If there's anybody in the city taking more heat than Mike Nolan, it's his quarterback, Alex Smith. Smith stands accused by the Faithful of not very being good. The evidence? Overthrowing Receivers. Underthrowing Receivers. Not seeing open Receivers. The numbers back up the evidence-- he has a preposterously low QB rating (57.2) and completion percentage (48.7). He is also 11-19 as a starting QB. In the games we've watched, Smith looked like the same QB he was when he first started-- skittish and inaccurate-- so much so, the Faithful are muttering that Smith, as a #1 draft pick, has been a bust of Lucy Pinder-like proportions (sort of NSFW-y). ...

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

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,......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such......

Sorry to spread the bad news, Giants fans, but last night's 9-4 loss to the Diamondbacks mathematically eliminated them from the playoffs. We know, we know, wha? Well, statistically, the Giants could still have made the playoffs if they won every game up until the end of the season and the Padres, DBacks, Dodgers, and Rockies all came down with the Ebola Virus. Hey, it happens sometimes, sort of. In the Premiere League, Tottenham once got eliminated from qualifying for the Champions League when several key members of the team came down with a mysterious case of food poisoning....

Here's todays sports news...

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....

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's today's sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

SFist interviews Kevin Robinson from Viva Voce, after their stop at the Warfield in San Francisco opening for the Shins...

Here's todays news stories...

Sharks 3 Predators 1- San Jose took an all important 2-1 lead in the series against the Predators with an offensive onslaught, getting off 41 shots while holding the Predators to only 19 shots. The Sharks actually were down 1-0 going into the second period when they got goals from Milan Michalek and Ryane Clowe. Patrick Marleau added the insurance goal with about 4 minutes left to play. Also of note is that while......

Athletics 4, Indians 3- We come to write in praise of the Magic Number. Oh, Magic Number, why do we love thee? It's just so baseball-- simple yet profound. After all, almost every team makes the playoffs in hockey or basketball and football is all about rules and legalisms (Team X will win the division if Team Y loses and Team Z loses but if Team Z wins by less then 4 points and Team Y wins on a Sunday occuring days before a full moon, then Team X wins the division). But not baseball. It has a magic number. Watching the magic number go down and down is one of our favorite moments of the baseball season. And what has this to do with the A's? The magic number is now 5. ...

Before the series with the Indians started up, Ken Macha was talking about how worried he was about the upcoming series. Didn't like the matchups. We weren't sure whether or not he meant it or whether or not he was pulling a Lou Holtz and trying to keep his team on their toes by playing up a totally inferior opponent. Regardless, the A's took the second game of a three game series as Bobby Kielty hit a grand slam home run in the sixth inning. Kirk Saarloos struck out eleven and added another vowel to his name for the effort. The Angels won but with the A's winning, the magic number is 6. ...

Indians 7 A's 2- The Indians ended the A's four game winning streak by routing Dan Haren. Haren's been pitching really well, but he's been hit hard by the Tribe in his career. In May, he gave up five runs in 5 2/3 innings and last night he gave up seven runs in 4 2/3. Overall, he has a 6.45 career ERA against them. The Angels didn't play, however, so the magic number remains at 7. The A's also play the Angels at home this weekend so if there's ever a time to do some jumping around and celebrating, it'll be this weekend. ...

Baseball is a long season and there are a lot of games during the season and it is always problematic to overemphasize the importance of just one game, but all things considering, yesterday was the most recent Most Important Game of the Year for the Giants. They were 2 1/2 back against the Padres, four in back of the Dodgers and another loss just might have set them back too much. So in steps Matt Cain, your new Giants ace, to throw an eight-inning shut out of the Rockies. ...

First, a story... We turned on the Giants game just to watch the bottom fall out and the Rockies take an 8-1 lead. Okay, we thought, this game is over. We can worry about other things. And so we turned off the game. ...

Okay everyone, let's do the Tighten Up. Twins 7 A's 5- Joe Kennedy picked the wrong time to snap his scoreless inning streak as he blew a two run lead late to the Twins, a team long-buried and now looking like your possible Central Division Champs. The A's were up 5-3 in the eighth when Kennedy, pitching his second inning, started giving up hit after hit. This wasn't any sort of Benitez job, however-- Kennedy had a 15 1/3 scoreless streak going and took his first loss since last year. That's the thing about being a relief pitcher, no matter how well you do, at some point you're going to blow a game. The game also marked the end of Frank Thomas's home-run streak, as he was unable to do the deed this time around. The big thing, however, is that the Angels, a team that has just pretty much hung around and around and around all season, also won. What was once a fairly comfortable lead is now not so much as the Halos are now 4 1/2 back. We had thought the A's were pretty much in cruising mode but we guess not. Welcome to Pennant Race Hell, A's fans. ...

Dear Giants, It's over. Finished. Kapoot. As of this moment, we will no longer start to believe in you. Once again, for like the umpteenth and hundredth time, we started to think that you had turned the corner. That you had figured it all out, had put it all together and were about to go on the Big Run. You know, the run where you win like twenty out of twenty-five games and put the distance between you and the rest of the mediocrities that you run with in your division. ...

Few things go together better than baseball and dogs – no, not the kind that contain pig snout and esophagus and cost $4.50, but the canine type. And every summer The San Francisco Giants host the Dog Days of Summer where canines are admitted to watch the game from the outfield bleachers. The tradition continues with the 10th Annual Dog Days of Summer on August 5th against the Colorado Rockies. But the competition hardly......

What an ambient summer week it's been and it's very likely to continue through the weekend. In fact, turkey wings crossed it will extend clear through the Thanksgiving weekend food coma. What do we owe this warm air, absence of damp Pacific winds and non-chilly evenings to? A giant high (pressure that is) holding court over the massive expanse of the Great Basin Desert (aka Nevada) which is pushing warm inland air over the western......

Let's just come right out and say it: the Giants, now 8-10, had a crappy week. They went two-and-five against teams that, even without Barry Bonds (whose return is still shrouded in steroid-enhanced mystery) and Moises Alou (who returned to action on Friday night and hit his first homerun as a Giant on Sunday), they should have won at least four games. Until this point, the Giants' offense had been the bright spot of the......

Having recuperated from a recent bout of baseball-related mathematiasis, SFist comes to you this fine Monday afternoon from sunny Denver bearing a first-hand report of yesterday's Giants/Rockies finale at Coors Field, along with a look back at the Giants' performance in past week and a peek ahead at the week to come. The story so far for this year, with the Giants leading the Majors with .305 team batting average but languishing at 15th in......

4389 Barry Bonds-less...

Got no plans this weekend? Go listen to some music or check out these other cool happenings. Tonight at Fort Mason, Stewart Brand will be speaking on the topic of "Cities & Time" as part of the Long Now foundation's Second Friday seminar series. Brand is responsible for publishing the Whole Earth Catalog -- their computer network, the Well, just celebrated it's twentieth anniversary. Ten dollar suggested donation. Friend of SFist Jess Barron invited......

What an ignominious weekend for Bay Area baseball. Saturday, 2 October 2004 will long be remembered as a dark day for Northern California baseball fans. After a big win over LA on Friday night, the Giants' bullpen collapsed as dramatically as any Dodgers fan could ever hope on Saturday afternoon, leaving the team's fate in the hands of the pathetic Colorado Rockies, who got swept by the red hot Astros in Houston this weekend. When......