San Francisco Giants Baseball Team

Arnold Hano grew up across the street from the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, in the same apartment building as Giants slugger Emil "Irish" Meusel. So you could say he was born into the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. And there was a time, Hano says, when the animosity between the two teams was so strong that pitchers regularly knocked down batters and runners knocked down infielders. Once, in 1965, Giants pitcher Juan Marichal even knocked Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with a bat. That one wound up in Superior Court.

The Four Horsemen are preparing to descend. The Dodgers' lead in the National League West is down to one game. Clayton Kershaw was on the mound Tuesday night, but that wasn't enough to prevent the Dodgers from losing for the seventh time in eight games, as they fell, 2-0, to the second-place San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Only a week ago, the Dodgers were ahead of the Giants by 41/2 games. As recently as May 27, their lead was 71/2 games. The Dodgers were shut out in consecutive games against the Giants for the first time since 1987.

San Francisco's gay community basked Wednesday in its biggest political triumph since the 1970s with enactment of a domestic partners law and the election of two lesbians to the Board of Supervisors and a gay man to the school board. In Oakland, voters elected state Assemblyman Elihu Harris as its new mayor, while Bay Area voters muddied the future of the San Francisco Giants baseball team. And in Riverside, controversial county Coroner Raymond L.

On more than one occasion, the Dodgers had the San Francisco Giants where they wanted Tuesday night. There was the time they scored three runs against Tim Lincecum in the fourth inning. Chad Billingsley couldn't hold the lead. There was the time they loaded the bases and knocked Lincecum out of the game in the sixth inning. Rod Barajas and Aaron Miles couldn't drive in anyone. There was the time Marcus Thames tied the score with a solo home run in the seventh inning.

Police detained two suspects and were searching for another Saturday in the shooting death of a 25-year-old San Francisco Giant fan in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium, an incident that authorities said had been triggered by a decades-old baseball rivalry. Two families leaving the game during the eighth inning of the game won by the Giants Friday night apparently traded words about the teams, police said.

Wearing a San Francisco Giant uniform for the first time, Barry Bonds stepped into the dugout at Scottsdale Stadium on Wednesday and said the outlook appeared cloudy. "The weather or your future?" he was asked. "My future is set, Jack," he replied, a reference to the seven-year, $43.75-million contract he signed as a free agent with the Giants.

So ol' Roger Craig, suddenly with a lot of time on his hands, will saddle up Amos, his favorite horse back at the Humm Baby Ranch in the mountains northeast of San Diego, and just ride. No destination needed. If he's lucky, Craig will not run across stray coyotes, rattlesnakes or Harvey, the 350-pound chief of the Santa Ysabel Indian reservation who always invites Craig for cocktails and dinner. Craig, at this point, needs all the solitude he can get.

Angel catcher Bengie Molina picked up a bat and inched his hands up the handle until he looked like some little kid gripping a log. He struck an odd, somewhat comical, batting stance, one he has seen through the years, in photographs and in person. "This is how my father held the bat," Molina said, as he lifted his right leg. "Then he would step like this and swing through the ball." Benjamin Molina handed his love of baseball down to Bengie and Jose Molina, also a catcher with the Angels.

On the top floor of baseball Manager Roger Craig's new two-story log cabin in the mountains, a hand-carved wooden bridge extends about 20 feet from the master bedroom to his workout room. And from this bridge, the living room below can be viewed through a railing of baseball bats contributed by the San Francisco Giants, the club Craig manages. "There's a bat from each player," he said the other day. "When I trade a guy, I'll just take out his bat and get one from the new guy."

Owner Robert Lurie of the San Francisco Giants, frustrated over the repeated failure of Bay Area voters to approve financing of a new stadium, said Friday he has agreed to sell the team to a Tampa Bay syndicate that will move it to the Suncoast Dome in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the 1993 season.

It started with the starting lineup, Don Mattingly forgoing the usual manager's trot to home plate, instead running down the third base line to shake hands with all the reserves and club personnel who had been introduced before him. I've never seen that before, have you? It closed with the chilling closer, Jonathan Broxton giving up a liner into the left-field seats but somehow managing to trudge off the mound in possession of both his skin and a save. It feels as though I've never seen that before, either.

Reporting from San Francisco — First, a name was absent from the lineup card. Then, there was a clumsy slide into second base. Suddenly, the Dodgers outfield appeared to be in as much turmoil as the team's downtrodden starting rotation and thin bullpen. Matt Kemp was out of the lineup for the third consecutive day and only starting to emerge from Manager Joe Torre's doghouse. Manny Ramirez was listed as day to day and potentially looking at another two weeks on the disabled list because of a strained right hamstring.

Arnold Hano grew up across the street from the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants, in the same apartment building as Giants slugger Emil "Irish" Meusel. So you could say he was born into the Giants-Dodgers rivalry. And there was a time, Hano says, when the animosity between the two teams was so strong that pitchers regularly knocked down batters and runners knocked down infielders. Once, in 1965, Giants pitcher Juan Marichal even knocked Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with a bat. That one wound up in Superior Court.

We have waited, and waited, and waited some more. We have anticipated a Freeway Series in October for 49 years now, for the Dodgers and Angels to challenge each other in the World Series. What we have not anticipated is something just as delicious, perhaps more so: The Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants, for the right to play in the World Series. Can you imagine?

(in predicted order of finish (2008 records) ) Arizona (82-80) 3B Mark Reynolds led majors in strikeouts and errors last season, first since 1965 AL MVP Zoilo Versalles. Dodgers (84-78) Jonathan Broxton, 24, who arrived in 2005, has the longest tenure with the Dodgers among current players. San Francisco (72-90) San Francisco was 22-12 when Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum pitched last season, 50-78 when he did not.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Brian Sabean sat alone at the end of the home dugout Friday afternoon, bundled up in a black jacket beneath gray skies and persistent drizzle, watching this year's edition of the San Francisco Giants take batting practice. The Giants could be dreadful this season, perhaps historically so. Sabean, the general manager, cannot put a happy face on this product, and to his credit he does not try.

Free-agent first baseman Will Clark, unable to get more than a three-year guarantee from the San Francisco Giants, agreed to a five-year, $30-million contract with the Texas Rangers on Monday. The Rangers turned to Clark, General Manager Tom Grieve said, after agent Jim Bronner told the organization last Friday that it would take more then $30 million to retain their first baseman, free agent Rafael Palmeiro.

The San Francisco Giants facing off against the Anaheim Angels in the World Series, made possible by a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night, will be about so much more than sports. For the fourth time in history, an all-California series will offer the opportunity to dissect the Golden State and line up its parts along lines both mythical and real.

If the Dodgers were portrayed as nonchalant regarding steroids in former Sen. George Mitchell's report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball that was released Thursday, the San Francisco Giants were shown to be downright negligent, dismissing obvious signs of trouble and unwilling to challenge home run king Barry Bonds.

ATLANTA -- Hank Aaron's team paid tribute to baseball's new home-run king Tuesday night, but Aaron wasn't at Turner Field to congratulate Barry Bonds in person. Before the opener of a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants, the Atlanta Braves replayed the videotaped message from Aaron that was shown in San Francisco last week after Bonds hit his 756th homer. Aaron, a senior vice president with the Braves, was not at the game.