Bay Area Sports Blog

Occasionally we’ll post rebuses: word puzzles based on images. Put the images together and you’ve got a name.

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Welcome, to the 2010, family day, at the, CANDLESTICK, PARK! BOOP BOOOOO!

The Warriors unveiled their new logo today and the reaction was mostly positive. UniWatch’s Paul Lukas called the team’s nod to its past a swell logo, while Ball Don’t Lie’s Trey Kerby says the new look, which features the yet-to-be-completed Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge, jumps into the top 5 of all NBA logos.

So yeah, high praise all around, even if there were some questions about the ‘SF’ secondary logo. Just don’t get the critics started on the typeface. Woooooo boy.

Says Lukas:

Copperplate Gothic is sooooo early 1990s, guys.

Says Golden State of Mind:

I like the new logo, but someone please fix the font! My word, they really messed that one up.

Says @Bloomizzle:

It looks like someone’s project from Typography 101. Copperplate Gothic? Bleeeech.

Poor Frederic W. Goudy. Everyone hates your font, or at least the idea of putting it on an NBA uniform. According to MyFonts.com, Copperplate Gothic is “often seen in advertisements, but it has also made a place for itself in private and business correspondence and corporate design.” Maybe Berkeley Old Style, one of Goudy’s favorite fonts, would’ve been a better choice. Then again, it’s the Warriors. Be thankful there’s at least something to like about the redesign.

Former Cal star and 2003 first-round draft pick Conor Jackson, whose career stats pale in comparison to his father’s filmography, was acquired by the A’s in a trade with the Diamondbacks today. Oakland sent minor league pitcher Sam Demel and cash considerations to Arizona, which sweetened the deal by including a boxed set of the once-popular TV series JAG. Jackson’s father played Adm. AJ Chegwidden on the show.

In Jackson, the A’s add a player who is hitting .238 with one home run and 11 RBIs in 42 games. Jackson missed time earlier this season with a bum hamstring and almost all of last year after being diagnosed with Valley Fever. The A’s intend to play him in left field, which could signify the end for Eric Patterson.

Let’s get to know Conor Jackson:

• Jackson made his major league debut at Wrigley Field, where the A’s open a three-game series tonight, on July 28, 2005. He went 0-for-1 as a pinch-hitter but started and went 2-for-4 two days later.

• Jackson lost 30 pounds while battling Valley Fever last season. (Is there a Silicon Valley Fever that Pablo Sandoval could try to catch?)

• When Conor was about 7, his father played an abusive father on a television movie. “It was so convincing, after I saw it I was so scared of him,” Conor told the Daily News in 2003. “Because it was the first time I’d seen him play a really, really bad guy. He had to sit me down and say, ‘Hey, listen, it was just a movie.’”

• Jackson made a guest appearance on “General Hospital” last year and said he was “more nervous doing that than standing in the batters’ box.”

After the jump, Jackson goes grocery shopping with Eric Byrnes. Hilarity Bickering over hot dog buns ensues.

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BASB’s weekly baseball roundup from both sides of the Bay — and an excuse to post a photo of Crazy Crab knocking Stomper off a tricycle.

CRABS UP

HR Huff and Stuff: Aubrey Huff, who is making Giants fans forget all about offseason flirtations with Nick Johnson and Adam LaRoche, homered twice and drove in four runs Sunday. Huff, who has hit 8 of his 10 homers this season at AT&T Park, is quietly off to his best start ever.

Sweep Swap: The Giants and A’s split this year’s Bay Bridge Series, with each team sweeping at home.

First of Many: Buster Posey CRUSHED his first major league home run at Cincinnati.

CRABS DOWN

(Really) Mad Bum: Madison Bumgarner was ejected from a PCL game and suspended for three games. Bumgarner’s inability to keep his cool may have cost him a call-up to take Todd Wellemeyer’s spot in the rotation.

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After Santa Clara product and Boston Red Sox prospect Daniel Nava became the second player ever to hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw in the major leagues, his college coach, Mark O’Brien, put it best.

That guy, I’m sure you could do a movie on him, man.

You could probably do a trilogy. Coming soon to a theater near you: Daniel Nava Holy Cow.

Nava met O’Brien at a baseball camp when O’Brien was an assistant under Mark Marquess at Stanford and accompanied the Cardinal to Omaha as a batboy. After O’Brien took the head coaching gig at Santa Clara, he invited Nava, who was 5-foot-8 and 135 pounds when he graduated from St. Francis in Mountain View, to try out as a walk-on. As O’Brien recalled to ESPN’s Gordon Edes:

He showed up and he could barely hit the ball out of the infield. I told him, ‘We’ll keep you on as manager,’ and he did everything for two years, including washing uniforms.

After two years at the College of San Mateo, Nava returned to Santa Clara for his senior season, this time as a player. While he starred for the Broncos, leading the West Coast Conference in hitting, he went undrafted. Nava eventually caught on with the Chico Outlaws of the Golden League, where he was noticed by the Boston Red Sox, who purchased his contract for $1.

Nava, who left a ticket at will call for Erin Andrews each of the last three years while tearing up the Red Sox minor league system, was called up before Saturday’s game. The rest was something straight from a movie.

Hats off to the guys at Fire-Sabean.com, who released this so-bad-it’s-awesome parody of the Fray’s “How to Save a Life” after the Giants’ 7-6 loss to the Reds today.

Step one you say we need to trade,
Our offense sucks, it’s the offense you have made.
But Sabean, where’s the magic wand?
You realize you’re nothing without Bonds.

And it only gets better from there. Bravo.

Shortly after Santa Clara voters approved Measure J, the San Francisco 49ers’ plan to build a $937 million stadium in the South Bay, the 49ers launched a Web site that provides artist’s renderings of the interior and exterior of the proposed facility.

What struck us about the illustrations, besides the ghost-like qualities of some of the Photoshopped fans, was the amount of wine being served. Has Fred Franzia already been offered the naming rights?

But seriously, you need a designated driver to take the virtual tour of the luxury suites and living green roof. Wine. Wine. Wine. Wine. Talk about perpetuating the stereotype.

Fear not, there’s beer for the common folk, too, though we can’t quite make out what’s on tap.

BASB’s weekly baseball roundup from both sides of the Bay — and an excuse to post a photo of Crazy Crab knocking Stomper off a tricycle.

CRABS UP

Dingers: We’re not exactly sure what has gotten into the Giants–steroids, perhaps?–but they’ve been hitting home runs at an alarming rate. Like, two home runs in one game by Eugenio Velez alarming. Yes, that really happened.

Draft Day: It’s impossible to predict who the Giants will take in tonight’s amateur draft, primarily because they’re picking 24th, but that only adds to the excitement.

Backup Catchers: Eli Whiteside is having himself quite a season as Jonathan Sanchez’s personal catcher.

CRABS DOWN

John Bowker: Despite hitting better than Carlos Lee and Aramis Ramirez in April, John Bowker was relegated to the bench. After starting only eight games in May, he’s been relegated to Triple-A. Welcome, Pat Burrell.

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Jose Canseco is a big fan of Newport Beach’s Daddy Cakes Bakery and here’s the video to prove it.

“Daddy Cakes, our batter is better. Say that six times, I dare ya!” (Without steroids, cheaters.)

According to the official Daddy Cakes blog, which features photos of fellow DCB lovers Gary Busey and Weird Al, Canseco prefers the Better Batter Buttermilk. We’re inclined to think it’s all about the Criminal Chocolate Chip.