Sports & Recreation >>

• Readers' Poll
  Best Place to Blade Golden Gate Park Best Urban Hike Twin Peaks Best Suburban Hike Mount Tam Best Place to Skateboard Embarcadero Best Gym 24 Hour Fitness Best Bike Shop Pedal Revolution Best Surf Shop Wise Surfboards Best Place to Walk the Mutt Holly Park Best Jog Golden Gate... More >>
• Best Reason to Attend USF Basketball Games
  Watching Head Coach Phil Mathews
  Over the past couple of seasons, there have been several good reasons to attend basketball games on the Hilltop: The University of San Francisco men's team has featured one of the best big men in the country, Darrell Tucker; a dynamic, ever-more-confident scorer in swingman John Cox (Kobe... More >>
• Best General Manager
  Billy Beane, Oakland A's
  He's probably the best in all of baseball, and certainly the best in any sport around here. Beane, a former ballplayer whose career never took off, became GM for the A's before the 1998 season and proceeded to revolutionize the game: He has proved that cash-poor teams can still win. Last year,... More >>
• Best Warriors Fans
  Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett
  Never mind the thousands of Warriors faithful who are returning to the Arena in Oakland now that our local roundballers are approaching respectability -- the two best, most loyal fans never left. They couldn't! Fitzgerald does play-by-play and ex-Warrior Barnett provides analysis for Fox Sports... More >>
• Best Urban Wilderness
  San Bruno Mountain Park
  Stuck in conference-room hell? Muni got you down? Well, grab your walkin' shoes: Within 20 minutes of downtown San Francisco is a gorgeous mountain trail enveloped in eucalyptus trees. San Bruno Mountain Park, just a heartbeat outside the city limits, offers eight trails through lush green... More >>
• Best Romantic Date for Outdoorsy Types
  Full Moon Paddles
  You haven't seen the bay till you've seen it by moonlight -- in a kayak, wearing a life jacket, paddling with your sweetie. Dappled waves, starry skies, illuminated bridges, the stray egret or blue heron: These are just a few of the sights you're likely to encounter at the Full Moon Paddles... More >>
• Best Exercise Class for Picking Up Half-Naked Gym Bunnies
  "Cardio Striptease" at Crunch
  There's a reason that strippers have hard bodies (aside from the fact that most folks wouldn't pay to ogle fat slobs). And the reason is that undressing in front of strangers requires stamina and guts -- well, at least it does at Crunch Gym's "Cardio Striptease" classes. Led by Sergio Novoa, the... More >>
• Best Place to Learn How to Kick Ass
  Fairtex Combat Sports Camp
  Martial arts masters are taught to seek alternatives to physical violence whenever possible. But if all attempts at peaceful resolution fail, sometimes they find it necessary to open a can of whupass on somebody -- and that's where Fairtex Combat Sports Camp comes in. The school is more than a... More >>
• Best Baseball Field
  Jackson Playground
  The aesthetic form of Jackson Playground's back-to-back baseball diamonds flows purely from function. The flat, treeless field does not evoke Pacific Bell Park. You won't find a giant Coke bottle or Blue Angel jet fighters screaming overhead or garlic fries for five bucks (although you might... More >>
• Best Inner-City Driving Range
  Mission Bay Golf Center
  Who woulda thunk it? A 300-foot, 66-tee driving range smack dab in the middle of downtown San Francisco. The Golf Center is surrounded by the most massive construction site west of Iraq (our newest colony). It is an unusual experience to hit a ball with all your might amid construction cranes,... More >>
• Best Radio Sports Talker (1 Comment)
  KNBR's Tom Tolbert
  The discriminating Bay Area sports-talk listener won't find many local hosts worthy of his attention on KNBR-AM (680). Gary Radnich's midmorning show is as amateurish as it is incomprehensible (although Radnich is a riot when he tries to articulate his worldviews), and former Warrior great Rick... More >>
• Best Idea for a New Business (1 Comment)
  Batting Cages in San Francisco
  Someday, someone is going to pull his head out of the sand, look around San Francisco, and realize, "Jesus, this town doesn't have any batting cages." And this person will get some money together, buy a chunk of real estate in a not-too-grossly-expensive part of the city, and think to himself,... More >>
• Best Place to Watch Local Professional Athletes
  San Francisco's Strip Clubs
  When we have a free night, we go to the Metreon or catch a show at the Fillmore or browse the aisles at Amoeba. Some of our local pro athletes, on the other hand, spend their Friday evenings stuffing signing bonuses into G-strings. The Hustler Club, the Gold Club, Crazyhorse -- if you're an... More >>
• Best Sports Equipment
  Sports Basement
  Tucked inside a SOMA warehouse across from the Mission Bay Golf Center's driving range and surrounded by construction lies a great place to find sports equipment, whether you're a novice recreational hiker or a serious triathlete. The 40,000-square-foot Sports Basement is packed with clothing... More >>
• Best Coach
  Eric Musselman, Golden State Warriors
  The Warriors won 21 games last season; this season, they had 21 wins by February. The difference: a levelheaded, helmet-haired, 38-year-old rookie coach from pro basketball's bush leagues. Eric Musselman -- the youngest coach in the NBA and a product of the Continental Basketball Association --... More >>
• Best Reason to Like the Warriors
  Adonal Foyle
  Adonal Foyle is a backup center who can't shoot or dribble, but that doesn't bother us. We like him for his name, for his sound defensive technique, and especially for his social conscience. Foyle questioned the war in Iraq. He fights for campaign finance reform. He raises money for AIDS... More >>
• Best Reason to Hate Barry Bonds
  His Crappy Fielding in the World Series
  Last year, the country finally settled on what to think of Bonds: He's an asshole, sure, but who cares when he hits .370? "Just baseball," wrote the New York Times Magazine, a bit sententiously. "Isn't that enough?" But something was left out of the whole argument, and we saw what it was in Game... More >>
• Best Place to Steal From Jesuits
  The Basketball Courts at USF's Koret Health and Recreation Center
  Can't jump, can't shoot, can't dribble? At Koret, you've got a prayer. Sure, you'll find a Jesuit or two with a decent jump shot, but chances are your point guard wears kneepads and your center has a beer gut. The competition is friendly and rarely intimidating, a good mix of college kids and... More >>
• Best Women's Sports Store (and Catalog)
  Title Nine Sports
  In 1972, there were 32,000 female college athletes. Today there are more than 150,000 -- due, in large part, to the passage of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in particular Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination "under any ... activity receiving federal financial assistance." The... More >>
• Best Place to Pretend You're a Rich Sport
  San Francisco Croquet Club
  You don't have to have a whopping mansion in Sea Cliff to live the ritzy life. Instead, put on a floppy straw hat and some linen trousers, tie a sweater around your shoulders, slip into some flat, soft-soled shoes, and head down to the eucalyptus-lined Stern Grove Croquet Lawns -- the largest... More >>
• Best Video Game Venue
  Amusement Center
  The Amusement Center provides the joystick-adept warrior with a wide smorgasbord of coin-operated combat in a setting as pleasantly seedy as the pinball traditions it upholds. Unlike the shiny new Metreon and its dozen or so atrium-lit gizmos, this worn-at-the-edges split-level arcade fits in... More >>
• Best Day Trip
  Red Bluff
  After the self-consciousness of many Northern California towns, Red Bluff's inherent modesty is refreshing. But, unlike other quaint American towns, Red Bluff has more to offer than a five-and-dime and a movie theater. It's home to some of the finest Victorians in the region and a main street... More >>
• Best Bike Ride
  S.F. to Half Moon Bay and Back
  Plenty of people who read this year's Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year issue came away feeling more than a bit nonplussed. Lance Armstrong? Sportsman of the year? Sheesh: Even we can ride a bike. If you're reading an active-lifestyle publication like SF Weekly, you probably can, too.... More >>
• Best Combo Bike Ride and Run
  The Marin Headlands
  These castles of tilted seabed on the far side of the Golden Gate are, gloriously, only a 30-minute morning bike ride away. But truly communing with the chevron chert means getting off the bike, locking it, and going for a run on the Headlands' seaside trails. Here's what you do: Ride across the... More >>
• Best City Run
  Hint: It Ain't Along Marina Boulevard
  If any city can boast it's the ideal runner's burg, San Francisco can. Yet astonishingly, thousands of locals squander the city's possibilities by plodding along Marina Boulevard, the awful stretch of flat, noisy, wind-blown pavement that borders Marina Green. Screw that. Start at the Golden... More >>
• Best Weekend Footraces
  The Dolphin South End Running Club Sunday Races Citywide
  It's hard to feel intimidated by a running club whose logo is a turtle and whose motto is "Start slowly and taper off." Indeed, the Dolphin South End Running Club, founded in 1966, is a laid-back, friendly group that welcomes everybody -- from kids to senior citizens to people breaking in their... More >>
• Best (Uncrowded) Redwood Forest
  Redwood Regional Park
  Compared to its wildly popular cousin, Muir Woods, this stately grove of 150-year-old redwoods -- just over the ridge from Skyline Drive -- is relatively unknown, which translates into big-time tranquillity for nature lovers. (It's actually possible to stand still along the Stream Trail and hear... More >>
• Best Cross-City Hike
  At a mere seven miles from coast to coast, San Francisco invites even the occasional hiker to traverse its breadth in a few short hours. A couple of years back we proposed a rather placid northerly route; this year's southern crossing is decidedly more vigorous. Start at Ocean Beach down around... More >>
• Best Alternative to Your StairMaster Routine
  The Fillmore Street Steps
  Why would you want to isolate yourself in the clammy confines of your gym when the lovely hills of this city offer an amazing workout opportunity? Sure, you can gauge how many calories per nanosecond you're burning on that running machine, but the ascent up Fillmore Street from Union to Broadway... More >>
• Best Dance Studio
  San Francisco Dance Center
  San Francisco Dance Center offers more than 100 classes in a variety of dance disciplines. Working dance professionals drop in for a dose of artistic renewal while amateurs at all levels of ability can choose from classes in classical ballet, belly dancing, flamenco, and modern, just to name a... More >>
• Best Baseball Series
  With both the Giants and the A's eyeing division titles this season, the summer calendar will be full of big series on both sides of the bay. Here are a few can't-miss matchups at home. A's vs. Minnesota, May 20-22 Oakland and Minnesota met in last year's Division Series, which offered a... More >>