You may remember my grandfather, Jonathan Livingston Seagull. He was a worldwide literary phenomena in the early 70s. He and my grandmother settled down in Berkeley to join the “Free Fly Movement” which was all the rage in the skies above the Cal campus. My dad hatched in a nest built in the metal girders at Memorial Stadium. His name, Stephen Seagull.

A few years ago I was listening to a Giants game on my IPeck and heard Jon Miller and Dave Flemming talking about our early arrivals. They were debating the proper name for gulls as a group. Jon asked Dave, "Are they a flock, gaggle, gang, bunch or herd?" Dave was stumped. Gentlemen, we are officially a 'Colony.' Our Colony is enjoying games from McCovey Cove when the Giants' Navy sails, rows, paddles or motors in for a fan-less game. They drop enough from their various watercraft items for a passable seafood sampling.

For many years this 'Mistake by the Bay' was our favorite. The wind made it into our own amusement park ride. The gusts were fun to ride and the cold always forced fans to leave early, without birdie bags, which left more gull grub for us. It’s gone now, as are the Giants, 49ers and memories of John, Paul, George and Ringo. There isn’t even a plaque to mark the spot of so many great gull memories.

We are now comfortable with soaring to Santa Clara. Lucky for us, we have GPS (Gull Positioning Systems). There is a plethora of palate prizes at the Pant’s Palace. We stay away from some of the games based on the flight paths going into and out of San Jose International. We bring extra wing lotion for day games. The upcoming season is going to be a challenge without knowing what percentage of 49ers Faithful will be allowed to watch games in person. We will be squawking for Jimmy 'G for Gull' as he leads the Kittle Krew to another winning season.

We couldn’t even get a sneak beak into the new home of the Warriors. Wow! This place is going to be the goose that lays a Golden State of Eggs for years to come but not this past season. The flight from Berkeley to China Basin won’t be too difficult, especially since we don’t have to take the Bay Bridge or BART.

This is my home field, my birthplace. Remember when those wacky humans were nesting in the trees outside the stadium. Sadly there will be no F&F on the Cal campus this season. (That’s Football and Food.) Go Bears!

Did you ever notice that you don't see many of us at football games down on The Farm. Seems like we don't fit in. There are a bunch of well-taloned hawks, raptors, Cardinals and drones that have taken up the air space above Palo Alto. I guess there's no room for us bird brains on the Peninsula.

I’ll leave you with these seeds of wisdom from my Bird Brain. We miss all of you live sports fans and your generous leftovers. At the Coliseum fans are paying $128 for a cutout in Fowl Ball territory. What a Bunch of Turkeys!

It seems like these new fold-up fans just sit there like cardboard cutouts. Couldn’t the teams at least put some real food next to their technicolor seats?

What genius decided that 60 games makes a baseball season? Don’t they know we have families to feed? Bubbles that have No Fly zones are making life extremely hard for us.

We wish you well, stay safe. See you in the New Different in 2021.

-- C.C. Gull

Andy Dolich has over five decades of leadership in the sports industry, including executive positions in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, pro soccer and lacrosse. Presently Dolich is COO of the Fan Controlled Football League (FCFL) and teaches sports business at Stanford's School of Continuing Studies.

Oakland's Matt Chapman was among many team members to join the Hit Parade as the A's smashed out 17 hits in Sunday's 15-3 shellacking of their hosts, the San Francisco Giants, to sweep the three games. For the series, the A's amassed 30 runs to the Giants 16. Photo by Rich Yee.

Generally reliable reliever Dereck Rodriguez also fell victim to Oakland's hot bats, surrendering seven hits and five earned runs in his short 1.2 innings of relief. Photo by Rich Yee.

Yawn...not the day I expected at my beloved yard... Photo by Rich Yee.

The Tale of the Tape was not to the Giants liking but they are understandably proud of Donovan Solano, who is among major league leaders in batting average. (Currently ranked third.) To view a game photo album, visit our Facebook Page and be sure to LIKE us or visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net.  

Photo by Rich Yee.

San Francisco Giants seagull cutouts occupy seats in the upper deck as seen during the seventh inning of the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics at Oracle Park on Saturday, Aug. 15.

Caption and photo by Darren Yamashita.

Orderly and respectful, not a fan cutout moved from their seat during the entire game. Photo by Rich Yee.

Giants celebrity fans and Forever Giants will be seated throughout the ballpark and fans will have a choice, when purchasing their cutout, to select a seat in the same section or as close as possible to their favorite celebrity or Giants alumni. Click here to see celebrities with seating sections.

Use our helpful Photo Submission Guide to take and upload the best photo. There are many ways to take a great cutout photo… and a few ways to not!

Cutouts will be installed in waves, depending on when your photo is uploaded. Refer to the FAQ for questions and specific dates.

Oakland Athletics center fielder Mark Canha (20) hit a 3-run home run in the ninth inning as the A's collected their second straight come-from-behind victory over the San Francisco Giants, 7-6, at Oracle Park on Saturday, Aug. 15. Caption and photo by Darren Yamashita.

First baseman Matt Olson (28) celebrates with left fielder Robbie Grossman (8) after hitting a home run in the sixth inning. Caption and

Giants left fielder Darin Ruf hits a 3-run home run in the seventh inning to put the Giants briefly ahead, 6-3. Caption and photo by Darren Yamashita.

Starting pitcher Kevin Gausman (34) struck out 11 in 5-2/3 innings of work. To view a game photo album, visit our Facebook Page and be sure to LIKE us or visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net. Caption and photo by Darren Yamashita.

Left field banners invariably offer inspiration or issue commands. To view a game photo album, visit our Facebook Page and be sure to LIKE us or visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net. Photo by Rich Yee.

Cutouts of NBC Sports Bay Area personalities are displayed outside the Treehouse section as seen before the game between the Oakland Athletics and the Colorado Rockies. To view a game photo album, visit our Facebook Page and be sure to LIKE us or visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net.

https://www.ultimatesportsguide.net/2020-san-francisco-giants-schedule

https://www.ultimatesportsguide.net/2020-oakland-as-schedule

Against the Tennessee Titans in Week 14 of the 2019 season, I recorded the first interception of my career, returning it 55 yards to set up an Oakland Raiders touchdown. Concept and photo by Darren Yamashita.

Timothy Reynolds and Larry Rosa 

Prevention  -- 100 Cleanest Packaged Food Awards

Men's Health -- 125 Best Foods for Men

Prevention -- Eat Clean Best Packaged Foods

Every Day with Rachael Ray -- Brand New Buy

Better Homes and Gardens -- Catch of the Day

Clean Eating -- Clean Choice Awards

Natural Health -- 3rd Annual Good Food Awards

Runner's World -- Good Catch

For more information, visit www.wildplanetfoods.com

(Editor's note: T. Buff will be contributing going forward and here is his note accompanying his first submission: Hopefully this is not too difficult as a first question. It's hardly trivial, ya know... I know more about the A's franchise than I ever wanted to know. I can see this could be a pleasant black hole for time consumption. One link leads to another...)

Question: In 1941, the Boston Red Sox Ted Williams was the last player to hit for more than a .400 batting average, for a season, in the MLB. What A's franchise player holds the record for the highest batting average, for a season, in the modern age of baseball?

Answer: WHAT? You didn't know? "The modern-era (post 1900) record for highest batting average for a season is held by Nap Lajoie who hit .426 in 1901, the first year of play for the American League." Wikipedia

Pictured above is second baseman Nap Lajoie as a member of the Cleveland Bronchos. One year earlier, in 1901 and as a member of Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics, Lajoie set the all-time American League single-season mark for the highest batting average (.426).

Golden Gate Fields, Serean Kimmel, Re/Max Accord; 

Bemer/Ann Cooke; Informational: 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes Who Won't Go Pro;  100 Things Sharks Fans Should Know Before They Die; Disqualified: The Incredible Slip Madigan, The Flamboyant Coach Who Modernized Football; Michael Zagaris

Anothertwistafate, the 2019 El Camino Real Derby winner, worked six furlongs in 1:10.2 at Golden Gate Fields on Sunday, in preparation for either the Rolling Green on September 7 at Golden Gate Fields or the Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs on September 10. Trained by Blaine D. Wright and owned by Peter Redekop and ridden by Kevin Orozco. Photo credit: William Vassar /

In the last seasons of the Oakland Raiders in Oakland, Ultimate Sports Guide photographer Ed Jay collected images and stories of some of the Raiders most passionate and beloved fans. To view and read their stories, click on this link and revisit your all-time favorites. Above, Keith Smith aka Crusader Raider. Photo by Ed Jay.

In 2018 Hurst was projected to be anywhere from the top 5 to a mid first-round pick, but due to his heart condition, his draft stock plummeted. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the fifth round (140th overall) in the 2018 NFL Draft. In week 14 in 2019, against the Tennessee Titans, Hurst recorded his first career interception off a pass thrown by Ryan Tannehill and returned it 55 yards in the 42–21 loss. (Pictured above.) To view a game photo album, visit our Facebook Page and be sure to LIKE us or visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net.

Concept and photo by Darren Yamashita.

As one might expect, the odds on whether there will be college football this fall line up almost exactly along political lines, sadly. With the menteur-in-chief pounding the table for all kids ages 5 to 21 (that’s 65 million American children, to say nothing of the 3 ½ million teachers who will be at considerable risk) to return to school—it’s damn the coronavirus and full speed ahead. We need to open up! Time for all you soft liberals to suck it up and be warriors! That means you, college football—What are you, a bunch of pansies?

College Football News in a recent article (this could change) put the chances of the top nine conferences within the NCAA playing football this fall as follows, in order, from most to least likely:

SEC---85%: Anyone shocked that these guys are leading the charge? Maybe Georgia governor Brian Kemp can thwart any attempt to “vote” otherwise…

ACC—80%: Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence pressed for college sports leaders to stage a football season, saying it would “help players keep safe from the coronavirus.” I guess the 20-year old Heisman contender with the flowing blonde locks knows more about health, science and medicine than all the epidemiologists.

AAC---70%: No surprise here; of the 11 current members, all but Temple (PA) are below the Mason-Dixon line.

Big 12---65%: Four in Texas, two each in Oklahoma and Kansas, one in Iowa, one in West Virginia—red states all. “Our student-athletes want to compete, and it is the Board's opinion that sports can be conducted safely and in concert with the best interests of their well-being.” Excuse me? You want to be the one to tell UT they ain’t playing this fall, hoss? Good luck with that, pal. Hook ‘em Horns.

Sun Belt---60%: The SEC and Sun Belt share much of the same geographical area. They share game officials. And the capos in charge are thick as thieves…

MAC---0%: The 18 member schools are mostly in New Jersey, some in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland. They were the first to call off all fall sports.

Mountain West---0%: The coaches were included in the meetings but the board of directors had the ultimate say, fortunately. “Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of our students, student-athletes, coaches, faculty, staff, and overall communities,” said Dr. Mary Papazian, San Jose State University president. Funny, isn’t that what the Big 12 people said? (See above) Me, I’ll take Mary’s opinion.

Big Ten---0%: Commissioner Kevin Warren said that "It became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall." Good for you, Kevin—even if it might cost your conference $700 LARGE—as in millions, not thousands.

Pac 12---0%: There was never any doubt. That’s why they call it the “Left Coast” because we use the left, or rational, logical, side of our brains.

“There is absolutely no justification in principle, law or reason why the people generating all this money shouldn’t be entitled to a piece of it,” wrote Taylor Branch, in his groundbreaking 2011 story, The Shame of College Sports, for The Atlantic. Let’s be clear. For the revenue-yielding college sports, it has never been about academics, amateurism, scholarship or student-athletes.

In his excellent 2013 book, Game Over, the Nation magazine sports editor and acclaimed sportswriter/radio host Dave Zirin references Branch’s piece, which argued that the NCAA’s existence is predicated on two cynical hoaxes: amateurism and the student-athlete. College football and basketball programs make enormous amounts of money for almost everyone but those athletes, Branch writes, many of whom are only nominally students. The players aren’t slaves, he noted, but the major programs have the “unmistakable whiff of the plantation.” Ouch.

Zirin added this: “As one author noted, ‘To provide recompense would be to degrade them toward a spiral of barbarism. In the current system they are cared for and governed in a way that allows them to be supervised instead of being thrown to the wolves.’ That last quote wasn’t from a defender of the current scholarship system but from George Fitzhugh, the nineteenth-century Virginia writer whose defense of slavery, Cannibals All! or Slaves Without Masters, argued the moral benefits of well-supervised bonded labor. In other words—don’t pay ‘em a dime.

It’s one thing to pretend that the reason these kids are in college is to get an education. It’s quite another to put their health and safety at risk. That is horrifying but somehow I am not surprised. After all, it’s the NCAA, the organization whose mission is the same as its end game: profit. But this time they are going too far.

In pretending that things will return back to normal if we just have football as usual, these greedy, avaricious fools are heading into the abyss--what hopefully will be their last go-round holding the lives of young people in their hands. For they have chosen to blindly follow those idiots who would put “politics” above science, above life itself. Yes, these men of the NCAA, whose tawdry history is available to any who want to read about it—are on a steep descent--into Hell.

Pete Elman

Oakland

August 15, 2020 -- The Year of the Pandemic

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Sports Today - #321 -- March 23 - March 29

* Click here for 2019 editions.

have been cancelled.

San Francisco Giants v. Los Angeles Angels, 6:45 p.m.

Oakland A's v. Arizona Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m.

Oakland A's v. Los Angeles Angels, 6:40 p.m.

Oakland A's v. Los Angeles Angels, 1:10 p.m.

Oakland A's v. Los Angeles Angels, 1:10 p.m.

 Ultimate Sports Guide website!

Under the ultra-skilled leadership of Cal graduate Ricky Liu, a team of talented Cal students assembled the elegant Ultimate Sports Guide website for your readers. Ricky's team included Natalie Leung, Yafei Liang and Kasey Woo. Visit www.ultimatesportsguide.net

The vast majority of student-athletes dreaming of athletic stardom won't make it to the pros. Yet, the discipline and skills they've developed while balancing a sport and academics make them ideally suited for satisfying careers elsewhere. In 20 Secrets to Success for NCAA Student-Athletes Who Won't Go Pro, the authors draw on personal experience, interviews, expert opinion, and industry data to provide a game plan for student-athletes through key transitions at each stage of their careers, from high school through college and beyond. Modeled on Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this book provides a much-needed strategy for achieving career success. Readable and concise, it will be a valuable tool for students, parents, and sports administrators. To order, click here.

The Ultimate Sports Guide is very appreciative to the ongoing contributions made by former staff photographer Kenny Karst, now retired. Mr. Karst continues to contribute through helpful ideas and his archives.