So, after a mere 13 months, this is it ... our last little get-together on a Sunday. In case you missed it, The Sentinel is throwing its efforts behind a revamped Saturday edition ... but fear not, gentle reader, as Miss Manners would say, this weekly exercise in spelling and punctuation will continue on Tuesdays, starting next week.

It's all part of the reshuffling, not only in our little corner of the newsroom, but the paper as a whole has been through, as we welcome the new weekend edition.

A couple of changes have already taken place in our Saturday pages, which were hastened by the start of the high school football season.

The bulk of Friday's major league baseball box scores can now be found on our Web site, www.HanfordSentinel.com, allowing us to focus fully on Friday night's games.

We've also launched NFL Saturday, a full page devoted to previewing Sunday's and Monday's games, with special emphasis on the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.

Local Sports Announcements, which is where local nonprofit and recreational groups can list upcoming meetings and sign-ups, will now run on Tuesdays along with submitted team photos.

We'll also be featuring a high school athlete or team on Fridays.

And, yes, with the launch of the ONtap section later this week, we'll now have a source for daily television listings.

Amid all this change though remains one constant - the hardest stories to tell are the ones we don't know about. It's impossible to be everywhere, and especially trips outside our area, so calls and e-mail with results, story ideas or even what's on the menu at Hanford West football games are always welcome at 583-2430 or sports@HanfordSentinel.com.

So, with that in mind, we move on to more thoughts worth that second cup of coffee on a Sunday morning as we await not only the Seahawks-49ers and Giants-Dodgers games this afternoon, but Monday's two-hour season premiere of "Heroes" and the search for a new catch phrase to transition into the notes portion of the column.

l Was a little surprised, in reading the obituary for Monte Clark during the week, that his tenure as coach of the 49ers rated only a brief mention, but a check of the record book unveils a portion of football history that, if your're a 49ers Faithful, you pray never happens again.

In 1976, Clark took over from Dick Nolan a team on the way down after three straight playoff appearances earlier in the decade, all three seasons ending in losses to the Dallas Cowboys.

It was also an era that marked the team's move from Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park to Candlestick Park, which was expanded into a full bowl for football, a change that, unfortunately, may have compounded the stadium's infamous winds.

Surprisingly, considering that home games have been sold out for years, the home opener against the Chicago Bears in Clark's one year at the helm drew only 44,158, with a home game two weeks later against the New York Jets attracting just 42,961.

Clark led the team to an encouraging 8-6 mark that year, but the fates turned during the off-season.

(Warning: Two curse words will soon appear.)

The widows of team founders Victor and Tony Morabito sold the team to the DeBartolo family, who installed Joe Thomas (remember, I warned you about the curse words) as general manager, marking the beginning of some of the darkest days in team history, perhaps capped in 1978 - with O.J. Simpson as one of the lead running backs - by a 6-3 loss to the fledgling Tampa Bay Buccaneers before 30,931 in the home finale.

What's that they say about the light at the end of the tunnel (as long as it's not a train coming at you)? During the off-season, Thomas was dumped in favor of Bill Walsh, who became head coach as well, and I'm sure you know the rest of the story from here.

l And finally, this public service announcement: Yes, we know Beyonce had a great video. But this is the sports section, sit down and shush already, Kanye!

Richard de Give is The Sentinel's sports editor. He can be reached at 583-2430 or rdegive@HanfordSentinel.com.

(Sept. 20, 2009)