San Francisco Giants closing pitcher Jake McGee pitches against Seattle during the ninth inning April 2 in Seattle. McGee earned the save as the Giants won 6-3. (Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP)
Jake McGee just might be the best Northern Nevada high school graduate to ever pitch in the major leagues. The 34-year-old Reed High left-hander, after all, has been the most dominating closer in the big leagues this season for the surprising San Francisco Giants.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound McGee finally gave up a hit this season, surrendering a two-out single to Cincinnati’s Joey Votto on Wednesday. But he nailed down the save in the Giants’ 3-0 win just the same.
McGee has been one of the best stories in baseball this season after the Giants signed him in late February. So far it is the steal of the off-season. McGee has appeared in eight games and has six saves and a win. He’s given up just one hit and two walks in 7.1 innings and no runs and has struck out 10.
Over the last two years (McGee won a World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers last year) McGee has pitched in 32 games and has allowed just 15 hits, five walks and six earned runs over 27.2 innings for an ERA of 1.95. He’s also struck out nearly two batters an inning (53 in 27.2 innings).
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Douglas High graduate Shawn Estes, though, still has our vote as the best major league pitcher to come out of a Northern Nevada high school.
Estes, a 1991 first-round draft pick by the Seattle Mariners, won 101 games and made 283 starts in the big leagues. He struck out 1,210 hitters over 1,678 innings with an ERA of 4.71 and was an All Star in 1997 when he won 19 games for the Giants.
McGee, though, is still pitching and right behind Estes among former Northern Nevada high school pitchers. He’s had a better big league career than Donovan Osborne (Carson High), Charlie Krefeld (Carson), Rod Scurry (Hug) and Kevin Jepsen (Bishop Manogue) because of longevity.
McGee, a set-up man most of his career before this season, has appeared in 554 games in the major leagues with 29 victories and 51 saves and an ERA of 3.54. He’s struck out 540 over 483 innings. The 2004 fifth-round pick by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays also appears headed to his first All Star game this summer.
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It doesn’t seem likely that Jimmy Garoppolo will be on the San Francisco 49ers roster this season. The 49ers, though, are insisting that Garoppolo will be their starter and help tutor the quarterback (likely Justin Fields, Trey Lance or Mac Jones) they take with the No. 3 pick in the draft on April 29.
But why would Garoppolo want to be around a team that has made it clear it doesn’t trust him as its long-term starter? And why have the 49ers stocked their roster with veteran backups Nate Sudfeld, Josh Rosen and Josh Johnson, if the top two quarterbacks are supposed to be Garoppolo and the No. 3 pick? That’s because the top two will likely be the draft pick and either Rosen or Sudfeld (Johnson is an aging training camp filler who has proven he can’t play in the NFL).
The 49ers’ lack of faith in Garoppolo is a bit baffling. He took them to a Super Bowl just two seasons ago. He’s 24-8 as a starter with nearly twice as many touchdowns (51) as interceptions (26). Garoppolo, still just 29 years old, is one of the 20 best quarterbacks in the NFL, even if the 49ers don’t think so. But Fields, Lance and Jones are the flavor of the month, so move out of the way, Jimmy G.
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The University of Arizona made a surprising hire this week, naming Gonzaga assistant Tommy Lloyd as its next men’s basketball head coach. The hire, though, is further proof that Gonzaga coach Mark Few is never going to leave the Zags.
Lloyd, a Few assistant for 20 years, was supposed to be the heir apparent to Few’s job. Lloyd obviously got tired of waiting. He is, after all, just 46 years old and figured the time was right to leave the most comfortable job in America as Few’s assistant and take over his own program. That is understandable.
It is, however, a strange hire for Arizona and one that isn’t likely to excite its fan base. Is this where Arizona now finds itself, a Pac-12 school that once won a national title (1997), that has to hire a 20-year assistant at from a West Coast Conference school?
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One of the names attached to the Arizona job, of course, was Eric Musselman. Musselman is a master at working the national media and getting his name involved in most every job opening. It’s how he’s gotten a huge contract extension at the only two Division I head coaching jobs he’s ever had after just two seasons. He did it at Nevada and now he’s done it at Arkansas.
Musselman is a genius at self promotion. He uses the desperate national media as well as any coach in the nation because they help him get raises and jobs. Musselman made sure his national media buddies attached his name to the openings this off-season at Texas, Indiana and Minnesota as well as Arizona, even though he likely wasn’t seriously considered at any of those schools.
Arkansas, though, like Nevada, fell for all the fake news and gave Musselman a huge raise after just two seasons.
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Musselman’s next move will be to get out of Arkansas. He did it at Nevada and he will do it at Arkansas. Musselman, history tells us, doesn’t stay anywhere for too long. He hits town with a bunch of devilish smiles, promises, fancy clichés, victories and name-dropping stories and tells everyone how much he loves them and, poof, he’s gone to another town. Even his family is in on the act.
The Musselmans, after all, are likeable, fun, exciting, make you feel good about yourself and offer up a world of possibilities. And then they are gone and the next day there‘s no trace they were ever around. They are like a circus. Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and see the wonders of the world and let us entertain you.
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So far Musselman has done exactly what he did at Nevada. He’s made promises, he delivered on those promises, and he’s gotten paid. There is, however, a huge difference between Nevada and Arkansas.
Musselman could have stayed at Nevada forever after taking the program to the Sweet 16 in 2017-18. Nobody even blamed him for choking in the Mountain West tournament and NCAA tournament in 2018-19 with arguably the best Wolf Pack team in history. That’s how much Northern Nevada loved Musselman and his friendly family.
At Arkansas, though, he will be expected to get back to the Elite Eight and beyond. They will love him only as long as he wins big. Choking will not be allowed. He will be expected to win SEC titles and at least win a game or two in the NCAA tournament every single year.
His best player, freshman Moses Moody, though, has already declared for the NBA draft. He might never get back to the Elite Eight. That’s why it was imperative for Musselman to get his contract extension now, after getting to the doorstep of the Final Four when everyone is still thrilled to have a seat inside the Musselman Big Top Circus.
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It’s not often that a college baseball team feels good about itself after getting swept in a two-game series. But the Nevada Wolf Pack baseball team should feel great about itself after dropping a pair of close games to the Texas Longhorns this week in Austin, Texas.
The Pack lost 4-3 and 6-5 to the Longhorns, the No. 3-ranked team in the nation, and could have won both games. The Pack battled back from a 3-0 deficit in the first game and was down 5-1 in the second game. Making the Longhorns sweat on their own field isn’t all that difficult in the oppressive Texas humidity. But the Pack, which lost at Texas 16-6 in the 1994 NCAA Regionals, did it this week with their grit and fight on the field.
Can you imagine the excitement in Northern Nevada if the Wolf Pack football team came within a field goal of beating the No. 3 team in the nation on the road? The Pack baseball team is just 10-15 this season but pushing Texas to the edge twice in two days could turn the entire season around.
