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Kiszla: How did Michael Malone coach the Nuggets to a championship? “It sure ain’t about drawing up (bleeping) plays.”

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

As the sweet taste of champagne drenched everybody and everything in the Nuggets locker room, Michael Malone hung up the telephone in his office after calling his 80-year-old mother, sipped on a beer and told a dirty little secret about coaching a championship team:X’s and O’s are overrated.“The best coaches are not the greatest X’s and O’s guys,” Malone told me Monday night, after the Nuggets wrestled a 94-89 victory from Miami to win the first championship in franchise history.And the greatest coach in the history of a team that has employed Larry Brown, Doug Moe and George Karl?It’s Malone, without a doubt.As Nikola Jokic dunked teammate Jamal Murray in the team’s therapy pool to celebrate winning the whole thing, 21-month-old Ognjena, a little girl who’s the apple of the real MVP’s eye, danced happily in a chair in Malone’s office. The coach was surrounded by staffers at a conference table turned into a makeshift bar that included a magnum of champagne hand-delivered by th...

Aurora police to conduct sobriety checkpoint for drivers in City Center area

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

The Aurora Police Department will conduct roadside sobriety checks in the City Center area tonight.Checkpoint operations will begin at 9 p.m. Saturday on East Alameda Avenue near Interstate 225, the police department said in a news release.The undertaking is part of the “DUI Checkpoint Colorado” program aimed at reducing alcohol-related crashes and traffic-related deaths, police said.Motorists passing through the checkpoint will be contacted briefly by an officer who will be looking for signs of intoxication and impairment. Motorists should expect minor traffic delays in the area, where signs about the checkpoint will be posted. The program is funded by a National Highway Transportation Safety Administration grant in partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation. 

PHOTOS: Juneteenth Music Festival 2023

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

Festival goers gathered for the 2023 Juneteenth Music Festival in the Five Points Neighborhood in Denver. The two-day festival took over a portion of Welton Street at 27th as people celebrated.

MLB’s second-youngest position player, Luis Matos shows poise beyond his years vs. Dodgers

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Giants manager Gabe Kapler didn’t think his 21-year-old rookie outfielder would be shaken by the bright lights of Dodger Stadium. But Luis Matos showed a level of poise — and swagger — Friday night in his second MLB game that even Kapler didn’t see coming.“I didn’t know Matos could keep it together like that, to be honest with you,” Kapler said a day later. “It’s not that I doubted his ability to keep it together like that. But there was a confidence and a poise that we saw last night that was really encouraging.”Matos, the second-youngest position player in MLB, didn’t even need to take the bat off his shoulders to make an impression in his introduction to one of baseball’s most storied and heated rivalries, with the screams of 49,074 fans on top of him in center field.Matos worked walks in all three of his final plate appearances, including one to lead off the Giants’ three-run rally to take the lead in the eighth...

Athletics push aside the reality of a lame duck season at Coliseum in 2024

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

OAKLAND — The Athletics are just days into their “long goodbye” with their stated intention to play the 2024 season at the Coliseum in their final year of their lease.“The schedule is set,” an A’s spokesman said Saturday. “We are playing in Oakland.”The Athletics have lost four straight since their “Reverse Boycott” garnered national attention, with the latest a 3-2, 12-inning defeat against the Philadelphia Phillies Sunday before 12,105 at the Coliseum.The Athletics are 19-54. As a matter of comparison, the 1979 A’s, which were 54-108, were 22-51 after 73 games although the current A’s have been more competitive of late.Unlike some of the miniscule crowds earlier this season that seemed smaller than the announced attendance, this one seemed bigger than the official crowd count and included the familiar drumbeat in right field which had vanished in recent weeks.Click here if you are having a problem viewing the ...

SF Giants lose key bullpen piece as starting rotation gets healthier

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

LOS ANGELES — The Giants activated one member of their starting rotation from the injured list Saturday but lost a key piece of their bullpen.Right-hander John Brebbia was placed on the 15-day IL with a lat strain in his throwing shoulder. The move cleared space on the roster to activate lefty Alex Wood, who fills one of two vacant spots in the Giants’ rotation and was scheduled to start Saturday in their second game against the Dodgers.Infielder Wilmer Flores, who fouled a pitch off his left foot Friday, was also placed on the 10-day IL, with right-hander Tristan Beck taking his roster spot to provide some relief to a bullpen that used eight pitchers to cover 11 innings in the 7-5 win. Flores completed the at-bat, even hitting a two-run home run, but was removed from the game and tests revealed a contusion on the foot but no structural damage.Brebbia, who started Friday’s bullpen game in his eighth appearance as an opener this season, will be eligible to return July 2. ...

College World Series: Stanford’s upset bid vs. top-seeded Wake Forest falls just short

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

OMAHA, Neb. — Sanford was five outs away from stunning No. 1 national seed Wake Forest when the Demon Deacons’ powerful offense come to life just enough to hand the Cardinal a 3-2 loss in their opening game at the College World Series on Saturday.Stanford (44-19) led 2-1 before Danny Corona hit a go-ahead two-run single with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning in the Demon Deacons’ first CWS appearance in 68 years.Stanford will play In an elimination game Monday when it faces the loser of Saturday night’s game between LSU and Tennessee. The Deacons (53-10) will play the winner of that game on Monday.“I think that if we can fight together and scratch a couple of elimination wins and hang here long enough,” Stanford junior first baseman Carter Graham said, “I think we can get our rhythm and get hot and really surprise a lot of people.”Stanford grounded into a double play to end the game, prompting Wake Forest closer Camden Minacci to pu...

PG&E electricity outage hits East Bay, leaves thousands without power

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

FREMONT — A PG&E power outage left thousands of people without electricity in Fremont on Saturday and also affected BART service in the vicinity, the transit agency and the utility company reported.The outage was reported to PG&E around 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, the utility said.Slightly fewer than 4,500 customers were affected by the power failure, according to PG&E.“PG&E crews were able to quickly restore 936 customers,” PG&E spokesperson Karly Hernandez said. “Crews are on scene investigating the cause of the outage.”The estimated time for full restoration of PG&E service in Fremont wasn’t immediately known.BART reported 20-minute delays on the transit system’s Berryessa line in the East Bay and South Bay, as of 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.As of 4:15 p.m., BART reported that it was still attempting to fully recover from the initial problems but that delays were continuing at that time.The PG&E outage center map showed t...

Samad Taylor hits walk-off single in MLB debut as Royals beat Angels 10-9

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Samad Taylor hit a walk-off single in his MLB debut and the Kansas City Royals beat the Los Angeles Angels 10-9 on Saturday to snap a 10-game losing streak.“God put me in the right position and I came through,” Taylor said. “They were throwing a lot of breaking balls early. I may have seen four fastballs all day. So I went in there sitting breaking ball. He hung a change-up and I put a good swing on it and we won the game.”Aroldis Chapman (2-2) earned the win in relief. Chris Devenski (3-1) took the loss.Taylor’s hit was not his only impressive plate appearance. He also collected two walks as the Royals climbed back from an 8-2 deficit entering the bottom of the seventh.“It was impressive for a lot of reasons,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “The emotions he was able to keep under control, with a couple of walks in big spots. For him to be able to keep it under control is tremendous.“It showed patience, but also controlling (himself). I can on...

Verstappen wins pole in Canada on wet track as he chases Senna in win column

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 14:16:40 GMT

Max Verstappen won the 25th pole of his career and moved one step closer to tying the late Ayrton Senna for Formula One victories as the two-time reigning world champion overcame wet conditions in Saturday qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix. Verstappen, who has won five of seven races this season, will lead the field to green Sunday as he attempts to win his 41st career race. It would tie him with Senna for fifth on F1’s all-time winners list. Rain in Montreal hampered most of Saturday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, and although the track was only slightly slick at the start of qualifying, it was absolutely pouring by the pole-deciding third session. The 10 drivers who advanced into the round tried to get a clean lap down, but Oscar Piastri of McLaren crashed and Alex Albon of Williams didn’t get on track. Most of the drivers returned to their garages with time still on the clock. “I like driving in the wet. I come from Holland and we are used to driving in the wet,” s...