Sports & Recreation >>

• Best Jogging Path
  Marina Green to Fort Point
  Never mind that the previous night you drank mojitos till the Union Street bars closed, or perhaps just chased an indulgent lunch with a bottle of premium California wine. For instant invigoration and an in-your-face reminder of everything great about this city, slap on the running shoes and... More >>
• Best Pickup Basketball Game
  Mission High Outdoor Courts
  At some pickup games (take the Panhandle or Dolores Park, please), the style of basketball can best be described as egocentric: get the ball and shoot the ball, with a bunch of jukes, jibes, and fakes in between. Blame it on Chicago Bulls all-world superstar Michael Jordan, who glamorized the... More >>
• Best Pickup Game Drug Scene
  Dolores Park
  Anyone who's stood back and watched what passes for basketball on the tennis court surface of Dolores Park's hoops cage has probably asked himself what those guys are smoking. What with the endlessly incoherent, befuddled pace, the bizarre improvisations, and the masses of players who sometimes... More >>
• Best Extreme Outdoor Sport You Can Do Indoors
  Rock Climbing at Mission Cliffs
  There's no better way to realize you're out of shape, even if you thought you were pretty athletic, than to rock climb. In fact, you may be a little shocked on your first visit to Mission Cliffs, the city's only indoor climbing gym, by how much strength, stamina, and mental determination it... More >>
• Best Day Trip
  Red Bluff
  In a few weeks, Financial District suits will be holding their trench coat lapels two-handed against an icy fog. Newspaper and coffee vendors will be keeping their shutters closed, opening only to push merchandise into the chill. Gloves and ski caps will abound. Summertime will have landed upon... More >>
• Best Bike Path
  Old Railroad Grade on Mount Tamalpais
  In their unquenchable need to sell more product, bicycle manufacturers have managed to create a false and unquestioned mythology; namely, that to traverse paved roads it is necessary to possess a narrow-tired "road bike," and to traverse dirt roads it is necessary to have special fat-tired... More >>
• Best Sporting Goods Store
  REI
  You won't find a basketball at the Bay Area's best sporting goods store. Or a baseball glove. Or a tennis racket. So why is REI the best? Because you'll see things here that you won't at other sports stores: possibilities. REI is devoted exclusively to outdoor adventure sports -- camping,... More >>
• Best Pool Hall
  Hollywood Billiards
  If Fast Eddie Felson, Paul Newman's character in The Hustler, had been looking for some action in San Francisco, Hollywood Billiards is where he would have gone. It's the kind of pool hall you don't find much anymore, a place with real atmosphere and genuine characters. It is said to be the... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Limber Chicks and Get a Good Stretch
  Yoga Tree
  Everybody knows chicks love yoga. And any dating expert will tell you that in order to score, you need to put yourself in the mix. In other words, go where the ladies go. Which is why any single, heterosexual man on the prowl should take a class at Yoga Tree, a studio that attracts an... More >>
• Best Way to Blow Off Steam After Work
  Speed-Walking Along the Embarcadero
  There's nothing like a brisk walk along the water at the height of rush hour to take the edge off a tough day. While car drivers grow more agitated with each crawl to the next red light, you can simply turn your head and enjoy the spectacular and ever-changing sights of the bay. The Embarcadero... More >>
• Best Gym and Pool
  USF Koret Health & Recreation Center
  If smells of sweat and visions of dark, overcrowded workout rooms pop into your head when you think about exercising, you obviously haven't been to the Koret Center. To begin with, this stunning facility boast 40-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows. It also sports a gorgeous Olympic-size... More >>
• Best Bicycle Shops
  Studies show that it's a crazy person who commutes in S.F. by any means other than a bicycle. Parking a car on city streets requires $100 in disposable parking ticket income per month, another $100 in downtown parking fees, and a 30-minute schlep between office cubicle and parking space. Muni,... More >>
• Best Place to Shoot Guns
  Jackson Arms Shooting Range & Gunshop
  Most people who object to guns on principle have never shot one. Perhaps they're afraid they'll enjoy it? Regardless, if you've never held a firearm, you can rectify that inadequacy at Jackson Arms. Pay 30 bucks, sign some important forms ("I will not shoot myself in the foot" -- OK, it doesn't... More >>
• Best Run for Drinkers
  San Francisco Hash House Harriers
  It's the existential urban dilemma: train or tipple? With the S.F. Hash House Harriers, you can do both -- simultaneously. Essentially a runners' club for extroverts, SFH3 is one branch of a huge society, started in 1938 by British expats and spread to over 1,500 "hashes" around the world. The... More >>
• Best Place to Get Your First Date Seminaked
  Kabuki Springs and Spas
  In an age of genital warts and AIDS, it may take weeks -- months even -- before you get a glimpse of your date's really important parts. That's a lot of time, money, and energy spent without any chance to check out the goods. Wondering if your he-man's sporting love handles or a six-pack?... More >>
• Best Walk
  Edgewood Avenue
  Edgewood Avenue may be the prettiest street in the city. Paved with red brick and lined with ornamental plum and cherry trees, its blossoms in the spring frame a lovely view of the bay. Park your car somewhere around Stanyan and Haight. Walk south down Stanyan to Carl, take a right on Carl, a... More >>
• Best Power Walk
  Start at Jones and Filbert...
  We've compressed last year's marathon power walk into a more intensive 45-minute, 26-block jaunt featuring eight thigh-strengthening downhill blocks and 11 heart-pumping uphill blocks, four of them staircases and four of them the intimidating sort of uphill blocks where the cars have to park... More >>
• Best Spot for Serious Surfers
  Ocean Beach
  Pacifica is fine for newbies and Santa Cruz is great if you have the time for a drive, but for serious local riders the broad, ever-changing wave field of Ocean Beach can't be beat. It can be tough to paddle out, but once you do, the feeling of freedom is like nothing else. Unlike other surf... More >>
• Best Place to Root Against the Locals
  Shannon's Sports Bar
  Seeing as how it's become cliché to observe that hardly anyone in San Francisco is from San Francisco, it doesn't really seem fair to demand allegiances to our pathetic local sports teams from out-of-towners. Between Barry Bonds' insufferability, the cheapskate A's, a Niners defense that... More >>
• Best Mascot
  Thunder, Golden State Warriors
  Considering that the Warriors just put up one of the worst half-seasons in NBA history, you wouldn't expect anyone to even show up at their games, much less be excited about it. And yet, for the duration of the TV timeout before the start of every fruitless fourth quarter at the Arena in... More >>