San Jose GiantsOne of the best family events in the Bay Area is the San Jose Giants minor league baseball team. If you’ve never been to a minor league baseball game, then that is reason enough to go. Right in the middle of San Jose is Municipal Stadium, home of the Single-A San Francisco Giants affiliate. Game days are signaled by the billowing BBQ smoke from the various grills. The BBQ Area gets more action than the bleachers it seems. Everything from hotlinks to ribs can be found.

Read more >

Kurt Suzuki: 15-day DLAfter a hot start the Oakland A's are at .500 and tied for first in the AL West. Trevor Cahill made his 2010 debut and got served up by the Toronto Blue Jays Friday in Toronto for eight runs. Injuries have hit the squad hard with Catcher Kurt Suzuki on the 15-day DL for a strained ribcage. That marks the tenth time the A's have used the DL this season. Ailing pitcher Justin Duchsherer will see a doctor Monday for a hip strain suffered Thursday. Gio Gonzalez (2-1), the A's young starter will face the Jays saturday. The Jays will bring former A's pitcher Eveland, who has only faced one A's hitter.

Read more >

49ers: filling gaps in the 2010 NFL DraftThe San Francisco 49ers are trying to build a dynasty. They feel they've got their receivers, linebackers, tight end, and possibly a quarterback. What they really needed was an offensive line. And today, they picked two linemen.

Read more >

The Bay Area is home to some of the most popular teams in American sport. The San Francisco 49ers are known across the world as champions of the NFL. The Oakland A's are one of baseball's historically richest teams with nine World Series wins since their inception in Philadelphia. The Giants are steeped in history as well. And who could forget the little team that could, the San Jose Sharks hockey team, one of the more successful NHL teams since their inception in 1992.

But to focus on the history of these teams would neglect some of the teams that came before.

BASEBALL

Oakland Oaks: 40s era capOakland Oaks (Pacific Coast League) 1903-1955

Founded in 1903, the Oaks were a homegrown organization, named for the city of Oakland. They played in Oaks Park from 1911 until their departure for Vancouver, BC in 1955. The Oaks won five league titles in 1912, '27, '48, '50 and '54. The Oaks were the first team to break the color barrier when they 'accidentally' hired African American and Native American player Jimmy Claxton.

Read more >

We covered Baseball and Football in part one, but here's where the real trivia hounds will come out. Did you know the Bay Area was a roller hockey hot bed? Read on my hungry friends.

HOCKEY (ROLLER)

Oakland Skates: not good hockey.Oakland Skates (RHI) 1993-1997; 1999

When the hockey boom of the early 90s was underway, someone had the bright idea to start a league for roller hockey. The Skates played at the Oakland Arena. There’s not much to say about that.

San Jose Rhinos (RHI) 1994-1997, 1999

Read more >

Dan Boyle: scored the winning goal... for the Avalanche.Oh man. What a terrible game. The San Jose Sharks went about a minute into overtime before scoring on themselves, losing 1-0 in OT. Last year there was all this hype and everyone knew the Sharks were playing in the playoffs. Then they, the runaway first place team, lost in the first round like a bunch of junior league players to the Anaheim Ducks. This year, there is no hype and nobody is holding their breath. And after last night's sad loss, it's a good thing. The Sharks are down now 1-2 against the Colorado Avalanche. Nobody in San Jose expects much either.

Read more >

Daric Barton: hot so far in 2010Where on earth did these Oakland A's come from? I was at opening night and watched lose in what I surely thought was to be the theme of the year, again. But here we are in the third week of the admittedly young season, but guess whose sitting atop the AL West? Our little no name Oakland A's, that's who. All our no-names are hittin' the ball like crazy and scoring runs like it was 1989.

Who's hot?

Ryan Sweeney is hot. As of today, batting a cool .370 with 9 RBIs. Cliff Pennington is hot batting .319 with 10 RBIs. Marco Ellis is hot batting .406 with 8 runs scored. But nobody is hotter than Daric Barton, batting .473 with 7 RBIs and 6 runs.

Read more >

Alex Smith: who will start, Smith or David Carr?The San Francisco 49ers were one of those almost teams last year. They gave the ball back to Alex Smith who showed promise. Rookie wideout Michael Crabtree finally came to his senses and ended his holdout and actually redeemed himself with some good games, putting up 625 yards on 43 rec. for a pair of touchdowns in 10 games. The Niner defense still looks solid with the mean machine Patrick Willis at linebacker. The acquisition of Ted Ginn Jr. from Miami offers more hope for the Niners special teams play as Ginn was able to carve a niche out for himself with the Dolphins as a return guy. Maybe he'll move into a WR spot too.

Read more >

Kurt Suzuki: walk-off hit in the ninth gives Oakland the game and series.The A's wrapped up their opening series against AL West rivals Seattle with a 6-5 win to take the series. IN what was either a very exciting series or an early display of two bad teams, the A's emerged as the only 2-win team in AL West. It's not much, but we'll take it.

It was another Kurt Suzuki walk off hit that gave the A's the win in the bottom of the ninth. Rajae Davis jacked a solo homer in the third to tie it up 2-2.

Read more >

NO. NAME POS
49 Brett Anderson SP
40 Andrew Bailey RP
10 Daric Barton 1B
13 Jerry Blevins RP
57 Cedrick Bowers RP
51 Dallas Braden SP
56 Craig Breslow RP
-- Corey Brown CF
6 Travis Buck RF
53 Trevor Cahill SP
61 Adrian Cardenas SS
25 Matt Carson RF
22 Chris Carter 1B
3 Eric Chavez 3B
16 Coco Crisp CF
32 Jack Cust DH
11 Rajai Davis CF
60 Fautino De Los Santos SP
70 Sam Demel RP
33 Joey Devine RP
52 Lenny DiNardo SP
71 Josh Donaldson C
58 Justin Duchscherer SP
14 Mark Ellis 2B
65 Pedro Figueroa SP
50 Jake Fox 3B
72 Joel Galarraga C
47 Gio Gonzalez SP
76 Grant Green SS
28 Gabe Gross RF
36 Fernando Hernandez RP
39 Brad Kilby RP
5 Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
54 Vin Mazzaro SP
45 Marcus McBeth RP
18 Dallas McPherson 3B
44 Jon Meloan RP
62 Clayton Mortensen SP
55 Josh Outman SP
1 Eric Patterson LF
26 Cliff Pennington SS
2 Gregorio Petit 2B
35 Landon Powell C
19 Anthony Recker C
63 Henry Rodriguez SP
7 Adam Rosales 3B
66 Tyson Ross SP
15 Ben Sheets SP

Read more >