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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Did you enjoy your Memorial Day? Hopefully. Chad Barrett of Toronto FC didn’t enjoy his. During Toronto’s game in San Jose on Saturday, Barrett celebrated a goal by grabbing the corner flag, using it for a 21-gun salute and then saluting the crowd. The celebration, according to Canadian soccer blog The 24th Minute, was in honor of his family’s military history.

Of course Barrett got a yellow card for using a prop in a goal celebration. The 24th Minute appeals for the yellow card to be rescinded considering the circumstances. Judge for yourself:

This is reminiscent of Totti’s thumb-sucking celebration. Sure, it’s to honor his son and daughter. But he’s still sucking his thumb. We say: Keep Barrett’s yellow card.

Believe them.

First, Harriet (Oh, Har-riet) from So I Marrried an Axe Murderer makes an amazing catch from the Virgin America Loft. Can she hit too? Do we have a third option in right field?

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First, the bad news: The San Jose Earthquakes opened the 2010 MLS season Saturday in familiar fashion, with an uninspired shutout loss to Real Salt Lake at Buck Shaw Stadium. Boo.

And now, the good news: You can drink beer in the stands!! GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLL!

Last season, the Earthquakes asked fans, What’s a Huckerby? This season, it’s Did you FEEL THAT? After one game, the answer was either something to the effect of this or, “Nah, I was hammered, bro. I didn’t feel a thing.”

As reported on the team’s spiffy new Web site, the 2010 beer selection includes Bud, Bud Light, Corona, Modelo Especial, Newcastle, Sierra Nevada, Fat Tire, Lagunita IPA, Kona Longboard, Kona Firerock, and Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen.

“Now that we can bring beer in the stands, all we need is a port-a-potty near our seats) and we’re set,” one season ticket holder from San Francisco quipped while holding a Bud Light. “The selection is great. It’s improved from last year.”

The same can’t be said for the Quakes’ defense, which played like Bud Light tastes, which is to say less than awesome. “A shambles” were Frank Yallop’s words. Real Salt Lake’s Javier Morales tallied two goals, including this rocket from 30 yards out.

In a conference call beautifully live-blogged by Center Line Soccer, the MLS announced this morning it reached an agreement with its players union and will avoid a strike. The announcement came five days before the first game of the season and seven days before the San Jose Earthquakes’ opener against defending MLS Cup champs Real Salt Lake.

Now that an agreement has been reached, it’s time to celebrate! Since the MLS brings together the best of Latin America and the (second or third) best of Europe, we propose speaking in Irish accents while drinking tequila and talking dirty in Spanish. Actually, that’s just a thin excuse to post this amazing video. Grab your sombreros and pretty pink jammies, it’s soccer time.

There exist many stories of talented soccer players deciding they want to impress hotties by switching to kicking a football. But Devin Barclay is rare — he wasn’t so good at football, European-style, so he went back to school, Rudy-style.

Barclay, a former soccer phenom who played with the San Jose Earthquakes and other MLS teams, is now the starting kicker at THE Ohio State University. First-stringer Aaron Pettrey suffered a season-ending injury and that leaves Barclay with the prospect of kicking a big field goal Saturday … in Happy Valley … against Penn State. Which is a long way off from booting a pass through the midfield against the Chicago Fire.

Barclay is a long way off from those days in many ways. Here’s how his timeline breaks down: He entered the MLS at age 18 with the Tampa Bay Mutiny, which folded after his rookie season in 2001. The Quakes picked him up but didn’t play him much in their championship 2002 season. His minutes declined during stops in New York and Columbus, and by 2005, he was out of soccer.

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Don Nelson has put his foot down. Slowly and with a little bit of a huff. But it’s still down. Stephen Curry will start the Warriors’ season opener Wednesday against the Rockets instead of CJ Watson. And damned be the player (Monta Ellis) who doesn’t like it (at media day he said “can’t win that way,” talking about playing alongside Curry).

According to Nelson, “Right now, anyone who plays with Curry looks good. I would think Monta should love it.”

The decision gives the Warriors a slightly undersized backcourt. Both players are listed at 6-foot-3. So they can be twins. Just what Monta wanted. A twin. He doesn’t want full control of this team, not at all.

…Other weekend linkage, not including a UCLA player’s horrific Tweet…

So this is why they named them the California Redwoods instead of the San Francisco Redwoods: After the lightly attended opener at AT&T Park, the UFL’s not-so-darlings will move to Spartan Stadium in San Jose for one of two remaining home games. FanHouse

Reports have Tony LaRussa returning to the Cardinals next year, and hiring Mark McGwire out of roided-up obscurity to be the team’s hitting coach. Which means awkward testimonials about taking on 3-0.

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Yes, 24 hours later, Michael Crabtree is still a 49er. Eugene Parker hasn’t engineered some kind of deal to get Crabtree out of his contract so he can enter the draft next year.

We just love this photo, by the way. Hey, look, a rookie!

Enjoy context-free highlights from the day in Crabtree:

He’s a football player. Kawakami

It’s clear Parker saw the bus leaving. CohnZohn

guess we have crabs AND vd! lol Takeo Spikes

Crabtree will be paid in Euros. The Snitch

The first toast goes to Braylon Edwards. Ratto

That skill will vault Crabtree’s cards back to pre-holdout levels. Beckett Blog

That’s the NFL for you. 49ers Q&A

…Other linkage, not including Neon Deion screwing up another receiver’s life…

Nancy Gay details Randy Hanson’s checkered past and the incident with Tom Cable. According to police records of Hanson’s account, Cable blindsided him and shoved him into a wall, then continued to go after him as other assistants tried to pull him off. So the Raiders have problems here. But one fan insists you need to stop bashing and start remembering … Abraham Lincoln? Yep.

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There’s just no joy in Berkeley these days. Mere hours before Cal was pummeled by USC on the football field, the women’s soccer team was dealing with some controversy of its own.

Neil McGuire, the Cal coach, apparently walked out and quit on his team following a 1-0 loss to Sacramento State on Friday. That left the team without a coach for Sunday’s game against No. 11 Santa Clara, which ended in a 1-1 tie. This isn’t the first time the Scotsman has exhibited less-than-mature behavior: Last year, he kicked the team out of the locker room following a loss and earlier this year he Tweeted about a loss to Cal Poly: “Ouch … Not sharp today.”

People who are passionate about women’s college soccer are letting fly on the Daily Cal article, but of course it all circles back to Bears football:

Snap!

…Other linkage, not including Dany Heatley being compared to Brett Favre…

An SJSU football assistant is trying to organize relief efforts for people devastated by the American Samoa tsunami. Donate or five hulking linemen will come crush your head. Merc

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Hallelujah, the heavens have opened and deigned the San Jose Earthquakes winners on the road for the first time since June of 2008. Which is last year, for those of you without calendars.

The Quakes got the 2-1 win against DC “thanks for killing our playoff chances” United. The deciding goal came on a bizarre play in the second half, as Arturo Alvarez caromed a shot off a United defender, and Ryan Johnson dove for the header to score the goal. Then he danced with the corner flag. And the corner flag then gave him its number.

The team’s road streak included a lot of games like Wednesday’s, when Colorado scored in final minutes on a controversial penalty kick to tie the game in Denver. And, oh, that came four days after Colorado scored in the final minutes on a controversial penalty kick to tie a game between the teams in San Jose. So yeah, Sunday’s game was nice. Streak, over.

…Other weekend linkage, not including the guy who thought it would be a good idea to jump in with the bears at the San Francisco Zoo…

Frank Gore has a high ankle sprain and could miss the next two games. Get ready for some Coffee in your morning paper. See what we did there? Air high five. NFL.com

Cal falls hard in the polls to 24th in the AP and 19th in USA Today. For Jeff Tedford, the game film from the Oregon loss is shockingly “painful.” BearTalk

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