San Francisco Chronicle Sports - Spoken Edition

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — His face showed little expression as he glided his way down the hill. This was serious business — no laughing, smiling or crying. With his two-time Olympic gold medalist father holding on, 17-month-old Jax Ligety took his first trek down the slope a few months ago. The look: pure determination. It’s a look Ted Ligety knows all too well. He’s that determined to return to the top. For years, Ligety has been plagued by knee and back issues.

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he is “exploring the legal options” after former 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster — who is on probation for a gun charge in the Bay Area — was again booked in jail over the weekend, this time in Tampa, Fla., on suspicion of a domestic violence.

Kevin Durant might not believe in fairy tales. But his coach believes in unicorns. Huh? Bear with me - this is where we are with the Warriors. We’ve run out of basketball words to describe what the last four years have been like and what the next six months may require so now we’re using terms that come from children’s picture books.

Jerry Hollendorfer won training titles at 51 Golden Gate Fields meetings from 1986 to 2017. Jonathan Wong has won the past two and is well on his way to a third straight at the current fall season. The 72-year-old Hall of Famer and the 29-year-old upstart clash in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Berkeley Handicap in which Hollendorfer runs G. G. Ryder and Wong runs Gabo’s Macondo and Mithqaal. G. G.

One enduring lesson in nearly 14 years covering golf for The Chronicle: Not much compares to Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson playing alongside each other, especially in contention on Sundays. Their spirited, simultaneous charges electrified Augusta National in the final round of the 2009 Masters, even if they both ultimately faltered. Their pairing three years later at Pebble Beach, where Mickelson uncommonly crushed Woods in the final round, created similar buzz.

Opportunity knocks. Before Monday night’s courtside meltdown between Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, the Warriors were on their way to making history by winning their fourth NBA title in five years, maybe on their way to a couple more titles after that. Big stuff. They figured to go down in history as phenomenal team, with an asterisk. (*So much talent that it was impossible to lose.

All the news that fits the bottom of the birdcage ... •What the Warriors must do now is twist the narrative, so the so-called turmoil and discord is all in the minds of critics and haters, and the attackers only strengthen the Warriors’ team bond. Draymond Green is the perfect man to lead this counterattack. •This has been bothering me, and admittedly I’m not strong on payroll economics: The Raiders have three first-round draft picks. First-rounders get hefty contracts.

What if every pro and college team in the Bay Area puts donation boxes at the entrances, giving every fan the chance to drop in $1 for fire relief? No way this would happen, but if the Raiders had the chance, how fast would they trade Derek Carr straight-up for JimmyGaroppolo? All anybody really wanted from Carr last week was a My Bad — a simple admission that he made a huge mistake by grounding a pass on that 4th-and-5 play late against the Chargers.

Draymond Green might have thrown his team into momentary crisis this week, but he also threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the league on Thursday after a team shoot-around in Houston. “If you’re one of those other 29 teams in the league you’ve got to beat us,” Green said in his first statement since being suspended for his argument with Kevin Durant. “We not going to beat us. We’re going to continue to do what we do.

Sometime during the offseason, Bob Melvin might want to pop open a bottle of Sonoma Pinot Noir and invite his friend Bruce Bochy over for a glass. And for a nice long conversation about the brave new world of baseball managing. Because Melvin, a few years younger than Bochy but basically from the same generation, is proving that an “old school” manager can succeed in a “new school” baseball world. Exactly what Bochy will be asked to do next season.

Twenty minutes out of Morgan Hill and a couple of hours from game time, Sacred Heart Cathedral football coach Barry McLaughlin got the call. “Turn around the bus and come back,” SHC athletic director Phil Freed said. “Game has been postponed.” The 6 p.m. Central Coast Section Open Division 3 quarterfinal game at Live Oak was one of 33 playoff games in the Bay Area called off Monday because of poor air quality caused by the Camp Fire in Butte County.

A’s third baseman Matt Chapman was honored as the best overall defensive player in the big leagues, with the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award. Because of the way he treats enemy batsmen, Chapman is The Unwelcome Matt. Full props to the Giants for hiring Farhan Zaidi as their new top front-office man. But it’s curious that Bruce Bochy was not consulted during the process. Bochy is a future Hall of Fame manager with major S.F. seniority.

It’s a little early to hand out the NFL MVP award, but you know what they say: Vote early and vote often. So I’m voting for Kayla Morris. Morris is a member of the 49ers’ Gold Rush dance team. When the Raiders played the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday, the Gold Rush was on the field for the national anthem. Morris, first identified by KRON (Channel 4), took a knee. Will she be kicked off the squad, suspended, warned or reprimanded? That’s a mystery.

In late October, The Chronicle published a six-part series examining The Future of Football. The premise was simple: Now that we know the sport can cause lasting brain damage, driving some to suicide, what are we going to do about it. A dedicated team of Chronicle journalists spent months digging into the subject. You can read the whole thing at www.sfchronicle.com/future-of-football. In a letter to Chronicle subscribers, I encouraged response.

Will Muschamp The South Carolina football coach might have authored the perfect definition of “one-track mind.” While most of the country was riveted to midterm-election results, Muschamp apparently was unaware that there was even an election Tuesday. According to Yahoo, when Muschamp was asked by a reporter what effort he had taken to teach his players — many of whom could vote for the first time this year — about voting, he had no response.