With the Giants stumbling ever downward towards the midpoint of the season, we decided to check in with El Lefty Malo and McCovey Chronicles to get their opinion on a season that is rapidly approaching the point where "are you ready for some football?" will be the motto of the second half of the season....

You know, if last fall wasn't exactly a great time for Bay Area sports, this spring, especially this weekend, has to be considered a great moment. We listened to Gary Radnich this morning and he was complaining about not having anything to complain about. ...

here's todays sports wrap up...

-In a GAME THAT MATTERED, the A's lost their opening game, 4-0 to the Mariners. It's too easy to make much out of the first game of the season, but it should be noted that the A's took 17 out of 19 games against the Mariners last season and the Mariners just halved that. What happened yesterday could basically be summed up by this: great pitching. Mariner’s wunderkind Felix Hernandez, all of 20 years old,......

-We'll say this about the Warriors-- they got some gumption. After a series of not so great games and the shellacking at the hands of the Spurs, the Warriors went out and beat the mighty Suns. They started off scoring 45 points in the first quarter and then held onto win 124-119. J-Rich scored 36 points, 24 of them on 8 three- point plays. Stephen Jackson had 29 points and Brittle Baron had 21. They......

Here's the daily wrap up of the sports news...

Here's today's wrap up of sports news...

Here's todays sports wrap up....

Here's todays wrapup of sports stories...

In Part I, we discussed just how good the Giants would be this season. Then, when it was agreed we were looking at a .500 team, we tried to figure out how okay we were with it. Today, we try to assess blame and then make some predictions. And away we go.... ...

What to make of this year's Giants? We have no clue. No Giants team has been this much of an enigma since maybe 2003. After last year's soul crushing of a season, Giants management vowed to get younger and to change things up. They didn't. In fact, you could describe this season as the same but different. There is a new manager, a new corner infield, a new catcher and centerfielder but the team still......

-The Warriors get a big lead, lose a big lead, then regain a big lead as they beat the NY Knicks. Tim Kawakami thinks the Warriors need to tank the season by giving Patrick O’Bryant some playing time. ...

-In the biggest game of the year, the Warriors stepped up and beat on the Indiana Pacers with ex-Pacer Stephen Jackson leading the way. What does it all mean? ...

-The Sharkies lost to the Dallas Stars, 4-3. It's the second consecutive loss against the Stars this week and who does the NHL scheduling anyways? It's also the Sharks third consecutive home loss. Their main culprit? Lousy power plays. So, does all this mean the Sharks need to bring in some more veteran guys? ...

We were watching all the ESPN gab-fest shows yesterday and every single reporter on every single show ripped the Giants for all things Barry. We know it doesn't matter in the long run, but we do not like it when our favorite baseball team is ripped to shreds. Needless to say, the whole Barry thing is just leaving bad tastes all around. So much so, Magowan himself sent out a letter to all season ticket holders saying that mistakes were made in the past, but this time they really, really are trying harder but they really had no choice to do what they did. As El Lefty put it, the team’s slogan this year should be: Your 2007 San Francisco Giants: Savor the Grim Inevitability! ...

-Sharks score five unanswered goals to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. It was their first victory in Edmonton since November 2003. -Mike Piazza tries the words "DH" on for size. -Lane Kiffin wants to hire Greg Knapp, as in the guy who was the OC in Atlanta and couldn't do anything with Michael Vick. Knapp, by the way, has a lot more experience than Kiffin does. Oh, btw, did we mention Kiffin was hated down......

Miss Monta Ellis' last minute shot two nights ago? Here it is. -UCLA beat Cal 62-46. Ray Ratto says UCLA was just too good. -the Stanford men’s basketball team beat USC. -The Cal women also lost. -What's up for the Sharks second half? -The Dallas Cowboys wants to interview 49ers OC Norv Turner for their head coaching job. As we despise the Cowboys, we wish Norv good luck. -The Golden State Warriors are only......

-The Warriors beat the New Orleans/OK City Hornets and on KNBR this morning we heard the word "playoffs" being mentioned in reference to the Warriors this season. We'll let Basektball Chris handle that one, but how many seasons now have the Warriors gone on a run in December/January and had people thinking this might be the year? Let's just say the season ain't official 'til Baron Davis goes down. And Tim Kawakami agrees. Meanwhile, are the Warriors better without J-Rich? ...

-Sharks lose to the Dallas Stars 3-0. Not really a surprise considering the Stars were looking to open up a can of whoop-as and the Sharkies were coming off a four-game break. It's the Sharks second loss to the Stars and the third time they've been blanked in the past fourteen games. ...

-Frank Gore and Larry Allen from the 49ers and Raiders DE Derrick Burgess get an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl. The Raiders are stunned only Burgess is going. Hmmm....maybe not being one of the worst teams in NFL history would have helped. ...

So how did the Giants' hiring of Bruce Bochy go over with Giants fans? Well, does the word "meh" mean anything to you. It's not that people were upset (well, some people were) but most people just kind of gave it a shrug and said that it's not such a bad pick. Kind of like when you go out looking for a used car to buy and you dream of a sports car or a hybrid and you wind up doing what everyone else does-- buy a Honda. It's not very exciting and it's not very sexy but the car just plain ole works. ...

Some of you just can't get enough Gavvy Gav -- Berkleyist finds a picture of him and Sofia Milos (Newsom?) by Luke Thomas. Us, we can't get enough MC Hammer! This may be SFist, but we Hella Heart Oakland. Lots of other new blogs of note. Jon Swenson says Phil Zajicek is blogging his Tour of California ride. And just in time for spring training, El Lefty Malo finds a new Giants blog, Giants......

Rarely a day late, always a few dollars short. Michael Strickland gets the headline of the day, with "Satanic Love Cult at City Hall." Leila at Hypnagogica spends Valentine's Day beating people with pillows and thinking about love. Scott Beale was there taking photos. Jane Kim spends it worried about Eddy Zheng's deportation hearing. Lots and lots going on in urban development. A major landlord in Japantown wants to sell. Even more troubling are......

And the Giants got their man. Monday it was announced that Matt Morris, formerly of the Cardinals, is now a member in proud standing of the Black & Orange. As we said earlier, Morris is the proto-typical Sabaen pick-up: a gritty veteran just beginning the downside of their career and coming off a few injury-laden down years. When he was good, which was several years ago, he was the anchor of a pretty good Cardinal pitching staff. In 2001, he won 22 games and is 101-62 with a 3.62 ERA over his career. He is also known as both a "gamer" and an inning eater. Considering the chinese fire drill that was last year's pitching staff, that's a good thing. Last year, however, he was 14-10 with a 4.11 ERA, but he was 10-2 with a 3.10 ERA before the All-Star break last season and 4-8 with a 5.32 ERA after it. That could either mean he lost his stuff and r'uh oh or it could also mean he was simply fatigued after having shoulder surgery at the end of the 2004 season. The Giants hope it was the later. ...

Some video to amuse you as you kill your Friday afternoon at the office: Schlomo Rabinowitz suggests what not to buy for your little pisher this holiday season, and Josh Wolf posts his footage of the latest anti-war protests. Speaking of motion pictures, somebody has paid Malcolm Gladwell $1 million for the movie rights to Blink. We can't believe it either. El Lefty Malo takes a look at the public cost of privately built......

The Giants, who just love their history, are getting ready to sign manager Felipe Alou's son Moises to a two year deal worth something like thirteen or fourteen million bucks, making him their right fielder. He's thirty-nine. Hmm. Felipe and his brothers Matty and Jesus played for the Giants in the sixties, so, from that perspective, this is a warm and fuzzy sort of thing, and Moises hit the crap out of the ball for......

First thing is, you gotta understand that at least one SFist writer obsesses over the Giants to a damned near unhealthy point and scours the internet on a fairly regular (constant?) basis looking for Giants orts. So it's pretty rare when significant San Francisco baseball news reaches him through the papers first. Today, though, the Chron had a pretty sweet scoop when it reported that the Giants have all but signed Florida closer Armando Benitez......

In their first foray into this year's gi-normous free agent market, the Giants signed longtime Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel to a three year, $12.25 million deal yesterday. It seems kind of bananas that they've committed that much loot to a guy who turns 38 in April, but they've got the deal structured so they pay him over five years -- $2.5 mil. in '05, $4 mil. in '06 and '07, and deferred payments of......