Three Handbaskets, No Waiting
 

"The only positive we have to think about is that the (Houston) Astros were 15-30 in May and made it to where they are today," Nolan said. San Francisco Chronicle 10/24/2005

As I was reading the San Francisco Chronicle this morning, an act of supreme bravery on the morning after the Niner’s latest debacle, I came across the quote above in Kevin Lynch’s story about our 52-17 loss to the Redskins yesterday.
 
Nolan, seemingly always able to come up with some type of upbeat comment following the debacle du semaine, seems to be scraping bottom here as far as the above quote. Alarming for him, since there are ten weeks left in this rotten season, roughly two-thirds of the road still to travel. If he’s resorting to baseball analogies at this point, I wonder what we’ll be hearing from him in Week 12.
 
I wonder also what he can be telling the team right now. The quarterback is still so inexperienced, and I guess it’s a small miracle that he only threw one interception. I’m sure a number of fans will climb on him and start to scream for his head, but that’s to be expected when he’s thrown in there so early. The fans need someone new to blame so they’ll blame him, I guess.
 
Tough to blame Nolan for trying to be upbeat. True, he inherited the outcomes that Terry Donahue and that last ‘coach’ York hired for the Niners, (special handbaskets to Hell for those guys--express) but Nolan knew all that going in. Failing some gigantic turnaround early on, if he didn’t think things would be this bad at 1-5, then he really wasn’t paying attention.
 
So we’ll see what we get from Nolan’s press conference—it’ll be entertaining to hear in a dark, brooding, sarcastic sort of way. But then, thanks to Dr. York, it’s only our cynicism that keeps us interested at this point. That, and the little flame of hope and loyalty to the Forty-Niners that still burns within true fans, in spite of everything Dork dishes out in big, rancid heaping tablespoons.
 
Oh, and Dr. York has a special handbasket standing by as well, parked right next to Donahue’s and Erikson’s. Also express.
 
All aboard.
  


 
Posted - October 24, 2005