 million. Instead, then-owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann sold to a group of investors headed by John Fisher.

While the A’s have had some success over the next 16 years, the last couple have been marred by an ownership group that seems hell bent on moving to Las Vegas and alienating fans by trading away fan favorites.

Meanwhile, we all know what Lacob has done since buying the Golden State Warriors in 2010, winning four NBA championships and appearing in six finals over the last eight years. The Chronicle story says Lacob has a “standing offer” to buy the A’s, which are now, somehow, valued at over a billion dollars.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.