Blazers 105 Warriors 95- See what happens when everyone gets all giddy after beating the Spurs? They lose to the Trail Blazers. If you want to feel better, for those of you who haven't read this yet, check out J.A. Adande's story on the Warriors on ESPN.com. Money quote:

Think about what life would be like if the world operated under the same principles as the Golden State Warriors. Hot fudge sundaes would be nutritious and help you lose weight. Whale-sized sport-utility vehicles would get 50 miles per gallon. "I Love New York" would be up for an Emmy... The thing about the Warriors is they make no sense

-Hey, the Giants signed somebody, Aaron Rowand, who was signed for five years and $60 million bucks. This after being named as possible suitors of every possible free agent and signing absolutely none of them. Rowand's not bad-- he's a pretty decent hitter-- but is known mainly for running into a fence and breaking his nose trying to catch a ball. We're guessing Sabes is thinking the old axiom that you need strong defense up the middle and Rowand is some strong defense up the middle. He is also known as "Gamer," for what’s that worth. The good thing is that with six outfielders on the roster already, they have another one. Who doesn't like an an entire team of outfielders? Still, we're holding our fire on this signing as we don't think it's the only move they'll make, just the first in a long series of moves to make the team halfway decent. They will make those moves, right? Right?

Anyways, if you want to read to really good articles about the mess the Giants have made for themselves, check out Ann Killion and Tim Kawakami's articles in the Merc.

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 the thing-- Alex Rios is a really good player (.297 average, 24 homers, 85 RBIs, 114 runs scored and 17 stolen bases), he's young (27), and relatively cheap. The problem is that he's merely a really good player while Lincecum and/or Cain have the potential to be really great players. In other words, it's not really a fair trade. Put it another way: while somebody on the Giants has to hit over .250, Rios isn't really going to help the team that much. The end result is that the only thing the Giants will accomplish is taking a really bad offense and making it just bad while taking a potentially amazingly good pitching staff and making it just a good pitching staff. Remember too, they still sucked last year despite having Barry. Rios isn't quite Barry

This doesn't mean we're predisposed to trading either Tim or Matt. Desperate times call for desperate measures and if there's ever a time for desperate baseball measures, it's now. The only trade we'd go for, however, is one in which the Giants get more than just one player but more like a handful of players. Like putting together some sort of package to get something like the Marlins pulled off. This team needs more than one bat; it needs a whole lot of bats. If they can swing a trade for either pitcher, it better be for enough players to turn the team around. Alex Rios ain't gonna turn anything around.

And we ain't the only ones who think so.

Besides, Cain's our favorite player and if he goes, we're going to be PISSED.

This actually happened to us-- we were walking down 16th street wearing our trusty baggy Giants sweatshirt (we like our sweatshirts baggy) when we walked past a homeless guy who actually said, "I like your sweatshirt. It looks good on someone as big as you."

Yes, some homeless guy called us fat. Needless to say, we did not give him any spare change.

Warriors 129 Suns 114- So the Phoenix Suns, a team that many pick to win the title this year and a team that was possibly one horrendous David Stern judgment from winning the title last year, came into the Oracle riding an eight game winning streak. So what happened? The Warriors whumped 'em. Monta Ellis had 31 points, including 15 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, and Stephen Jackson had 32 to beat PHX. The Warriors have now won six out of seven, leading to the inevitable joke about how they've totaled the amount of victories of both football teams, but as everyone's in a good mood about football, we'll leave it better off alone.

-It looks like the Raiders victory over the Chiefs is going to delay the Coming of JaMarcus at least a week as "Long Balls" Lane Kiffin has already announced Duante as the starting QB next week against the Broncos. We're not sure what the point of all this is either, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Raiders are technically only three games behind division leading San Diego.

-Is Sabean going to trade Tim the Enchanter for Miguel Cabrera? Were the A's really interested in Barry before the whole indictment thing? Read it for yourself.

Image by Jose Carlos Fajardo of the Contra Costa Times.

If you just looked at the stats and the numbers, which is all the rage these days, Barry is just a 42 year old dude with two bad knees, a .270 batting average, only 77 RBIs who can only play upwards of only around 100 games and can't field very well. Then you add the extracurricular stuff, like the fact he could be indicted at any time or that his best friend is in prison (for now) or most of major league baseball just wants him to go away.

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.

Considering we were calling for him to go almost a month ago, we think it's all for the best, but still, Felipe personified class and dignity and is one of those people who personifies everything that is baseball. He seemed like a pretty okay, dude too, almost beyond wise with a mischievous little sense of humor that usually had a bit more edge to it than it appeared.

There seems to be some bitterness in his statement and comments about the teams he had, lack of good players and not being given complete control of the team, but we stand by what we said earlier. Despite all the injuries and the elderly roster, the team just didn't play well in ways that had nothing to do with injuries and an elderly lineup. They just never played good, smart baseball and they never really played with any sort of urgency. Just look at the last couple of weeks where they were still in the pennant race and just rolled over and died, winning just two games.

ESPN is also reporting Patrick Arnold, the man credited with developing THG is saying the very same thing about Barry.

You know, we've softened a bit in our No Barry in '07 position. He's hitting the ball well and the A's are having such great success with Frank Thomas that we could see Barry helping the Giants along the same ways as Frank is with the A's. But then this came along.

Image of Barry as the Hulk from the Boston Dirt Dogs

Deep down we knew this team sucked from the early goings, but we had problems dealing with it. We finally dealt with it. In fact, you can look at our postings over the past month as our going through the Four Stages of Grief.When they won five in a row, there was denial. When Benitez blew that save, there was anger. Afterwards, bargaining as we still thought they had a chance. And now? Total acceptance. Blissful, happy, zen-like acceptance. We are so ready for some football.

Truth is, this breakup has been building for a while now. Ever since Dusty and Jeff Kent skedaddled and Sabaen built the team anew, we've had issues with the team. Sure, 2003 was fun and the playoff series against the Marlins a Grade heartbreak, but we never really fell in love with that team. But after that, we have to admit to the fact we never really liked the Giants. Oh, we liked "the Giants," but we had trouble liking the actual team out there that played. Edgardo Alfonso? A.J. Pierzynski? Michael Tucker? Double feh. As a friend of ours put it about his general apathy towards the Felipe-era Giants, there wasn't really anyone on the team to like. The teams were a collection of aging, mostly forgettable free agents, guns for hire who came in and out of our baseball lives without leaving much in the way of a mark in our baseball loving heart.

And it's not like we didn't get into them because they were mainly bad teams, it's just that the teams were both bad and boring. Even worse, they played really bad baseball. Just dumb, stupid, frustrating baseball, a baseball that would neither satisfy the Beane loving Statheads or the purists: runners never got advanced, batters never showed patience, pitchers threw the wrong pitch at the wrong time. Just dumb-ass baseball. The only consistency to the team was a complete inability to stop doing all the bad things they were doing. Sure, the Barry Show was entertaining but that was pretty much it in the way exciting baseball.

No, it's taken us a long time, much longer than a lot of people, but we're finally where most of the fans are. In terms of what we want this franchise to do, we want them to blow the motherf----- up.

Since we're talking about the Giants here, the victory had to be as agonizing as possible. The Giants were up 8-3 in the ninth only to give up three more runs before Mike Stanton finally sealed the deal. Typically, the Nats ninth inning rally started the very moment we turned on MLB audio to listen in.