A doorway at a fire station between the W Hotel and the Gold Club has been set up as a Safe Surrender Site for newborns. ...

Update: Now with "correct" spelling! We understand that it's common for coaches to put their game plans (strategy notes? football-y documents?) in their pants. What is strange is Standford using the following shot of Coach Jim Harbaugh, with his plans tucked neatly near his crotchal area, as their marketing tool of choice on 2007 football publicity handouts, wallet-sized calendars, and flyers. Behold: Looks a bit crude, which we like since it almost makes football interesting......

The Raiders have a new QB, at least for the moment. That QB is Daunte Culpepper, Randy Moss' ex-ball chucker. He had a little tryout for the team yesterday and it went so well, he was signed. Which is one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it is that a deep connection was made between two desperate entities as Culpepper came in overweight and was said to be "spotty" with his passes. Culpepper is a pretty good fit as current Raiders QBs Josh McNown or Andrew Walter kinda suck. He's expected to keep the chair warm until first round draft pick JaMarcus Russell is ready to go. ...

The first weekend of the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments is in the books -- are you still alive in your office pool? Not if you took the Road to the Final Four less traveled.

If you went with the favorites, chances are you're sitting pretty. With the exception of the toothless male Badgers of Wisconsin, all first and second seeds in both tourneys advanced to the Sweet 16. That's not to say that a few high seeds didn't get a scare or that some middling seeds will never get a chance to germinate into full-blown Cinderellas, but overall, both tournaments are sticking to the script.

-Warriors get beat down by the Clips, 103-90. Considering the Clippers are one of the teams that the Warriors need to pass in order to make the playoffs, that's a bad loss. -Stanford loses to UCLA, making them an official "bubble team" and Cal loses to USC making them an official .500 team. -The bad news: Sharks lose to Calgary. The good news: their round trip is over. Also, they didn't get in any ten......

So the Chron has added yet another blog to their arsenal, the originally named Sports Columnist Blog. So with all these blogs going on, who's going to be left to, you know, actually write in the paper? -Sharkies now have won two in a row, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0. Remember how their road trip was off to a miserable start? Not anymore. -Stanford rallies but can't beat USC. -Hey, there's a shiny, new free......

-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......

-Sharks score five unanswered goals to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-1. It was their first victory in Edmonton since November 2003. -Mike Piazza tries the words "DH" on for size. -Lane Kiffin wants to hire Greg Knapp, as in the guy who was the OC in Atlanta and couldn't do anything with Michael Vick. Knapp, by the way, has a lot more experience than Kiffin does. Oh, btw, did we mention Kiffin was hated down......

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......

When Editor Jon sent a message with the scoop that the Raiders had picked up Kiffin to be the new Head Coach for the Silver And Black, we were excited....

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? ...

So the final pre-bowl Bowl Championship Series (BCS) poll is out, and guess what? Everybody's pissed about something, except for Ohio State and Florida, the two teams that received Golden Tickets to the big game. Different year, same BS for the BCS.

With visions of sugar plum fairies dancing through their heads, the -Ists began to get into that holiday mood. Well, some did....

Lot of sports to talk about, so let's get r' done. -Cal beats Stanford to win the Axe. See what happens when you don't let the Stanford band play? Anyways, Cal played just enough to win and Stanford played well enough to win, but Cal still won. As for Stanford, the Walt Harris death watch begins. ...

Week 13, and the 49ers go to New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Take this moment to make a donation to a hurricane-related charity. They still need help. The column can wait....

USC 23- Cal 9: We honestly felt Cal would have no chance with USC as we figured Cal to be merely a "Good in the Pac 10" type team, the kind of team who could beat the Beavers but not the big guys. But Cal put up a fight and held 'SC close for three quarters before finally giving way to a superior Trojan team. They did have the lead at 9-6 at halftime but between stupid mistakes, turn overs, and some bad breaks, they couldn't do much against the Trojans in the second half, leading to the playing over and over again of that damn USC fight song. We hate that song. ...

Because you all love sports so much, we're doing a daily feature on the latest in sports. Warriors 117 Kings 105- What's gotten into the Warriors? They've won four in a row and scoring like Leo DiCaprio in his "P----- Posse" days. Leading the way is Baron Davis who is playing out of his head and playing out of his head a lot as Nelson is playing him almost the entire game every game. Considering Baron's off-and-on again relationship with the injured reserve, we're not sure how smart a move that is. Also playing every minute of every game this early in the season is maybe not a smart move either. Anyways, he lead the way with 36 points. ...

SFPD not surprised that a member was off doing kiddy sex junkets in Asia as they sort of knew it for years. -Caltrain board approves plan for Wi-FI on Caltrains. Thousands of commuters jump for joy. ...

Torontoist visits the site of a new Frank Gehry structure, stalks "the elusive Bahamas streetcar", and watches Tom Green get surgery. Phillyist rejoices in the Phillies' wild card chances, mourns the injuries sustained by Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse, and goes pirate on our asses. SFist notes that Guns and Roses were in town, that San Franciscans are taking over reality TV, and that the San Francisco Chronicle's skills of original nomenclature could use some......

Let's meet the guys newly selected to bear the Silver And Black, shall we? Presenting the top three picks of your Oakland Raiders' 2006 Draft. ...

Believe it or not, we're not into booing players on opposing teams. Oh, sure, we've been known to let loose a boo whenever A-Rod comes to bat or join in with an entire stadium in chanting "Dar-ryl! Dar-ryl!" but that's about it. As our old Dead Head friends would say, too much negavitive energy is bad, man. Then there's the fact we consider screaming "you suck!" while holding up a middle finger not to be the height of wit (we much prefer our taunting to be more Algonquin Round Table-y). But then there's what Cal fans did during Saturday's victory against USC. ...

t's time for American Football Spectacular's bowl preview! Assisted by red wine, our American college football consultant Doug "MC Fried Chicken" Mungin, and the sheer will to succeed, we push ever forward to bring you these scintillating projections. ...

Saturday morning, around 7am, a line started forming outside the Metreon to see British playwright Tom Stoppard's new film, based on a late-70s film by a young experimental filmmaker from USC. By 9:30, the line stretched down around Jillians and up over the stairs, spilling into Yerba Buena Gardens -- about 1,500 people were estimated present. But these were small-scale nerds, not the type who camp out for weeks; as employees of the LucasFilm......

In another big split-up, albeit one not nearly as suprising as Gav & Kim, the Niner's divorced themselves today from coach Dennis Erickson and GM Terry Donahue. None of this should be shocking as this is the sort of thing that happens when once proud franchises totally embarrass themselves with 2-14 seasons. While some people thought the miserly John York would hold onto both men as a way of pinching pennies (both men are under......

It's been an action-packed week for the Bay Area movie world, hasn't it? Last Tuesday saw the triumph of all that was right in the world...HA! OK, not really. But it did see success in three battles when it came to Bay Area cinema. First was the failure of Proposition L. If you don't recall SFist Jon's deft description of this prop: ...some guy named Greg Stephens, who calls himself a big player in the......

Recap of the weekend's football action....

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......

Football wrap-up....

Weekly football wrap-up....