Did you know the California Legislature runs in seasons just like a major league sport? Right now, we’re in the break right before playoffs begin. October 12th when the Governor signs bills into law is the equivalent of championships and medal ceremonies. Right after that comes the off-season: rebuild time, trades, backdoor deals, and pre-season positioning for Opening Day in January. But no one tracks the news like this.
Driving around Sacramento, listening to A’s games on the radio, I realized something: no one is ever talking about a crisis in sports journalism?” But I’m constantly hearing about the crisis in our political news, the rise of misinformation, the so-called “post-truth” era, and all the other such nonsense talking points. Stories about who said what dominate headlines, but that’s like only reporting on what Michael Jordan said while trash talking Craig Ehlo… and then never mentioning that MJ scored 69 points and the Bulls won the game. That’s how our political news works: random play highlight reels, trash talking compilations, and maybe a big rivalry game winner once or twice a year. Even worse, they've convinced us that player drafts and trades — elections —- are actually the championship.
So I started asking myself: what are the objective measures for the political world? What are the points, the fouls, the wins, and losses. Baseball is rich in statistics. Just watch Moneyball. Stats determine how teams move and function. Viewers and fans have the same access to all of it. But what do citizens have when it comes to G-Ball stats? A multiple step search process that is long, tedious, and no centralized scoreboard for our own elected officials’ voting histories.
The Sacramento Sentinel is my attempt to learn, report, and talk about the G-Ball stats. My goal is to root all reporting in objective measures and actual “plays.” That led me first to bills and voting records. That’s when I discovered the legislative calendar, and the rhythm of the G-Ball season. In my first few issues I’ve focused on five bills, all introduced by the same representative: Buffy Wicks. She’s a legislative All-Star who also holds a key team position as Chair of the Appropriations Committee. She’s a superstar player and the game is structured so that nearly every major play has to pass through her hands on the way to the goal line. So far, each of the bills we tracked: AB 609, 712, 737, 853, and 1370 are advancing past committee and house floor votes and are making their way toward the Governor’s desk. She’s 5 for 5.
There’s one major difference between professional sports and G-Ball: when we watch baseball, we’re fans, spectators, enjoying others play a game we love. But in G-Ball we’re citizens. We’re actually players. The points and scores directly shape our lives, communities, pocketbooks, and futures. G-Ball isn’t a spectator sport. As bills pass through various subcommittees and floor votes we should be reaching out to our representatives, and making it clear what we want to have happen. But, we’re playing a game we don’t know the rules of. Heck, almost all of us have forgotten we’re actually playing.
This is my personal and public attempt to remember the rules and to report on the season, the all-stars, and the major plays. I’m only one person for now, so I can’t report on the whole game. But I’ll start where I can start. Just like any player, I’ll fumble the ball, miss plays, and just straight up make mistakes. I’m learning how to play a game I was dropped into. Our 2025 season is winding down here in California. In the off-season I’ll be publishing issues that cover the shape of the field, the teams, the players, and of course, the scoreboard.
Stay Sharp
Stay Sovereign
Let the people watch the game!