Bryce Eldridge (8) shatters his bat in the sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 3-2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Monday, May 4, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Athletics’ Nick Kurtz is greeted by teammates after scoring during the third inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Tuesday, May 19, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)
William Liang/Associated Press
Bryce Eldridge (8) in the dugout before the San Francisco Giants played the San Diego Padres at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Monday, May 4, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
The San Francisco Giants passed through Sacramento recently, although people hardly noticed. Exploring that old A’s rivalry is an undertaking so forlorn, it almost seems pointless.
It still exists, down crazy street. Reach for comparisons and you find the Giants with piles of cash but no clear-cut direction, always a threat to go missing before exasperated fans in the major leagues’ most beautiful ballpark. The talk shows reveal a climate of ongoing stress and anxiety.
The A’s should be a joke, with an owner bereft of conscience and a battered Oakland Coliseum just waiting to be torn down. Now they are thoroughly unwanted, just passing through skeptical Sacramento and likely headed for vast indifference in Las Vegas.
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They remain, however, a very sweet baseball story.
Let’s just start with first place, where they stood as of Friday. Whatever critique you hand the American League West, where a .500 record sounds decent, the A’s are in position to make the playoffs. And there isn’t a hint of stress, thanks to able general manager David Forst, a well-respected scouting department and a franchise-wide staff that tends to see sunshine through the clouds.
There’s a very simple way to illustrate what remains of the Giants-A’s relationship, and that’s the first-base position. Bryce Eldridge and Nick Kurtz were two of the game’s top power-hitting prospects just 14 months ago, but they took wildly disparate paths to the big leagues.
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As we’ve come to realize, every day with Eldridge is a tedious referendum on policy and timing. Should he be with the Giants? Well, you can’t send him back down. But of course you can, if you need him to play. But he looks so good when he really stings the ball. But about those strikeouts … all the while playing a position called Nowhere. There’s no clear answer for manager Tony Vitello, who knows that benching proven veterans can be clubhouse poison, but when Eldridge appears in just 10 games over a 17-day span (heading into the current homestand) with a .156 average, the “plan” isn’t working so well.
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The A’s platform for Kurtz has been strictly textbook. Drafted out of Wake Forest in 2024, he shot through the minor leagues and was wearing an A’s uniform by last April. They liked him, they cleared room for him, and he responded with 36 homers and the American League’s Rookie of the Year award. Just lately he’s the very essence of consistency, working on a remarkable streak of reaching base in 44 consecutive games (and counting).
There’s no telling where things stand two months from now, although you’re on safe ground predicting Kurtz belting home runs as the A’s first baseman. The Giants will get back to you on Eldridge.
Right on the verge
Sudden thought while watching Victor Wembanyama, in his stunning command of the NBA playoffs, and the elegant Gabby Williams, such a fine new addition to the Golden State Valkyries: Could France claim world basketball superiority at the 2028 Olympics?
It’s entirely possible that both the French men and women could win gold medals. It nearly happened at Paris 2024, where each of those teams gave the U.S. a frightful scare before settling for the silver.
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The women will be immeasurably better, led by Williams, a dominant figure in the gold-medal game against a U.S. team including A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum. Williams led the French with 19 points and had a game-winning shot in her hands before time expired. But she planted a foot just inches inside the 3-point line, and the two-pointer meant a heartbreaking 67-66 loss.
The Valkyries’ Janelle Salaün was in the French starting lineup that day, but in terms of the future, the real story was on the bench, with the inexperienced Dominique Malonga, Iliana Rupert and Leila Lacan destined for significant impact in the WNBA. The New York Liberty’s Marine Johannes was also on that team, and the 2028 club will almost certainly include Carla Leite, the intriguing Valkyries guard who was taken by Portland in the expansion draft, and current WNBA rookies Pauline Astier (a point-guard gem for the Liberty) and Nell Angloma, a first-round pick by the Connecticut Sun.
The French men would have celebrated into the night, and for weeks, were it not for Stephen Curry. His dazzling flurry of stretch-drive shots saved the U.S. a bitter defeat, and there’s a classic photo of a leaping Wembanyama, his left arm fully outstretched, in a desperate but futile attempt to block a game-changing Curry shot.
That French team surrounded Wembanyama with established veterans, the likes of Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum, and it was a smart call. “Their time will come” was the rallying cry around the absentees, including the first two picks in the 2024 NBA draft – Zaccharie Risacher to Atlanta and Alex Sarr to Washington – plus two more first-rounders in Tidjane Salaün (No. 6, by Chicago) and Pacome Dadiet (No.25, New York).
It’s compelling merely to imagine France rising to such heights at the ’28 Games, and to reflect on the global impact of the U.S. Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics. Riveted by the sight of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson playing together, against international teams, star-struck kids hit the playgrounds around the world – and today’s NBA is routinely dominated by players from other countries.
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Baseball carries that magic, as well, for it’s a game that captivates kids from Melbourne to Tokyo to Santo Domingo – and has done so for decades. The NFL’s “global reach” is an ongoing ruse, rudely cutting into teams’ home-game schedules while the owners savor the marketing revenue from their godawful merchandise scams and nothing ever changes, in terms of kids taking up the game, in any country.
Chips off blocks
Does the name Gary Radunich ring a bell? It’s awfully close to Gary Radnich, and it’s the same person – the legendary Bay Area sportscaster who spent 33 years with KRON television and doubled as a KNBR sports-talk host before retiring in 2019.
Radnich was a high-school sensation as a prolific scorer for Del Mar and Branham in San Jose, delighting fans with a style he loved to call “shameless gunner.” He played two seasons at BYU before transferring to UNLV in the late 1960s, under head coach Jerry Tarkanian, and changing his name for the sake of public convenience. Now the real name lives on, gloriously, in his son’s basketball career.
Spencer Radunich, the youngest of Gary’s six children, spent two years at an elite private school (Stuart Hall) in San Francisco before transferring to Branham, where he led the team in scoring this past season and was named MVP of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. “He brings a calmness,” said his coach, Kenny Williams. “Like there’s never a moment that is too big for him.”
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Deeply moved by Spencer’s decision to wear his old number (24), Gary was a regular at the games and kept the stats. They say it was common to see fans approach him, but in politely staying glued to the action, Gary wasn’t interested in being the show. Young Spencer handled that quite nicely.
Bruce Jenkins writes the 3-Dot Lounge for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jenksurf@gmail.com Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1