IN THE GAME It's not kickball; it's matball. Which looks a lot like kickball, with one big difference: You can have more than one runner at a time on any given base. You can have up to three, but if a fourth is incoming, someone's got to go.

You don't have to stop running, either, when you reach home, in some versions of the game. You can keep going — back to first, and around the bases again. In gym class, this was a way to make kids run laps without quite exactly knowing it.Read more »

Le.chicken.farmer@yahoo.com

They have cheerleaders at semi-pro football games. They have semi-pro cheerleaders. At halftime the five of them went out to the 50-yard line of the Rancho Cotate High School football field in Rohnert Park and put on a li'l halftime show.

I'm not a dog. Nevertheless, I really really felt like chasing Frisbees. The girls were good, but the halftime show could have used . . . something. Maybe a semi-pro Frisbee dog.Read more »

By L.E. Leone

IN THE GAME Gio Camacho, captain of the West Point women's boxing team, sang the national anthem into the ring announcer's microphone, wearing boxing gloves. Then she climbed into the ring and beat the beans out of University of Maryland's Catherine Breslin, who looked a little bewildered.

This was the first fight on a 21-bout card the second night of the inaugural United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association tournament held at USF last weekend. Incredibly, it was the first collegiate tournament to crown women champions, as well as men.Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@yahoo.com

It's between the airport and the ballpark in Oakland: the Dry Ice Arena, home of the immediate Bay Area's thrivingest inline roller hockey scene. There's a parking lot in back, and a store where you can get you your gear: skates, shirts, helmets. They rent these, too.

Against the windowless outside wall of the building, as you walk along looking for a door, you will find an occasional walk-in rat trap, badly parked cars, and a plastic bag full of crackers, which I wanted very badly to stomp on but didn't.Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@yahoo.com

SPORTS Did you see what Jed Lowrie (swoon) did last Wednesday, on the very day my column about him hit the streets? He propelled the A's to their first win of the regular season, going 3-3 with a walk, the game-winning 2-run double, and a home run. In fact he hit two doubles that game, then two more the next — also a win.

This means he loves me too. Although . . . it's hard to imagine he got a very good look from way down there on the field.Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@gmail.com

IN THE GAME I still think it's easier to get to A's games than Giants ones. You get on BART, you get off BART. Tickets are relatively cheap, and really very all-around available.

What the Giants have on the A's is a prettier stadium with better concessions, including gluten-free hot dogs and gluten-free beer.

What the A's have on the Giants, besides tickets, is Jed Lowrie.Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@yahoo.com

At the beginning of class, the children of the Oakland Kajukenbo Kwoon circle up and take a knee, with their heads bowed and their little fists pressed into the hardwood.

"I am powerful!" one little voice squeaks.

"I am fierce!" shouts the next.

"I am speedy!"

"I am unstoppable!"

It's so freakin' cool I don't know what to do with myself and have to play with my phone just to keep from crying. They are learning something I wish I'd learned at five: how to have a say in things.Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@yahoo.com

At the beginning of class, the children of the Oakland Kajukenbo Kwoon circle up and take a knee, with their heads bowed and their little fists pressed into the hardwood.

"I am powerful!" one little voice squeaks.

"I am fierce!" shouts the next.

"I am speedy!"

"I am unstoppable!"

It's so freakin' cool I don't know what to do with myself and have to play with my phone just to keep from crying. They are learning something I wish I'd learned at five: how to have a say in things.Read more »

This one starts with a dislocated finger, too. In the absence of any trainers or team doctors, not to mention health insurance), Manny the referee had to set it. "How's your pain threshold?" he asked, first.

"High," said Leland Perzanowski, looking off into the distance. Blue sky. Beautiful day, Crocker Amazon.

"You got this," someone said.

Snap, some tape, game goes on ...Read more »

le.chicken.farmer@gmail.com

A giant hawk swooped down from the tall trees along the right field line. Against the blazing white San Francisco sky, it seemed all wing span and tiny-headed. And jaggedly, viciously beautiful.

The pickoff play was on.

Greg Snyder, caught completely off guard, dove back to third. Lucky for him, third-baseman Johnny Bartlett was also caught off guard, and the throw glanced off his glove and rolled to the chain link fence in front of the third base dugout, West Sunset Playground.Read more »