So what happened over the weekend in sports? The Raiders looked impressive, the 49ers not so much. In baseball, the Giants played some of their best baseball of the season while the A's played some of their worst. We, however, missed it all as we got suckered into the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on TNT and spent most of the weekend online debating the question of who would win a fight between Dumbledore and Gandalf. For the record, Gandalf totally would--Dumbledore just helped defeat some wizard who looked like a snake. Gandalf helped defeat a giant, flaming eyeball.

Now onto the sports

The 49ers- the Niners lost to Da Bears in a preseason game and did not look particularly good in the process. Both teams played their main players throughout the first half of the game and it wasn't very close during it. The Niners made the game closer towards the end but by that part of the game, the only people were playing were the third string players and the towel boys. But then again, preseason football doesn't mean anything.

The Raiders- the Raiders offense didn't look so hot, Daunte Culpepper didn't look so bad, and the Raiders D looked exceptional in beating the Rams' second string. But then again, preseason football doesn't mean anything.

The Giants- Get this, they swept a team this weekend, a good team, in fact-- the Brewers. SFist was of two minds about this weekend series. On the one hand, go Giants. On the other hand, we're rooting for the Brew Crew in the NL Central race and this didn't help. It was a pretty crazy series too featuring lots of offense, another pitcher hitting a home run, a Barry Bonds home run followed by a Barry Bonds faux pas on the bases, a late inning rally on Sunday's game, and the emergence of Kevin Correia as a starting pitcher.

The A's- how cool is Wikipedia? We have no idea if their info on Julius Caesar or Napoleon is in any way correct, but we're pretty sure their info on the complete history of Middle Earth or Gandalf’s biography is top-notch. Why do we bring this up? Because it's much better to talk about this than the A's weekend, when they got shellacked three in a row by the D-Rays. Sure, now that the season is late, the Rays are probably more dangerous now than when things matter for them but considering the A's looked like they were going to turn the corner, this didn't go well. Not even Dan Haren was able to do the do that he do and got shelled on Sunday. Total runs given up by the A's pitching staff in three straight games? 33.