Let's check in with our local teams while the rest of the world is searching for Ronaldo......

Here's todays sports news...

Here's what we've missed in the world of Bay Area sports while trying to figure out who the Oceanic 6 are......

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

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.)...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports stories...

After all the hype and after all the expectations, we have to admit the steroid report was pretty much a yawner. We wanted names, damnit, lots and lots of names. Juicy names. Big names. Super Colossus Names. Instead we got Gregg Zaun. Bo-ring. The list was mainly a bunch of journeymen and never-were's from the 90's and who cares about them? Wasn't this whole thing about nailing the big boys? ...

Here's todays sports news...

We're sure y'all heard the big rumor out there that the Giants might trade either The Enchanter or Matt Cain to the Blue Jays for Alex Rios. This morning it was Timmy but now SFGate is saying it's Cain. Either way, our opinion is this-- hell to the noes. ...

Here's todays sports news...

-Both Brady Quinn and JaMarcus Russell are hanging at the NFL Combine, something that will make Raiders fans perk up their ears. We don't know what's more overrated, the Combine or Brady Quinn. Anyways, it appears that JaMarcus is b-i-g. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? -It's put up or shut up time for Brian Sabaen and McCovey Chronicles tries to figure out which is which. -Saturday is, of course, Three......

We were watching all the ESPN gab-fest shows yesterday and every single reporter on every single show ripped the Giants for all things Barry. We know it doesn't matter in the long run, but we do not like it when our favorite baseball team is ripped to shreds. Needless to say, the whole Barry thing is just leaving bad tastes all around. So much so, Magowan himself sent out a letter to all season ticket holders saying that mistakes were made in the past, but this time they really, really are trying harder but they really had no choice to do what they did. As El Lefty put it, the team’s slogan this year should be: Your 2007 San Francisco Giants: Savor the Grim Inevitability! ...

Yesterday it was announced that this year's big free agent catch, Alfonso Soriano, signed a whopping long deal with the Chicago Cubs, for eight years. It was also announced that Nomah is staying with the Dodgers where he'll be joined by the highly sought after Juan Pierre. Which begs the question what the hell are the Giants going to do? ...

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? ...

Well, everybody knew it was coming, but now it's official, Felipe Alou is no longer the Giants manager. Remember, in sports it's never official unless the press conference and statements are released. ...

Okay, so yes, it's not mathematically impossible for the Giants to make the playoffs. Technically, they are still in it. But for all intents and purposes, last Monday night pretty much put the nail in the coffin. This is now an ex-baseball season. ...

SPN is reporting the Victor Conte told friends that not only did Barry take "the cream" and the "clear" but knew damn well what they were. This is the very-same Victor Conte who swore to everyone that Barry didn't take steroids and was completely innocent of anything. Also the very same Victor Conte who leaked all that Grand Jury testimony (allegedly) that put Barry into potential trouble over perjury charges. With friends like these.... ...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times... A's 4 White Sox 2- Esteban Loaiza held the White Sox to just enough runs to allow a pretty week A's O to win the game. The A's were 0 for 16 with runners in scoring position but still scraped together four runs. How'd they do it-- aggressive base running, defense, situational hitting-- small ball. Now how about that? The game so pissed off Sox manager Ozzie Guillen that after the game he launched into a profanity filled tirade about the lack of booze in the visiting locker room. Anyways, the Angels won so the A's remain five up but the magic number is now 11....

Barry Zito outpitched Curt Schilling this afternoon to lead the Athletics to a 7-2 beat down of the Dead Sox. That's what they in the business call a "sweep." The A's have won 15 of 19 games and were 21-6 in August and the Chron notes that the A's are an amazing 124-45 in August since 2001. Crikey. ...

Remember during that hot streak the Giants were on when their pitching was pretty much airtight? Remember how they didn't give up many runs and pitched until late in the game? Those were good times. And not these times as the Giants started off a nine game road trip to Atlanta getting shellacked 13-8. The pitcher getting the shellacking? Staff ace Jason Schmidt. Of note, however, is the Barry sticking it to Hammerin' Hank's Hometown fans and hitting two home runs and robbing Jeff Francouer of a three run home run. Barry is getting hot of late and a hot Barry means good things for the Giants and we're just going to stop right there before we hurt ourselves. ...

We read an interesting story today on ESPN.com about how the A's are somehow winning despite being everything Moneyball is supposed to be against. You know, things like pitching and defense and situational hitting. Which basically means that somewhere out there, some Stat Head in Stat Head Land is desperately crunching numbers and running spread sheets to try and proof that God is Not Dead....

Last week, we did something we never thought we'd do: a Giants game was on and we didn't watch. Oh, we knew the game was on and even felt a twinge of desire to watch it, but we didn't. Then the next night, another game was on and we didn't watch that either. And over the weekend, when the Giants played three normally Must See TV games against the hated Dodgers, we didn't watch those games either. That's right. We are now officially over the Giants. ...

Now here's something we haven't written in awhile-- the Giants won a game, beating the Nats 8-6. Thus endeth the nine game losing streak. Like most fans of the Black and Orange, we started off this losing streak watching our high hopes quickly sink into all sorts of despair and hair-pulling angst, then found ourselves achieving some sort of melancholy resignation about the whole thing, finally settling on bemused detachment by the start of today's game. ...

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......

We couldn't help but notice that this year's Giants slogan is "Your San Francisco Giants," something that has been our tagline since SFist was just a mere toddler in Baby Gap swaddling. We're sure that royalty check will show up to SFist's HQ any day now. As for ourselves, we tried to come up with a pithy little phrase to describe this year's Gigantes and after months and months of debate (actually, more like a few minutes of thought before writing this) decided that this year's team could be summed up best by the phrase "yes, but..." ...

What is there to say about the Barry in Drag photos that hasn't already been said? Like everyone else, our first reaction was "what the..?" followed quickly by "that's pretty funny" with a little bit of "hmmm...that does look like steroid bloat" thrown in at the end for good measure. You have to hand it to the dude, in one fell photo-op swoop, he managed to get himself some really good publicity. Who doesn't love it when big, burly athletic dudes show up in drag? ...

Just like we said at the end of the 2005 season: the A's need pitching in '06. On Monday, Billy Beane surprised baseball insiders by putting on shoes with laces and signing free agent starter Esteban Loaiza (whose last name we're going to have to learn to spell, like the whole Harden-Haren thing wasn't bad enough) to a 3-year, $21 million contract. Though Loaiza's agent, Joe Boggs, expected the A's to get out of the......