A veritable laugher by those offensively challenged Giants. A win with only a few grimaces. A win manager Bruce Bochy said was “important.” A win without anybody in the lineup batting higher than .290. A win because of that old, reliable pitching. Every day is a party at AT&T Park, where the stands are full — Wednesday was the 27th consecutive sellout of 2011 — the games are torture and the town’s team is almost immune to the consequences. Read More

Is it permissible to say something positive about Barry Bonds? Thank you. Bonds pledged to pay for the college education of Bryan Stow’s two children. That’s a splash hit of another sort. Barry’s taken a lot of knocks, some of them deserved, certainly. So how about some praise? How about a high-five for someone who can use a few compliments? Bonds took steroids. He admitted as much in that unneeded trial, said to cost $60 million, where he was convicted not of perjury, but of obstruction of justice. The verdict is being appealed. Read More

He’s as cool as an evening at AT&T Park, as reliable as the Pacific tide. Bruce Bochy is a motivator, a moderator, and it should be apparent, one of the finest managers in baseball. He is someone with a relentless confidence in his players and a deep understanding of baseball. Read More

Johnny Miller was back in his city a few days ago, back in San Francisco, where he grew up and learned the type of golf that would carry him to two major championships and a place with NBC as the game’s most candid television commentator. Miller played Olympic Club while he was here, as he did while a junior member nearly a half-century ago, and as he did in the 1966 U.S. Open at age 19. He gained another perspective of what the old O.C. will be like when the U.S. Open returns in 2012. Read More

Say this for the Oakland A’s. The commissioner of baseball hasn’t felt the need to commandeer them, as he did the Los Angeles Dodgers. At least the people who run the A’s still are controlling their direction. Or misdirection. Read More

So right field has turned into the Magical Mystery Tour. And as with last year, the offense seems to be a mystery of its own. Still, the season is not quite two weeks old, and if Giants fans seek a sense of perspective they are urged to check out the disaster that is the Boston Red Sox. The great thing about baseball, as proved once more Tuesday night at AT&T Park, is that you’re only one game away from satisfaction, especially if Tim Lincecum is the starting pitcher and Brian Wilson is the closer. Yes, it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out at the old beardgame. Read More

He could be called the second-most famous golfer currently at Stanford. He could be called the one Stanford golfer in the Masters field who hasn’t won the tournament. Such negative observations about the most positive of young men. You know what’s happening at Augusta this first Thursday in April. The Masters, the first major of the year, begins at a course where the legends crowd along with the pine trees. Over here is where Jack Nicklaus holed that long birdie in ’75. Back there is where Phil Mickelson curved that ball around the tree in ’10. Read More