Here's todays sports news...

We have to admit to becoming positively stoked about all the All Star Festivities these days, especially as tonight is the big Home Run Derby. Local sports talk radio is all over it, ESPN is here, Fox has been promoting the hell out of it, and Jay Z is even throwing a party for it (and hey, Hovah, if you happen to be reading this and want to help hype it by having an on the spot reporter, just drop us a line). And we're not the only ones excited-- reports say that the All Star Game is bringing the city big bucks. ...

Now that Netroots have slowed down on the Tauscher hating, they've moved onto another subject to which their ire is drawn, KSFO. One of the diarists on Daily Kos is telling the story of poor Spocko the Blogger. Spocko had a thing about KSFO for whatever reason and decided to record bits and pieces of various shows with the hopes of capturing of something truly appallingly in bad taste and full of invective. Our guess is that he probably spent a good ten minutes or so before he had enough damning evidence. With recorded bits and pieces of the shows. Spocko the Blogger turned some of the quotes into mp3s and sent them to various sponsors of KSFO shows as well as their corporate overlords. The obvious reason, of course, is to show those holding the purse strings just what they are spending money on....

The -ists this week had politics on the brain. And what goes better with politics? Partying-- that's two great tastes in one. Oh, and Kevin Federline...can't forget about Kevin Federline. That's three great tastes in one. -Bostonist discussed two big state issues-- what sort of math constitutes a marriage and what kind of alcohol can be sold in most grocery stores. And the politically minded Curt Schilling went on "Jeopardy!". ...

Yesterday, the Barry underwent surgery on his left elbow to remove bone chips that had been bothering him all season. It's his what, fifth, sixth surgery on his elbow? And that's not even including all the surgery on his knees or all the other, err, needles that's been used on his body. All of which brings us to the second big question surrounding the Giants in their off season of discontent, how do you solve a problem like Barry? ...

First, onto baseball: The Giants are now on a three-game roll after taking two from the Cubbies and beating the Reds in ten innings Monday. Your Black & Orange hero? Shea Hillenbrand who hit the game-winning home run in extra innings. That trade is suddenly looking less like a total disaster these days. Also of note, the heating up of Barry Bonds who hit numero 730 and has now hit five home runs in his past six starts. That gulp you're hearing is of pitchers in the NL, other teams in the Wild Card hunt, and officials at Major League Baseball now pondering the meaning of a so hot right now Barry. The Giants have now won 15 of 21 and are for the first time in a long while, .500. No, we're not going to go there as of yet but we're starting to disbelieve our disbelief. ...

This morning while drinking our coffee and surfing the Web, we went to Deadspin and saw this little blurb about Giants' fans treatment of Phillies pitcher Brett Myers. Myers was cited for taking a few swings at his wife and in typical jock-land style, was treated by kid gloves by his employers and the rest of Major League Baseball. Yesterday was Myers first day back from his tiny, tiny suspension and we guess didn't get booed vociferously enough for some people. Thus the Deadspin post, snarking on us Giants. That's followed by the usual snide comments about hippies, overwrought political correctness, and too many lame-ass corporate fans. ...

Remember how we said Bud wouldn't investigate Barry because it would serve absolutely no purpose? We were wrong. Yesterday, news leaked out that Bud is all set to investigate Barry and steroids with former Senator George Mitchell leading the investigation. We don't think it's much of a stretch to say that this investigation is nothing but a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. ...

Frank Thomas has hit 448 home runs, and has hit .307/.427/.568, over his 16-year career. That's pretty impressive, but in the last 2 seasons, Frank Thomas has been mostly injured: he's appeared in a total of 108 major league baseball games. Whatever Frank Thomas does in the 2006 baseball season, he'll do in the uniform of the Oakland A's. Thursday, the A's signed Thomas to a $500,000 contract, which reportedly includes $2.6 million in......

We've come to bury Ken Macha, not to praise him . . . 2005 was a down year for the A's, and they won 88 games. That's 3 fewer than they won in 2004--a year when they were expected to contend for the World Series. Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder are starting in the playoffs for the Braves and Cardinals this week, and A's pitchers had the 6th-best staff ERA, and the lowest opponents'......

The New York Daily News is reporting that Major League Baseball is investigating Barry Bonds and looking into his various troubles. Dude has 99 problems and, yes, a, umm, "woman" is one. Let's see, there's possible income tax evasion, possible perjury, and the whole steroid thing. And then there's the latest problem- the surgeon who performed Barry's latest knee surgery, a Dr. Albert Ting, has been reprimanded twice by the California State Medical Board and......

Some might suggest that the A’s only took two of three at the Coliseum this week from the of-all-things-still-major-league-leading Chicago White Sox because the Sox played two games like a Little League team whose coach missed the draft. They would probably go on to suggest that the two wins, which evened the home team’s record out at 11-11, don’t mean much with respect to its April slide, because again: major league baseball players aren’t......

San Francisco's favorite but least read Q&A columnist, the Essefficist, answers a question about what you can order online if you're really missing San Francisco....

Well, we'd been waiting for some actual baseball news to report, but in the meantime wacky San Jose mayor Ron Gonzalez is at it again.  This time, he went all the way to Phoenix, where he held a news conference outside Municipal Stadium and discussed his plan to bring a major league baseball team to San Jose.  Guess who plays Cactus League games at Phoenix Municipal?  The Bay Area, Mayor Gonzalez says, can't support......

Spring is in the air -- can you smell it? It's that intoxicating mix of grass, red clay, pine tar and chaw. That's right -- pitchers and catchers report in just a few hours, and no, we're not talking about a party in Key West. Of course, one of the joys of baseball for the rabid fan is signing up with your friends for a fantasy baseball league. Right now, people are poring over......

Making official something that's been talked about for months, Major League Baseball today announced that the 2007 All-Star Game will be held at the Stadium Formerly Known as Pac Bell Park. Isn't it nice to have some news about Bay Area baseball that doesn't involve injecting things in people's asses? The Giants last hosted the Midsummer Classic in 1984 and also held one in 1961, a game remembered primarily for pitcher Stu Miller getting blown off the mound by the Candlestick wind....