* Jacksonville vs Pittsburgh Saturday, January 5, 5:00 PM PST Wild Card 2008 The Purists' Battle This is the game that John Madden has been eeeagerly awaiting. A matchup of two classically built, smashmouth NFL franchises in a cold weather playoff game. Pound the rock. Control the line. Stick 'em on D. This is a football game for the NFL purist. Can't wait. Photo via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette......

The NFL's 2008 Wild Card Wknd has arrived at the same time as this rainstorm front......

Here's todays sports news...

As this disheartening, dispiriting, and disillusioning Giants' baseball season comes to a close, it is quite possible that there is still a chance that this season could be saved, redeemed even. For all could be forgiven, all forgotten, with just one act, one thing, one simple, simple thing-- knocking the Dodgers out of the playoffs....

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....

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. ...

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. ...

Sometimes a loss can be a victory and this is one of those losses that looks like a victory. Except in the win column where it really counts. The Niners came out right from the start loaded for bear and scored a TD with Alex Smith hooking up with Vernon Davis on their very first drive. The Cards then went on to take a 21-7 lead but the Niners kept coming and coming and coming, only to finally go down in defeat when Smith's Hail Mary pass fell incomplete. In fact, the Niners could claim they won all the big things but lost due to the small things, like penalties and missed passes and one missed field goal. Which sounds pretty bad if you're a contending team but really good if you're pretty much not. Oh, and Frank Gore is the man. His two-yard TD run where he basically just pushed himself into the end zone was the kind of football that would have made Vince Lombardi smile. ...

These are not good days for the Stanford University Cardinal. In an upset with all sorts of subtext, the Cardinal lost to San Jose State University, 35-34 as SJSU came from 20 points behind. This is a huge victory in the same way it was a huge victory when all the slobs beat the snobs in those early 80's teen comedies. Stanford turned the ball over three teams in the second half-- one of them being an interception in the end zone-- and were completely unable to stop a rampaging Spartan running game. With two minutes left in the game, Stanford drove down the length of the field only to have Spartan defender Rakine Toomes knock the ball from WR Evan Moore's hands. SJSU is now 1-1 and Stanford is 0-2. ...

Soy un perdedor, the Bay Area teams are winners, baby.......

Soy es parados, your Bay Area baseball teams are losers, baby... ...

First, onto baseball: The Giants are now on a three-game roll after taking two from the Cubbies and beating the Reds in ten innings Monday. Your Black & Orange hero? Shea Hillenbrand who hit the game-winning home run in extra innings. That trade is suddenly looking less like a total disaster these days. Also of note, the heating up of Barry Bonds who hit numero 730 and has now hit five home runs in his past six starts. That gulp you're hearing is of pitchers in the NL, other teams in the Wild Card hunt, and officials at Major League Baseball now pondering the meaning of a so hot right now Barry. The Giants have now won 15 of 21 and are for the first time in a long while, .500. No, we're not going to go there as of yet but we're starting to disbelieve our disbelief. ...

You know how sometimes you get bored at work and for maybe half-an-hour or so you start daydreaming about what you're going to have to eat, about checking e-mail, or about doing certain things to a coworker that they wouldn’t dare show on Skinemax? Now imagine you're a starting pitcher and can't just surf the Web to take a mental break. What do you do? Well, if you're Matt Morris, you take a perfectly pitched game and start giving up runs. Which is what he did, almost blowing a 7-1 lead to let the Braves get back into the game. Morris seems to do that a lot-- pitch well except for one inning in which he throws batting practice out there. ...

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....

The Giants won (won!) their tenth out of thirteen games as Noah "Mr. August" Lowry pitched a 4-1 win over the Wild Card leading Cincinnati Reds, their second win in a row over the Reds. Sabaen's mid-season pickups are finally showing signs of life as Mike Stanton got the save and Shea Hillenbrand hit a two run home run. The Giants now find themselves three games back in the NL and 3 1/2 out of the Wild Card and with the Mets and Cardinals now flailing..... ...

If, like us, you were driving around the city last night hearing weird sort of booms in the air it was because it was Fireworks Night at the Phonebooth. Now fireworks night at the ballpark can occasionally be sort of a weird thing, an obvious marketing ploy that can on the wrong night and with the wrong team be all that more disconnected from reality. Hey, our team is going nowhere, our front office is run by a bunch of cheapskates, and we'll never come close to the playoffs, but look at the shiny rockets exploding in the air! But not last night....

We were all set to do a follow-up on Barry's Big Nothing but OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL HAS GOTTTEN INTO THE GIANTS? First they rallied from 6-1 to win yesterday and tonight...tonight, well, tonight they put together what Statheads refer to as an "ass whumping," beating the Padres, 9-3. We're talking striking for a rare and always-impressive back-to-back-to-back (and almost another -back) home run barrage, started off by the Barry himself, who hit 722. He was followed in quick succession by the so hot right now Ray Durham and Pedro Feliz. But wait, there's more! Omar Vizquel pulled off a suicide squeeze (scoring Wynn) and the New Kid on the Block, Chad Santos, hit his very first home-run, a two run shot. He also made a few nice plays in the field. ...

Happy Whatever-You-Want from all of us at American Football Spectacular! Let's have a look at the games on TV this wknd, shall we? San Diego Chargers at the Kansas City Chiefs, Saturday, 12/24/2005, 10:00 AM PST Wild Card playoff football is nothing compared to the atmosphere for two teams clawing for that last playoff spot at the end of the regular season. Truly, when it is said that "this is what it's all about;" then......

We know, we know: It's Barry Bonds Week in Bay Area baseball. That's very exciting, but there's also a pennant race going on just across the bay from 24 Willie Mays Plaza. After Monday night's 2-0 victory in Cleveland, the A's are a game behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the AL West and 1 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Wild Card race. There are only so many ways......

In May, while the A's struggled along 8 1/2 games behind Los Los Angeles Angeles de Anaheim Anaheim in the American League West, A's Brand Baseball promised not to mention the division standings any more until school started in the fall. It was hard to imagine, back then, that the A's would be playing meaningful games when schoolkids were buying pencil boxes and new backpacks, but here's this (Go Bears!), and here's this. After......

Well no, not really. However, according to SmartsCo's new SexSmarts game we are. San Francisco-based SmartsCo, founded in 2002 by Jennifer Elias and Julie Tucker, has created informative, fun games about wine, food, chocolate -- and now sex. SexSmarts consists of having players or teams answer questions having to do with all areas of sexual pleasure. The cards used fall into one of four categories -- Bodies, Dirty Talk, Carnal Culture, and Wild Card. The......

SFist brings you yesterday's baseball madness in a nutshell or two: with only three games left this weekend to finish the season, the Giants, Dodgers and Athletics all won, the Angels lost, and the Astros didn't play, leaving the Giants, who are playing the dreaded Dodgers this weekend, three games back of Los Angeles in the NL West and tied with the Astros in the Wild Card race, and the A's, who are playing the......

The Cubs and Dodgers both lost last night, but, in one of the most painful games of the year, so did the Giants. To make matters worse, the Astros won, thereby giving themselves the lead in the NL Wild Card race. For those of you who don't pull your own teeth, or at least submit yourself to the torture of watching the end of crucial late-season baseball games, we'll give you a rundown of how......

It was a big weekend for Bay Area baseball but things didn't go as well as the local teams had hoped against their division rivals from the Southland. (Nor for SFist in the ongoing bet it has with LAist about the Giants, the Dodgers, and the playoffs.) The Giants and A's both lost lost two of three to their counterparts in Los Angeles, the Dodgers and Angels, leaving the Giants two-and-a-half games back of the......

SFist had high hopes for a series sweep for the Giants throughout last night's game against the Astros, but the bullpen had different ideas. Taking a three-to-two lead into the ninth inning, the San Francisco relievers did their best early-August impression by allowing five ugly runs, costing Jason Schmidt a well-deserved victory and chipping away at his fading Cy Young chances. You have to wonder if the Giants let their emotions (or their testosterone) get......

Back in the halcyon days when SFist was launching and the Giants were getting their collective ass handed to them by the lowly Cincinnati Reds, it was looking pretty grim down at Third and King, and SFist was starting to think about next year for San Francisco baseball. But, oh, how things have changed. SFist got its playoff tickets in the mail yesterday and is pretty psyched about the idea of October baseball as the......

Whether you like Barry Bonds or not as a person, you have to respect him (actually, be in awe of him) as a ballplayer. And since you probably don't ever have to have lunch with the guy, it seems best to reserve your judgment of him to what he does on the field. So in case you aren't a big seamhead, SFist wants to point out that Bonds hit the 699th home run of his......