Blogs

Saturday Photos From London

What a day. A walk through at Wembley Stadium followed by a pep rally at Trafalgar Square with 20,000 screaming fans (many in 49ers red) made this Saturday a very unique and memorable day.

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Monday’s Locker Room Talk: Oct. 18

Alex Smith and the entire 49ers offense has matured over the course of the 2010 season. It just took a win to truly manifest itself.

On Sunday, Smith was patient with the football, often throwing the ball away when pressured instead of trying to force throws that weren’t there. As a result, the 49ers didn’t commit any turnovers for the first time this season in their 17-9 win over the Oakland Raiders.

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49ers Make World Series Picks

There’s only so many times you can get asked the same question during an open locker room period. But I know our guys enjoy an occasional question out of left field.

Having said that, today I asked a question about left field, well sort of.

I asked a handful of guys who they were picking to win the World Series which kicks off tonight between the New York Yankees and the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

And for fun, I asked which players in the locker room would make up the best 49ers baseball team. The answers I got were somewhat surprising:

-“I would definitely have B. Jones [Brandon] as my center fielder,” cornerback Tarell Brown said of his wide receiver teammate, who was a one-time draft pick of the Yankees organization. “I would be a shortstop because I have good range. All the quarterbacks would be our pitchers.”

-“Put me at catcher, I swear I’d be a great catcher. I’d be amazing,” cornerback Marcus Hudson explained. “I’d cover the plate and nobody would steal on me. I would gun them out if they tried to steal on me!”

-“I think Arnaz [Battle] might be a second baseman because he has quick feet and quick hands,” Jones said of the players who would play beside him. “I see Alex [Smith] and our other quarterbacks as our pitchers. We’ll go with a three-man rotation. And on offense, our cleanup hitter would probably be big Mo, Moran Norris.”

-“I don’t know about that – I don’t think Mo has any bat speed!” Battle joked in response to Jones’ opinion.

-“I think Justin Smith would be our first baseman. He seems like he’d be a power hitter,” long snapper Brian Jennings said.

-“Ooh, that’s a pretty good question! I don’t know if Justin could be our first baseman though. He’s a slugger, maybe a DH,” Shawntae Spencer said. “I’m not putting him on the field. I’d put guys with really good ball skills in my infield. Dre’ Bly, Nate Clements they both have good ball skills, the receivers do too.

-“Then, I would go with the coordinators as our bench coaches, because they are good with hand signals. Our base coaches could be special teams coordinator Al Everest and secondary coach Vance Joseph because they send in signals too.”

-“I would be a pitcher, because I’d want to throw the ball. In football I love hitting people and in baseball if I was mad at someone – I could throw the ball at them,” defensive tackle Isaac Sopoaga joked.

Here are some of the picks from the 49ers locker room, note that only one player [Spencer] chose the defending champs:

Josh Morgan: Yankees in five games.

“I think it’s the Yankees year.”

Tarell Brown: Yankees in five games.

“Really to be honest with you, it doesn’t mean a whole lot that the Phillies won it all last year. At the end of the day the Yankees are playing great baseball and they have solid pitching. Really, that’s what it’s going to come down to – pitching. Pitching and defense. The Yankees have always been a great offensive team, but their pitching is amazing this year. I’ve been a Yankees fan forever though….”

Shawntae Spencer: Phillies in six games.

“I don’t really like either one of these teams. If the Pirates aren’t in it – I don’t really care! But I guess I got a little bit of love for Philly, but then again, I don’t want them to win because if they do I won’t see the end of it. I have a lot of friends from Philadelphia, so I don’t really want to hear that. I’m just going to watch as a fan. I think it’s going to be a great series, I’ll take the Phillies, since nobody else has.”

Brandon Jones: Yankees in six games.

“You have to figure the Phillies can get a couple of games. They can hit. And, they might even wear Andy Pettitte out in game three. C.C. [Sabathia] might have to come back on short rest and get another win for them. It might go to six, if that happens.”

Barry Sims: Yankees in six games.

“A-Rod is hitting this year and they’re getting good pitching – I think it’s their year.”

Brian Jennings: Yankees in six games.

“If I played baseball I’d for sure want to play for the Yankees.”

Isaac Sopoaga: Yankees in six games.

“I want it to be less games, but I think it would be more exciting if it goes to six or seven games. Then, you’d have more games to watch on TV.”

Andy Lee: Yankees in six games.

Sopoaga Gets Manusky Fired Up

It’s not like he needs much energy on the practice field to get him fired up for practice. But 49ers defensive coordinator Greg Manusky had extra juices flowing at the start of practice early Monday morning when he realized his sunglasses had disappeared.

Manusky had put his shades on top of a water cooler for a quick second and then turned away to have a conversation. Upon seeing it, defensive lineman Isaac Sopoaga snagged Manusky’s shades and put them on for the entire team stretch period.

Without recognizing Sopoaga’s prank, Manusky scrambled to find his glasses, asking everyone on the sideline where they had gone.

“It was something I wanted to do just to get coach Manusky fired up for today,” Sopoaga said with a huge smile after practice.

Manusky continued to rant about how he had just put them down five minutes ago and then they suddenly disappeared.

“Coaches, players, trainers and the equipment guys they were so worried trying to look for his shades, but I had them the whole time during warm-ups,” Sopoaga said. “I just wanted to see how he was going to react. He got really mad!”

When the team huddled up to break for individual drills, Sopoaga ran over to Manusky while wearing the glasses.

At that moment everyone on the sideline began laughing. Manusky cracked a smile and Sopoaga handed back the glasses. His plan clearly worked as Manusky was steaming for awhile before he realized what happened.

The two shared a laugh after the exchange and it was time for practice to begin.

Morning Practice Notes

Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Willis sat out of Monday’s morning practice with a mild ankle strain. He’s day-to-day. Same goes for Parys Haralson (hip flexor) and Tarell Brown (toe sprain).

Allen Rossum came up with the only interception of the day during 1-on-1 wide receiver defensive back drills. Rossum was matched up on Michael Spurlock, but was able to read Spurlock’s comeback route. The veteran cut inside of Spurlock and intercepted the pass along the right sideline.

During team drills Shaun Hill completed his first four passes. Josh Morgan, Branon Jones, Delanie Walker and Vernon Davis were on the receiving end of Hill’s four throws.

Coach Singletary had the players take part in another round of “The Nutcracker.” The highlight of the drill was when undrafted rookie guard Kyle Howard moved back Sopoaga, much to the approval of the rest of the offensive linemen.

Jones made the play of the day later in practice, by out-leaping Marcus Hudson down the right sideline for an impressive reception.

Alex Smith threw a rocket of a pass to Delanie Walker along the left sideline also during 11-on-11 work.

The team will eat lunch, go through meetings and hit the field for another practice a little after 4pm. Stay tuned to 49ers.com throughout the day for more updates, including press conferences with Singletary and offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye. Both spoke with the media after the morning session. Also, stay up to date with on the field updates by following us on our Twitter page.