Bay Area Sports Blog

California rolled to a 90-74 win over Oregon in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament behind 22 points from Pac-10 POY Jerome Randle.

The opening game of the evening session between Stanford and Arizona State was nearly as lopsided, but not in the way most would have predicted.  The Cardinal’s 70-61 win wasn’t exactly a “monumental upset” as color man Marques Johnson referred to it in the second half, but with Arizona State in serious need of a win–or two–in Los Angeles to improve its NCAA tournament standing, few could have seen this coming.

Johnson was his usual entertaining self, like in the video above, where he puts an Allen Iversonesque spin on the Stanford Tree.

The Tree, for now, is Jonathan “Shu Fry” Strange. Come spring quarter, Strange will be replaced by Ben “Bollox” Cortes, who sprouted earlier this month after a spirited campaign that included turning himself into a human pinata.

Cal plays UCLA tomorrow. Stanford will play the winner of the Oregon State-Washington game. If Cal and Stanford play the same way they did today, we could be looking at a Bay Area showdown in the title game.

Ghirardelli recently launched its Million Moments of Timeless Pleasure promotion where you can share when and where you most enjoy eating their chocolates and be automatically entered to win a trip for two to one of four famous world squares. Swell! We like to enjoy our chocolates while watching NBC’s Raj Mathai report that Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell is being treated for lethargy addiction. Go ahead and rip open one of Ghirardelli’s delicious squares and experience this sensation yourself:

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San Francisco49ers  Executive Vice President of Football and Business Operations Paraag Marathe attended the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston last weekend, where he participated in a panel discussion about the increasing use of analytics to project player performance and inform in-game decision making in football. We were lucky enough to attend.

Marathe, the whiz kid who graduated with honors from Cal, earned his business degree at Stanford, and worked at a couple of consulting giants before joining the 49ers in 2001, shared the stage with FootballOutsiders.com founder Aaron Schatz and two English Premier League executives.

While the EPL executives shared their expertise on transfer fees and the financial analytics associated with crafting an elite club, Marathe and Schatz discussed the inherent difficulty of using analytics in football and the importance of building a team of players who complement one another and fit a particular scheme.

Whereas in baseball you could put Albert Pujols on the Pirates and he’d still put up MVP-like numbers — and take a few more walks, probably — Dwight Freeney wouldn’t necessarily be the same player he is with the Colts if he were on the Patriots. Just ask the Redskins how Jason Taylor worked out.

“Two-thirds of free agent signings don’t provide commensurate value,” Marathe said. “Quarterback and running back are probably the most exportable positions.”

But even those two positions are iffy, Schatz chimed in, pointing to a certain interception-happy QB in Chicago last season.

Marathe and Schatz both questioned the current process for evaluating rookies, including the emphasis that teams currently place on the NFL Combine.

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

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In case you happened to miss the ball drop (that’s not a Darrius Heyward-Bey joke) on Free Agency 2010, the signing period began at midnight EST. Adam Schefter wet himself, Julius Peppers popped some bubbly, and Al Davis wondered aloud whether Terrell Owens might be the player the Raiders need to compete for an AFC West title. Get your popcorn ready, baby!

Davis is likely to make a few ridiculous moves between now and training camp, even if signing T.O. likely won’t be one of them. After all, he has no GM to call the shots, or at the very least keep his 40-time fetish in check. This angers Raiders fan Jared Staszewski, who made headlines last year when he raised money to erect the billboard pictured above along I-880.

Well according to the Examiner, Staszewski’s Message to Al is about to get louder.

My new slogan is ‘I don’t want to do what we are about to do,’ but if we don’t get any acknowledgment or any improvements or anything of that nature, we’re going to take it up a couple notches.

Staszekwi says he’s launching a new fundraising campaign that could result in up to 100 billboards popping up in the East Bay, all with the same message: Hire a general manager. It’s a solid message, sure, but he might want to consider mixing it up a bit for the sake of everyone who has to sit in traffic on a a daily basis. A few suggestions:

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The California Redwoods’ long expected move to Sacramento was made official today, with UFL commissioner Michael Huyghue introducing the team at a news conference attended by more than 100 fans, city officials, and media. That’s an impressive turnout, considering there may not be 100 people in the Bay Area who were aware that the team formerly known as the Redwoods had hit the road.

The City of Trees is dropping the Redwoods nickname and holding a name the team contest on UFL-Football.com. One of the prizes is an opportunity to meet Dennis Green on the field before a game, so, you know, be sure to enter early and often. Sacramento Rockfish sort of has a nice ring to it.

The team, which will cover some of the cost of the new artificial turf field it will share with Sacramento State, is expected to pump $10 million into the local economy. Team owner Paul Pelosi should see better turnout in Sacramento, if only for the fact that the city has been absolutely dying for a championship since the Sacramento Surge won World Bowl II in 1992.

Sacramento residents, like the first guy in this news report, are certainly excited.

I think it’s a good idea to bring happiness to Sacramento. I think sports bring happiness and make people happy.

You have no idea, Matthew Eddington. You have no idea.

CSN Bay Area’s Mychael Urban has been posting Flip video updates from Scottsdale throughout the Giants’ spring training and the footage has been mildly entertaining at best. Until today.

7th Inning Stache and Big League Stew were all over Urban’s tremendous video of Tim Lincecum’s photoshoot, wherein the Freakanchise begins to undo his pants before sporting a Snuggie Wizard Cape Wearable Blanket to promote one of the Giants’ many giveaways this season. Wearable Blanket Night is April 23.

At least two other teams will give away fleece blankets with sleeves, including the Cardinals and A’s. Both teams are referring to their giveaways as Sluggies, which we suspect are more like the Sluggies that Justin Morneau and his friends undoubtedly wore during Sunday’s gold medal game than the original Sluggie made of ShamWow material.

While Line Canada was resting up prior to embarrassing Evgeni Nabokov in Canada’s 7-3 thumping of Russia, the non-Olympic Sharks returned to the practice rink Wednesday. With backup goalie Thomas Greiss also in Vancouver, San Jose welcomed back old friend Steve Shields to man the net.

Shields, 38, who had a career-high 27 wins and led the Sharks to a first-round upset of St. Louis during the 1999-00 season, moved on to Anaheim, Boston (where he rocked the Gary Cheevers-inspired goalie mask pictured here), Florida, and Atlanta before retiring.

One of Shields’ defining NHL highlights preceded his arrival in San Jose — and it didn’t take place in the crease. Shields was filling in for the injured Dominik Hasek in the first game of Buffalo’s 1997 second-round playoff series against Philadelphia when Flyers goalie Garth Snow entered a fracas near his own net. Shields skated the length of the ice and engaged Snow in some hot goalie on goalie action. Hit the jump for the classic video.

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It’s old news, but we never weighed in on the San Francisco Giants’ 2010 slogan, “It’s Magic Inside.” With spring training underway, now seems like a good time.

First impressions: it could certainly be worse.  The slogan isn’t controversial, unless of course the “magic” refers to the stickiest of the icky, Tim Lincecum’s drug of choice. Huff the Magic Dragon has a nice ring to it. In related magical news, the Freakanchise threw a bullpen session today — sideways.

The response to the slogan among serious fans has been mostly negative, but the point of the campaign isn’t really to attract them. Joe Giants Fan will make the trek to AT&T Park whether there’s magic or manure — or Barry Bonds or Eugenio Velez — inside.

Many teams, including the A’s, have yet to roll out their 2010 marketing slogans. The Padres were considering “‘SD’ Stands for San Diego,” a pitch from iHook Creative, before ultimately deciding to go in a different, to-be-determined direction. In light of the recent “scrap free” controversy,  “‘SF’ Stands for San Francisco” wouldn’t be half bad.

It’s Tree Week on the Farm, that time of year when the most ambitious Stanford students perform crazy stunts to demonstrate their desire to be the next Tree. Current Tree Jonathan Strange built a giant, metal hamster ball and rolled inside it to prove his worth last year. Pretty rad.

This year’s six candidates include tree-climbing Kirk “Big Dickosaurus” Erickson and fellow LSJUMB member Robbie Zimbroff, whose hilarious quest for Treedom is rooted in patriotic ideals. Or something.

In a year in which the Saplings’ stunts have been rather tame, Zimbroff has emerged as one of the favorites, thanks to an endorsement by Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck. (That’s Zimbroff in the pioneer getup in the above photo.)

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