In the category of "I shouldn't really care, but for some reason I do", the Sacramento Kings held their first preseason game this evening, taking on the Dallas Mavericks. In a game that wasn't supposed to mean anything, and apparently didn't feature the full Mavericks staff, the Kings prevailed 111-90, in a game where they weren't truly challenged.

Being in the Bay Area means that I don't have access to the Kings on TV on a regular basis, so any "watching" took place via Yahoo! Sports, and real-time chat on Sactown Royalty, where you can see my quasi-commentary and always uninsightful comments. Hopefully, as the NBA season nears, we'll find some sort of solution to satiate my seeming need to follow every game.

In the game, the Kings led throughout, and outscored the Mavericks every quarter. Five players notched double figures, including one of my favorites, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Abdur-Rahim and I both entered Cal Berkeley in the 1995-1996 year, where he gained freshman of the year honors for the Pac-10 conference, and then, vanished, off to the pros, while I was left to toil for UC Berkeley another three years, as he made his millions and I only got a degree.

Shareef's role on the Kings has been questioned of late. While his talent is among the highest on the club, he has been coming off of the bench, and playing more of a backup role. In my fully biased, uneducated opinion, I feel the team would be better off with him in the starting five, and tonight's play showed that. On the flip side, tonight's game didn't count, and they don't count for awhile. Maybe I should keep my focus on baseball until it's "all over" for the A's...

Listening to ''What Was Her Name?'', by Dave Clarke (Play Count: 6)

As noted previously, we've had to move our schedule around a bit to make the mid-week, early evening A's games. On Tuesday, when I arrived back home just before 3 p.m., I rushed in, slammed the door, and expected the beagle to come bounding forward to see what all the noise was about.

But, unlike the watchdog we all would expect to dominate intruders, Molly was sound asleep. I put my stuff away, and she didn't stir. So, here to document her hard work, we present Molly the beagle, sleeping on her job on the watch, guarding the couch and chair.


It's tough work being a lazy, spoiled, dog!

As the reverberations of Google's massive acquisition of YouTube take hold, much of the media's interest has turned to the other big Web giants out there to see their take. It turns out that Yahoo! itself was "this close" to acquiring YouTube, but the company simply moved too slowly, brought down by bureaucracy, while Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, doesn't know if YouTube's hype is sustainable, and the company wasn't part of the chase.

With Google garnering the elephant's share of positive press mentions over the last few years, Yahoo! and Microsoft have turned into also-rans in the search race, and are more frequently looking like technology copycats rather than innovators. While Yahoo! has matched Google pound for pound in acquisitions (such as Flickr), Microsoft has bandied about in 3rd place, or worse, by most rankings, most known for hyped mediocrity on the level of Zune and LiveSpaces, with the company's races to rebrand from MSN to Live being the most recent shakeup - which in the long run probably won't benefit end users - instead being the Web's version of microwaved left-overs.

Yahoo! rose to prominence in the 1990s by developing a unique, familiar, personable directory. Microsoft rose to prominence through developing an operating system that ran on commodity hardware, and strategic partnering. Google rose to prominence through the world's best search engine. Google, though making noise about office productivity, isn't getting in the operating system battle, and hasn't yet opened up a directory service. Yahoo! isn't making desktop applications. So why the need to copy Google over and over and over? Is there just not enough market cap and revenue to go around for three mega-companies? I think each company has their place, and should forge forward to make their services better for customers.

Related Links:

BusinessWeek: The Web According to Ballmer
eWeek: Ballmer: Windows Live is Top Microsoft Priority
New York Times: Yahoo's Growth Being Eroded by New Rivals

Thanks to scheduling beyond our control, the last few days have been completely out of the ordinary - consisting of our going into the office at a normal hour, and then bailing in the mid-afternoon, to race north to the Oakland Coliseum, take in the game, and then meander our way back home again.

While we've enjoyed the twice-weekly trip all summer long, this was typically a Friday/Saturday jaunt, and games could regularly be seen at 7 p.m. Friday, with a day game Saturday. Now, in the ALCS, we are slaves to the masters of the MLB universe, Fox and ESPN, who have dictated the games start at 5 (so East Coast viewers can chime in) and on Tuesday and Wednesday, messing up our routine.

I'd be beyond jubilant, and happy to tell you the process were all worth it, had our team, the A's, done their jobs. But after two games at home in the league championship series, we've seen the green and gold on the short end of the stick, losing Tuesday by a score of 5-1, and tonight, by a tally of 8-5. The team has been fighting from behind the entire series, and whatever leads we did have tonight were fleeting at best, as the Tigers put runs on the board and we simply couldn't catch up.

Down by 3 tonight, the A's teased us by loading the bases, and bringing to the plate Frank Thomas, who is always a threat to homer. Had he put the ball in the seats, we would have seen history made - a grand slam to win the game in the most dramatic way. But he didn't make it, and we can't rely on one man's heroics to overcome 8 innings of mediocrity.

There's a million ways we could point fingers, but simply said, if you were to say that Nick Swisher and Thomas (and Scutaro) would be a combined .000 through the first two games, there really wouldn't need to be any more discussion. They look lost out there.

Milton Bradley (with two home runs) and Kotsay (two doubles) were a lot of fun to watch, and I love seeing the rare Chavez homer. He's come through twice in the last three playoff games, even if he is swinging and missing way too much. In fact, the whole team just K'd and K'd and K'd today. Yuck.

Now the series goes back to Detroit, and the A's find themselves in a deep hole they might not ever get out of. Tonight just could have been the last time we see them all year, and though I will always hold out hope until the last batter is out in the last inning of the last game, we are unhappy season ticket holders tonight. From Friday's jubilation to today's frustrations, we've run the entire gamut. That's the rough life of being a serious sports fan who expects the world.

Listening to ''neo & farina'', by Blutonium Boy Vs DJ Session One (Play Count: 5)