Today, we are talking with Eric Gellerman of the Wooden Duck! Why, you ask? Well, because the Wooden Duck, a woodshop in Berkeley, bought the bleachers from old Memorial. So, if you want to have a table or a chair or anything else wood-related that was outside for 80 years and several generations of people stood/sat on, he is your man and Wooden Duck is your store! Mr. Gellerman was nice enough to answer a bunch of questions about the wood. His answers are after the jump. He also provided a lot of photos and a video of the wood! GO BEARS! Here is more information from Mr. Gellerman himself:

Eric Gellerman is the co-founder of the Wooden Duck, a furniture company in West Berkeley that has purchased the old wooden bleacher seats from Cal Memorial Stadium. Since 1995, the company has made furniture almost exclusively from reclaimed lumber and recycled wood in the US and abroad. While the majority of their customers are families looking for solid wood items, the small factory is increasingly becoming known for building out restaurants, wineries, and commercial spaces.

Check out videos and pictures and ask questions HERE
or visit:
The Wooden Duck
1823 Eastshore Hwy
Berkeley, CA 94710
(the frontage road between University and Gilman)
510-848-3575
www.thewoodenduck.com

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Tomorrow, we remember the service and sacrifice of our nation's men and women soldiers. CalBear81 has written a great post about some Cal athletes who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you very much to our nation's soldiers.

There is also a lot of joy this week in regards to the softball team. Into the World Series! GO BEARS! You can see the double elimination bracket here. The games start this Thursday for Cal when they take on LSU. From there, it is anybody's guess, but if Cal can make it through the weekend, the Championship starts next Monday. So, we have a good amount of softball excitement!

This week, we also have recaps from the SoCal Coaches Tour coming up. FiatLux and Berkelium97 made it out and have great information for all. Plus, we have an interview with the Wooden Duck, who just bought tons of the bleachers from Memorial Stadium. They can make you tons of cool stuff out of the wood we all stood on for the last 80 years.

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Avinash: With Shareef graduating, might be a good chance for us to write about his spectacular freshman season at Cal (like we did with Kidd a few years back).

LeonPowe: With Jason Kidd and Lamond leaving school in 1994, we brought in a highly ranked recruiting class consisting of Jelani Gardner and Tremaine Fowlkes. And while the kids (mainly Folkes) were very good - with Folkes winning the Freshman of the Year honors, unfortunately our upper class leadership (Monty Buckley, Al Grigsby and Ryan Jamison) and returning players (Anwar McQueen / Randy Duck) wasn't good enough to lead Cal to the post-season in 1994-95; although that team probably would've done pretty well in last year's Pac-12.

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Apparently, the finale of American Idol was last night and a dude named Philip Philips won:

The lights were dimmed, the votes were counted, and Phillip Phillips became the new "American Idol."

As expected, Phillips beat out Jessica Sanchez on Wednesday's (May 23) Season 11 "Idol" finale, live at Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre. Phillips topped Sanchez after a reported 132 million votes were cast — "a new world record," according to host Ryan Seacrest.

Phillips teared up while performing his winning song "Home," while confetti rained down on the stage around him. The Leesburg, Georgia, native has been a cool cucumber all season long, but he broke down in the moment, just as he did during his hometown visit last week.

Phillips didn't finish the song, but strolled off stage and into the arms of his family, who were waiting in the first few rows. As streamers fell and the band played on the stage behind him, Phillips hugged his family members, and later judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler.

I do not know how I missed this. I guess I am really out of the loop, but the dude's name is Philip Philips and I'm JUST finding out about it.

I blame you all!

TwistNHook: Heading into Sunday's games, Cal softball was a strange position. Not only were they the visiting team at their own ballpark, but they were on the ropes. Their opponent, Arkansas, had the advantage. As the NCAA Regionals are double elimination, Cal had to beat Arkansas twice in a handful of hours to move on to the Super Regional. Since Arkansas had beaten Cal on Saturday, it was Cal with the sole loss, not Arkansas.

So, first, Cal took on Arkansas at 5 PM. If Arkansas won, Arkansas moved on to take on UDub. If Cal won, then Arkansas took on Cal another time in a winner moves on match. But first things first:

The 5 PM game. It was a gorgeous day in Berkland on May 20, 2012. Is there anything better than a warm spring day with the green of the grass and what would eventually be two dominant Cal wins????

More photos and discussion of the games after the jump. GO BEARS!

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On the way to Levine-Fricke field Sunday for the Cal-Arkansas softball action, I stopped by Vista Point to snap a few shots. Imagine my surprise when it looked drastically different from before. When it used to be sort of a mishmash of construction, now it appeared to be moving closer to being ready. There are a bunch of photos here. You can click on them to make them larger if you want. GO BEARS!

Are they going to use Memorial for a monster truck rally????? Are they going to bring Christians into Memorial to fight lions????

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On May 20, 2012, we went out to the Cal baseball game against UCLA. It has been a very rough season for Cal in 2012. 2011 was a magical season where the team went from the chopping block to the verge of a national championship. Fans had high hopes entering 2012 and, sadly, it was not to be. Cal is in the lower quadrant of an admittedly difficult Pac-11 (Colorado doesn't field a team). We probably aren't going to make the post-season this year.

While there is a lot of negativity surrounding the program again, you wouldn't see it at Evans Diamond on Sunday. It was a gloriously gorgeous day. Sure, Cal was scrambling to avoid the sweep at the hands of the dastardly Bruins, but it was Senior Day. And there was some sort of event for kids, ensuring tons of kids running around the ballpark.
Michael Theofanopoulos started for the Bears, but only went 3 innings. It was not as if he was getting blown out of the water. It was only 1-1 after 3. However, Esquer decided to put in pitcher Kyle Porter (briefly) and then move on to Logan Scott. More on the game after the jump. GO BEARS!

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What's that? We have the first game in a home and home with Ohio State this year? Yes, yes we do! This year, we face the Bucknuts out in CALumbus. Next year, we welcome them to Strawberry Canyon! This should be an exciting set of games against a college football blue blood. We haven't gone up against a out of conference blue blood like this since the 2006-2007 set against Tennessee. That time, the away game ended........poorly. Hopefully, this team can do better than the Marshawn/DeSean/pre-injury Longshore team of 06 and take it to OSU in the Big Oval or the Large Man Sandal or whatever it is they call their stadium.

This will be OSU's first game of the season against a BCS team as they play Miami (OH) and Central Florida before us. We'll be OSU's first real test. This will be Cal's first game against OSU since 1972 (OSU won 35-18 in Berkeley) and Cal's first trip to CALumbus since 1971 (OSU won 35-3).

OSU is in a stage of great transition right now. They are trying to move past embarrassing scandal from the Tressel era to the Urban Meyer era. They can't even make a bowl game this year! We needed somebody who majored in Meyerology. We needed to talk to somebody who knew all things OSU. To find out more about where they are with this transition, we talked with Luke Zimmermann over at Land Grant Holy Land. Land Grant Holy Land is SBN's most recent OSU site. They seem to go through Ohio State sites like Spinal Tap goes through drummers. But I have a good feeling that this OSU site is going to stick!

Their answers are after the jump. Many thanks to Luke Zimmermann and the whole LGHL crew! GO BEARS! BEAT THE BUCKEYES!

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What a weekend. Cal softball slips a bit on Saturday, but manages to sweep the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday with two shut outs to move on to the next round. Now, they face Washington this weekend in Berkeley. As of now, times and dates are yet to be determined. So, we do not have the information yet. But we were present at all of the games this weekend and have tons of content to provide all week long.

So, check out the Cal Athletics schedule (with some other sports, like women's crew, going to the NCAA Championships this weekend) after the jump. Plus, our schedule. GO BEARS!

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What's that? Your California Golden Bear softball team is the #1 overall seed in the NCAAs! HECK TO THE YUP! The action kicks off in Berkeley, this Friday night. Here is the info from the official site:

Friday, May 18

5 p.m. - Game One: Boston U. vs. Arkansas
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

7 p.m. - Game Two: Cal vs. Iona
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

Saturday, May 19
3 p.m. - Game Three: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

5 p.m. - Game Four: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

7 p.m. - Game Five: Loser Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

Sunday, May 20
5 p.m. - Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 5
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

7 p.m. - Game 7: Rematch of Game 6 (If necessary)
Levine-Fricke Field - Berkeley, Calif.

So, Cal has a game Friday night at 7 PM. Then, depending on the results, Cal will have 1-2 games on Saturday. Then, depending on the results, Cal will have 0-2 games on Sunday. Best case scenario is Cal wins Fri at 7 PM, wins Sat at 3 PM, and Sun at 3 PM. I think that is the smoothest way to go. Here is info on the ticket sales:

Berkeley Regional Ticket Information
All-Session Chairback: $55
All-Session Adult Bleacher: $40
All-Session Senior/Youth(12 Grade and Under)/Student Bleacher: $25

All-session passes will go on sale on Monday May 14th at 9 a.m. PT. Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase all-session passes as soon as they go on sale because if the all-session passes sellout, day-of, individual game passes will not be available.

So, get out there and support the Bears! Here at CGB, we'll be previewing the Regional and then have all the open threads for discussion. Also, we'll have recaps of both men's and women's crew winning the Pac-12 Championship over the weekend. Plus, much, much more. A full Cal Athletics calendar and CGB Weekly Guide for the week after the jump. GO BEARS!

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Most sports are winding down, but baseball and softball are still going strong. Big serieses this weekend as baseball takes on Arizona and softball takes on ASU. Softball just mowed down the Beavers, but ASU will be a formidable enemy. Baseball needs to get on a hot streak if they are going to make the post-season. Try to make it out to some games this weekend to cheer on the golden bears!

As for us, we have a lot of great content this week. Did you know that MBB recruiting is about to hit a key deadline? FrankCohen is going to tell us more about MBB recruiting as that deadline approaches. Also, MicMan Aaron Eslamboly tells us more about his experiences at the Pac-12 Tourney. A full Cal Athletics and CGB schedule after the jump. GO BEARS!

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This is the UCLA 2007 Matchup. Did Longshore throw that int or did DeSean run the wrong route? I guess we'll never know the truth of that controversial situation. But at least today, we can move one of these two forward in the CGB Hall Of Fame.

This is in the Joe Kapp Regional. The winner here takes on Mike Silver. That could definitely be an interesting matchup! Full write ups after the jump. Full bracket here. Voting ends this Friday, so go and VOTE!

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The CGB Hall Of Fame voting continues! We had two matchups yesterday and another two today. This is a unique matchup between two entrants from neither football nor MBB. It is always good to get some diversity from those two elephants in the room. We have championship winning, all around superstar water poloian Kirk Everist versus World Cup winning, Olympian Joy Biefeld Fawcett. Two of the best at their respective sport to ever rep the B+G.

This is in the Pete Newell Regional. The winner here takes on Mychal Kendricks or Ryan Anderson. Full write ups after the jump for both. Full bracket here. Voting ends this Friday, so go and VOTE!

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Congratulations to Mychal Kendricks! He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles over the weekend. He now joins Nnamdi Asomugha, Mike Gibson, and, of course, DeSean Jackson with the Eagles. Do they have more Cal players than the Seahawks???

The Eagles had a disappointing year last year and had definite problems on defense. They will look to Kendricks to play an important role in turning around the so-called "Dream Team." To find out more about the Eagles linebacking situation, we turned to JasonB of Bleeding Green Nation to fill in the blanks. Many thanks to JasonB and BGN for taking some time to answer these questions for us. Good luck to Kendricks in Philly! GO BEARS AND GO EAGLES!

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What an exciting weekend! Cal had the most players in the Pac-12 drafted this year. There were 6 players in total. Even though Cal did not have a first round pick for the first time in several years, we certainly made up for it! Mitchell Schwartz was actually the first Bear off the board.

The Cleveland Browns (home to former Bears Scott Fujita and Alex Mack) drafted Schwartz in the second round. Congratulations to Mitch! On top of achieving his dream of playing for a NFL team, Mitchell Schwartz (along with his brother) actually helps bring some diversity to the NFL:

Trivia question: What family soon will represent 20 percent of the Jews in the National Football League?

Answer: The one with Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz. Older son Geoff has played two seasons with the Carolina Panthers and now is under contract with the Minnesota Vikings. Younger brother Mitchell, who will almost surely be drafted this week, will join him.

Making any professional league is a long shot, so to have two in the same family borders on the incredible.

"Obviously, it’s a pretty cool thing," Mitchell said. "We graduated from pretty good colleges. It’s a really cool thing. I’m looking forward to it."

Mazel Tov to the Schwartz family for having two sons in the NFL. I'm sure Mitch can learn a lot from his older brother Geoff about NFL life. And since Geoff went to Oregon, while Mitch went to Cal, Mitch can teach Geoff about what an academic school was all about! Just kidding, Schwartz family. Somewhat, not really.

Either way, we're all extraordinarily excited for Mitchell Schwartz. He was a great player for Cal and we hope he can continue to play at that elite level with the Browns. Having Alex Mack there to teach him the ropes is an amazing opportunity!

To learn more about Mitchell Schwartz, Alex Mack, and the Browns, we talked with Chris Pokorny at SBN's Browns site Dawgs By Nature. They have all the information we need to know about the Browns offensive line situation. Thanks Chris and DbN for the info. Their answers to our questions after the jump. Go Bears and Go Browns!

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Well, then! There was a moment there, where Jacksonville Jaguars fans thought that their world had gone upside down. When the Jaguars selected punter Bryan Anger in the 3rd round, the fans thought they had been dropped into Rand McNally. It is where people wear hats on their feet and hamburgers take a bite out of you!

But, in reality, exclamation points weren't living with question marks and the attractive force between two bodies remained proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Live was, as it always ways, the same. But the Jaguars just had a better kicking game all of a sudden!

We've been watching Bryan Anger develop into the punting superstud that he is today. So, while somewhat surprising, it was not outlandish that some team, desperate for a great field position weapon, would jump all over him. The Jaguars fans were, initially, apoplectic. 40% of their initial vote gave the pick a big fat F. But I hope that their views change as Anger booms punt after crushing punt!

To find out more about Bryan Anger and his future with the Jags, we are talking with the SBN Jaguars site, Big Cat Country. Alfie Crow is our man on the scene delivering all the Anger news you need to know. Their answers after the jump. GO BEARS!

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What a wacky weekend, chocablock full of NFL draft coverage, and a golf Pac-12 sweep! What excitement!

However, Cal Athletics in general is starting to wind down. As we head into the summer, there are fewer sports going on. Just a smattering of events this week, with none seemingly in Berkeley. We'll still be doing a lot of talking this week, though. We're talking with a lot of SBN NFL sites about our new homes for many Golden Bears. Very exciting.

A full Cal Athletics calendar after the jump, along with our weekly schedule.

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It is a Golden Bear sweep as both the Women's and Men's Golf programs won the Pac-12! How exciting! Here is information on the Women's victory:

PULLMAN, Wash. - Senior Joanne Lee's birdie on the 18th hole broke a tie for first place at the Pac-12 Women's Golf Championships, helping to send the California Golden Bears into sole possession of the lead. A par putt by senior Daniela Holmqvistsealed the Bears second conference championship in program history.

The Golden Bears, who are ranked No. 9 in the country in the latest Golfweek rankings, came into the Pac-12 Championships as the No. 5 seed in the 11-team tournament. The Bears' strong second round sent them into Sunday's finale with a three-stroke lead over Colorado.

As for the men's victory, it just happened. No official story yet, but here is the live play by play. Apparently, Cal won on the 2nd playoff hole. How exciting! An Oregon scribe gives us more:

Cal's Brandon Hagy sinks another huge birdie putt, this from 30 feet on second playoff hole, to clinch Bears' victory over Ducks at Pac-12.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! This is great news. Unfortunately, we were not able to watch this, but hopefully with the Pac-12 channel upcoming, we will be able to watch more Cal Pac-12 victory in the coming years. GO BEARS!

We're currently working on organizing our interviews from Saturday's game. Hopefully, we'll have video and transcriptions ready to go. As we briefly turn our attention to the NFL Draft, I wanted to bring your attention to the videos we do have up from the Spring Game. We tried to video the whole thing (thanks to JABear and FrankCohen for helping with that). Sadly, the video did not come out well from up top. Fortunately, TouchedTheAxeIn82 got the job done there! Thanks!

So, here are our close up videos of the Spring Game. More after the jump. Enjoy!

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Part 1

(via calathletics)

When we left off in part 1, we were looking at some game action from Cal's spring game. Zach Kline, golden boy, was warming up, with fans anticipating his debut. Here is a shot thanks to our photographer with preferred nations status, turkey.

DSC_2002 (via ja_williams)

Turkey tells me that this is a shot of Kline throwing a strike for his long TD pass. It was a thing of beauty and only increased the hype around Kline. Also, increasing the hype, he is going with number 8. So, that's a thing!

More photos, including shots of a mini-fanfest, after the jump. GO BEARS!

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