A recent video has emerged showing Giants' legend Juan Marichal joining current legend Pedro Martinez in a little bout of cockfighting in their native country, the Dominican Republic. Apparently, Juan's cock took on Pedro's cock and won. Way to go, Little Juan. The video of it appeared on YouTube but was recently taken down, but this being the internet, a video in some form still exists. For obvious reasons, we won't post it but for those curious about it, you can see it here (warning-- site contains pictures of excessively well-endowed women.)...

We'll try not to overdo all the Bonds stuff today, but to get you started, here's a video taken from somebody out in the centerfield bleachers, right where the ball landed. It's a little hard to see what's going on (it reminded us of all those zombie attacks in those 28 Days/28 Weeks zombie movies in that the footage is very grainy and shaky and moves so fast you can hardly see what’s going......

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

After games like last night, Sports Talk radio can kind of be essential listening. Misery loves company after all and there's a lot of misery out there in Giants Land. Yes, the baseball season is 162 games so one loss don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world but sometimes one game means more than others. Like last night's game. ...

Here's todays sports news...

here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

So with baseball starting up this week, we thought we'd turn over the previews to our favorite revolutionary, Leon Trotsky. Coming up, quotes that he thinks sum up the season and Leon's predictions. You may not be interested in strategy, but strategy is interested in, you. To a man we are told is the smartest man in baseball, Tony LaRussa, who finally overcame years of being the most annoying and most overrated manager in baseball......

More Apple-related news came out yesterday, as it appears maybe there might just be something going on over there other than what was originally thought. In a story in the Financial Times of London, it was reported that Steve Jobs received about 7.5 million in stock options in 2001 without getting the approval from the company's board. Records were then falsified to make it look like he did get the approval. Don't you love that Apple commercial where the Apple guy tells the PC guy how iLife makes forging documents that much easier to do? ...

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for?...

Quick note on todays ALCS game-- the game is scheduled to start around 1:30 PST. The reason MLB is giving is because it's supposed to, yes, snow late Friday night and they'd like to get the game in before winter hits. The not quite said reason is because the Mets/Cardinals have to make up their rained out Game 1 and Fox would rather show the Mets/Cardinals game in prime time than the A's/Tigers game. ...

The Giants won (won!) their tenth out of thirteen games as Noah "Mr. August" Lowry pitched a 4-1 win over the Wild Card leading Cincinnati Reds, their second win in a row over the Reds. Sabaen's mid-season pickups are finally showing signs of life as Mike Stanton got the save and Shea Hillenbrand hit a two run home run. The Giants now find themselves three games back in the NL and 3 1/2 out of the Wild Card and with the Mets and Cardinals now flailing..... ...

Remember those halcyon days of 2005 when it became apparent the Giants season was not going to go as expected and everyone on the team started in with the kvetching? Well, it's happening again. First up to start in with the kvetching is the Giants' closer, Armando Benitez. Benitez complained to a writer about the negative vibes in the clubhouse, boos from the stands, negative comments from the broadcasters, and disrespect from the manager. Other than that, he's doing fine. ...

DTL">two-out-of-three games on the road against the best team in the National League will get you-- Giants bloggers are actually experiencing glee. And why not? They did take two from the Mets in three incredibly tough, well-fought games, the game on Sunday being one of those only in baseball epics that skirts the line between high comedy and high tragedy, something that happens when you blow two leads late and have a starting pitcher used as a pinch-hitter late in the game. The starting pitching is coming along, the bullpen has steadied (excepting Benitez's choke job), mighty Mo comes of the DL today, and the Giants start a stretch where sixteen out of nineteen games are against losing teams. Here comes the Big Run. Well, not so fast. ...

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wiedling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball......

There's good news and there's bad news in Giants-land today. Let's start with the bad news: so far the only Hot Stove action the Giants have pulled off is trading one relieving re-tread for another relieving re-tread for yesterday they traded LaTroy Hawkins for Steve Kline. Kline, who gained a measure of infamy for giving his then-manager Tony LaRussa (ha!) the finger, is considered a get for the Giants because he’s left handed and they lost their only left-handed setup man when Scott Eyre left for the Cubs. Or maybe not. ...

How bad are things for the Giants? Well, the best thing that happened to them over the past week was they got rained out. Why was it a good thing? Because it meant that Sunday was a double header and since it's so hard to win both games of a double header, it increased the odds that the Giants might actually win. Yep, it's been that bad of a week for Your San Francisco Giants. Since we last posted, the Giants won one game. Just one. For those keeping score at home, the Giants put together an eight game losing streak (their longest since 2000) before finally winning the first game of Sunday's double header against the Mets. They then went out and promptly got shellacked in the night game. ...

In breaking news, Billy Beane has shipped the Oakland A's ace, Tim Hudson, to the Atlanta Braves for three young players who, well, won't cost so much. From Atlanta's point of view, we think this may have something to do with the Mets signing Pedro Martinez. So the "Big Three" is now down to two, and since Mulder seems to have problems with his back and shoulder and Zito with his head, the days of......

As much as we love 24 Willie Mays Plaza, we Giants fans have to admit it's been a bit of a mixed blessing. Sure, it just might be one of the most beautiful places on God's green earth, but it has also meant that the image of the Giants fan- that being us- has taken a bit of a beating. For those of us who go way back to the rough and tumble Candlestick Days- when braving the drunken brawls and the frozen foggy chill of a July night was a badge of honor, this is a bit disconcerting. Now Third and King is the place to be and be seen, the stereotype of the Giants fan has gone from being that of a brawling boozer to that of a cell phone checking, laptop wielding, wine drinking Yuppie. Which is why we here at EssEfist were more than chagrined when we opened up last Thursday's Chron to find an article in the Wine Section debating the merits of the A's brand wine vs. that of the Giants. Sports teams having their own wine brand of wine? Could it GET more NoCal? Seriously, do you ever expect to open up the New York Times and find a story debating the merits of the Mets' wine vs. that of the Yankees? I think not. Would they even allow wine drinking in Wrigley or Fenway? But what really cut was the photo included in the story, that of your typical effete wine-drinking Yuppie couple watching a Giants' game from tony box seats (with pictures of boats in the background, natch) while their friend sat there "chatting" away on his cell phone. All that is missing from the photo is somebody checking their e-mail. Could they have found a more stereotypical group of people to represent Giants fans as this group? We're inclined to think that the photo was either a parody or taken by an A's fan. Seriously, this season has been hard enough....