Sports & Recreation >>

• Readers' Poll Winners
  Best Local Race Bay to Breakers Best Urban Hike Lands End Best Suburban Hike Mount Tam Best Place to Skateboard Embarcadero Best Gym 24 Hour Fitness Best Bike Shop Pedal Revolution Best Outdoors Shop REI Best Place to Walk the Dog Crissy Field Best Swim Aquatic Park Best... More >>
• Best Extreme Sport
  Kiteboarding on the Bay Pull up to East Beach or Crissy Field on a windy day and you're just as likely to see kiteboarders speeding toward the shipping lanes as windsurfers. Although the two sports have roughly the same objectives -- going fast and getting air -- the kiteboarders accomplish... More >>
• Best A's Bar in S.F.
  Thieves Tavern
  Whether it be the traffic on the Bay Bridge, a long day at the office, or the crippling phobia of getting shivved at Oakland's Coliseum, there are plenty of excuses for San Franciscans not to join the other couple dozen A's fans who show up to games. Though you can choose from a handful of... More >>
• Best Sports Bar
  Kezar Pub 770 Stanyan (at Waller), 386-9292 With a dozen satellite dishes, 20 televisions, and all the requisite DIRECTV sports packages, the Kezar, located near the stadium that once housed the 49ers before their tumble to the bottom of the football food chain, is a sports fanatic's... More >>
• Best Hidden Basketball Court
  Grattan Playground Stanyan & Alma, Tucked away in Cole Valley, this sunken playground features one of the easiest-to-join pickup games in the city, with a minimum of prima donnas and most players in the same slightly-above-average competitive range. And on weekdays, the park is an... More >>
• Best Reason to Go to a Warriors Game
  The Margaritas Near the Cabo Wabo Stage Oakland Arena, 7000 Coliseum (at 66th Avenue), Oakland, (510) 569-2121, www.coliseum.com This season's trade for guard Baron Davis from the New Orleans Hornets makes the team at least watchable, but it's still the Warriors, and a stiff drink may be... More >>
• Best Baseball Team
  The 2006 Oakland A's
  "I'm excited about 2005," A's General Manager Billy Beane told an interviewer not long ago. "I'm even more excited about 2006." And well he should be. This past winter, in the span of a week, Beane overhauled a team that has won at least 90 games in each of the past five seasons, turning two... More >>
• Best Sports Blog
  Athletics Nation www.athleticsnation.com Run out of Sacramento by Tyler Bleszinski, a former sportswriter, and reportedly inspired by the political blog Daily Kos, Athletics Nation is the essence of blogging ascendant, sports or otherwise. "I often think I should've called the site... More >>
• Best Fishing
  Pacifica Pier Beach & Santa Rosa, Pacifica When you want to while away a Sunday afternoon with a line in the brine, Pacifica is the place to do it. A short drive south of San Francisco on Highway 1, the town boasts a scenic boardwalk, a 1,140-foot pier with a nearby bait shop, and, most... More >>
• Best Giants Player Who's Not on Steroids
  Jason Schmidt Starting pitcher Everything revolves around Barry Bonds, of course, but in recent seasons it has been hard-throwing ace Schmidt whose fortunes have determined the team's success. (Besides, Bonds draws so many intentional walks it's sometimes difficult for him to impact a... More >>
• Best Giant
  Stan Conte Head athletic trainer Behold, the boys of winter. As of July 1, the average age of the Giants' starting position players will be 36, the highest in baseball. Barry Bonds (40 years old) might be the star, but the most valuable Giant is the guy picking up the Celebrex... More >>
• Best Hidden Tennis Courts
  The Presidio
  When Golden Gate Park is full or a tournament holds sway over your usual tennis court, try one of the several little-used public gems scattered throughout the Presidio. Julius Kahn Playground, on West Pacific Avenue at Spruce Street, offers several courts just inside the southern border of the... More >>
• Best Place to Learn Tai Chi
  Washington Square Park
  Every morning dozens of people get up early to participate in communal tai chi and qigong classes in Washington Square Park. Some of the larger groups have more than 50 people; many individuals, wary of appearing too interested, follow along at a distance, across the grass field, perhaps... More >>
• Best Swimming
  Aquatic Park West end of Fisherman's Wharf (Van Ness & Beach) It's an area steeped in history and thronged by tourists. But a number of thick-skinned locals consider Aquatic Park the ideal spot to strip down to Speedos and swim laps in 50-degree water. The location couldn't be more... More >>
• Best Surf Break
  Ocean Beach Great Highway & Fulton Maverick's gets all the press, but you shouldn't surf it unless the locals extend an invitation, due to the spot's many dangers (the waves, the rocks, the locals throwing rocks). Ocean Beach is also risky, of course, especially according to our city... More >>
• Best Outdoors Club
  Absolute Adventures 793-4948, www.absoluteadv.com No, it's not a singles' club, but judging by the number of single professionals who attend Absolute Adventures events, don't be surprised if people pair off. Primarily an adventure club, the company organizes trips for active types who... More >>
• Best Outdoor Store
  REI
  REI is an excellent place to experience outdoor-store psychosis, where you'll pick up an ax and think, "Yeah, ice climbing ...," or start seriously comparing rock-climbing clips. The place is pristine, a shrine to the well-heeled explorer, and the breadth of products is nearly absurd, with 14... More >>
• Best General Manager
  Billy Beane Oakland A's Read Moneyball to get the full rundown on the maverick executive's philosophies, which have helped the upstart Oakland A's put together a string of post-season appearances in recent years despite one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball. To Bay Area... More >>
• Best Driving Range
  Mission Bay Golf Center 1200 Sixth St. (at Channel), 431-7888, www.missionbaygolfclub.com Urban golfers pack this China Basin range well into the night. The two-story steel-and-concrete contraption has 66 bays of fake grass, some with plastic tees to set your ball upon, most without.... More >>
• Best Shark Diving
  Great White Adventures 875A Island, No. 338, Alameda, (510) 814-8256, www.greatwhiteadventures.com Right now you're thinking, "But I'm not a scuba diver." Who cares! That's the fun of great white shark diving off the Farallon Islands -- you don't need a scuba license or training. All you... More >>
• Best Midnight Playground
  Michelangelo Playground Greenwich between Jones and Leavenworth Sometimes a grown-up just has to slide and swing and jump from ring to ring, especially when it's 'round midnight in the asphalt jungle, the dives and joints are thrumming and shrieking, and a little alfresco regression is a... More >>
• Best Gridiron Wild Child
  Randy Moss Oakland Raiders First, you notice the hair, a towering rebel 'fro tamed for formal interviews by dapper cornrows. Next, you notice the hands, giant sticky mitts designed to lock onto pigskin missiles. Then, of course, you notice the attitude and the exploits, on the field and... More >>
• Best Low-Key Pickup Basketball Game
  Dolores Park Church & 18th streets While the Bay Area's professional basketball team may be mired in a decades-old mess of mediocrity and neglect, street ball is alive and well in the city. Hoop dreams are born and die on the concrete courts, and no court is more conducive to a fun and... More >>
• Best Serious Pickup Basketball Game
  Contra Costa College 2600 Mission Bell (at El Portal), San Pablo During the summer, from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, Contra Costa College hosts a pickup basketball game that's a cut above a street game but not so serious that a guy can't walk in off the street, call "Next,"... More >>
• Best Coaching Legacy
  Mike Nolan San Francisco 49ers His father, Dick, roamed the 49ers sidelines as head coach from 1968 to 1975. Now, Mike Nolan will try to return the red and gold to its customary place atop the football universe. Nolan's track record should preclude any talk of nepotism. He's been... More >>
• Best Way to See the Sun Set Over the City
  City Kayak Pier 38, Embarcadero & Townsend, 357-1010, www.citykayak.com It's easy to appreciate a glimpse of glorious horizon, whether you catch it from a bar patio, a hilly park, or the window of your car as you commute westward from work to home. But everyone knows that the best means to... More >>
• Best Reason for Warriors Fans to Have Hope
  Fresh Talent An infusion of new names -- many of them unpronounceable -- combined with the aggressive approach of head suit Chris Mullin has the Bay Area buzzing about its hoops team. The Warriors of old would have let the trade deadline lapse (along with their chances for improvement), but... More >>
• Best Reason for Warriors Fans to Remain Skeptical
  Fresh Talent It's peaches and cream right now, but what about next season? Here's a grim scenario: Baron Davis starts to sulk after the Warriors go 6-23 in the first two months. He refuses to shave his beard and antagonizes teammates by giving them insulting nicknames. Jason Richardson... More >>
• Best Announcer (3 Comments)
  Mike Krukow, San Francisco Giants analyst
  Yes, his banter with dulcet-toned play-by-play stalwart Duane Kuiper can get way too folksy and irritating at times -- and if we could ban one phrase from ever being uttered again, it might be Krukow's signature put-down, "Grab some pine, meat." But those are minor annoyances compared to... More >>
• Best Martial Arts Instruction
  Ralph Gracie Jiu-Jitsu
  So you want to slap a rear naked choke on a fool, eh? Maybe you want to stick someone in an arm bar and hear a joint pop? Well, Grasshopper, you've got some learning to do. You'll probably be on the receiving end of hundreds of brutal ass-kickings before you reach your goal, but there's no... More >>
• Best Cheap Sporting Event
  San Jose SaberCats www.sanjosesabercats.com The Arena Football League has always touted itself as sports' most fan-friendly league -- the league even has a Fans' Bill of Rights -- and that's largely because of the prices. A family of four can spend $400 to watch the Niners lose to Arizona... More >>
• Best Free Sporting Event
  San Francisco Bay Area ProCity Summer Basketball League www.sanfranciscoproam.com After you've spent a year watching the Warriors play something only vaguely resembling basketball, San Francisco's long-running ProCity summer hoops league at Kezar Pavilion is more than a diversion; it's a... More >>
• Best Neighborhood Dojo
  IOMASDA Karate Academy
  Most weekday evenings at around 6, an uplifting sound wafts across the intersection at 20th and Lexington streets: A class full of ghi-outfitted 3- to 10-year-olds belts out "Yaaaaa!" It's particularly easy to hear the joyful little hollers on warm summer nights, when the door of this corner... More >>
• Best Way to Tear Up Golden Gate Park
  Wheel Fun Rentals 50 Stow Lake (at MLK), 668-6699, www.wheelfunrentals.com Everyone knows about the bicycle carriage-y looking contraptions you can rent at the Stow Lake boathouse. They're called surreys, and if you're in a "pip-pip, tallyho" kind of mood, they're just the ticket for... More >>
• Best Bike Ride
  Round Trip From San Francisco to Stinson Beach to Mill Valley
  Sometimes simplest is best, and the loop that goes from the city, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and out to the coast before swooping through Stinson Beach and up the near-five-mile climb to West Ridgecrest Boulevard and back is our beautiful-bike-ride-studded region's best. This four-hour... More >>
• Best Run for the Money
  The Sevenpeak If you've been looking for motivation to get in shape, consider the "Sevenpeak," a run that's life-affirmingly beautiful for the fit and physically crippling (or at least damned challenging) for everyone else. Here's how it goes: Start at Oak and Cole streets in the Panhandle.... More >>
• Best Baseball Prospect (1 Comment)
  Daric Barton, Oakland A's
  Barton, a catcher, came over from the Cardinals as the undercard in the Mark Mulder deal, which was being derided and mocked and generally screamed about in some of our finer media outlets before anyone even bothered to look at the numbers. (Ray Ratto in the Chronicle described the trade as... More >>
• Best Local College Basketball Player
  John Cox Guard, University of San Francisco John Cox comes from a family steeped in basketball talent: He's the cousin of Kobe Bryant, the nephew of former NBA player Joe Bryant, and the son of '70s USF star Chubby Cox. The 6-foot-5 senior finally came into his own this season, his... More >>
• Best Baseball Series
  Take yourself out to these ballgames. A's vs. Boston, May 16-18 The world champs swing by Oakland, which means thousands of A's fans will be sneaking projectile-ready Duracells into the Coliseum. Giants vs. A's, May 20-22/A's vs. Giants, June 24-26 Year after year, the cross-bay... More >>
• Best Bike Shop
  Valencia Cyclery
  Unless you plan to wear tight shorts and shave your legs, deciding which bike to buy should be easy, and it shouldn't take all day. For those who want a city bike, Valencia Cyclery won't try to sell you a Rockhopper or something you can lift with your pinkie. Good, honest advice and a... More >>