Sports & Recreation

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• Readers' Poll Winners

  Best Bike Path The Wiggle Best Place for Skateboard Embarcadero Best Gym Bar Method, Marina Best Martial Arts Studio Suginami Aikikai Best Bike Shop Valencia Cyclery Best Ski/Snowboard Shop Sports Basement Best Public Tennis Court Dolores Park Best Golf Course Harding Park Best Place to Walk the Dog Crissy Field Best Jog Crissy Field Best Yoga Mission Yoga Best Sportswriter Ray Ratto, San Francisco Chronicle Best Sportscaster Jon Miller, ESPN and Giants Best Giant Tim Lincecum Best 49er Frank Gore Best Local Sports Coach Mike Singletary… More >>

• Best Early-Bird Pickup Basketball Run

  Embarcadero Y.M.C.A.

  From swimming in lanes to jogging in parks, early-morning workouts tend to be solitary. Not at the Embarcadero Y.M.C.A., where full-court five-on-five pickup basketball games start at 6 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Long waits to play are rare, and the competition is largely good-natured. You won't find Monta Ellis gliding through the lane here, or even Andris Biedrins rising… More >>

• Best New Hybrid Workout

  Planet Granite

  Stunning views of San Francisco Bay loom through the windows of this climbing-plus-all-in-one gym and yoga studio. The scenery surrounding this hangar off Crissy Field is just one of the reasons this spot is so remarkable. Climbing builds long, lean muscles, while yoga stretches them — so this combo packs a double whammy. Towering walls are staggered throughout the open… More >>

• Best Indoor Playspace

  Recess Urban Recreation

  For people who don't have babies, indoor playspaces (with their monthly fees) are a perfectly insane idea. "Go to a playground!" the child-free scream. "We do, all the time!" parents shoot back. "But it's cold, my baby just learned how to walk, and a homeless person is shooting smack in the fort, and stay out of raising my baby!" So… More >>

• Best Training Group

  Team in Training — Greater San Francisco Bay Area Chapter - CLOSED

  This enthusiastic and well-organized bunch envelops you in its team mentality. It's infectious. It's almost a better way to meet people if you're new to the city than singles night at a club, or joining Match.com. Whether you're training for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, a century ride, or just a shorter 10K walk, Team in Training hosts weekly sessions… More >>
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  Best Places to Recreate in Golden Gate Park

  Photograph by Kelly Nicolaisen The crown jewels of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department are more than just lakes, trees, and world-class museums. Here the urban warrior can indulge in dozens of sports and activities, from soccer, softball, and skateboarding to the less mainstream forms of athletic endeavor. Over the past few years we’ve vouched for the park’s archery, pétanque,… More >>

• Best Secret Sporting Event

  Dead Fucking Last Cross-Dress Cyclocross

  To innocent passersby, the annual DFL Cross-Dress Cyclocross series defies explanation: Without warning, 150 bicycle-mounted men and women, mostly in drag, emerge from a thicket in full sprint, leap from their cycles like acrobats, and then throw them over their shoulders and sprint up dirt embankments. This is a two-decades-old subterranean version of a century-old off-road sport called cyclocross. The… More >>

• Best Street Closures

  Sunday Streets

  We're a city of street fairs. For decades, we've raised barricades, stationed cops, erected stages, and clogged sidewalks with truckloads of questionable merch. Turns out we're wasting everybody's time: Sunday Streets proves that all people want is for the city to close the streets, then step away from the planning table. Last year's Mission closures (huge swaths of 24th and… More >>

• Best Rugged Hike

  Mile Rock Beach

  Strap on your boots for this one: There's a reason this stretch of sand just beyond the Golden Gate is one of San Francisco's great unknowns. What was once the site of Adolph Sutro's private railroad, meant to lure daytrippers out to his Sutro Baths, is now nothing more than a narrow trail perched atop steep cliffs overlooking treacherous Pacific… More >>

• Best Family Hike to a Nudist Beach

  Battery to Bluffs Trail

  It used to be that the trail to North Baker Beach was so overgrown with poison oak and other brush that only nudists, mostly male, found it worth the trip. The National Park Service completed a first-rate trail in 2007, and since then, the balance of visitors has steadily tipped toward families. As long as visitors can ignore occasional grumpy… More >>
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  Best Dog-Friendly Gym

  Fit Bernal Fit

  Artwork by Jesse Lefkowitz For many a San Francisco dog owner, the question of whether to work out at the gym and leave the pup at home, or slog up Bernal hill (again) with leash in hand has heavy moral implications. But thanks to Fit Bernal Fit, you can maintain your regular workout routine while your canine is within barking distance.… More >>

• Most Stunning Surf Break

  Fort Point

  The left break off Fort Point directly beneath the Golden Gate Bridge may be one of the world's most challenging waves. For surfers brave enough to dodge tankers and tempt the raging current, it's an accessible spot. It's even better for spectators when a big swell comes in. You can stand on the rocks and practically reach out and touch… More >>

• Best Playground with a View

  Walter Haas Playground

  At some point, all parents wonder why they're trying to raise kids in San Francisco instead of Walnut Creek (usually that point involves seeing wide-eyed tweens wandering the Mission, or someone defecating al fresco). That's when a trip to Haas is in order. Perched atop Diamond Heights, it features a newish playground, an undulating grass field, a basketball court, a… More >>

• Best Bike Ride for Kids

  Golden Gate Park Panhandle to Sutro Heights

  You can take this eight-mile round-trip ride to a great picnic and play destination mostly unaccompanied by cars. Start at John F. Kennedy Drive at Oak and Stanyan streets, and proceed along bike trails through Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway. Cross at the light and follow the sidewalk on the west side of Point Lobos Avenue. Ride past… More >>

• Best Women's Marathon

  The Nike Women's Marathon

  The Nike Women's Marathon starts in Union Square, winds through Golden Gate Park, and ends up at the Pacific Ocean. With nearly 20,000 men and women taking part, the energy is electric, the volunteers organized and ubiquitous. DJs and bands jam along the route, and there are multiple stations serving up water, Gatorade, energy bars, and even Ghirardelli chocolates. Finishers… More >>

• Best Swim

  Aquatic Park

  Swimmers intimidated by the Pacific's wild waves can head instead to 415's equivalent of a tidal pool in the extremely accessible, calm waters of Aquatic Park. There's no need for membership in the nearby Dolphin Club (with its private beach, pah!): Note the many people cheerfully stripping down and jumping in for a few laps beneath the watchful eyes of… More >>

• Best Giant

  Pablo Sandoval

  Hope springs eternal that the Giants will win the National League West this season. And with the Giants' pitching staff, they may yet be able to do so with players like Aubrey Huff, Mark DeRosa, and Aaron Rowand sopping up key at-bats. Yet no one runs into the room to watch the television when one of the aforementioned quasisluggers comes… More >>

• Best 49er

  Vernon Davis

  Prior to last season, the San Francisco 49ers' tight end was a classic example of the old saying that potential never won anything. Davis was smart, he was strong, he had great speed — he had great hair. But he was best remembered for being thrown out of a game in Oct. 2008 by coach Mike Singletary, who went on… More >>

• Best Chance to Watch Tomorrow's NBA Superstars for Free

  SF Bay Area Pro-Am

  When the next National Basketball Association superstar is blowing up, fans will all want to tell stories about how they saw him way back when. And if your story includes said superstar playing pro-am ball in a gym best known for being the home of roller derby — you win. SF Bay Area Pro-Am offers fans the chance to watch… More >>

• Best Bar to Shoot Pool

  Jillian's Billiards Club

  San Francisco is a tough town for hustlers of all varieties, but the kind who carry pool cues are particularly hard up. Every bar with a billiards table seems crowded with douchebags, be they the sort with popped collars or those wearing their wallets on chains, and all are jockeying for the chance to show their dates that they can't… More >>

• Best Sporting Spectacle on Wheels

  Roller Derby at Kezar Pavilion

  Roller derby was already in the midst of a renaissance when Drew Barrymore made it official with Whip It, her 2009 film about the adventures of a scrappy crew of derby-playing punk chicks. But nothing beats the thrill of watching men and women sporting roller skates and scant protective padding crunch the shit out of each other live and in… More >>
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  Profile: Mike Krukow, Giants Broadcaster

  By Joe Eskenazi Photograph by Joseph Schell When he was the San Francisco Giants' staff ace for much of the 1980s, Mike Krukow did not live in San Francisco. He's actually a bit apologetic about it. "I was renting a house on the Peninsula, I had a ton of kids, there was the proximity to [Candlestick Park] and the airport," he says. Krukow,… More >>