Bleacher Report - Articles by BaySportsInsider.com

It's Terrible to Celebrate the Return of Manny Ramirez, ESPN

BaySportsInsider.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:03:00 -0400

It's terrible to celebrate the return of Manny Ramirez - ESPN

Finally! I found something from ESPN that I agree with.

Manny Ramirez cheated and he got caught. He broke the rules of the game and he was punished with a 50-game suspension.

There is no need to villainize him any more than Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, A-Rod, and the rest of the proven or suspected steroid users, but two wrongs do not make a right.

Manny Ramirez does not deserve praise, he does not deserve applause, he does not deserve a heroes welcome when he rejoins the team.

If that's what he receives in LA, I have to question the morals of their fan base.

San Francisco Giants Reach an All Time Low

BaySportsInsider.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:53:00 -0500

The loyal fans of the San Francisco Giants, like me, have endured four years of uncompetitive baseball. Along the way, the team's management has made a series of bad trades and poor free agent signings. Joe Nathan, Boof Bosner, and Francisco Liriano for one year of AJ Pierzynski comes to mind. How do these deals sound? Dave Roberts for three years and $18 million, Edgardo Alfonzo for four years and $26 million, and Armando Benitez three years and $21 million, just to name a few.

I have been a season ticket holder for the past three years and have seen my price go up by six percent each year, the maximum allowed in my contract. When I purchased my seats, I was told that the purpose of the contract was to protect the price of my seats. So far, my cost has raised by the maximum amount allowed in the contract, despite the poor performance on the the field.

I finally reached my breaking point after last year and decided not to renew. As long as this current management team is in place, I will follow the team on the TV, radio, and Internet for free rather than give them thousands of dollars a year to see the games in person.

I knew Giants attendance projections were looking low when I received an e-mail from my season ticket rep to tell me about a new payment plan which allowed me to defer payment for a few months as long as I changed my mind and renewed my seats for the upcoming season. I responded with a courteous "no thank you."

Today, when he contacted me again, I told him that the poor performance on the field and the six percent price raises each of the last three years were a bad combination and I couldn't justify this level of financial commitment to the team as a result. He responded by letting me know that the Giants organization might take legal action against me if I don't renew my seats.

He said there was fine print in my contract that indicated that I had agreed to renew my seats for seven years regardless of how they perform on the field, regardless of whether the team's management raises the price of my seats, and regardless of whether I had enough money in the bank to afford these tickets.

So just in case you're wondering how bad it's gotten down at AT&T Park, I am very sad to say that my favorite team has reached an all-time low. Not only has the performance on the field been disappointing for the last four seasons, but those of us who decided to support them financially through those rough years are being threatened with law suits.

Giants Vs. Dodgers Comes Down to Hitting Vs. Pitching

BaySportsInsider.com — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:07:00 -0500

As a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan and a huge Dodger hater, this is an incredibly difficult statements for me to type. All right, here goes....

If Manny Ramirez re-signs with the Dodgers, LA will have a better offensive player in all eight positions on the field.

Ok, this is the part when all of my fellow Giants' fans disagree, but before you pass judgement let's take a look at each position.

Left Field - Manny Ramirez Vs. Fred Lewis
No one in there right mind could argue that Freddy is better than Man Ram.

Center Field - Matt Kemp Vs. Aaron Rowand
This is actually one of the closer battles, and I could see many Giants fans picking Rowand, but let's look at last year's stats. Kemp hit .290 with 18 HR's, 76 RBI's and a .799 OPS. Rowand hit .271 with 13 HR's and 70 RBI's and a .749 OPS.

For those of you who think that Rowand will have a better second year in SF than he did in his first, keep these two facts in mind. He will never have a better offensive year in San Francisco than he did in his best season playing in that hitters park in Philadelphia.

And two, Kemp hit .342 with more power over half a season in 2007, so there is room for improvement with his stats too.

Right Field - Andre Ethier Vs Randy Winn
This is another close one, but again, when you look at the numbers, you have to give the edge to the Dodgers. Winn had a solid year for the Giants in 2008, he hit .306 with 10 HR's with 64 RBI's and a .789 OPS.

Unfortunately, those numbers don't even come close to Ethier's .305 average, 20 HR's, 77 RBI's and .885 OPS. Sorry Giant's fans, but Winn's power numbers are awful for a right fielder.

First Base - James Loney Vs Travis Ishikawa
This is where my starry eyed Giant's are going to start talking leaps of faith and make ridiculous assumptions about how well unproven young players are going to perform. Please come back to earth for a moment and look at the numbers.

Loney hit .289 with 13 HR's, 90 RBI's and a .772 OPS. Not amazing numbers for a first baseman, but solid. Also keep in mind, the year before, Loney hit .331 with 15 HR's in a half a season.

Ishikawa received praise from the Giant's management for his strong performance after the August call up, but the numbers themselves don't exactly jump off the page. He hit .274 with 3 HR's, 17 RBI's and a .769 OPS.

Project those out over a full season, and he's still an average hitter with below average power for a first baseman. Plus, you can't ignore the fact that Ishikawa is a .218 minor league hitter against left handed pitching, so I think it's safe to say that he's not guaranteed to perform as well as he did last year over the course of a full season.

Second Base - Orlando Hudson Vs Frandsen/Burris/Velez
Please don't waste your time explaining why one of these rookies is going to have a better season than the three-time all-star. If we were comparing this crew to Blake Dewitt, we would have a decent chance to win that battle, but that's not the case anymore.

Shortstop - Rafael Furcal Vs Edgar Renteria
There is a reason why Furcal signed a three-year contract this offseason for $30 million, while Renteria got a two-year $18 million deal. Furcal is a superior player even with injury problems, according to all of the GM's in the league. I think I'll take their word for it over any fans.

Third Base - Casey Blake Vs Pablo Sandoval
This is the one that I really really really want to give the Giant's the edge on, but I just can't ignore the facts. Fact one, Blake is the model of consistency. He is going to hit around .275 with 20 HR's and 70 to 80 RBI's; he does it every year.

Fact two, Sandoval has 145 career at-bats and has only played 12 games at third base. Yes, he hit .345 over the last two months of the season, but the Pujols comparisons are ridiculous. I love Sandoval and I am very hopeful that he has a big season for the Giants, but you need to be realistic.

Giving Blake the edge is going to be very difficult for Giant's fans to swallow, but here's my final argument. If the baseball gods told you today that Sandoval was going to hit .275 this year with 20 HR's, wouldn't you take it? Guess what, that's exactly what you're going to get from Blake without taking a huge gamble on a guy who made the leap from single A to the major leagues last year.

I know it's possible that Sandoval outperforms Blake this year—I hope he does. But until he plays a full season in the majors, you need to give the edge to Mr. Consistency.

Cather - Russell Martin Vs Bengie Molina
This is another tough one for Giants' fans to come to grips with, because Bengie has been such a clutch performers in his two seasons with the Giants, as well as the team's MVP and most inspirational player. Rather than choose Bengie with my heart, I'll defer to the experts that choose with their heads.

Martin has represented the NL in the All-Star Game each of the last two season while Bengie has never made an All-Star team in his 11 year career. There are always All-Star snubs to consider, so we can't use that as our only barometer.

If you look at the stats, they are pretty close. Over the past two seasons, Martin has averaged a .287 batting average with 16 HR, 78 RBI, and a .812 OPS. Over the same period of time, Bengie has hit .284 with 17.5 HR, 88 RBI, but only a .749 OPS.

Granted, Molina has driven in significantly more runs, but he has also clogged up the base paths and cost the Giant's plenty of runs as well. In 2007 & 2008 Martin scored 174 runs for the Dodgers while Molina only scored a paltry 84 runs hitting cleanup for the Giant's. That 90 run gap over two seasons is just too much to ignore.

As much as I love Bengie and I think he has a legitimate chance to outperform Martin this year, it's a stretch to say that he's a better player.

The last facts to consider are age and speed. Bengie is 34-years old and would have a difficult time outrunning that statue of Willie Mays on corner of 4th and King, while Martin is just 25 and capable of stealing 20 bags a year. Sorry Giant's fans, it's a close one, but Martin get the edge over Molina.

I know that spring training is the time for optimism. I typically spend February and March daydreaming about a playoff run, projecting career years for the veteran players, and awaiting pleasant surprises from the younger guys.

However, after four years of losing records and colossal mismanagement by the front office, it's time to be realistic. Brian Sabean was been very vocal over the past few season about their strategy to build a team around pitching and defense. While we have yet to see any positive results in the standing, I'm willing to chalk the last couple of seasons up to rebuilding.

However, I'm looking at this year as the true test of whether pitching has a chance to compete with superior hitting. As the reigning NL West champs, the Dodger's are the team to beat in the division this year.

And with a team that is inferior at every offensive position, I find it hard to believe that the Giants have a legitimate shot at passing them in the standings, even with their strong starting rotation.

The Other MLB Players on the List: How to Reveal Them and Move On

BaySportsInsider.com — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:41:00 -0500

With the recent news of Alex Rodriguez testing positive for a banned performance enhancing drug in 2003 as part of MLB's "anonymous" testing policy, steroids have once again reared their ugly head.

Over the last couple of days, I have heard several sportscasters, reporters, and even former players suggest that the only way to put the issue of steroid usage in baseball behind us is to reveal the list of 103 other players who tested positive along with Alex Rodriguez.

Unfortunately, there is one major problem with that idea which will prevent the game of baseball from getting closure. It will allow the cheaters who beat the test to get away Scot-free, and continue to claim that they didn't use performance enhancing drugs to boost their stats.

We all know that the drug tests administered to all 1,000 MLB players in 2003 did not catch every user. Tests are not perfect, and the players themselves know that. However, there is no way for the players who used steroids for any part of the 2003 season to know if their name is actually on that list, considering that they were all administered a test at some point throughout the year.

Rather than simply reveal the list, I suggest that each player who was active in 2003 is asked under oath and with full immunity if there is any possible way their name is on the list of the 104 players that tested positive for steroids.

I guarantee that you will get more than 104 admissions. If anyone answers "no" and commits purjury under oath, they will be in the same boat as Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Given the option of further persecution or closure, most players will come clean. Allowing the league to finally move forward with baseball and leave all of this boring steroid talk behind us.

Richie Sexson Should Be Giants' Choice at First Base, Not Rich Aurilia

BaySportsInsider.com — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:59:00 -0500

As much as Richie Sexson sucked the last couple of years in Seattle, Brian Sabean and the Giants should bring him in to play first base.

Granted, he's not the sexiest free agent available, and there are plenty of people out there who could help the Giants' offense. But I'm convinced that they aren't going to sign Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn, or anyone else who will cost more than a few million a year.

If they decide to pass on Joe Crede, I think Sexson could be the best option, yet I haven't heard his name mentioned once as a potential target for the Giants.

As it stands right now Travis Ishikawa is starting at first base and is clearly the weakest link in the lineup. I am all for developing young players, but when you've got a completely unproven player who hit .206 against left handed pitchers in the minor leagues last year, I'd be a bit hesitant to pencil him into the lineup for the entire year.

At a minimum, they need to find someone to platoon with Travis.

Despite an awful year at the plate for Sexson in 2008, which resulted in his release from the Mariners as well as the Yankees, he had some impressive numbers against lefties.

In almost 100 at bats, he hit .325 with an on-base percentage of .414 and a slugging percentage of .578. while hitting six home runs. These numbers would make him one of the most productive hitters in the Giants' lineup.

Also, with Sexson there is significant upside. He is only two years removed from hitting 34 home runs while playing in a pitcher's ballpark and could be poised for a comeback if he returns to the National League where he enjoyed much more success than he did in the AL.

If Sexson does happen to rebound, he could be the Giants' everyday first baseman and provide much-needed power to the middle of the lineup.

If Sexson is the same guy who was cut by two teams last year, he would still be a good platoon partner for Ishikawa.

Why not take a chance on Sexson and sign him to a one-year, $1 million deal with enough performance incentives to make it worth his while?

Golden State Warriors are Still Underdogs in the Western Conference

BaySportsInsider.com — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:28:00 -0400

Chad Ford of ESPN included the Warriors on his list of "losers" in his August 4 offseason recap.

This analysis proves two things. One, the Warriors are again going to be a huge underdog in the Western conference. And two, the national media continues to fail in showing the Warriors the respect they deserve after upsetting Dallas in the 2006 playoffs and winning 48 games in 2007.

While the loss of Baron Davis came one year earlier than anyone expected, it's really tough (and inaccurate) to label the Warriors as one of the summer's biggest losers in the NBA.

Yes, we may have overpaid Corey Maggette, but he's an good NBA scorer, averaging over 20 points a game three of the past five seasons. He can shoot from the outside and cause matchup problems with his size if he plays anywhere aside from small forward. He seems to be a great for Don Nelson's creativity, and will likely be used all over the court.

Bottom line? Maggette won't replace Baron Davis as a leader. He doesn't have the same defensive toughness and he can't match Baron's intensity. But he will replace Baron's points—and he's a big upgrade from Mickael Pietrus, who saw time at both forward positions last year in Nelson's system.

Chad Ford seemed to have completely dismissed the acquisitions of Ronny Turiaf and Marcus Williams. Anyone who followed the team closely last year knows that our biggest weaknesses were our toughness in the paint and our depth. Adding these two players should go a long way toward addressing those concerns.

And lastly, we have added two rookies that look like they have a chance to be productive players in the NBA. Anthony Randolph, wowed the fans in the Vegas summer league by showing the ball handling skills of a point guard trapped inside his 6'10 frame, taking his man off the dribble time and time again. Richard Hendrix also showed some great potential, pulling down nearly 10 rebounds per game in 17 minutes a night.

As a fan, I'm happy to see the Warriors play the role of underdog again, and hope they continue to play with the chip on their shoulders that carried them to the playoffs in 2006.

San Francisco Giants: Tim Lincecum is Great Even When He's Not

BaySportsInsider.com — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:28:00 -0400

Tim Lincecum's line vs. the Tigers yesterday was far from spectacular:

7 innings, 4 earned runs, 6 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts

It wasn't a terrible performance for Lincecum, but it also wasn't what we've come to expect out of the young ace after the numbers he's put up so far this season.

Despite the average line, it was still hugely entertaining to watch the guy pitch, more entertaining than other pitchers in recent Giants history (Sorry Matt Cain, Jason Schmidt, Rob Nenn, Billy Swift, John Burkett, Rick Reuschel, Caveman, etc.).

Tim Lincecum is far and away the best pitcher to wear a Giants uniform since Vida Blue. It dawned on me yesterday while sitting in the stands and deciding when to head over to the consession stand for a hot dog and a beer.

Usually, fans get up and take a break when the opposing team is batting, so they don't miss any action. With Lincecum on the mound last night, I waited for the Giants to come to the plate before I stood up.

I can't remember another time when I was more excited to watch the opposing team bat, but that's just how exciting Lincecum is.

San Francisco Giants: Front Office Living in Their Own World

BaySportsInsider.com — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:28:00 -0400

These two quotes really summed up the beginning to the Giant's season:

"I think the young players can give us some energy."
-Peter McGowan after Opening Day starting lineup, which included Ray Durham (36), Dave Roberts (36), Randy Winn (33), Rich Aurilia (36) and Bengie Molina (33), was announced.

"You don't realize how much blind optimism there is in the world until you watch a San Francisco Giants pregame show."
-Tim Keown, ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=keown/080401)

I can only wonder how long it will take for the Giants' management to give the young kids a chance. I hope they don't wait until we are 20 games back.

I think I speak for most Giants fans when I say that our chances of making the playoffs this year are very slim.

Even if the front office truly believes that Durham, Roberts, Winn, and Aurilia give them a better chance to win games, it really doesn't matter because this isn't a playoff team with the existing lineup.

The youth movement has its risks but at least there is a potential upside.

Why continue to play veteran that absolutely will not be a part of the team one or two years from now?

You will have to ask Sabean, McGowan, Bochy and team as it only seems to make sense to them.

San Francisco Giants: Giant Disappointment Seen from Miles Ahead

BaySportsInsider.com — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:46:00 -0400

Can any rational Giants fan say that they expected to see more out of this line up? Sorry Sabean, but I wasn't buying it from the start.

This is one of the worse offensive lineups in the history of baseball. We have played 18 innings of baseball and have 0 extra base hits.

D Roberts LF - A decent 4th outfielder but makes $5mil a year and has less potential than Fred Lewis or Rajai Davis.

R Aurilia 1B - Not a major league calliber hitter

R Winn RF - Wouldn't mind having Winn as a 7th hitter in the line up but he is simply the worst 3 hitter in MLB

B Molina C - See Randy Winn

R Durham 2B - A .218 batting average in 2007, a $7mil salary in 2008, and 0% chance that he'll be on the team in 2009. Why is he starting of Velez?

A Rowand CF - Best hitter on the team is hitting in the 6th spot. Who's idea is that?

J Castillo 3B - Goes from Marlin's trash to Giant's starter in two weeks. Huh? 1 hit and 6 runners left on base in the first 2 games. I doubt we have anyone in the minor leagues who could do that.

B Bocock SS - Only young kid in the line up. And only reason why he was given a shot was due to Omar's injury.

After the terrible offensive performance in the 1st game Bruce Bochy indicated that we should all get comfortable watching the same group of tired veterans on the field with this quote here... "If I change the lineup now, it may send a sense of panic with them, we want a little continuity. [Monday's] lineup was the first time we had that lineup. To start changing quite a bit now would be a little early, I think."

I thought "small ball" was about manufacturing runs, doing the little things required to win a game, like moving the running over going from 1st to 3rd on a base hit, scoring the runner from 3rd with less than 2 outs? After two games I have come to the realization that "small ball" as it relates to the Giant's is just a term their marketing team came up with to mask the fact that the starting lineup is filled with a bunch of people who can't hit.

Warriors News: Must-Read ESPN Magazine Article on Stephen Jackson

BaySportsInsider.com — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:37:44 -0500

For those of you that don't know Stephen Jackson, please read the article below and spread the word...

He's the man!

Also check out the related video.

A CLEAN LOOK

People have lots of ideas about Stephen Jackson. Almost none of them are quite right.

by Ric Bucher

Stephen Jesse Jackson has been marked by three life-changing altercations. Most people know of two of them—or think they do—and, as a result, have tagged him Exhibit A in the case for the NBA as a safe harbor for stone-cold thugs. There was the nationally televised brawl three seasons ago in Auburn Hills, when Jackson followed Ron Artest into the stands and fought with fans, earning him a 30-game suspension and the NBA an everlasting scar. Two years later, Jackson was in the news again, charged with criminal recklessness for firing a gun outside a strip club. But those events look different in the light of the third, which occurred long before either. It's the one in which he didn't take part, and the only one in which he wishes he had.

The housing project in Port Arthur, Texas, now quaintly named Gulf Breeze, was known simply as Longs 15 years ago. Donald Buckner Jr. took the younger half-brother he called Stevie a lot of places but Longs was not one of them. Stevie understood, well aware of what drugs and poverty could drive folks to do; no one grows up in a town surrounded by six prisons and misses that lesson. Stevie was a 14-year-old burgeoning basketball star when Donald hooked up with a new girlfriend living in Longs. Only she had an ex who hadn't conceded that their relationship was over. Donald visited her one night and the ex called him out to settle it Port Arthur style. "In my neighborhood, no one minded catching a fair one," says Jackson, "and my brother didn't back down from anyone." So they fought, with Donald getting the best of it until the ex's brother and a cousin jumped Donald from behind, attacking him with a bottle and lead pipe. By the time Stevie heard about the fight, Donald was lying comatose in an ICU, 17 staples in his head. Stevie was bedside when a single tear slid down Donald's face as he exhaled for the final time. "You can't tell me seeing his brother die that way hasn't had an effect," says Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh. "To me, it's why he is always coming to the help of his teammates."

And before you write this off as one more athlete apologia, consider this: Security tapes outside that Indianapolis strip club show a group of men, one with a hand in his back pocket and another under his shirt, approaching Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley and threatening to "spray his car," Walsh says. (The two groups had exchanged words inside.) When a scuffle broke out, Jackson retrieved his licensed 9mm from his car and fired it in the air to scatter the combatants. The men ran for their car and Jackson walked to his. Thinking the confrontation over, he barely had time to jump as the attackers' gray Chrysler plowed into him. Jackson flipped over the windshield, landed on the trunk and fell to the ground before, as he recalls, he choked on his blood and passed out.

That part of the story didn't garner much attention. Walsh knew the details, but he also knew they wouldn't matter to fed-up Pacers fans. First the brawl, now this? So he built a package around Jackson and got back a quartet of choirboys from Golden State. "Jack got booed every time he stepped on the court," Walsh says. "I didn't want to trade him; I had to."

Jackson was raised a devout Baptist—his grandfather rebuilt a church where he worked as a deacon—and he believes in a God who keeps a running score. As he sees it, all that went wrong in Indiana was a test. That the chaos landed him in Oakland—a city that feels like a bigger Port Arthur—on a team with a personality as fiery as his and with a coach who respects him enough to make him a captain, is proof he passed that one. "God spared me because I wasn't there for any drama," he says. "He knows what could have happened, and didn't."

"I'VE TOLD HIM HE'S HIS OWN WORST ENEMY," SAYS PACERS CEO DONNIE WALSH. "HOW HE LOOKS ISN'T WHO HE IS."
As Al Davis can attest, Oakland has a soft spot for outlaws. Jackson's new franchise was filled with men seeking redemption: Baron Davis, who had battled two head coaches in New Orleans; Don Nelson, who had ruined the Warriors in a previous stay as GM/coach; even Chris Cohan, whose purchase of Golden State had coincided with a 12-season
playoff drought, the longest in team history.

Their collective frustration evaporated last spring amid a sea of yellow shirts inscribed "We Believe." Davis and Nelson got the props after the Warriors toppled the Mavericks, the regular season's juggernaut. But it was Jackson who put all 6'8" and 218 pounds of himself under Dirk Nowitzki's chin, mad-dogging the league MVP into a playoff career-low 38% shooting, while scoring 33 in the series clincher.

Over the summer, Jackson did his time for the gun charge—100 hours of community service. He picked up roadside trash, assembled carnival fences, counseled inmates and reflected on the tricky gap he'd shot to get to the NBA. After wasting a scholarship to Arizona in 1996 when he couldn't score high enough on his entrance exams in five tries, he was stranded in Phoenix until then-Suns GM Bryan Colangelo saw him playing pickup and decided to make him a second-rounder. But the Suns released him at the end of camp, and what followed were two broken feet—one while playing for Australia's Sydney Kings, the other trying out for the Bulls—and stints in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. By Jackson's estimate, he was cut by 15 teams before sticking with the Nets in 2000.

So don't tell the man he doesn't belong in the league—"A lot of people think I'm just an athletic thug"—or that he's bound to flip out again. As Jackson (who received a seven-game suspension for the gun charge) sat on his couch in early November, watching the Warriors lose their first rematch with Dallas, he heard his former Pacers teammate, TNT analyst Reggie Miller, say, "I'll give him a clean slate until something happens." Jackson leaned toward the TV and barked: "Nothing's going to happen! You gonna be waiting a long time!"

Judy Jackson worked graveyard at a refinery so she could spend days shepherding Donnie, Stephen and sister Bianca to school and church. But Donald Sr., according to Stephen, didn't let fatherhood get in the way of running in the streets. Jackson inherited both parents' inclinations, a fact hidden by a demeanor more street-lovin' than God-fearing. The hunched shoulders and tattooed arms, the splay-footed shuffle and a smile that borders on a sneer—not to mention the languid launch of a three in an opponent's grill and the high-risk, high-dribble crossover—radiate a get-off-me-chump 'tude. Of course, fans take one look and think, Well, no wonder. "I've told him he's his own worst enemy," Walsh says. "How he looks isn't who he is." Walsh's advice has had little effect, although Jackson no longer keeps a red bandanna in his locker as a shout-out to his Blood-haunted hood.

Fans also don't see the respect Jackson has from every coach and teammate he's had. "Love him," Tim Duncan says of the man he considers one of his all-time favorite teammates. "He's had his issues, but he's got the right thing in mind." No matter how many minutes he played when he was with the Spurs, Jackson would kick chairs and sling towels whenever coach Gregg Popovich pulled him from a game. Still, says Popovich, "I know his heart. He's a sweet man."

The Warriors, who have seen both sides of the man, have done their best to cultivate his accessibility. When the Oakland Public Library passed on having Jackson as a guest reader in a kids' program, the team suggested that this told kids there are no second chances. Jackson ended up being such a hit when he read that his picture will grace the library's annual report. More recently, a request to photograph the new tattoo on his torso, two hands holding a gun framed by a church window, was stiff-armed by his squad. The artwork symbolizes his hope of never having to use a firearm again.

Back in Port Arthur, he's a one-man economic development program. His music label, Secret Society Entertainment, signed a handful of local rappers. His school, the Stephen Jackson Academy, is "An Education Your Child Needs with the Care He Deserves," as the banner over the door of the three-story building states. Running K-6, it will reopen next fall after a year hiatus, and ground will soon be broken for a gym. All of it has been funded by Jackson. "Stephen is finally maturing," his mother says. "What I have a problem with is, if you learn from your mistakes, shouldn't that count for something?"

It's not that easy. The two faces of Stephen Jackson are so distinct he has names for each. Stack Jack, a nickname his rappers hung on him as the man with stacks of cash, is the hyperanimated side, forever riding to the rescue, on the street or in the game. Stephen is the relaxed, charitable jokester. "The guy everybody loves," he says. Almost everybody. On Halloween, Jackson's high-rise pad was busy with friends and team officials. While waiting for the first group of trick-or-treaters, he tried to get a kiss from Sofia, the 14-month-old daughter of a front office member. Stephen leaned forward, lips pursed. Sofia pulled back, turning her head as if she'd been presented with a forkful of liver.

Goodbye, Stephen. Hello, Stack Jack. Triggered by the snub, he donned a mask, a crazed clown with snaggled teeth and a bulbous nose, and stuck the terrifying mug in little Sofia's face. Sofia, without hesitation, kissed the clown. "Let me see this again," Jackson said. When he took off the mask, Sofia turned away, squinching her nose; when he put it back on, he got another smooch. "Ain't that a … I've got to put on a mask to get a kiss," Jackson said, his lips twisting as if Stephen and Stack Jack were wrestling in his mouth.

It's a battle not likely to end soon. While it might cost him the affection of most, Jackson says keeping Stack Jack around is vital. "He's the better basketball player."