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,......

-- Alameda County judge tells Berkeley tree squatters, like the scrappy Ninjah and Stork here, to climb down. For good. [SFGate] -- Car crash on the 101 kills one, lands two in jail. [Examiner] -- And yet another death on the 101, this time by gunfire. Egads. [CBS5] -- Missing Sacto woman's cell traced to SF. "She drives a silver, small model Kia with the license plate 5WMU818," fyi. [KGO, via BCN] -- According......

Here's todays sports news...

This morning, ESPN's Len Pasquarelli is reporting that "sources" say that the 49ers' prized offensive coordinator Norv Turner will be the new coach of the San Diego Chargers, to which we say noooooo....

-Stanford men lose to Washington State, Cal men lose to Washington. -Stanford women beats the snot out of Washington State, Cal women lose to Washington. Got that? -Bud Selig was in town yesterday to squirm uncomfortably whenever Barry Bonds' name comes up. -Relax, Giants fans-- Armando Benitez can't wait for the season to start. Actually, in really good news, Jon Miller re-upped for another six years. Say this for the Giants-- their broadcasting team is......

There's a whole bunch of golf stuff out there which we are going to skip entirely as we hate golf. -Golden State was routed by the Minnesota Timberwolves 121-93. Boy, this road trip is going well, ain't it? And how's that trade working out for you these days? This all makes Golden State of Mind play "You Know You're In Trouble When..." Well, some good news is that Stephen Jackson had his trial date pushed......

-So much for getting into first place: the Sharks are thrashed by the Ducks, 7-4. -What the Cowboys decide to do about Norv Turner could affect the 49ers as much as the Cowboys. -Now that the football season is over, the Raiders are on the clock. Silver and Black Pride want Adrian Peterson. -Due to injuries, your new Warriors point guard is Sarunas Jasikevicius. -Yes, the Chron runs a story about Kenny G. in the......

-The Warriors get blown out by the pathetic Atlanta Hawks. Hello lottery pick? -Guess who's contract hasn't been signed yet? -Fred Biletnikoff retires from the Raiders organization. -Stanford lose to Gonzanga in double OT. -Frank Gore wants Norv Turner to stay just a little bit longer. -San Diego linebackers coach Greg Manusky is your new Niners Defensive Coordinator.......

R.I.P Barbaro. -Sharks lose to the Vancouver Canucks 3-1. Their penalty killing fu, however, has gotten really good. -Marvelous Norv Turner really wants to go to Dallas. -The Warriors 2.0 are built for Nellie Ball. Also really good at stealing. -Ann Killion thinks New Orleans should host the Super Bowl every other year. -Ira Miller lurves Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith. -Should the Monday after the Super Bowl be a day off so everyone can......

-Warriors get 40 in the first quarter, then shoot the lights out in a 131-105 win at home. Mark Purdy isn't going to jump on the Warriors bandwagon just yet. -Cal men can't quite beat USC. -Stanford women beat Arizona State in OT. -Nancy Gay gets the Super Bowl hype officially started. -Art Spander loves "the lull," that one weekend between the playoffs and the Super Bowl. -The A's had their FanFest and Nick Swisher......

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......

We told you, Colts vs. Bears in the Super Bowl. Man, we knew we should have gone to Vegas. Anyways, we're happy with the game, not necessarily because it'll be a good game, but because it's two of the original NFL teams with great traditions and great, traditional uniforms. How could you not love a game that harkens back to the 50's and 60's? ...

We're starting to see a pattern emerge with both teams. The Raiders start well but can't finish and the Niners start slowly but finish strong. Which is what happened yesterday as the Raiders were actually up 13-7 at halftime, only to give up 27 straight points to their Bay Area counterparts. The key was a Niners D that grabbed four interceptions and returned a fumble for a TD. They did such a good job that Raiders QB Andrew Walter was replaced by Marques Tuiasosopo in the fourth quarter. The other hero for the Niners day was Frank Gore who rushed for 134 yards and Marvelous Norv Turner who was given the game ball for beating up on his old team. ...

Norv Turner, late of our Raiders, now has been hired to be our 49ers' offensive coordinator. Please, remain calm. Now, before anyone leaps to the logical conclusion that this is a very, very bad idea, let us consider the possibility -- however unlikely -- that this may be a good idea. ...

In a move pretty much expected by everyone, the Rai-duhs today fired head coach Norv Turner. Turner was the coach for only two seasons, but managed to suck in both of them. Well, okay, that's a little harsh. Let's just say the team sucked in both of them, going 9-23 over the past two years. And it might not be all of Norv's fault as already, the stories are being leaked about Al constantly looking over his shoulder and telling him what to do. This year was an even bigger disappointment as the team was expected to maybe not get to the playoffs but to at least be fairly entertaining when they signed both Randy Moss and LaMont Jordan in the off-season. They were neither. In fact, from an offensive standpoint, they were pretty awful, coming in as only the 21st ranked offense in the NFL. ...

Oh, God, what an awful, excruciating, painful, embarrassing weekend of football. We don't think we've ever been more pissed off come Monday at the doings of the NFL than we are today. How could we ever bench Eli Manning for Brad Johnson? What the hell were we thinking? Why should we ever listen to those "Fantasy Football Gurus" who claim to know what the hell they are talking about? And then there's the doings of......

As we look ahead to week 14 of the 2005 NFL season we see a pretty dreadful slate of games featuring the hometown teams. So we tried to think of a compelling reason why you should watch the games this weekend instead of going out with your homies to see the "gay cowboy eating pudding movie" (you know you want to) and we actually were able to come up with a few things. The biggest,......

Yes, Rai-duh fans, we have ourselves a full-fledged QB controversy as yesterday, in his press conference, Norv Turner said that he was maybe, sort of, possibly thinking about benching Kerry Collins and replacing him with sportswriters' worst nightmare, Marques Tuiasosopo. Said Marvelous Marv Turner: "We're going to look at the quarterback thing, the quarterback situation, and say, 'Hey, is it time to look at Tui? With his mobility, would that help us?" The positives......

Jackson is out this week, face-down on the floor somewhere after drinking too much egg nog. The final football weekend of 2004 pretty much ended just like every other football weekend in 2004 for the Raiders & Niners- with losses. The fun started this Saturday as the Silver & Black played what we were told was a fun-filled and exciting game against one of the Raiders’ long-time rivals- the Kansas City Chiefs. And when......

The Oakland Raiders manhandled the Buccaneers, beating them far more mercilessly than the 30-20 score would indicate. This was obviously a payback game for the humiliating loss they suffered at the hands of the Bucs in Super Bowl XXXVIII. The game was marked by moments both bitter and sweet - sweet to see longtime Raider Tim Brown catch his 100th touchdown in Oakland, bitter when former league MVP, Quarterback Rich Gannon, went down with a......