Cal's Top-12 Stories of 2021, Part 2: Plenty of High Notes and, Of Course, the Pandemic
The story that just won’t away — the COVID-19 pandemic — once again draped itself over the sports world in 2021, including at Berkeley.
In a year when Cal athletes excelled at the Tokyo Olympics, on the PGA tour, in the NFL and major league baseball, COVID impacted so much of what the Golden Bears did or tried to do.
The Cal football team had just about overcome an unexpectedly disappointing start to its season when COVID rose up and wrecked what should have been a delightfully successful trip to Tucson, Arizona. The Bears couldn’t recover.
Cal’s professional athletes certainly weren’t immune. At least four of them missed time after contracting the virus, including one who finally fessed up he hadn’t been vaccinated.
*** Here are Nos. 7 through 12 in our countdown of top Cal stories.
So, as we count down the final six chapters of Cal’s top-12 stories in 2021, there simply is no escaping the persistent reach of COVID-19:
Marcus Semien
Photo by Nick Wosika, USA Today
6. Marcus Semien bets on himself . . . and wins big
Former Cal baseball star Marcus Semien, whose father Damien played football for the Golden Bears, delivered a historic season with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Semien, 31, finished third in the American League MVP voting with the A’s in 2019, then slumped a bit in 2020. Greeted in free agency with no attractive long-term offers, Semien accepted a one-year contract with Toronto for 2021. He was convinced he would bounce back and position himself for a big payday this offseason. And he did just that.
The Blue Jays moved Semien from shortstop to second base and he responded by hitting a career-best 45 home runs — an all-time record for a second baseman. He became Cal’s first All-Star starter since another second baseman -- Jeff Kent in 2005 -- drove in 102 runs, scored 115, led the majors with 86 extra-base hits and was second in wins above replacement (WAR) at 7.1.
The payoff arrived when Semien signed a seven-year deal with the Texas Rangers worth $175 million.
Collin Morikawa shows off the Claret Jug
Photo by Peter van den Berg, USA Today
5. Collin Morikawa becomes an international star
Still just 24, Collin Morikawa resides among the elite on the world of professional golf. The 2019 Cal grad followed up on his spectacular 2020 campaign (two titles, including the PGA Championship in San Francisco) by ascending to No. 2 in this year’s final world rankings.
Morikawa won two more titles in 2021, including his second major — the British Open at Royal St. George’s in England, where he scored a two-stroke victory over Jordan Spieth.
He followed that with an amazing comeback at the Tokyo Olympics, firing an eight-under 63 in the final round to climb from 17th place to a seven-way tie for third. He got through four holes in the playoff before C.T. Pan edged him for the bronze medal.
Morikawa went undefeated at the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, helping the U.S. to victory over Europe. Then he became the first American to win the European tour points crown.
He successfully proposed to long-time girlfriend Katherine Zhu on the beach at the Bahamas early this month while there to play the Hero World Challenge. But Morikawa couldn’t hold a five-stroke lead entering the final round that would have clinched the world No. 1 ranking with a victory.
Aaron Rodgers
Photo by Dan Powers, USA Today
4. Aaron Rodgers: A Man for All Seasons
No Cal athlete, past or present, stayed in the headlines as consistently in 2021 as Aaron Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers’ 38-year-old quarterback.
See if you can keep up: He wins the NFL’s 2020 MVP, award announces his engagement to actress Shailene Woodley, hosts Jeopardy for two weeks and says he wants to be permanent host, says he wants to be traded from the Packers, criticizes team management, holds out leading to training camp, finally shows up, says he's been “immunized," then gets COVID, admits he wasn't vaccinated, and earns public backlash after a squirrelly explanation.
Rodgers began this season with one of the worst performances of his career, passing for just 133 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns in Green Bay’s 38-3 opening-day loss to New Orleans. But in 13 games since (he missed one game after testing positive for COVID), he’s thrown 33 touchdown passes and just two more picks, positioning the Packers for home-field advantage through the playoffs and establishing himself as the MVP favorite.
And we still have no idea where Rodgers will be playing a year from now, so the headlines will keep coming after this season ends.
Ryan Murphy, left, celebrates USA's gold-medal relay with Caeleb Dressel
Photo by Rob Schumacher, USA Today
3. At home and in Tokyo, Cal excels in the water
The Bears once again thrived in the water in 2021. The Cal men’s swim team was runnerup at the NCAA championships last spring — its 11th straight finish in the top two at nationals. The women were fourth at NCAAs, extending a streak of top-five finishes to 15 consecutive years. And the men’s water polo team won its 15th NCAA championship this month — its first since 2016 — with a 13-12 victory over USC in the title match.
In between, Cal made waves at the Tokyo Olympics, winning 14 of their 16 total medals in swimming, rowing or water polo. Ex-Cal star Ryan Murphy could not repeat his gold-medal performance in the 100 and 200 backstroke, but was part of the United States’ world-record-setting 400 medley relay team that took home gold. Murphy also won silver and bronze in his individual specialties Abbey Weitzeil picked up silver and bronze in relays, adding to Cal’s total of seven in the swimming pool.
Murphy made his biggest news by saying swimming is “probably not clean” when it comes to doping. Although Murphy later said he was not referring to any particular individual, the media assumed his comments were directed at the Russian swimmers. Two members of the Russian Olympic Committee team, Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov, finished ahead of Murphy in the 100 backstroke, and Rylov took the gold in the 200 backstroke.
Among Cal’s five medal winners in rowing, Rosemary Popa and her Australian teammates won gold in the women’s four event and Sydney Payne and Canada captured the women’s eight gold. Roser Tarrago helped Spain claim silver in women’s water polo, one of two medals the Bears secured in the sport.
Grant Anticevich
Photo by Jeffrey Swinger, USA Today
2. Bears whiff again in the Big 3
Cal failed to reach the postseason in football and men’s and women’s basketball for the second straight calendar year. That hadn’t happened in consecutive years since missing out on a football bowl game and the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournaments three straight years from 1998 through 2000 — more than two decades ago.
The Cal football team could not overcome a 1-5 start and finished 5-7 a year after going 1-3 in a COVID-shortened campaign. Wins over Stanford and USC highlighted the Bears’ late-season surge.
Coach Mark Fox’s men’s basketball team went 9-20 last season and finished last in the Pac-12 at 3-17. The Bears, who have suffered through four straight losing seasons for the first time in more than 40 years, are 8-5 to start the 2021-22 campaign and take an encouraging four-game win streak into the resumption of Pac-12 play.
On the women’s side, coach Charmin Smith’s Bears were 1-16 in an injury-plagued season a year ago and have a combined record of 4-27 in conference games the past two seasons. They have shown progress to open the ’21-22 schedule and will take a 9-2 record into Pac-12 action.
Chase Garbers
Photo by Stan Szeto, USA Today
1. The pandemic. Again. Still.
A year after COVID-19 reduced Cal’s football season to four games, the Bears played every game on their schedule this fall, even if that required a reshuffle of dates involving USC.
Cal began the season 1-5 but seemed headed in the right direction after decisive wins against Colorado and Oregon State. Next up was Arizona, whose 20-game losing streak was the longest in Pac-12 history. What could go wrong?
Well, restrictive local COVID protocols forced the Bears to leave home 24 players, including quarterback Chase Garbers, from their trip to Tucson, and the punchless Bears lost 10-3. Cal went on to beat USC in its finale — three weeks after the game was postponed because the Bears didn’t have enough players available — but there was no way to make up for the loss to Arizona and the Bears missed out on a bowl bid.
Former Cal athletes in the pros also were touched by the pandemic. Aaron Rodgers — who created controversy with his comments about vaccines — Jared Goff, Jaylen Brown and Andrew Vaughn each missing time after contracting COVID.
Cover photo of Collin Morikawa by Kyle Terada, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo