Bay Area Sports Blog

Welcome back to the Big Leagues, Justin Duchscherer! Throwing to live hitters for the first time after missing all of last season, the A’s starter had a scary moment in Phoenix today.

Catcher Max Stassi smoked a line drive that Duchscherer barely had time to react to, and the ball hit off his hand and then his shoulder. Duchscherer spent a few moments in shock but otherwise was unharmed. As was evident by his comments:

He hits that rocket at me and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God’ … I just had to gather my thoughts and come sit down. And wipe the poop out of (my) pants.

Well that’s a fun image. Fans, please don’t send Depends. Video is here, if it loads.

You know how you can tell this is the greatest goal ever scored by San Jose Sharks and Team USA forward Joe Pavelski? He’s trying, desperately, not to smile, to be the cool hockey guy and just whatever about it all. But he can’t. Because this goal is in-frickity-sane:

Yeah, so that was goal No. 4 of the third period tonight in the Sharks’ win over the Predators. The Sharks dug deep for the third game in a row, scoring six goals in the final period to come back from a 4-2 deficit and win 8-5. There aren’t enough italics in the world to do this game justice.

Also, Patrick Marleau had his 40th goal to reach that milestone for the first time in his career, and defenseman Jay Leach had his first goal in 58 career NHL games. Oh, and the win was a dagger through the middle of a team the Sharks could well face in the playoffs. Why not? Also, Joe Thornton cured lupus and Dany Heatley discovered a viable form of deep-space travel. It was a good night.

For those of you not “up” with your “popular culture,” there’s this fantastic new show on MTV called “The Real World.” People live in a house together, have their lives taped, and then, you know, they find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting ridic. Apparently it’s something called reality television. Who knows.

Anyway, this season the kids are in DC, and one of the characters, Andrew, is totally trying to gank the “Panda” nickname away from the Giants’ own Pablo Sandoval! I know! Andrew got the nickname because he wears a panda hat. Whaaaat? Way not as cool as being named after an animated kid movie hero!

On tonight’s show, Andrew fell in love and one of his roommates even said, “Aww, is Panda getting tamed?” Listen, that panda doesn’t get tamed. Only Pablo Sandoval gets tamed. By the weight room.

Clearly this needs a grid of awesomeness. Maybe next we’ll do “reality television” v. “scripted television.”

First, congrats to the St. Mary’s Gaels, who made Gonzaga look silly in the WCC finals tonight to avoid the bubble drama from last year. Between the USF win in January and tonight’s dismantling, the Bay Area teams have given tourney foes plenty of fodder for beating Gonzaga. An early-round Zags exit? It’s college basketball, who knows. Whoa there, early March Madness pool latent frustration!

Second, congrats to Cal’s Jerome Randle, Pac-10 Player of the Year. He’s been destined to win since the seventh grade, so it’s about time.

Finally, congrats to former Golden Bears linebackers giving back. First it was Scott Fujita, who left New Orleans (for Cleveland) with a going-away present of half his playoff bonus. Half of that money went to Haiti relief, the other half to help New Orleans.

Then Zack Follett one-upped Fujita by stepping into a cage with a for-reals lion. He’s taking the “playing for the Detroit Lions” thing to its logical conclusion. Actually this video is meant to encourage donations for the Cat Haven Wild Animal Park near Fresno (Follett is from the area). Fast-forward to the 2:55 mark for some tense moments with the big cat.

While this might fire up support for the park, it’s certainly firing up the Detroiters who love their crazy linebacker. Says “Joey Ballgame“: “Dude is putting in time with the pride during the off season, f—– awesome. Can we make Zack captain and let him come out of the tunnel riding a lion before each game?” Yes, please.

Today the Raiders cut longtime running back Justin Fargas. They had to do it soon to save on a $1.7 million roster bonus owed to Fargas if he stuck around.

That’s all well and good, but did they have to give him an award first? In what Just Blog Baby called the “obligatory element of the bizarre,” the Raiders recently announced Fargas as a recipient of the Commitment to Excellence award. Fargas has won the leadership award three years in a row. The banquet is a week from today:

On Saturday, March 13, the Steering Committee for the Oakland Raiders Booster Clubs will host a black tie dinner honoring Raiders running back Justin Fargas and tight end Zach Miller with the Commitment to Excellence Award. The 8th-annual award dinner be held at the Oakland Airport Hilton. Proceeds from the event will go to the recipients’ designated charities.

Can Fargas choose himself as his designated charity? He might need it.

David Carr took the Bay Area by storm today, leaving a Pro Bowl linebacker and Lowell Cohn in his wake. Yes, that David Carr: Fresno State Bulldog, first overall pick turned backup, lifetime 75.2 quarterback rating. The 49ers are one of three teams heavily courting the free agent. Why? Why ask why? Try David Carr.

Here are the top five bestest things about Carr’s trip to the Bay.

5. This afternoon Carr went diva on us and left media members waiting for about two hours for a press conference that never happened. Lowell Cohn was naturally upset. “…kind of strange if you ask me.” Maybe the Football Writers Association of America will boycott the next press conference.

4. The visitors at the zoo, i.e. the Niners Nation commenters watching the reporters on the live stream (Yes, CSN streamed this live). One asks: “Wonder if they’re going to show this press conference in one of those ’so you want to be a reporter’ career videos.” Probably.

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Thanks once again to Todd Miska, hockey goalie helmet designer extraordinaire, who sent us his design for Evgeni Nabokov’s Russian mask before the Olympics. That design warmed the hearts of Russians everywhere even if Nabby’s performance in the quarters didn’t. But this design has been warming the hearts of Sharks fans, or scaring them witless, since Nabby got back from Vancouver:

Click the image for a super-large version with all the detail. Miska tells us Nabby requested the image of Poseidon, God of the Sea, with Sharks around him and the California seal on the back. Nabby told Working the Corners the design was the brainchild of assistant trainer Wes Howard. The seal features the names of Nabby’s two children, among others. Nabby said it reminds him of “Reech” — yes, Mike Ricci.

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This photo is going to pretty much sum up the Warriors’ current road trip. They fell 117-90 to the Magic last night, one day after losing to the Heat in Miami. They play three more games over the next five days, including a game Friday against an Atlanta team pissed about the comeback the Dubs executed last time around. They have only eight players, and one of them isn’t Monta Ellis.

So get out of the way, Warriors fans, this is going to get ugly. Want to see another bailout by a Warriors player in the face of a Dwight Howard dunk, but this time in video form? Of course you do.

Tiger Woods’ Stanford girlfriend has decided to come out and defend him, writing an article for Golf.com about her time with Woods. Irene Folstrom is an attorney advocating for Native American rights in Minnesota, where she’s from. She definitely went to Stanford, and Cardinal grads are honest folks, so we believe her that she dated Tiger.

Some of the choice selections in Folstrom’s piece:

This may surprise some people, but Tiger was a great boyfriend.

At that age Tiger had an amazing metabolism so we spent a lot of time eating. Our favorite restaurant was a Chinese joint in Mountain View; the guys there must have been golf fans because they always gave us free desserts, which was a big deal to us.

Earl and I talked a lot about politics and national affairs, and Earl often made me laugh so hard, my stomach muscles cramped. He loved to tease Tiger and me about our puppy love.

During our Southern California road trips Tiger and I spent a lot of time at the beach. We would steal a bottle of whiskey from Earl or I’d use my fake ID to buy a jug of wine, and we’d hang out and dream about the future. Tiger was very driven to be a great golfer, but he also talked a lot about wanting to make a larger contribution to society.
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Sandy and Mike Pavelski have finally come around on their son and this whole “hockey” thing. According to the Stevens Point (Wis.) Journal:

“He loved anything athletic, and hockey was just a good fit for the winter,” Sandy said. “You didn’t realize that your son was that good.”

Sunday, as they watched their son fight for a gold medal, they realized he indeed was that good.

Yep. That dramatic goal in overtime of Game 5 against Dallas? Didn’t register. That National Championship in 2006 with Wisconsin, when Pavelski led the team in points? Not on the radar. That Clark Cup with the Waterloo Blackhawks? They thought the USHL was a baseball league.

OK, so it’s a throwaway line of an overwritten “P&G Salute to Moms”-type article. We get it.

But what about this nugget: The Pavelskis missed the gold-medal game because they had already planned their trip months in advance. But even months in advance, why didn’t they plan to leave after the gold medal game? Have they no faith? We need you there, Pavelskis, clearly you were good luck.

Ah well. At least they got some of those crazy red mittens everybody wanted.