The airtight smiles. Awesome. For those of you somehow not tempted into becoming a part of Van Santian art -- or, you know, if you sport a vagina -- might we suggest catching round II of the Leno vs. Migden smackdown? Sponsored by the Harvey Milk Club, this meeting is sure to ruffle a few plumes and have local politicos affectedly scratching their chins for days to come. That's right, kids, it's on. It is......

Here's todays sports news...

There were a lot of locals in the world of reality TV this week! "America's Got Talent" included an audition from an East Bay music teacher named Michael Strelo-Smith. He had an OK voice, but he was kind of boring. He swears he can sing anything and everything, but so far we are unimpressed. "Last Comic Standing" continued its trend of finding comedians who have been around for years, and presenting them as new......

As the baseball season is now a quarter done, our occasional A's contributor, Christy of Athletics Nation, takes us through a team that somehow is managing to stay afloat despite the fact everyone on the team is on the DL except one of the ball girls and a coke vendor. Today, we'll go through the infield, and then we'll continue on with outfielders and pitchers...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays wrap up of the sports scores...

Here's todays rounup of sports news....

Today is, of course, Selection Sunday, the best day of the year for college basketball fans. But not necssarily so of Stanford fans as their chances of making it to the Tourney went down, down, down over the past couple of days. The Merc has a primer for today's fun. -Everbody loves the 49ers free agent moves. -Today's "the Warriors just might make the playoffs story" from the Merc. -Milton Bradley tries to preach the......

Ever since the Examiner has been bought by religious arch-conservative Philip Anschutz, everyone has been waiting to see how the Examiner would fit it's publisher's political views into a free daily in the most liberal city in America. Sometimes they manage to do it (sort of) but every once in awhile, the veil is lifted as it were and the Examiner goes a little nutty. Like today. For their main editorial, they implore San Francisco to honor economist Milton Friedman. ...

In a surprising move today, Oakland A’s brass fired manager Ken Macha with two years remaining on his contract. Many A's fans are scratching their heads this afternoon, wondering when the A's headquarters had become drama central. Despite leading the team to its first ALCS since 1992, Macha’s inability to communicate effectively with players was foremost on the list of complaints levied by key personnel. His time with the A's was always tenuous at best; his on-again, off-again merry go-round with Billy Beane subject to intense annual review, with Macha barely surviving the cut each year. His job would typically come down to key veteran players vouching for him, despite his obvious lack of social skills. This year, no such veteran dared throw him a life jacket. Not Kotsay, not Chavez and definitely not Milton Bradley. ...

The Detroit Tigers look like a team of destiny. It's usually a bad sign for any opponent when a team finds several ways to beat you. Instead of completely shutting the A's down like they did Tuesday evening, the Tigers matched each A's offensive threat with a flurry of runs of their own without a blink or stammer. And they showed us all why they, indeed, have the best bullpen in the Major Leagues. They slowed the A's momentum down just enough to deliver a decisive knockout blow in the eighth and ninth innings, a tribute to their indomitable will and Fernando Rodney's 96 mph fastballs and Todd Jones' craftiness. They are clearly this year’s Chicago White Sox, able to find the slimmest cracks and crannies in a team’s defenses and exploiting the hell out of them. ...

Everyone loves a redemption story and the A's this year might have baseball's best redemption story as Frank Thomas put the Big Hurt on the Twins, leading the A's to a 3-2 victory. He started things off with a home run in the 1st and then added a crucial insurance run in the top of the ninth to give the A's a one run lead. That became crucial when the Twins lead off the bottom of the ninth with a triple that Milton Bradley lost in the Metrodome ceiling (everyone who plays there has done it-- it's one of the reasons playing in the Metrodome just flat-out sucks for visiting teams). ...

“Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything..." Gregg Eaterbrook A's 5, Angels 4- Marco Scutaro hit an 0-2 pitch from Angels relief ace Francisco Rodriguez to score Bobby Kielty in the 12th inning to lead the A's to victory over the Angels. The A's magic number is now 2, as in can clinch the division today with a win. How about that? Very quietly, the A's vs. the Angels has become one of the best rivalries in sports and this game was another one to add to it. The game was tied 3-3 going into the 8th when Milton Bradley hit a solo-home run to take the lead. Houston Street came in to pitch the ninth, his fourth straight appearance, and made it to two outs before giving up a double to Maicer Izturis that Jay Payton had but lost after making a diving attempt to catch it. Itzuris got to third after a throwing error by Street (fans around the East Bay must have been dying about now) but Street got Orlando Cabrera to strike out to end the inning. Phew. ...

Oh, wow, this sounds so cool! Tonight, at 6 p.m., ITVS Community Cinema, KQED, and the San Francisco Public Library are presenting a screening of The World According to Sesame Street. The World According to Sesame Street is a feature-length documentary, in cooperation with "Sesame Street," that explores the drama and complexities behind producing international versions of the world’s most-watched children’s television program. Get to the Main Library's (100 Larkin Street in Civic Center) Koret......

Soy un perdedor, the Bay Area teams are winners, baby.......

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 51. (Tony Blair and Ben Fong-Torres both pictured, and thus counted, twice). Number of people in pictures whose names we recognize: 10. (Tony Blair, both Shultzes, Gavin the Newsom, Stanlee Gatti, Joanne Hayes-White, Heather Fong, Milton Friedman, Ben Fong-Torres, Sydney Kohara.) After some deliberation, we did not count Ray Dolby (founder of Dolby Labs) or anyone from Jefferson Airplane. Number of people from Jefferson......

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. ...

With the start of the upcoming baseball season less than a week away, SFist's sports desk will try and break the new season down for y'all, round-table, free-form, discussion style. In the next few days, we'll debate the winners, the losers, and all the in-betweens. This discussion could be great, it could be lame, it could be meh. We guess we'll find out ...

After an unproductive week at the MLB winter meetings, the A's heated up the winter stove again: they traded minor league OF Andre Ethier to the Dodgers for major league OF Milton "Insert Game-Based Nickname Here" Bradley and major league IF Antonio Perez. That is: they traded a bird in the bush for two in the hand. Ethier was the AA Texas League player of the year--Bradley, the prize for the A's in this......

Want to know how to get SFist's attention? Try sending us a press release that reads like this: THIS EMAIL IS FOR YOUR EYES ONLY—PLEASE EAT EMAIL AFTER READING. You've been sent this email because you are a Person of Special Interest. The Billboard Liberation Front is planning a large-scale improvement on Monday, May 30th—Memorial Day. I don't want to give away too much about the nature of improvement, but I will go as......

While we've been known to swill Pabst like there’s no tomorrow, SFist does indeed have a cultured and classy side. That’s why tonight we’re rolling over to the Davies Symphony Hall to check out an exclusive joint performance between Phillip Glass and the Bang On a Can All-Stars. Philip Glass is the ensemble music crowd's bad a**, as he’s collaborated with popular artists such as David Byrne and adapted works by Brian Eno and......

Five games left, three back of the Dodgers, tied with the Cubs, a half game up on the Astros, and Milton Bradley losing his mind in LA. Does that say it all? Not if you're an A's fan. Then it's five games left, tied with the Angels, three distant games ahead of the Rangers, and Ichiro getting ready set a major record on the home turf. The Giants edged the Padres 7-5 in a nail......