Bay Area New Group reporter Courtney Cronin joined The Kevin Jones podcast on Monday to discuss the 49ers, Raiders and Warriors.
Cronin and Jones agreed 49ers fans have wasted thousands of dollars on a football team who hits a new level of rock bottom every week. Jones would like to see GM Trent Baalke fired so the organization can start getting the ball rolling in the right direction for 2017, and Cronin agreed that the lack of movement from the 49ers’ CEO is troubling.
“Clearly this is not a money issue for the York family,” Cronin said in regards to parting ways with Baalke. “Because otherwise, you’d look at the stands 12 minutes before the game and even in the third quarter and recognize that this is a serious problem. We’re going to be taking a (reputation) hit.
“They don’t care. If you truly cared about this fan base and about the operations of this team on a daily basis to where it’s thriving — even during times of struggle you’re seeing improvement — if you cared about that, this would not be the case. There would’ve been a change by now. That to me shows how out of touch with reality the York’s really are.”
Jones argues that at the very least, York should hold a press conference in front of the media. Would that accomplish much? Probably not. But it would show some accountability from the top man in charge. And a written statement won’t work here, either. York needs to face Tim Kawakami, Matt Maiocco, Matt Barrows and all the other hard-hitting journalists. You can’t own a team and be hands-off in a crisis situation, argues Jones.
Other tidbits from the podcast:
-Jones has Golden State winning 73 games for the second consecutive season, but the Cavaliers beating the Warriors in Game 7 again. “The big man issue for them is going to be like the Giants’ bullpen.”
-Cronin has the Warriors winning it all, although the fear factor of LeBron is not going away.