--Chihuahua race! --And speaking of a chihuahua race, Gavin Newsom refuses to sign Chris Daly's budget proposal. We're hoping for a fight! (Daly has enough votes to override a veto.) --Drug-resistant TB hits San Francisco. --Awwwww. A seal joins in at a Marin school walkathon. --Don't feed the parrots. --Willie Mays signs autographs in Walnut Creek. --We didn't go to Fake Question Time 5 -- did you? Picture from the Chronicle by Lance Iverson.......

--Happy 77th birthday, Willie Mays! --Comparing rebuilding the maze to acupuncture. And hey -- the 80/880 connection is reopening tomorrow! That was fast! --Cinco de Mayo in San Jose wasn't nearly as bad as it's been before. --They let Fajitagate Alex Fagan Jr. into the Army Special Forces? --OMFG -- there's a chihuahua race in San Bruno next week!!! --Profile of the Warriors fan who came up with the "WE BELIEVE" slogan. Picture of Willie......

Here's the thing about Opening Day-- it's like Christmas Day for baseball fans. You wake up and get to unwrap the shiny new pitcher, shiny new manager, and shiny new lineup. And this Opening Day? It was like getting socks. Ugly, too short, socks that you would never wear in a million years. That’s the kind of feeling a 7-0 shutout loss will do to you. ...

What?? More pictures of Gavin Newsom??? Keep sending them in and we'll keep running 'em. This one's from The Party Cow's Flickr Study of Gavin's facial expressions -- well worth checking out. After the jump -- SFCivicCenter checks out Gavin at today's SF Bike Festivities, and Brian B from Mesh SF espies Gavin at the ballpark for Willie Mays's birthday.......

Watch out, commenters -- a federal jury found a San Francisco woman guilty of posting death threats against Terri Schiavo's husband on an AOL chat board. The post in question said, "If she dies I will kill Michael Schiavo and the judge. This for real!" The defendant now claims she was just kidding. Aw, come on, everyone knows it's totally a joke if you leave out the verb! San Jose mayor Ron Gonzales is taking out some trash of his own, now that an independent investigation has completely refuted his version of events concerning his role in a sweetheart deal over garbage collection services, profusely apologizing to anyone who'll listen. The City Council will debate whether to censure him, and the Merc News and one council member have called for Gonzales to resign as well. And -- aw, man. A San Jose man has taken to the media to plead with the 15-year-old boy who broke into his house to return the remains of his cremated wife to him. The man has written off the autographed Willie Mays baseballs that were stolen and other property damage: "I don't care about the other stuff. I just would like to get my wife back." This is breaking our heart. ...

Some video to amuse you as you kill your Friday afternoon at the office: Schlomo Rabinowitz suggests what not to buy for your little pisher this holiday season, and Josh Wolf posts his footage of the latest anti-war protests. Speaking of motion pictures, somebody has paid Malcolm Gladwell $1 million for the movie rights to Blink. We can't believe it either. El Lefty Malo takes a look at the public cost of privately built......

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......

Since SFist Jon's out, it's fallen onto your poor sports-illiterate correspondent, to report the news that's got 24 Willie Mays Plaza all abuzz for tonight's game -- intrepid blogger Mr. Barry Bonds has deigned to fly up from L.A. and bat fourth in tonight's Giants lineup against the San Diego Padres. Well, it might help -- and certainly couldn't make things worse for-- the Giants, who, remarkably, remain second in the famed NL-W(or)est division, and only seven games back, despite having lost more games than they've won this season. Are you cheering or booing? Or, like us, do you really have no idea what's going on? (All we know about Barry Bonds is that someone we used to work with's main claim to fame in life was that he had pitched against Barry Bonds in high school and struck him out. Our former colleague was no walk-Barry chicken!) ...

Hey, want to spend an evening with an aging former drug abuser watching four other aging former (?) drug abusers shake their wrinkled heines on stage? For $100,000 and the cost of some plane tickets, you can go see the Rolling Stones perform at Fenway Park in Boston with Herr Governator! We think it would be worth it to watch him dance to the Black Eyed Peas and maybe spark a 'special' cigar. It's......

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......

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......

It's opening day and if you know what's good for you you'll ditch work, head down to the ballpark, and try to get someone's extra ticket. The Giants welcome--Could that possibly be the right word?--the Dodgers today to start the season and, looking out the window at today's beautiful weather, there isn't a better place in the world to be right now than at Willie Mays Field at SBC Park. Jason Schmidt will throw the......

So of course we weren't in The City for most of the week -- you may have noticed parts one, two, three, four and five of our coverage of SXSW in Austin. As nice as the people and the place was, though, it sure wasn't San Francisco, and we are so glad to be back home. That doesn't mean that there wasn't all sorts of great local coverage on the site all week. Just......

We're sure there are some people out there who are all interested in the AT&T/SBC merger because of what it means to the stock market. And we're sure there are some of you out there who are interested in the merger because of what it means for your job. But we here at SFist are interested in it for only reason -- what name will the Giants now call home? While the people behind......

Last week, the Giants asked the city assessor's office to reassess the Ballpark at 24 Willie Mays Plaza for tax purposes. The point being the Giants are claiming that their four year old park is already starting to get a little less shiny and a little less new and therefore the Giants should pay less money in taxes. Currently, the Giants pay $4 million a year in property taxes plus another $6 million or so......

Now that all the dirty secrets of the BALCO trial have been leaked and suspicions confirmed, those of us who bleed orange & black are in the midst of some of the darkest days to befall the Giants since Scott Spezio went deep. We've had a charmed life in our snug little baseball world -- records broken, playoff games played, World Series games held -- and Barry has been responsible for a large portion......

Getting to the South Bay is getting a little easier with the rejiggered BART schedule. Previously, trains ran either to Millbrae, or to SFO, with only a few going to both. Now, all trains will run through SFO to Millbrae. This is not only good for you guys with the wheeled luggage carts trying to make your United flight to Chicago, but also for you folks trying to catch the Baby Bullet Caltrain at Millbrae,......

As much as we love 24 Willie Mays Plaza, we Giants fans have to admit it's been a bit of a mixed blessing. Sure, it just might be one of the most beautiful places on God's green earth, but it has also meant that the image of the Giants fan- that being us- has taken a bit of a beating. For those of us who go way back to the rough and tumble Candlestick Days- when braving the drunken brawls and the frozen foggy chill of a July night was a badge of honor, this is a bit disconcerting. Now Third and King is the place to be and be seen, the stereotype of the Giants fan has gone from being that of a brawling boozer to that of a cell phone checking, laptop wielding, wine drinking Yuppie. Which is why we here at EssEfist were more than chagrined when we opened up last Thursday's Chron to find an article in the Wine Section debating the merits of the A's brand wine vs. that of the Giants. Sports teams having their own wine brand of wine? Could it GET more NoCal? Seriously, do you ever expect to open up the New York Times and find a story debating the merits of the Mets' wine vs. that of the Yankees? I think not. Would they even allow wine drinking in Wrigley or Fenway? But what really cut was the photo included in the story, that of your typical effete wine-drinking Yuppie couple watching a Giants' game from tony box seats (with pictures of boats in the background, natch) while their friend sat there "chatting" away on his cell phone. All that is missing from the photo is somebody checking their e-mail. Could they have found a more stereotypical group of people to represent Giants fans as this group? We're inclined to think that the photo was either a parody or taken by an A's fan. Seriously, this season has been hard enough....

EssEffist Contributor Rita Hao submits to the interview process and reveals her cosmic connection w/ Willie Mays as well as her affinity for our weather....

There aren't too many doubleheaders in baseball anymore, and most of them are split admission, so you gotta have two tickets, one for each game. Today, though, it's just like old times and you can watch two games for the price of one at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Los Gigantes and Les Expos are playing their regularly scheduled game today as well as a makeup of one that was rained out in Puerto Rico in......