Barry Tompkins

Sausalito

Sports Broadcaster at Marin Independent Journal

Boxing play by play commentator for @SHOsports. 35 years play by play commentator Pac12, Mountain West, WCC football & basketball.

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Articles

Barry Tompkins: No more bets, you can bet on it

6 days ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

To those of you who paid any attention whatsoever to my bold predictions last week, I have one question. Why?? I didn’t think the Warriors had a prayer of winning Game 7 of the first round series with Houston. Not in front of a rabid home crowd and not playing against a defense that, were it not on a basketball court, could incur assault and battery charges.
Barry Tompkins: You’re only as old as social media says

1 week ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

I was peacefully running on the bike path not too many weeks ago when a gaggle of teenagers zipped by me on their bikes and I heard one of them yell, “get going, old man.” I looked all around before I realized they were talking to me. I did manage to offer a snappy retort that, as I recall, included a stern use of the word “whippersnapper,” before picking up my pace and finishing in a sprint.
Barry Tompkins: The hard, hard hardwood and the football future

2 weeks ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

The Butler did it. And boy did it hurt. The Golden State Warriors came into Wednesday night’s Game 2 with the Houston Rockets armed with a confidence that it could bring a two-game lead back to the Chase Center for Saturday’s third game. And then, in what was more a series of muggings than a basketball game, Jimmy Butler got undercut on a rebound attempt and fell from the sky smashing his pelvis on an unforgiving basketball court.
Barry Tompkins: Stephen Curry and the Gamekeepers

3 weeks ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

Isn’t it odd that somehow by losing to the Los Angeles Clippers in the home finale on Sunday, the Golden State Warriors might have put their team in a better position to keep themselves vital in the NBA playoffs? The NBA is 100 percent a league of matchups. And frankly, there are a number of teams that could lie ahead for the Dubs that they simply don’t match up with. The Houston Rockets, however, are not one of them.
Barry Tompkins: Love and hate in the Peach State

1 month ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

I am of the same belief as the long ago comedian Groucho Marx, who said, “I’d never want to join a club that would have me as a member.”For that reason I’m very happy that Augusta National either never sent me an invitation to join, or it was tragically lost in the mail. I’m quite sure it was the latter. Mind you, when it came to a pecking order for membership in one of the world’s most exclusive golf clubs I was on the list somewhere behind Ted Bundy and Charles Manson.
Barry Tompkins: Torpedo bats and the Giants both off to strong starts

1 month ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

Just when you thought the game of baseball was headed back to it’s rich cultural roots — like sunflower seed spitting, body part scratching, and game plans not printed on a spread sheet, along comes another propeller head with another computer print out that, mercifully, no one had ever before considered. This one has to do with the sports’ primary weapon of mass destruction, the bat.
Barry Tompkins: The sad, untimely death of Cinderella

1 month ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

The sports world this week mourns the tragic death of Cinderella. The cause of death was bludgeoning by her ugly stepsister NIL. She was last seen publicly in 2022 in the NCAA College Basketball Championships in her incarnation as the St. Peter’s Peacocks. Until her untimely death this year Cinderella would often appear during March Madness. In 2018 she showed up in the form of Loyola Chicago.
Barry Tompkins: You’ve got to like the odds

1 month ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

I’m hoping to not be embarrassed again this year. It’s now been four seasons in a row where I have finished second to my dog on my March Madness brackets. This year I’m even more concerned than in previous seasons. We have a new dog and she is way smarter than her predecessor. Rosie, my previous opponent, wasn’t really a fan. I’d present her with two pieces of paper for each game, and the one she tripped over is the one I interpreted as her choice. Dottie, her successor, is formidable.
The purge, and what comes next

2 months ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

Football is a brutal sport. It breaks records, it breaks bones, it breaks traditions, and every year, it breaks hearts. In the end, there’s only one team getting confetti poured on it. Only one team that wins the last game. Only one world champion. There’s a parade through the streets. Hundreds of thousands of people who just want to be a small part of it. Then it’s over. And the overriding theme when the last champagne cork has popped is, “now go out there and do it again.”And if you don’t?
Barry Tompkins: Curry’s joy puts him in elite company

2 months ago | marinij.com | Barry Tompkins

I think I’ve mentioned this before in this weekly yarn, but all the reasons that one might have for getting into the business of covering sports for gainful employment are completely stripped from your soul the minute you no longer cover the “home team.”I get asked often, “Who’s your favorite team? Who do you root for?” And, the sad truth is I don’t have one and I don’t root. That joy of fandom is promptly beaten out of you the first time you do a game outside of a local broadcast.