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http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=21383549134

Come this fall, I will be in discussions with the university and Kevin Smith to try and bring him to the University of Oregon for one of his famous Q&A's. You should know who Kevin Smith is, if you don't he is a director/producer/screenwriter/actor/comedian from New Jersey who has directed Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jersey Girl, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerk II. His next film coming out is Zach and Miri Make a Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, which comes out on October 31, 2008. If you have facebook, click on the link and join the group.

Joining the group will help show the university how many people are interested in hearing him speak.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sportsnation/story?page=helmetsoregontexasam&POLL348=100000

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With the big weekend starting, I thought I'd start it off with some enjoyable images.

via photos-b.ak.facebook.com

via photos-d.ak.facebook.com

via photos-h.ak.facebook.com

via photos-d.ak.facebook.com

via photos-f.ak.facebook.com

via photos-g.ak.facebook.com

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via photos-d.ak.facebook.com

I need 75 words, so....

BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA! 

DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! DODGERS SUCK! 

I read this article on sfgate.com and really enjoyed it. So now you can enjoy it!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/08/SP70115G9N.DTL

Maple bats are risky business

Bruce Jenkins

Monday, June 9, 2008

It was no longer a bat, but a split-in-half weapon. As the Giants' Fred Lewis held one piece, the other bounced crazily toward the pitcher's mound, where it slammed into the leg of Colorado pitcher Aaron Cook.

"We've seen a lot of this," said broadcaster Duane Kuiper as an annoyed Cook shook off the injury, "and it's bad. The maple-wood bats - see ya."

It might not be that simple, but Kuiper is right. He's part of a growing baseball community calling for the banishment of maple. We're about to learn if the game is willing to take action - in a meeting scheduled for June 24 - or ignore a very disturbing body of evidence.

"It's going to take somebody getting severely hurt to force a change," said a skeptical Doug Mientkiewicz of the Pittsburgh Pirates. "Anybody who thinks I'm overreacting should go look at our hitting coach's face. It's spooky."

Don Long is the Pirates' coach with half a smile. He was sitting in the dugout at Dodger Stadium April 15 when Nate McLouth broke his bat on a ball that traveled deep into the right-field corner. Long didn't see the weapon hurtling his way. The splintered barrel hit him flush in the left cheek, slicing through muscle and damaging some nerves. Doctors had to remove a piece that had lodged under his skin before sewing up the cut. Long maintains that he was "lucky, when I think about what could have happened," but when he smiles, the left side of his mouth doesn't move. He has no sense of feeling in part of his upper lip.

"All I did was watch Nate's hit," Long said. "I never had any idea the bat was coming."

That's because McLouth had made good contact, right near the sweet spot. We've all witnessed the broken-bat experience over the years, heard that splintering sound, then moved to follow the ball's inevitably tortured path. That's from the days when bats were made strictly of ash. Maple bats are the instrument of choice these days, used by roughly 60 percent of players in the major leagues, and they have become a threat to the game's integrity.

In another April incident at Dodger Stadium, a fan named Susan Rhodes was following Todd Helton's single to center when the barrel half of his shattered bat sailed into her face, breaking her jaw in two places.

About a month later, in Phoenix, one of those flying spears (the remnants of Matt Holliday's bat) crashed into the concrete railing in front of Arizona chief executive officer Jeffrey Moorad and some friends. "If it had been 2 1/2 inches higher," Moorad said, "it might have literally ended up going through one of us."

Seasoned fans recall a frightening incident from 1976 when the Dodgers' Steve Yeager, waiting in the on-deck circle, was struck in the neck by a fragment of Bill Russell's broken bat - literally a life-threatening accident. "But that was a freak thing," Yeager told reporters recently. "Back then, the bats broke, but very seldom did you see one just explode, or see the barrel of the bat go flying. It's nothing like today."

The maple-bat craze was launched single-handedly by Barry Bonds, who enlisted the Canadian-based Original Maple Bat Company in 1999 and used maple to hit his record-breaking 73 homers in 2001. Studies have shown that the ball doesn't travel any farther off maple, but a lot of ballplayers think differently, and they love the feel of the harder, more dense maple.

The problem is that maple bats break for no good reason - and they generally break cleanly in half, putting a second object in play for both players and fans. "All of a sudden, they just explode," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "You see a half-dozen broken a night, and it's dangerous. I'm serious, this is scary."

Defenders of maple bats claim that it's not merely the nature of the wood, but that so many of today's players prefer thin-handled bats with thick barrels. "I've never really had a problem with my maple bats, but I don't like a big barrel," said Paul Konerko of the White Sox. "Nine times out of 10 when you see a bat helicoptering on the field, it's a big-headed bat with a skinny handle."

When it comes to ash, there's a certain justice to the broken bat, a reward for a pitcher's good work. Ash-crafted bats shatter mostly when players are "jammed" - taking an ill-advised cut at a pitch close to their body - or when they make contact at the very end of the bat. There's no justice, or even predictability, with maple. Only the troublesome thought that some fan, perhaps a small child, could get killed just for sitting in a field-level seat.

Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy said "almost all" of his players use maple, but two of the team's spiritual leaders, Aaron Rowand and Omar Vizquel, are not among them. "I don't like maple at all," Vizquel said. "For one thing, there are too many companies out there (at least 30) manufacturing maple bats, so you don't really know what you're getting, and they break too easily. Plus, I don't like the sound it makes coming off the bat. It's not the same as ash."

Rowand said he's used the same bat model through his career. "I know guys swear by maple because the bats are more dense, " he said, "but I couldn't have that kind of density in my barrel. It would make the thing too top-heavy. You hear it makes the ball travel farther; I don't know about that. When I hit one right here (the sweet spot on his Louisville Slugger), that thing's gonna go."

The Angels' Torii Hunter, disgusted by the sight of so many broken bats, recently swore off maple for good. The Pirates' Jason Bay switched to ash in the third week of May, saying he had "a feeling" they soon will be banned, "so maybe I'm a little ahead of the curve."

When the summit conference takes place in New York later this month, Commissioner Bud Selig and team representatives are bound to get some resistance from the players' union - always a bothersome notion. This is a union that, in resisting drug testing for so long, tacitly approved the rampant use of steroids. A union that lamely keeps the designated-hitter rule alive because it "creates more jobs." Truth be told, when it comes to anything but taking financial care of current and retired players, this union should just sit back and shut up.

It's likely that we'll hear some absolute nonsense from many sources in the realm of solutions, such as:

-- Protective netting installed in every park, running well down each foul line. Wrong. People don't buy those choice seats to sit behind a screen.

-- Place restrictions on bat dimensions, such as a limit on the thickness of handle. Wrong again. If a ballplayer has sworn by certain dimensions since he was a teenager, you don't have the right to make him change.

-- The use of "composite" bats, made of plastic and reinforced resin beneath an ash surface. Absolutely not. These bats are said to hit, feel and look exactly like professional wood bats, but they don't. They only last longer, and they unacceptably resemble aluminum when it comes to hitters blithely fending off inside pitches.

What we'd suggest: a gradual elimination of maple, starting with the reduction of MLB-approved companies to two or three. In the meantime, Hillerich & Bradsby can start the process of filling ash orders for every big leaguer. Give the process a year or two. And pray that the ambulance sirens don't come first.

Ok, so, I'm not entirely familiar with the way the money works in our front office.

-Now that we have a new owner, do we have more money or is our budget about the same?

-How much longer will we be paying off the ballpark and when we stop, how much will that extend our budget?

-What is our budget?

Thanks Guys and Gals,

Max

P.S. I am thoroughly enjoying this win streak.

With Zito improving, is there a possible trade looming? The Yankees are struggling with pitching and if Zito continues to improve, it would not surprise me at all to see them make a move for Zito. Do you think this is possible? What would you want for Zito?

Personally, I would lvoe to trade Zito for prospects. I think freeing up our cap space for this offseason would be big for us, we already have plenty of pitching including prospects coming up, and we could use some young hitting prospects. 

"The worst Giants team in the past 25 years."

This is what I recall Ralph Barbieri calling the 2008 Giants near the end of spring training. A lot of people were saying that the same thing. Everyone expected the Giants to finish last in the division, most likely the NL, and possibly the majors. But these Giants have really improved and played with something I haven't seen since 2003...moxy. Yes, I know, its cheesy, but its true. The Giants have found themselves in some close games and some pressure situations, and although they haven't pulled through every time, they have pulled through quite a bite, and for this young team, I'm impressed. The Giants are 14-17 and 14-12 when Barry Zito isn't pitching. Even more impressive is the Giants played 12 of these games against the current best 2 teams (record-wise) in the majors, the Diamondbacks and the Cardinals. The Giants went 5-7 in those 12 games and 2 of the 7 loses happened to feature Zito. So consider, the Giants are possibly Barry Zito away from being 19-12. Besides Molina, Rowand, and Lewis, no positions player is playing fantastic, but the Giants are getting their clutch hits from numerous players and the occasional rare single-game performances from guys like Aurilia, Durham, and Bowker are helping them along the way. The bullpen has improved drastically since the beginning of the season and I'm really excited to see this young ball club develop. The Giants appear to be getting better and better and if Barry Zito straightens himself out or Pat Misch turns in a consistently decent starter, the Giants could very well be on their way to a .500 or better record. Who knows?...maybe the Giants will have a .500 or better record this year and acquire some talent in the off-season to be a playoff contender next year. The post-Bonds era is looking up.

via sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com

Will be the best day ever!

http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/schedule/promotions.jsp?c_id=sf

Crazy Crab Boobleheads!!!!!!

I just want to say that along with the crazy crab, does anyone else miss Rusty? Does anyone else remember Rusty? That thing that came out of the right field arcade. Well if you dont, here is a link to the picture:

giants-rusty-786425.jpg

Apparently I needed 5 more words. 

I think the Warriors and Nuggets have more favorable schedules than Dallas, and with Dallas' recent struggles (including zero wins against teams over .500 since getting Kidd) I think the Warriors and Nugget are fighting for the 7th spot, rather than 3 teams fighting for the 8th spot.

Warriors:
4/1 @ San Antonio L
4/2 @ Dallas W
4/4 @ Memphis W
4/6 @ New Orleans L
4/8     Sacramento W
4/10   Denver W
4/12   LA Clippers W
4/14 @ Phoenix L
4/16   Seattle W

6-3

Denver:
3/31 @ Phoenix L
4/1   Phoenix L
4/5   Sacramento W
4/6 @ Seattle W
4/8 @ LA Clippers W
4/10 @ Golden State L
4/12 @ Utah L
4/13 Houston W
4/16 Memphis W

5-4

Dallas:
3/31 @ LA Clippers W
4/2 Golden State L
4/4 @ LA Lakers L
4/6 @ Phoenix L
4/8     Seattle W
4/10   Utah L
4/12 @ Portland L
4/13 @ Seattle W
4/16 New Orleans L

3-6

What do you guys think?

Due to the recent madness that is the Golden State Warriors, some local rappers are doing their part.

"GS Warriors Holla at Ya Boy (remix)" - Ya Boy

"Golden State of Mind" - Lansky

"Game Time" - Trackrunners

Go to myspace music to listen to them. You can also try typing them into google search and you can download them at different sites. Limewire doesn't have the Ya Boy song.

There might be a jersey out there like this but I haven't seen one, ad I thought this would be tight.

What the Warriors had an alternate jersey that looked like the blue City jerseys, but instead of the City logo n the front, it had the Town logo that some companies have designed for shirts. On the back, instead of a yellow cable care, it would be a yellow bus.

Tell me what you think.