Santa Cruz Sentinel

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Professional football players credit many things for their success. Hard work. Determination. Faith in a higher power. A “novel milk permeate solution” that has “better hydration compared to both water and Gatorade” and also a “decreased cumulative urine output.” Wait, what? That would be the scientific research behind GoodSport, a commercial sports drink enjoyed by former San Francisco 49ers player Ronnie Lott.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... That huge bluefin tuna I wrote about two weeks ago was a big catch, although not a frequent one. Those of you who have lived in the Monterey Bay area for any length of time know that fishing has been one of the mainstays of the local economy for years, but bluefin tuna doesn’t rank up there as a major or even a minor commercial fishery.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Entering Year 10 in charge of the Niners, Shanahan has officially tied Bill Walsh for the longest coaching tenure in franchise history. Except, well, what does he have to show for it? Already have an account? Log In This article is only available to subscribers

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Stanford’s task against the defending national runner-up would have been daunting enough Friday night under the best of circumstances for first-year coach Tavita Pritchard and Co. But the ideal scenario was yanked from the table well before kickoff when five starters, including three on the offensive line, were deemed unable to play because of injury. At that point, the likelihood of an upset dropped to well below zero.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... MELBOURNE, Australia — George Kittle, Brock Purdy and Nick Bosa are artfully depicted on a mural outside the Queen Victoria Market. Christian McCaffrey’s mean mug adorns a promotional poster inside the Harp & Hound pub. Images of 49ers legends Joe Montana, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Bryant Young and Patrick Willis cover the windows of the Transport Public Bar, this week’s adopted home for the 49ers Faithful.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... PARKER, Colo. — Every time I play wiffle ball with my son, I can’t help but think about what youth sports have become. On the wiffle ball field on our property, 10-year-old Jax’s love for the game radiates. His laugh, his swing, his Shohei Ohtani imitations. And long after we are done playing, he remains alone on the field until dusk, pantomiming home runs, circling the bases, acting out a phantom clutch play in front of an imaginary crowd.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... DENVER — To the critics who wonder how it could be worth spending more than the average American’s annual mortgage payment on a year’s worth of travel baseball, Nate Brandt has the answer. Brandt has two sons who play club baseball, a 15-year-old for USA Prime Colorado and an 11-year-old for Gameday. For both his boys to play from the spring through the fall, Brandt is spending around $50,000 this year.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... DENVER — In an increasingly commercialized youth sports landscape, Thomas Trotman is good with going into the red. Travel youth sports have created an economic gulf between families who can afford to pay thousands of dollars per activity annually, and those who cannot.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... DENVER — Vinny Amorosa’s rise as a budding wrestling star left his father, Joe, wrestling with his approach to youth sports. Vinny is already a multiple-time youth state champion at 10 years old, but as he’s piled up tournament wins, Joe has taken a hard look at his son’s pursuit of the sport. The family spends about $10,000 a year on Vinny’s club wrestling and the various tournaments he travels to, both in- and out-of-state.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... UCLA at Cal Records: UCLA 0-0; Cal 0-0 Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium, Berkeley TV: ESPN Radio: 810-AM Series history: UCLA leads 58-35-1.