Guest Ranter Bradley the Missile  -  September 26, 2005

Where are all the Faithful??

John Dork's PR idea for the year is to try to regain the loyalty of the 49ers fans, but after being at Sunday's game against the Cowboys, I have to wonder, where are the faithful?  I have been going to games at Candlestick since I have been under 3' tall and my current tickets are ones that my grandma watched the Catch from, but the amount of "season ticket holders" who sell their tickets to the highest bidder is getting ridiculous.  When the cowboys when ahead at the end of the game, and the 49ers were driving, there appeared to be more cowboys fans than 49ers fans since Rattay couldn't even shout loud enough for the lineman to hear the snap count.  I think Nolan's Loyalty vs Disloyalty speech to the players should also be said to the people holding the tickets.  Either go to games and support the 49ers, or don't renew the season tickets.

What is with the management of Candlestick??

Another issue that I have with the 49ers management is the poor work on the ushers, and the walk around venders.  I don't know how many times during both the Rams and Cowboys games that I had to stand up because of either some stupid person looking for their seat during a play, a vender/same stupid person standing in the middle of the aisle during a play, or the amount of people trying to "upgrade" their seats.  It can be hard to stop the last one, but the first couple, couldn't they train their people to let people know to kneel down during the game?  That or maybe take a page from the Giants and use signs to prevent people from walking up/down the aisle why the ball is in play?  The 49ers like those public service announcements on the jumbotron, so couldn't they do something similar?  I remember the commercial of "please don't rock the boat" back in the 90's (I think) where some of the players gave fans an idea of what kind of behavior they should have.  I don't remember it being such a huge issue during Eddie D's days, but then again, greatness begins at the top.

Final issue is with Candlestick, the Sound System.  They seem to be able to find the volume fine to blast the music for the cheerleaders, but when it comes to announcements, one can't hear a word they say.  One would think that they would want people at the game to know how to leave in an emergency, or just hear the name of the player that made the play, but no such luck.  Do the Dorks not pay their sound people enough to go around the stadium to check levels, or is it only for music so the cheerleaders can do their same dance routine over and over again (do they have more than one routine??  I am not much of a dance person, but it looks the same no matter what music is playing).

It is all these little things that are make watching a 49ers less enjoyable each game.  Nolan is working to put on a good product on the field, but are the Dorks waiting to have a new stadium built (wasn't ground breaking, or some kind of news supposed to happen before the start of the season?) to address these kinds of issues, or by the time a stadium is built, they won't care, since people will pay to go to the game period.  It just looks more and more that the Dorks are pinching their pennies, and hoping no one notices.

The question still remains on Alex Smith on when he will be ready to take the rains of QB.  Rattay is a fine backup QB, and an occasional starter, but when the 4th Quarter comes around, he plays not to lose instead of trying to win.  Granted, he is no Joe Montana or Steve Young (though he was trying to make an Young Impersonation a few times on Sunday), but he doesn't cut it in a close game in the 4th quarter.  For the first three quarters, the offense was open, and they were going deep with the ball, and started to have a running game with the Barlow and Gore combo (Barlow finally figured out how to hit a hole), but when the 4th quarter came around, and the 49ers had a chance to put it away, they got all conservative, and broke down.  Rattay did take the blame for the loss, but I don't think the 49ers will be in the Super Bowl until they find a quarterback who can play in the 4th Quarter.  I don't know if Alex Smith is that person, but we should find out next year.

Ok, that is all I have.  I am sure I will catch up with you guys later.