Poor Cal-- so close yet so far. Our theory about what happened is that the idea of Cal having the #1 ranked team in the country was so crazy that even in this year (decade, actually) of sports craziness, the God of Sports deemed that just too crazy and set the upset in motion. Of course, we're also looking at the Rockies in the World Series, so whadda we know? Okay, before the Raiders recap,......

Here's todays recap of last night's sports...

SFist Christy, our Oakland A's correspondent, gives it to you American League style! Read SFist Christy's Part I analysis of the A's catchers and infield here. You want wild cards? We’ve got wild cards. Just about every player in this category is a wild card; by that we mean you would have to be an awfully good seer to predict, with any certainty, their upcoming numbers for the season. Eric Chavez - 2006 Stats:......

We can't say this was one of the worst years in Bay Area sports but it has to be up there. One only has to look at the early part of this decade to see how far we've fallen. The A's and Giants were both perennial contenders and the Raiders were playoff bound. Only the 49ers and Warriors were woeful but well, beggars can't be choosers. We did get one Super Bowl appearance and one World Series out of our teams. ...

Ken Macha gets zero respect when it comes to managing the Oakland Athletics. It stands to reason that if he were Buck Showalter or Mike Scioscia, accolades would tumble from high heaven about his skills as a miracle worker. No manager in the American League has done more with less this year than Macha-not one! And yet, we utter his name among baseball denizens and they shrug their shoulders and continue imbibing a cold, frosty one. Macha does little to capture the imagination of A's fans in general. To them, he's the silver-haired lump sitting on the far right side of the dugout making the obvious pitching change when necessary. SFist wants to know one thing: Does Ken Macha matter? A's fans get all into a tizzy-fit over resident pretty-boy GM, Billy Beane, but does anyone else wearing the Kelly green and gold deserve any credit? If fans look closely, Beane's numbers-crunching hoo-haw isn't translating into fat numbers on the Stat sheet this year. ...

Shards of what remain of Barry Zito and the rest of Oakland A's pitching staff are still being recovered after yesterday's 14-0 threshing at the hands of the Texas Rangers. We're certain the Arlington faithful are downright giddy about their latent power display, as well they should be. This beating reminded everyone that there is-indeed--a real pennant race fomenting in the AL West. However, the Rangers should take a very hard look at the all-encompassing big picture scoreboard-the Athletics won that series by dominating the small things. And they beat Texas by going toe-to-toe with one of the best offenses in the American League. Moreover, the real battle was won in the trenches-through superior bullpen action, sans Joe Kennedy, Scott Sauerbeck and the rest of the DL boys, a smothering defense and timely hitting from Jay Payton, not through caveman-like hacking at off-speed pitches that Ranger batters have mastered. ...

The Oakland A's will win the American League West. Yes, this year! We (SFist) are not accustomed to making barrel-chested predictions that eventually turn to fool's gold as it often does on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight" -- we're merely pointing out the obvious: the Oakland A's will win the AL West this year. Despite their anemic, Milton Bradley-less performance last night at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels and Joe Saunders-- who they made seem like a young Ron Guidry than the junk-ball throwing Tommy John clone that he is-- the A's will win more of those tightly-sewn games than the Angels, or god forbid, the perennial flame-out Texas Rangers. And they'll do it without resident genius Billy Beane making a nano-move during the trade deadline frenzy. ...

You still the man, Rick . . . You still the man. A bold prediction from A's Brand Baseball: By the time "One Shining Moment" ends on Monday night, Barry Zito will have thrown the first pitch of the Oakland Athletics' 2006 season to Johnny Damon, who will still be an idiot. Unless it's raining--we don't predict that boldly. When we came to you before Opening Day last season, the home nine were in......

In May, while the A's struggled along 8 1/2 games behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the American League West, A's Brand Baseball promised not to mention the division standings any more until school started in the fall. It was hard to imagine, back then, that the A's would be playing meaningful games when schoolkids were buying pencil boxes and new backpacks, but here's this (Go Bears!), and here's this. After......

Interleague baseball concludes this weekend with yet another Giants/A's clash, this time at the House Al Destroyed. Frankly, all we can say is, well, umm, yawn. Seriously. At this point, interleague games are like some big sideshow tacked into the middle of a rich and exciting season, or at least everywhere else except for the Bay Area. It's like one of those "Buffy/Angel" Crossover Events in which one character appearing on the other's show served......

In which we review a homestand, and preview the first series of a road trip to the NL East: A's third baseman Eric Chavez was named American League Player of the Week for the week ending June 5. That's pretty good under any circumstances, but even better when you consider that on Wednesday June 1, Eric Chavez was having another bad week in what has been (we hope) a forgettable first third of the......

The A's have lost 8 games in a row, and 11 of their last 12. The A's are 9 games below .500. The A's have been outscored, in 2005, by every team in the American League and by every team in the National League. National League teams only have 8 hitters in their lineups, to American League teams' 9. The A's expected Rich Harden to turn into Tim Hudson this season, but this isn't......