The winner of the Dallas-Tampa Bay game will come to Levi’s Stadium next Sunday. Kickoff will be 3:30 p.m. (Pacific)

The 49ers did not play the Cowboys this season, but they met in the playoffs a year ago, with the 49ers winning 23-17 in Dallas.

Tampa Bay came to Levi’s Stadium on Dec. 11 and left with a 35-7 defeat. Tom Brady, in what then loomed as his last visit home as a player, had one of the worst games of his 22-year career. The numbers, bad as they were — – 34 of 55 for 253 yards, two interceptions — didn’t begin to tell the story.

The 49ers, with Brock Purdy making his first NFL start, rolled up 209 yards on the ground. Christian McCaffrey carried 14 times for 119 yards. Purdy was 16 of 21 for 185 and two touchdowns.

The Spartans flopped Tuesday in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, losing 41-27 to Eastern Michigan on the blue turf of Boise State’s stadium.

Two years ago, in the Arizona Bowl, SJSU lost 34-13 to Ball State. In that game, the Spartans were wiped out by Covid, losing several key players and both their offensive and defensive coordinators in the days leading up to the game.

In this game, the Spartans (7-5) were simply wiped out. After taking a 13-0 lead, they gave up 33 unanswered points to Eastern Michigan (9-4).

Turnovers played a key role. SJSU, which had turned the ball over only six times all season, turned it over three times Tuesday. It was the first time this season that the Spartans had multiple turnovers in a game.

Eastern Michigan had won only one bowl game in its history — also against San Jose State in the 1987 California Raisin Bowl in Fresno.

After San Jose State’s second touchdown, Sterling Miles blocked the extra point attempt and Tristen Hines scooped up the ball and raced 87 yards for a 2-point defensive PAT.

That was the spark Eastern Michigan needed. The offense that had consecutive three-and-out possessions had touchdowns on its next four drives, all but putting the game out of reach.Samson Evans scored from 1 yard out to cut the Spartans’ lead to 13-9 at end of the first quarter.

EMU quarterback Taylor Powell passed for 298 yards and two touchdowns. The first of them, from the 1-yard line, put the Eagles in the lead 16-13. Powell threw another one, from 28 yards out, to make it 30-13 at halftime.

Cordeiro will be back next season, as will every other offensive starter, except star receiver Elijah Cooks.

The Spartans open next season at USC on Aug. 26.

Check back after 7 p.m. for a report from the postgame lockerroom.

Nah.

But if you’re also friends or family of Jaylen Brown, Malik Fitts, Ime Udoka or Aaron Miles….

Brown, the Celtics’ second-leading scorer at 23.6 points per game, played at Cal for one season in 2015-16 and was the only freshman named to the 10-player all-conference team for the Pac-12.

Brown was a 5-star recruit out of greater Atlanta, ranked third in the class headed by Ben Simmons. The signing was a big score for Cal coach Cuonzo Martin. With Brown and Ivan Rabb joining a team that included another future NBA player (Jabari Bird) and had its top two scorers returning, Cal opened the season ranked 14th in the nation.

The Bears went 23-11, a disappointing season that ended with an upset loss to 13th-seeded Hawaii in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Brown declared for the NBA draft and was chosen by the Celtics with the No. 3 pick, behind Simmons and Brandon Ingram.

Only 25 and in his sixth NBA season, Brown made the All Star team for the first time — just like Andrew Wiggins. Those two are likely to see some time against each other in this series.

Brown scored 40 points in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals against Miami (a game the Celtics lost in Boston).

Fun fact: One of Brown’s teammates at Cal was NIck Kerr, son of the Warriors coach.

Malik Fitts is an end-of-bench guy for the Celtics, with whom he signed a 10-day contract in February. Fitts played two seasons at Saint Mary’s, the best supporting actor in the Jordan Ford Show. In 2019, he was all-WCC  on a Gaels team that went 26-8 and would have reached the NCAA tournament if one had been played amid the pandemic.

Fitts declared for the NBA draft after that season, forgoing his final year of eligibility. It did not go as hoped; he went undrafted. Fitts got a brief look from the L.A. Clippers, making his NBA debut late in the 2020-21 season after signing a 10-day contract. He has played 24 NBA games in all, the last six in this playoff run. He appeared three times in the Eastern Conference finals against Miami, logging less than four minutes total, but etching his name in history with his first postseason basket in Game 1 of the conference semifinals against Milwaukee.

Fun fact: Born on the Fourth of July (1997).

Ime Udoka, the Celtics’ first-year coach, spent one season as a player for the University of San Francisco Dons. A 6-foot-6 forward, he was a member of the 1997-98 team, the last to make the NCAA tournament until the Dons ended the drought last March at 25 years. A junior transfer from Utah Stave University Eastern, Udoku was a deep reserve for USF coach Phil Mathews, appearing in 21 games and scoring 34 points.

After the season, he transferred to Portland State, where he became a leading man, starting 24 games and averaging 14.5 points and 7.3 rebounds for the Vikings.

Undrafted and unsigned by an NBA team, Udoka kicked around the NBDL for two years and starred for the Nigerian national team. His NBA debut came with the 2004 Lakers, a Kobe-Shaq team coached by Phil Jackson. It was a brief stay for Udoka.

He went overseas, came back for a cup of coffee with Knicks, then had a breakthrough with his hometown team, starting 75 games for the Portland Trail Blazers. He ended up playing 316 NBA games for the Blazers, the Spurs and the Sacramento Kings. His time with Spurs led to a spot on Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff in 2012. After eight seasons with Popovich, and two more on staffs in Philly and Brooklyn, Udoka, 44, was hired last spring to succeed Brad Stevens as coach of the Celtics.

Fun fact: Udoka already has an NBA championship ring, won in 2014 as a Spurs assistant.

Aaron Miles, a Celtics assistant coach, has no connection to Bay Area college basketball unless you count the three times his Kansas teams played Cal or Stanford.

Miles’ connection is with the Warriors, and it’s pretty tight. He played for the Warriors, 19 games in 2005-06, the team with Baron Davis at point guard, Mike Montgomery at coach, and Chris Mullin as GM. The next season was “We Believe,” but Miles was long gone by then.

Miles, 39, reconnected with the Warriors in 2017 as coach of their G-League team in Santa Cruz. That team included Kevon Looney and Klay  Thompson’s brother, Mychel.

In 2019, Miles was called up to the big club, named director of player development for the Warriors.

Fun fact: It was Miles who opened the door to Udoka’s NBA playing career; when he failed a training camp physical, the Trail Blazers invited Udoka.

At least there is James Jones. Now THAT is storybook stuff.

Jones, 37, a San Jose native who spent parts of his youth homeless, was inducted into the Ring of Honor on Friday night, joining a group of 15 former Spartans that include Bill Walsh, Pop Warner, Dick Vermeil, Jack Elway, Jeff Garcia and Steve DeBerg.

It wasn’t merely Jones’ four-year career as an SJSU wide receiver (2003-06), or his eight years in the NFL, mostly with the Green Bay Packers, that put James in the company of immortals. It also is the work he does in the community, particularly with kids.

“No one is more deserving than you,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said in a video tribute during the ceremony after the first quarter of Friday night’s Homecoming game on Spartan Field. “No one talks as much about their alma mater as you do. I’m so thankful to have played with you for so many years and to call you a close friend.”

Two of his former receiving corps teammates, still with the Packers, also offered video tributes.

“I’m so happy for you and so proud of you,” said Randall Cobb. “You are always going to be a Hall of Famer in my book, not only as a player, but as a person, the man that you are..”

“You are a legend,” Davante Adams said.

On the field, the Spartans fell just short of sending the guest of honor home with more bragging rights. SJSU (3-4) took 24th-ranked San Diego State to two overtimes before succumbing 19-13 in front of a crowd of 17,177.

Neither team scored a touchdown in regulation, but SDSU (6-0) found the endzone twice in overtime on passes from Lucas Johnson to Jesse Mathews (of 14 and 24 yards).

SJSU answered the first one, tying the game at 13 on Tyler Nevens’ 1-yard run. But the Spartans’ second possession ended with Nick Nash, playing in place of injured QB Nick Starkel for the third consecutive game, throwing an interception to set up SDSU’s winning touchdown..

“That one hurts,” San Jose State coach Brent Brennan said. “It’s especially hard because of how well we played. There’s so many good things in that game. If you look at our defensive effort; incredible, just incredible. They kept answering the call.”

San Diego State entered the game as the nation’s 10th-best running team, averaging 244.4 yards per game. It managed just 70 yards, in 36 carries, against San Jose State.

Still the Aztecs left town 6-0 for the second time in 46 years, and the Spartans went home winless against ranked teams since the 62-52 win over Derek Carr and Fresno State in 2013. SJSU has lost eight straight against ranked teams and 29 of the last 30.

Penalties were a factor in defeat once again. The Spartans were flagged 12 times for 101 yards.

They have a short week to prepare for their next game — Thursday night, against a UNLV team that is 0-5.

Another SJSU alum, professional cheerleader “Krazy George” Henderson was in attendance and initiated The Wave during one of the breaks. Friday marked the 40th anniversary of when Henderson introduced The Wave to the world during an Oakland A’s playoff game Oct. 15, 1981.

San Francisco took 10 of 19 games in the regular season and the California rivals are knotted at two games each in the National League Divisional Series. So the Giants lead the 2021 matchup, 12 games to 11.

By another measure, the Dodgers could take the lead in Game 5. The Giants also finished one game ahead of Los Angeles in the NL West standings, with 107 wins, but the Dodgers’ 106 regular-season wins plus their one wild-card game evened the win total heading into the NLDS. The winner Thursday night takes the lead, with at least one more series to pad their stats.

Of course, the win totals don’t actually matter. Advancing to that next series, the National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves matters.

With those stakes set, let’s take a look back, beginning in the spring:

May 21

Since-suspended (intimate partner violence) Dodgers starter Trevor Bauer stifled the Giants with an 11-strikeout performance over 126 pitches in a 2-1 Dodgers win at Oracle Park. A Chris Taylor home run was Alex Wood’s only mistake, but it was costly.

May 22

Scott Kazmir made his first start since 2016 for the Giants, but took the loss after giving up just two hits (including a Max Muncy home run) in four innings. Walker Buehler pulled the Dodgers even in the standings with the Giants with a 6-3 win.

May 23

The Dodgers finished the three-game sweep with a strong performance from Julio Urías in an 11-5 win. Anthony DeSclafani gave up 10 runs in just 2 2/3 innings and the Giants completed a drop from first to third place in the NL West.

May 27

Wood lost his second game of the season to the Dodgers as Los Angeles maintained its apparent dominance over the Giants with a 4-3 win that featured home runs by Evan Longoria and Donovan Solano of the Giants and Justin Turner, DJ Peters and Max Muncy of the Dodgers.

May 28

The Giants finally beat the Dodgers in 2021, and it took a gem of a play to do it. Mike Tauchman made his biggest contribution to San Francisco, leaping to rob Albert Pujols of a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth — just one batter after Austin Barnes had tied the game with a three-run shot. LaMonte Wade hit the game-winning single in the 10th and the Giants added two more to win 8-5.

Tauchman was later designated for assignment but Giants fans have not forgotten his catch.

Air Tauchman 29. pic.twitter.com/evQStqh4aM

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 29, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

May 29

A day after tying the Dodgers for second in the NL West, the Giants took sole possession of the spot behind San Diego with an 11-6 win at Dodger Stadium. Mauricio Dubón had three RBIs and five other Giants had at least one.

May 30

Kevin Gausman delivered six shutout innings and beat Clayton Kershaw in the series finale, even as he tweaked a hip injury at the end of a stellar May (5-0, 0.72 ERA) Dubón was involved again, hitting a two-run first-inning home run, and Austin Slater tacked on a homer later.

June 28

Tauchman played a pivotal role again, but in a negative way this time as he tried to stretch a ninth-inning single into a double and was called out, upheld by a close replay review. The Dodgers won 3-2 as all five runs came on solo home runs.

June 29

Buehler outdueled Gausman in a 3-1 Dodgers win, though the Giants finished the month of June in first place. A two-run Chris Taylor double in the first inning was enough, but Max Muncy added a solo home run.

July 19

The first matchup after the All-Star break was a 7-2 win for the Giants in Los Angeles. Five relievers covered the final six innings for the Giants, who used a four-run seventh inning to secure the win.

July 20

The Giants bullpen melted down late in an 8-6 Dodgers win as John Brebbia and Tyler Rogers each gave up home runs. Rogers walked the first two batters in the ninth, then Will Smith launched a three-run walk-off home run.

July 21

The next night was Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen’s turn to blow a save. He gave up a ninth-inning home run to Wilmer Flores to turn a 2-1 Dodgers lead into a deficit. The Giants later walked in a run, setting up Rogers for the save in a 4-2 win.

July 22

Jansen blew a second consecutive save as the Giants scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to win 5-3. An replay-overturned force play at second and a bases-loaded walk allowed the Giants to tie the game before Wade drove in two to win the game.

July 27

Cody Bellinger’s throwing error trying to catch Buster Posey at third base allowed the Giants to score the winning run in a 2-1 victory. Logan Webb held the Dodgers to three hits and a single run over six innings for the win.

July 28

The Dodgers again blasted DeSclafani in an 8-0 win. He gave up four runs over 2 2/3 innings while Buehler threw seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits.

July 29

San Francisco responded with a shutout win of its own as Johnny Cueto went 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a 5-0 win. Brandon Crawford’s return from the injured list began with a bases-loaded double that scored two runs as all the Giants’ runs came with two outs.

Sept. 3

Heading into the Labor Day weekend series, the stakes were high as the teams entered tied for first place in the NL West — and the whole league. The Giants took home a dramatic 3-2 victory when an 11th-inning throwing error by Trea Turner pulled Will Smith off the bag and Brandon Belt scored.

Sept. 4

The Giants’ plan for a bullpen game backfired as Jay Jackson lasted just one out in a 6-1 Dodgers victory. Turner avenged his mistake with a first-inning leadoff home run that set the tone for the game.

Sept. 5

In the final matchup of the regular season, the Giants again took a one-game lead over the Dodgers by beating Buehler. They scored six runs off LA’s ace in the first three innings and the bullpen covered all nine innings to secure the win.

Game 1

Webb’s postseason debut was an absolute gem, striking out 10 Dodgers over 7 2/3 scoreless innings. Buster Posey’s two-run home run off Buehler in the first inning gave the Giants the lead, then Kris Bryant and Brandon Crawford each hit solo shots in a 4-0 win.

Game 2

Los Angeles rebounded the next night as Urías kept the Giants’ bats quiet and the Dodgers scored four off Gausman to even the series with a 9-2 win. Cody Bellinger’s bases-loaded double in the sixth inning stretched the LA lead to three runs and it only grew from there.

Game 3

The Giants’ pitching staff delivered another shutdown performance as Wood went 4 2/3 and the bullpen covered the rest for a 1-0 win. Longoria made the difference on offense with a fifth-inning home run off Max Scherzer to end a 1-for-35 spell, and Crawford made a stunning catch on a Mookie Betts line drive that would have tied the game in the seventh.

BRANDON CRAWFORD IS RIDICULOUS

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/TmHZSZvJmK

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 12, 2021

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Game 4

The Dodgers forced a winner-take-all finale with a 7-2 victory, roughing up DeSclafani again as he was pulled after giving up five hits and two runs in 1 2/3 innings on a Turner double and a Taylor sacrifice fly. Mookie Betts delivered the biggest blow with a two-run homer in the fourth to make it 4-0. Buehler, pitching on short rest, went 4 1/3 as Los Angeles evened the series.

My dad and I bonded over football.

That wouldn’t be at all unusual today; pro football is king. But in the mid-1960s, baseball was America’s pastime. Pro football was just a few years removed from the game that put it on the map and still a few years away from the game that changed everything, the Super Bowl.

We were hardly pioneers or visionaries, my dad and I. Coming of age in Milwaukee at that time, there was no baseball team. The Braves had left for Atlanta after the 1965 season before I was old enough to know what I would be missing. The only baseball in Milwaukee was the annual Poilcemen-Firemen game — one team in blue, the other in red. It was played at County Stadium, home of the Braves and later the Brewers. We were regular attendees of that game not because my father was baseball-starved, but because the game always coincided with a family event he didn’t want to attend.

And we had the Packers, the world champion Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Paul Hornung, Willie Davis, Ray Nitschke, Willie Wood. I could go on. I still can recite the jersey numbers of every one of them, not just these Hall of Famers, but pretty much anyone on the roster.

I came aboard during the 1965 season, the season that culminated in a championship, the first of three in a row for the Packers and one of five they would win from 1959-1967. I missed that championship game in 1965, a 23-12 win over Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns in the rain and mud at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. I was 7. I went to see Mary Poppins with my sisters. I refuse to believe this was my idea.

It was the last game I missed for many years. That said, I missed just about every big play in the Packers’ glory years. I had become so deeply attached to the team and its fortunes that a loss would devastate me for most of a week. Fortunately, the Packers didn’t lose often. They lost only nine times in those three years.

And still ye of little faith, I couldn’t bear to stay in the room whenever the Packers faced a crucial play. I often left the house altogether, standing on the porch in the frozen tundra of a Wisconsin winter day, waiting to hear the cheer go up from my dad. It almost always did. I would run into the house to watch what I had missed, limited usually to one replay. Bart Starr’s winning sneak to win the Ice Bowl and send the Pack to the Super Bowl. Tom Brown’s endzone interception of Dandy Don Meredith, Dave Robinson (No. 89) draped all over him, to preserve the 34-27 win in Dallas that sent the Pack to Super Bowl 1, then known as the NFL-AFC Championship Game.

My dad ensured we would never miss a game. Back then, it was a 14-game regular season: 7 home, 7 away. The Packers would play three of their home games in Milwaukee, instead of Green Bay, an effort to grow the sport. The games in Milwaukee were blacked out, could not be seen on TV even if they were sold out, which they always were.

We couldn’t afford to go. My dad worked two jobs and my mom worked one to support a family of six. Somehow he put together enough money, disposable income — don’t ask, won’t tell — to buy a large TV antenna that he mounted on the roof of our home in suburban Milwaukee.

Every time the Packers played in Milwaukee — and it was always a Sunday at 1 p.m. because there was no Sunday Night Football or Monday Night Football or Thursday Night Football — my dad would be up on the roof to turn the TV antenna north toward Green Bay to pull in the game from there, where it was not blacked out.

We developed a system, a crew, a three-man crew and dad was the captain. We became a team, my brother, me and my dad, a team the way Lombardi built a team.

While my dad stood on the roof, slowly turning the TV antenna toward Green Bay, one of us boys would be inside to monitor the TV picture and relay instructions to the other boy standing outside and shouting up to the roof.

“A little more, a little more!” I would shout through the sliding glass door, and my brother would relay the message to my dad, shouting to him on the roof.

“A little more a little more.”

And then, invariably.

“No. No. Too much. Tell him to go back.”

The goal was simple: Get the best possible picture, everything else be damned. We could audio from the radio and as much as we loved the booming-baritone of Ray Scott and his simple delivery — Starr, Dowler, Touchdown. — Ted Moore on WTMJ probably was more widely known as the voice of the Packers. After all, he narrated the Packers Glory Years, the 33lp I have to this day. Somewhere.

I don’t recall there being a 7-second delay in the action. What I do recall is the commercials: A Pabst Blue Ribbon beer commercial on TV and a Miller beer commercial on the radio. Or a Ford vs. Chevy clash of audio and video.

My dad has been gone six years. The memories of those Sundays are more than a half-century old. But I still hear his laughter, I still see him on the roof turning that antenna, I still hear the cheers that would bring that boy in from the driveway, next to his dad forever.

Tuite, 67, announced her departure in an email Friday to some athletic department staff members. The school has made no announcement.

“Now, after all the unique challenges and circumstances presented during this past year, it is an ideal opportunity for me to close one chapter in my career and turn my time and energies to exploring future opportunities. Accordingly, I am resigning from my current position with the University effective today,” she wrote.

One of 12 women athletic directors in the country, Tuite presided over the most successful football season in 80 years at San Jose State. Her decision to extend the contract of coach Brent Brennan after a three-year record of 8-29 paid dividends in 2020 when the Spartans went 7-0 and won the Mountain West championship. Despite losing its bowl game, SJSU was ranked 24th in the final Associated Press poll.

Tuite’s fall from those heights began soon thereafter, but it was rooted in her actions over the course of several years. Tuite (pronounced TOO-it) was accused of harassing and bullying a swim coach who for years raised concerns about the behavior of Scott Shaw, the school’s former director of sports medicine. Shaw resigned last year before an independent investigation found he had sexually assaulted female athletes under the guise of therapeutic massages.

The swim coach, Sage Hopkins, named Tuite in a whistleblower case, alleging that she retaliated against him.

In May, with the calls for Tuite’s ouster intensifying, school president Mary Papazian reassigned her to a fund-raising position.

A field hockey and basketball star at Central Michigan, Tuite was hired as the athletic department’s chief operations officer in 2010. She was named athletic director in May 2017, taking over for Gene Bleymaier.

“I am leaving with great memories and a strong sense of accomplishment,” she wrote. “It has been an honor to be part of this incredible University and I will dearly miss every aspect. Go Spartans!”

In my dark years, I would turn the pages of self-help books in a frenzy, desperately searching for the secret to happiness. This was like that, except it wasn’t a book I was searching, or happiness I was seeking.

Pedro was gone.

I didn’t know how he had left this world, so suddenly. But the “how” wasn’t what sent me on a desperate search through the pages of Facebook and Twitter, and into the archives of my own correspondence with him. The “how” didn’t matter much to me. Pedro was gone. Nothing was going to change that.

I had looked down at my phone in the third quarter of what forever will be the worst Super Bowl ever, and there it was: A tweet from Charles Robinson, retweeting the shocking news from ESPN.

“Sometimes people just choose to leave us,” an acquaintance offered at one point during the night.

She had done the math we do in journalism: sudden death + no cause given = suicide. Clearly, she did not know Pedro. Pedro loved life. Nobody I’ve known ever loved life more than Pedro. Even allowing for the many years that had passed since I knew him well… no, no way.

As the hours passed and night became dawn and dawn became day, I got reacquainted with my friend. Given his profession and his personality, I wasn’t surprised that Pedro knew so many people. But it was staggering how many of them paid tribute to him with a story about something he had done for them.

I shared this discovery with one of Pedro’s closest friends, maybe his closest friend, his “brother” Steve Kettmann. Steve said he’d been struck by the vast number of people who shared that they’d been in touch with Pedro just that week. I had noticed that too and can bet with supreme confidence which party initiated the contact. The last time I last talked to Pedro… six days ago… five days ago… four days ago… three days ago…

Our shared discoveries were summarized in one sentence, the opening sentence of a Facebook tribute from another friend and baseball-writing colleague (and Mercury News alum), Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune.

“My last conversation with Pedro Gomez on Thursday captured what he was all about — the welfare of others.”

I don’t know if Pedro set out to help so many people. Or just came by it naturally. Whatever the case, he did it. Equally remarkable, he didn’t say much about it.

Last August, out of nowhere, a text from Pedro. No words. Two photos. Me and my son, age 2 or 3.

My son is 28 now. Back then, we didn’t have phones with cameras. We didn’t take pictures of every damn thing we did or ate or saw. These were snapshots, taken the old-fashioned way, developed at the drugstore and shared…. 25 years later?

I thanked him. “Love u, Petey. Forever.’”

“Love you. Also forever.”

It was that easy with him. That easy to say those words, or at least type them and share them. That easy to reconnect, to pick up wherever the relationship had been left however long ago.

“You watching Astros/Rays?” he asked to open a text exchange last October. “Did you see Springer’s shot to lead off the game?”

“What sport is that, Petey?”

We hadn’t been in touch often enough over the last few years for him to know that my love for baseball, and then my interest, had evaporated. He asked what I thought of this Astros pitcher named Scrubb, an obvious set-up line for the Wake of the Week column I used to pen on Saturdays.

“With a name like Smuckers,” I texted back to him, “you better be good.”

“Exactamente,” Pedro replied.

Me: “Tremenda.”

Him: “Jugada.”

Me: “Ayer.”

Tremenda jugada ayer was a three-word piece of our history.

In 1992, when Jose Canseco was traded to Texas for Ruben Sierra, the Mercury News sent Pedro and me to New York for Canseco’s first game with the Rangers. That night we were sitting in a hotel room watching Sierra’s first game with the A’s. They won in a walk-off on a smart baserunning play by Sierra — no, really — that brought him sliding across home plate with the winning run.

Pedro, I said, we’re going to meet Sierra tomorrow night. Give me an icebreaker. He gave me this: Tremenda jugada ayer. (Tremendous play yesterday.)

That October text exchange went on for 7 hours, intermittently. The conclusion breaks my heart.

“Hey,” I wrote, “one thing. I want to be sure we get one loooong hang in sometime before it’s too late. Ya know?”

“I do know,” he wrote back. “Yes. I’m in for that.”

The last sentence was pure Pedro, all Pedro. Absolutely “in” for anything.

I had found the first sentence of his reply curious, out of character. Again due to our lack of regular contact, in tandem with my dwindling interest in baseball, I did not know he’d been off the air for an extended period in 2018 because of a health problem.

I am very much aware that the clock is running on all of us. I’m bent that way. Plus, I’ve reached an age when reminders of mortality seem to come almost daily.

Our last correspondence — Jan, 24, two weeks before Super Bowl Sunday — came after an especially heavy week of those reminders. Don Sutton on Monday. Hank Aaron on Friday. Bud Lea in between. I had history with all three.

Bud Lea was a man I’d grown up reading, a columnist and sports editor for the Milwaukee Sentinel, no doubt one of the reasons this profession found me. When I was hired by the Sentinel in 1983, to cover the reigning American League champion Brewers, Bud Lea was there.

He tipped me to my first scoop. (I blew it.) He had covered the Packers during the Lombardi years, and he regaled us with stories. He traded barbs with Bud Selig in the Milwaukee press box — possibly the last press box that will ever include three Buds.

Bud Lea was 92 years old when he died Jan. 20. Pedro sent me a link to the news story. I had already heard and was too upset with myself to send him a reply.

Two years ago, I’d gone to the trouble of getting Bud Lea’s phone number. I wanted to thank him, to let him know how I felt about him, what he had meant to me. So his name and number went to the top of my To-Do list for the following week.

And that’s where it stayed — top of my list, week after week after week.

I shared this with Pedro when I finally returned his text four days later. Bud Lea was 90 years old when I got his phone number. What was I thinking, that I had all the time in the world, that the clock wasn’t running on a 90-year-old man when it is running on all of us?

I mentioned Don Sutton. Don Baylor, who had died in 2017. A couple of baseball writers, Gerry Fraley and Tom Flaherty, RIP Class of 2019. Mike Shalin, another baseball writer who helped me in my early years, just a month earlier in December. I had something more to say to all of them, and I hadn’t taken the time to do it.

“My regrets are piling up so deep, Petey.”

Pedro texted back instantly. “You should call Frank.”

Wait. His suggestion after all that I had just shared was for me to call someone I hadn’t spoken to in 25 years, a former colleague with whom I’d never been exceptionally close, someone with whom even Pedro had never been exceptionally close?

He gave me Frank’s phone number.

“Let me know if you talk to him.”

Of course I didn’t call Frank. I probably would have eventually. But for nine days I let it sit.

On the seventh day, Pedro left this world.

On the eighth day, I knew what I had to do.

On the ninth day, I did it.

The conversation with Frank wasn’t difficult, at least not in the way I had feared a week earlier. Pedro had provided a reason for this call out of the blue, this blast from the past. I was calling about Pedro, not about Frank’s terminal diagnosis.

Pedro had given me the terrible news in the same text exchange he had suggested I call Frank. But I had missed it. While I was texting him a flurry of questions — Why should I call Frank? Is he not well? You’re suggesting I call him out of the blue? Why would I do that? What will he think? — Pedro had given me the answer.

I found it the next morning and shot Pedro a text.

“I somehow missed the one where you told me Frank has pancreatic cancer,” I wrote. “That’s the worst.”

“It’s definitely not one of the good ones,” Pedro replied. “Horrible way to go.”

That was our last exchange.

Frank and I talked for 90 minutes that Tuesday night. We talked about Pedro mostly, how amazing he was, how full of life, that he was one of a kind, all the things we say about people in the immediate aftermath of their final departure. Except there was nothing empty about these platitudes. They were full, completely full, to the brim, overflowing. And they will be said, forevermore, when the name Pedro Gomez is mentioned.

In that desperate search of Facebook and Twitter on the Sunday night that became Monday morning and then Monday afternoon, I read so many tributes to Pedro. From the young reporter he had stepped in to defend against a Hall of Fame manager’s verbal assault. From the female reporter he had helped climb a fence after they’d been locked inside a stadium. (She was wearing a skirt; ever the gentleman, he promised her he would look away while she climbed). From the Cubs fan who told of him reaching into his backpack at the end of a conversation to give her a gift: a champagne cork he’d retrieved from clubhouse floor the night the Cubs celebrated ending the curse. Apparently, he’d made a practice of gathering corks during champagne celebrations to give to fans.

For people he knew to people he’d just met, Pedro made the world a better place, a happier place. What he did for me over a 30-year friendship ended with a line of four words.

You should call Frank.

I don’t think about Bud Lea with regret anymore. I can’t pay him back. I can only pay it forward.

I call Frank once a week. I just now realized that I call him every Sunday, around the time that Pedro left us. Frank is mystified by these calls. You do know you’re not going to cheer up a dying man, right? He expresses surprise every time. When we hang up, he always expects that will be the last time we talk, not because of his declining health but because… Who does this? Why would you do it?

One of these times, I’m going to tell him why. It’s WPWD.

What Pedro Would Do.

“I got engaged,” the Green Bay Packers quarterback said in his acceptance speech after being named the NFL’s most valuable player for the third time.

Rodgers, 37, a lifelong bachelor, did not mention his fiancee by name, but he has been linked to actress Shailene Woodley, 29. Previously, Rodgers had a three-year relationship with actress Olivia Munn and a two-year relationship with NASCAR driver Danica Patrick that ended suddenly last summer.

Rodgers led the Packers to a 13-3 record this season with a performance that included 48 touchdown passes and only five interceptions.

He is the sixth player to win the MVP three times, joining Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, Brett Favre, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. Manning won the award five times.

“It’s an honor to win this award for the third year,” Rodgers said in a video acceptance speech. “2020 was definitely a crazy year, filled with lots of change and growth. Some amazing memorable moments… And playing for very little fans or no stands the entire season. I got engaged. And I played some of the best football of my career.”

Rodgers also mentioned “180 straight days of having my nose hairs scraped,” a reference to Covid testing protocols instituted by the NFL.

Rodgers, a Chico native who attended Cal for two years, finished with something straight out of Berkeley.

“I just encourage everyone to read books, to meditate, speak things to life, manifest the desires of your heart, question everything, and spread love and positivity,” he said. “Thank you so much. Peace.”

“Him and Steph Curry,” the elder Thompson said, “will pick up right where they left off.”

Mychal Thompson made the declaration this week during an interview with a Minneapolis radio station. He also provided an update on Klay, whose season ended before it began when he tore his right Achilles tendon during a private workout in November. Thompson missed all of last season too, rehabbing from the torn left ACL he suffered in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals against Toronto.

“Physically, he’s going to come around. Emotionally is where it’s tough,”  Mychal Thompson told NewsTalk 830 in Minneapolis. “Mentally, having to sit out two straight years because of a major injury when he’s in his prime. That’s very frustrating.”

At the point of his first injury, Thompson, who turns 31 next month, was playing the best basketball of his career and stood as a paragon of of durability. He had played in 549 of 574 games from 2012-19.

The second devastating injury came after 17 months of rehabbing the first injury.

Thompson, who underwent surgery and began his rehab in Orange County, recently rejoined the Warriors. Once being counted on to help lead the way back from last season’s 15-50 disaster, Thompson does what he can from behind the team’s bench at home games.

He had important business Monday night, maybe even played a small part in the Warriors 130-108 victory. James Wiseman, the prized 19-year-old rookie, was out of the starting lineup for the first time this season, benched for maybe the first time in his life.

Thompson, wearing khakis, a jacket and a mask, leaned over to Wiseman in the opening minutes of the game. He had some advice for Wiseman in his new role: Play aggressively, prioritize being a great teammate and, most importantly, take care of your body.

Wiseman played 16 minutes Monday night. He had 13 points, four rebounds and two blocked shots.