Bud Shaw's Sunday Spin
Posted by Bud Shaw Plain Dealer Columnist
January 05, 2008 17:14PM
Categories: NFL
A league that fines players for dress code violations and has its antennae on high for the slightest appearance of impropriety should fine Tony Dungy and Jeff Fisher for not playing out the Colts-Titans game last Sunday.
Oliver Stone conspiracy theorists abound in Browns town about the final minute of play in that game.
I'm not one of them.
In fact, I'm a Warren Commission kind of guy. I believe a single bullet killed President Kennedy and was still ricocheting 43 years later when it split into buckshot and hit Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting partner in the face.
But you can see where people are coming from after Tennessee Titans quarterback Kerry Collins told radio station WFAN he thought Dungy and Fisher reached an agreement to call off the dogs in a game the Browns desperately needed the Colts to win.
That can't be allowed to happen, not just with another team's playoff hopes riding on the outcome but with Vegas putting out betting lines on NFL games.
Three things could've occurred if the Colts used their last timeout. Two of them would've been bad for the Browns' chances.
Tennessee could've kicked a field goal and gone ahead, 19-10.
Tennessee could've missed the field goal and put the game in Jim Sorgi's cold, dead hands.
Indianapolis could've blocked the field goal and maybe won the game.
It didn't help the charges of collusion that Dungy spoke afterwards about how much he loved seeing three teams from the same division qualify for the playoffs.
But the biggest reason to exhaust your timeouts -- especially in such a tight game -- and take the game to its natural end is that it can raise suspicions when you don't. The Titans were 6 to 6 -point favorites in the 16-10 victory.
All Hail the Hoodie
Can it get any better for the NFL?
Collins says Tony Dungy and Jeff Fisher had "an agreement" to let the clock run out on the same day the guy who gave us Spygate was named NFL Coach of the Year?
In a strange, twisted way, the timing might've helped Belichick's image. Hey, at least he was trying to win when he got called out by Eric Mangini.
The way Fisher and Dungy lingered and talked at midfield, it just looked like they couldn't wait for the postgame coffee klatch.
"60 Minutes"
He said. He said.
In previewing Sunday night's Mike Wallace interview with Roger Clemens, the pitcher's defense against charges of steroid use is that former trainer Brian McNamee injected him with a painkiller and Vitamin B-12, not steroids and HGH.
It took him 24 days to say that?
McNamee told the Mitchell investigators the pitcher asked for injections of the steroid Winstrol, that Clemens supplied the Winstrol and that the vials were labeled as such.
Who hasn't emptied out their vials of Winstrol and refilled them with Vitamin B-12 (Flintstone vitamins don't come in liquid form), then forgot to tell the person holding the syringe?
Until Clemens' Vitamin B-12 defense arose, I feared Clemens' best answer to the accusations would be to challenge McNamee to correctly identify his bare buttocks from a lineup. What I feared most is that Geraldo would televise it. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
Now, Clemens and NcNamee will testify in front of Congress under oath.
I think I can speak for many when I say I'd like to see them both injected with sodium pentathol.
Honest to Betsy?
In one exchange Clemens denies steroid or HGH use to Wallace, who says, "Swear." Clemens says, "Swear."
They must've cut the part where Wallace keeps after Clemens like a 90-year-old Doberman.
"Cross your heart and hope to die?"
Some injuries don't need insult
Jim Tressel wasted university money in giving every Buckeyes player a 10-minute DVD full of TV commentators and other naysayers picking LSU to beat Ohio State for the still-mythical national title.
Didn't he already have a three-hour-long copy of the only putdown the Buckeyes should need? That DVD called "Florida 41, Ohio State 14."
Is it because playoff games don't end tied?
Gordon Gee, who long ago identified that 13-13 result against Michigan as one of OSU's best wins ever, said of his resistance to a playoff in college football: "They'll have to wrench a playoff system out of my cold, dead hands."
Really, what can be better than the current system that requires a team to play a national championship game on 40 or 50 days' rest?
Spinoffs
The Hawaii football team was the kind of fraud that never would've got off the island if Steve McGarrett and Danno were still policing things over there on Hawaii Five-O.
I don't want to say NFL teams are desperate for a proven winner, but years from now when Bill Parcells is no longer with us, there will be owners competing to pay him as consultant reachable via Ouija board.
The slogan at LSU in regard to Les Miles is "Fear the Hat."
At OSU, it should be "Fear the Sweater Vest."
If Mike Nolan gets any more dressed up as coach of the 49ers, the slogan there will be "Fear the Forzieri Ascot and Pocket Square."
Of course, San Francisco would have to score once in a while to scare anybody.
Marion Jones doesn't think she should do prison time? Really, I thought she'd request 20-to-life.
Changes in the FedEx Cup payoff will placate unhappy PGA stars. Instead of putting $10 million into the winner's retirement fund as it did first time around, only $1 million of the purse will be deferred. And thus another terrible injustice has been thwarted.
Fearless prediction of the week
Giants over Bucs, 23-17 -- Garcia broods . . . I know, not exactly going out on the limb there.
Chargers over Titans, 24-13 -- San Diego is careful not to knock Vince Young out of game.
E-mail of the week
"As to the Browns' failure to be in the playoffs, I lay that squarely at the feet of Derek Anderson [another nice guy, but . . .) who woefully underperformed and seemed to choke in the Arizona and Cinci games.
P.S. prediction -- the Browns won't even come close to making the playoffs next year [especially if they keep Anderson]."
A. I can only surmise that you were at the stadium for the Pittsburgh game dressed up as a french fry.
(c) 2008 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.
Coughlin: Taking a look at the year 2018
Dan Coughlin | The Chronicle-Telegram
Since this is the last time you will hear from me this year, let's perpetuate a whimsical tradition. Here's my view of future sports, not just next year, but 10 years from now.
January
Cavs coach, general manager and leading scorer LeBron James launches a record label called Witness Productions. Its first project is a hip-hop version of the old Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, "The King and I," starring himself and Romeo Travis.
February
Following a two-month layoff between games, Ohio State defeats the University of Alaska-Anchorage in the BCS championship game largely because the Alaskans are blinded by the lights after not seeing the sun since October.
- After holding the clipboard for 10 years, Brady Quinn makes his first start and leads the Browns to a Super Bowl win.
March
Studies show that the average American's cable television bill is $3,000 a month with $2,950 going for sports channels such as the NFL Network, Big Ten Network and OHSAA Network.
- Not understanding his line of work, the United Irish Societies honor Ryan Pontbriand as "Mackeral Snapper of Year" at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
April
The Indians open the 2018 season under new manager Barry Bonds, who Tribe president Paul Dolan says has "a good head on his shoulders." Actually, Bonds has a great head on his shoulders since he wears a Size 14 cap - six sizes above the legal limit in 49 of the 50 states.
May
James launches a movie production company. It's first project is a remake of the 1960s classic, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," with Bill Belichick starring in Richard Burton's original role minus all speaking lines.
June
The Cleveland Stock Car Grand Prix is run for the first time at Thistledown Race Track, recently converted into a one-mile auto race track with parimutuel betting. A pregnant woman from Brunswick takes the checkered flag in her Lexus SUV while talking on her cell phone, eating a Big Mac, balancing a Starbucks coffee on her knee and sticking a pacifier in the mouth of the baby in the car seat.
"This is easier than finding a parking space at South Park Mall," she explains.
July
Soccer mogul Randy Lerner sells the Browns to Oprah Winfrey, the only person in America who can meet his price (except for James). She turns the Browns' playbook into a pop-up book and promotes it as her book of the month.
August
Lee Bodden retires from football and enters public service as Airport Commissioner.
- Kellen Winslow is advised to find work as a lightning rod due to titanium screws, bolts, rods, plates and wires in every bone of his body except one toe.
September
James launches a new automobile line called Witness Motors - made in China and guaranteed to be exempt from all traffic violations including speeding, traveling, three seconds, double dribble and palming the ball.
- In the heat of the pennant race Bonds benches Ryan Garko - who has 72 home runs - explaining that anyone who wears a size 71/2 hat doesn't deserve to break his cherished home run record.
October
With Garko back in the lineup, the Indians sweep to another World Series championship - which Bonds attributes to heads-up play by a heady team.
- Michael Vick returns to football with Atlanta and unfortunately his first game is in Cleveland - where he is swept up into the Dawg Pound and never seen again.
November
The big free-agent pickups pay big dividends for the Browns, whose passing attack of Quinn to Ginn means win after win. Looks like another Super Bowl for the Browns, who dedicate the season to John "Big Dawg" Thompson.
December
James establishes a private security firm to provide bodyguards for celebrity athletes which he calls Witness Protection System. His first client is Pacman Jones.
Dan Coughlin is a columnist for The Chronicle-Telegram and a sportscaster for Channel 8. Contact him at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
(c) 2008 Chronicle-Telegram
Huskies betting Kill is right fit
Dec 14, 2007 @ 12:12 AM
By Jay Taft
RRSTAR.COM
DEKALB -
The right fit.
That's what everyone was calling Kansas native Jerry Kill on Thursday when he was announced as the next head football coach for Northern Illinois.
The right fit.
You always hear that one thrown around when a new guy comes in. But obviously, it is not always true.
Of course, Joe Novak was a very good fit at NIU - because they won more than they lost seven straight years and claimed a MAC West title along the way.
And Jerry Kill was also a great fit at SIU - because he won nearly 65 percent of his games in his seven years and led the Salukis to places they hadn't been (namely the playoffs) in 20 years.
Can Kill move in and keep things, well, fitting?
"He's got huge shoes to fill," NIU Director of Athletics Dr. Jim Phillips said. "But we all believe he has the character and the passion to do it."
That is, to keep the shoes fitting.
Novak was a friendly, player's coach who had a knack for finding good running backs who had slipped between the cracks. A quick glance at his diamonds in the rough reveal Michael Turner and Garrett Wolfe, a pair of former no-name backs now getting carries in the NFL, and a pair who helped give NIU a 1,000-yard rusher for eight straight seasons.
But the Huskies lost 18 starters to injuries this year, and lost 10 of their 12 games to break their streak of seven straight winning seasons. As soon as he can, Novak will be fishing and hanging with his grandkids on his knee with plenty of time on his retired hands.
It will be Kill's team to mold now.
Novak, all of the NIU brass, and even today's Huskie players, all feel Kill is the right man for the job. (A good fit, if you will.)
"He's a winning guy. He's done it down at the Division I-AA level, but he's a winner," said wide receiver Britt Davis, soon to be one of the many returning seniors to next year's team. "I think they got their guy."
Kill is a self-proclaimed hard-hat, lunchpail kind of guy as well as a recruiting machine, and one who just "loves people."
He was good for the ol' Division I-AA system, now known as the old Division I-AA system (or also the Football Championship Subdivision). But will his skills translate to a strong D-I program.
"Not only will he fit right in, but he'll bring in some renewed energy," Novak said. "Everywhere he's been, he's won. And he's won big."
He turned a Saginaw Valley State (Mich.) team into a national power, tying a school record with nine wins in each of his last two years there (1997 and '98.) A two-year, 11-11 stop at Emporia State (Kansas) led to a rough start at SIU for Kill, who went 1-10 in 2001 and 4-8 in '02 while trying to find his mojo in Carbondale.
He did in 2003, and he never lost it - although his legendary status in Carbondale may have taken a hit with his quick and quiet departure this week.
Regardless, he's a Huskie now, and Huskie fans are hoping he's up to the task of turning things back around quickly.
He's a cancer survivor with a strong religious background, deep family values and he's well known for his people skills.
More to the point, however, he's a winner.
Jay Taft covers college sports for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at 815-987-1384 or jtaft@rrstar.com.
Copyright (c) 2007 GateHouse Media, Inc. Some Rights Reserved.
Football gambling operation busted
By MARIA KOTULA / WCNC
E-mail Maria: MKotula@WCNC.com
CHESTER, S.C. -- A big football gambling operation in the Carolinas has been busted. Deputies say hundreds of gamblers were involved and some took home thousands of dollars every week.
Many NFL fans have seen and played the parlay game cards. It's very basic: you just go down the list of match-ups and circle what team you think is going to win. That same game was at the center of a gambling bust Wednesday night in Chester.
Sheriff Robby Benson of the Chester County Sheriff's Department read off the list of nicknames gamblers were using. "Old maid, big Lou, Dallas, in my hands, priceless, ice house 1 and ice house 2."
There are pages and pages of nicknames in the evidence room. Benson says hundreds of gamblers went to a house on Hughes Road in Chester to make bets on NFL games, the same games football fans across the country watch every Sunday.
"We had 3-4 people running the operation," Benson said.
"What they do is they bet on the teams, $13 per card. The house kept about 20 percent, the rest was used for payoffs."
The amount of money changing hands was up to $20,000 a week, according to Benson.
It's an operation the Chester County sheriff department has been tracking for five years. And on Wednesday night, Benson sent in undercover officers to make bets. Then they watched as players came and went, some calling in their bets.
Finally officers showed up with squad cars and blue lights flashing.
"There was one individual who drove around the marked units to get into the yard," said Benson.
The operators of the gambling house were cited and warned that charges will come after the solicitor looks at the evidence.
"We have a copy machine that's comparable or better than a lot of businesses, laptop computers, computer printers," said Benson.
He also said, "The IRS and other state and federal agents are going to be interested in this."
As for those players using fake names, Benson says they will be easy to track down because most of them put their phone numbers on the paperwork.
"It's like a drug addiction or alcoholism," Benson said. "People get so addicted to it, they'll throw away their savings on these gambling habits."
Benson expects the operators to be charged within the week.
(c) 2007 WCNC-TV, a Belo subsidiary
History of sports filled with gambling scandals
Donaghy situation latest example of gambling's corruptive influence
By Bill Ordine | Sun reporter
8:15 PM EDT, October 29, 2007
Blow the whistle or swallow it. Call 'em close or let 'em play. Charge or block.
No matter what NBA referees do, as a new pro basketball season begins, the suspicions and the jeers will be as inevitable as a LeBron James Nike commercial.
The Tim Donaghy scandal still hangs over the NBA. The disgraced ref, who has admitted to providing information to gambling associates during the two most recent seasons, has yet to be sentenced. And more details about the corruption may come to light as the federal government pursues more prosecutions.
Regardless of what happens with Donaghy, though, this much you can bet on. It will not be the last time there will be some ugliness involving betting and big-time sports. And the reason is simple. Sports and gambling have been entwined in a symbiotic, if occasionally destructive, relationship almost as long as the two have existed.
Gambling's corrupting influence on American team sports was most infamously spotlighted in 1919, when some Chicago White Sox players threw the World Series. But until the Black Sox scandal, it was gambling that helped fuel the emerging sport's popularity. Sports and gambling exist in a dangerous dichotomy. Fans certainly don't want their games rigged because of gambling, but, at the same time, they are eager to lay down a few bucks to heighten the competitive experience. In the process, pro sports have become unimaginably profitable.
"Gambling has always had a huge influence on sports," said David G. Schwartz, a gambling historian at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas who recently published Roll the Bones, an encyclopedic chronicling of gambling from prehistoric times to the present. "The rise of our first hugely popular team sport, baseball, in the late 19th century was largely due to gambling."
Since then, sports wagering has become big business. The financial figures are impressive, if a bit elusive.
In Nevada, the only jurisdiction in the United States with widespread legal sports wagering, the amount bet on athletic events during the 12-month period ending June 30, 2007, was $2.48 billion. That produced $175.64 million in revenue for casinos. But that's only a fraction of a much broader sports gambling picture.
The real wagering on sports happens either through illegal street bookmakers or, increasingly, over the Internet -- although recent federal regulations have stemmed the rising tide of online gambling.
Estimates on illegal sports betting vary. The most quoted figures come from a 1999 report produced by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a panel of experts who examined all types of gambling. That report estimated illegal sports wagering ranged from $80 billion to $380 billion. The estimated revenues on those handles would roughly be $3.7 billion to $17.5 billion, or roughly 20 to 100 times the cash generated by Nevada's legal sports books.
More recently, the Internet has increasingly provided a convenient platform for sports gambling and presumably has led to an increase in wagering.
Not everyone, though, accepts the notion that the association between gambling and sports is inevitable.
"Any sports should be mutually exclusive from gambling," said John W. Kindt, a professor of business and legal policy at the University of Illinois who has written widely on gambling. "Whenever you mix any type of gambling with sports, what you have left is not a true sport, because the pressures to fix or influence the event are enormous. Once you've corrupted the sport, you might as well not have it at all, because then it's all about how much money can you get out of it."
Gambling from the start
The fact of the matter, though, is that there has hardly a time when athletic competition was so pristine that it was conducted devoid of gambling interests.
In his book on gambling history, Schwartz details how the ancient Greeks bet on events that were the precursors of the Olympic Games when they were first held at Olympus, Delphi and Corinth. But until nearly the 20th century, sports wagering almost always involved animals, races primarily. In a harbinger of the ugly business that former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick financed and supported, animal blood sports, bear and bull bating, were also popular in Elizabethan England.
In early America, sports gambling centered on the two most popular pre-20th century sports, boxing and horse racing. Then, baseball began its ascent as the national pastime on the strength of its betting popularity, and the creation of the point spread led to a gambling infatuation with football.
Over the past several decades, gambling fixes have surfaced most prominently in college basketball, but pro sports have avoided a repeat of the 1919 scandal. And Las Vegas' legal bookmakers have contended they remain the most effective early warning system of such problems. Ideally, bookmakers want equal amounts wagered on both sides of a contest so they can earn their commission on the wagers without risk. And if the gaming public were to perceive the games were rigged, betting would likely fall off.
"We've always had an open-door policy with all leagues," said Jay Kornegay, who runs the sports book at the Las Vegas Hilton. "If they needed to look into a questionable game, we've always been ready to help with any investigation, but it's taken a long time to get them to understand that we're on the same side. No one wants a fair game more than the bookmakers, because if there's a crooked game, who are the ones who get hurt? It's the bookmakers."
In the case of Donaghy, unusual patterns were not detected in casino sports books because, according to NBA commissioner David Stern, the wagering was done somewhere other than Las Vegas -- either through illegal street bookmakers or over the Internet.
Under scrutiny
In hindsight, Donaghy's officiating track record has been scrutinized through the prism of gambling. Of particular interest is the over-under line, in which gamblers wager whether the total points scored in a game will be above or below a certain number.
Gambling expert R.J. Bell, who runs the sports betting information Web site pregame.com, pointed out that when he examined the games Donaghy officiated in the two NBA seasons from 2003 to 2005, the scores went above the over-under just 44 percent of time. In the most recent two seasons from 2005 to 2007, when it is believed Donaghy was involved in illegal gambling activities, his games went above the over-under line 57 percent of the time. Bell said the likelihood of such a variance is 1,000-to-1.
"To me, he was a different referee the last two years," Bell said. The implication of Bell's research is that by calling just a few more fouls, an official can have enormous influence over the outcome of certain types of wagers.
Just last week, Stern said NBA games will be examined using gambling information as a resource.
For their part, professional sports leagues do take preventative measures to educate players and officials about gambling influences, and the leagues monitor the sports gambling environment to assure, as much as possible, that the games are not corrupted.
During a news conference regarding Donaghy held last summer, Stern said his league had a Las Vegas consultant to watch for any unusual betting behavior on NBA games. NFL and Major League Baseball spokesmen said their organizations do the same.
Still, shameful breaches in gambling policies, sometimes even involving criminality do occur: The Black Sox, Pete Rose, several college basketball scandals and now Donaghy.
bill.ordine@baltsun.com
Copyright (c) 2007, The Baltimore Sun
Dolphins a fish out of water
RYAN STETSON
Last updated at 6:46 AM on 26/10/07
The New York Giants and Miami Dolphins square off at Wembley Stadium in London, England on Sunday as the National Football League continues its feeling-out process with the global market.
Giants coach Tom Coughlin says his club has been preparing for the long haul for about seven months. Something tells me the same might not be said about Miami's preparation.
"I couldn't find London on a map if they didn't have the names of the countries," Dolphins third-year linebacker Channing Crowder told the Palm Beach Post this week.
"I swear to God. I don't know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I know (Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That's the closest thing I know to London. He's black, so I'm sure he's not from London. I'm sure that's a coincidental name."
Wow.
At any rate, when the two clubs come out of the tunnel Sunday, it's not going to matter much that Crowder couldn't tell the difference between Big Ben and the Big Dipper, but it does illustrate what kind of shock to the system this sort of international experiment is to some players.
Most athletes, especially football players, are creatures of habit. They have an itinerary of practice days, travel days and game days months in advance. Once you start messing with that, there's no way of knowing how they'll react.
The NFL's all about expansion and exposure right now, and dabbling in the European market has been on its agenda for years. The owners, the teams, the fans - we all knew it was coming and the league has tried to make it as painless as possible by scheduling their bye weeks following this week's game.
But Cam Cameron, coach of the deplorable 0-7 Dolphins, knows Crowder won't be the only fish out of water in London. If I'm coaching the Dolphins, I'd be spitting mad over this whole situation.
After trading away wideout Chris Chambers and losing starting quarterback Trent Green to another concussion earlier this year, Miami then saw do-everything running back Ronnie Brown and safety Renaldo Hill go down for the year to knee injuries last Sunday. Then middle linebacker Zach Thomas was in a car accident after the game and is dealing with whiplash concerns that will him from even getting on the plane to cross the pond.
That has left Cameron scouring practice squads around the league to field a full roster in London, which is turning out to be a bigger issue than it sounds because a lot of players don't have valid passports. Don't forget this is technically a home game for the Dolphins - only it's 7,500 kilometers away from sunny Dolphins Stadium.
As a rule of thumb, home-field advantage is usually worth about three points to oddsmakers. But in a neutral-site game, that edge goes out the window along with Miami's chances of covering the nine-point spread.
I'm all for broadening the NFL's market, but this move could have been handled better. Both teams don't even land in London until this morning. When you factor in jetlag and practice time, that doesn't exactly leave a lot of wiggle room to spread the NFL love around before Sunday's game.
You never know, maybe if the league actually gave the teams a few extra days there, Crowder might figure out where exactly he is before he has to catch the plane back to Florida.
Buffalo at New York Jets - Bills +3
Betting Buffalo on the road makes me nervous. Like highway cruising your boss's Jag in a sleet storm kind of nervous. But I do like this Trent Edwards kid the Bills have at quarterback and I can't figure out for the life of me what Jets coach Eric Mangini is doing with Chad Pennington as his starter.
This might be the game Pennington finally slides over to shotgun and gives Kellen Clemens a full-time job behind the wheel.
New Orleans at San Francisco - 49ers +3
Tricky game here. New Orleans is just starting to come on and San Francisco has some tension in the locker room with its back against the wall in front of the home crowd.
The good news for Niners bettors is Alex Smith should be back, while Frank Gore is getting to the end of his rope with offensive co-ordinator Jim Hostler. If Hostler wants to keep his job, he'll feed Frank (The Franchise) Gore all day. I think it's just about do-or-die time for San Fran, so I'll take the points at home.
Green Bay at Denver -Packers +3
This one's as complicated as you make it. Brett Favre coming off a bye on a Monday Night Football stage against a defence that's giving up more than 27 points a game this year? I'll take it.
rstetson@covers.com
Ryan Stetson is the NFL editor at the Halifax sports information site covers.com. He went 2-1 last week and is 11-9-1 overall.
(c) The Daily News
San Francisco makeover: Nothing short of in-spired
By John Ritter, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO - Where else but here, the cradle of psychedelic, would you expect a sleek, skyline-dwarfing skinny office tower crowned with a spin-in-the-wind, glowing, turbine-powered light show?
It's all part of a $1 billion development the city - like a few others with major projects underway - is betting will be the wave of the future: building up instead of out, the denser the better, stressing trains and buses over cars.
The proposed Transbay Transit Center with its possible 1,200-foot tower, elevated public park the length of five football fields and room for high-speed trains someday linking California's major cities, will be a "symbolic expression of our environmental values," says Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association, a public policy think tank.
"It's a statement that our highest value is ecology," he says. "Just as church steeples were always the tallest buildings in the Middle Ages, we're marking our transit hub as the most important spot on the skyline."
The joint agency formed to handle this project approved the skyscraper's design last month. Its developer, Hines, has announced a tentative financing deal. City officials have said they hope to move the project through the planning bureaucracy in 18 months.
According to David Goldberg, a spokesman for Smart Growth America, a national coalition working to slow sprawl, other sprawl-spoiled cities are embarking on long-term developments aimed at getting commuters out of cars and encouraging mass transit to cut pollution and traffic congestion:
-Atlanta's BeltLine project is an example: a rail loop around the city core with parks, trails and dense neighborhoods clustered at station stops.
-Another is Denver's voter-approved regional light rail and rapid bus system designed to concentrate future growth closer in.
-Salt Lake City's light rail system would do the same.
-Dallas has plans for "transit-oriented developments" around light rail.
-Even Los Angeles "is trying to figure out how to retrofit the prototypical automobile-driven metro area" around subway and light rail lines, Goldberg says.
"In a place like San Francisco, the notion of higher density and a mix of uses is not radical," he says. "But even there that kind of planning and development hasn't been real common."
The Transbay tower, which hasn't been named yet, would rise nearly 400 feet above the city's tallest structure, the Transamerica Pyramid, pending zoning changes to allow taller buildings. The skyscraper designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects would be part of a long-term effort to change San Francisco's relatively low, flat, "pancake" skyline, says city planning director Dean Macris.
The building and 12-block redevelopment area around it could support more tall towers, spaced among town house and condo neighborhoods, Macris says.
"In San Francisco, oftentimes tall buildings become political statements rather than a building form," he says. "Will there be pushback? Of course there will be." In the 1920s, three 400-foot-tall buildings caused a stir. Forty years later, the pyramid and 52-story Bank of America Center did the same.
"We want the skyline to rise to certain peaks to express the importance of certain locations in the city," Macris says.
The design of the tower could have done a better job of that, says Henry Urbach, architecture and design curator at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "It's a competent building, but not one that will necessarily break new ground in urban space and urban infrastructure," he says. "We should insist on a building that people will come to San Francisco to see. This isn't it."
Peter Bosselmann, an urban design professor at the University of California, Berkeley, believes the building's height will be reduced. "I think it would stand out in a bad way," he says, because of San Francisco's tradition of height limits compatible with its hilly topography. Bosselmann also wonders whether office-space demand will bear out to make it profitable.
Hines will pay $350 million for land the tower will be built on in the city's south or market district. The money will help finance the transit center, a hub for light rail, commuter trains and, at some point, high-speed, or bullet, trains.
The tower would taper as it rises and provide 1.6 million square feet of office space, "not an absurd amount" in a city that absorbs 1 million new square feet a year, Hines Vice President Paul Paradis says.
"We think people have come to realize the benefit of tall in urban cores," he says. "That's why we're not seeing a lot of opposition."
As for those penthouse turbines, housed in a 100-foot-tall metal cage above the top floor, their purpose, for now, is aesthetic only. The wind would spin four turbines, powering a light that would glow brighter the stronger the gusts. Paradis says he believes technology will be perfected to take advantage of high winds and help generate energy.
"You need to make the turbines quiet and not vibrate too much for the space near them to be habitable," he says. "With the wind going as fast as it does and these turbines creating resistance, that's not an easy engineering problem."
Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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