Major League Baseball played its 79th All-Star Game last night, a 15-inning, long hard slog eventually won by the American League, 4-3. Your hometown team players had a couple cameos and made a few notable contributions in the evening’s proceedings… ...

One less reason to watch the MLB All-Star Game tonight – Giants’ pitcher Tim Lincecum will probably not appear for the National League team because he woke up this morning with "flulike symptoms." Sheee-it… if our employer sent us on an all-expenses paid trip to New York City, we’d probably still be experiencing “flulike symptoms” at this hour of the day ourselves. Hair of the dog, Linny, hair of the dog… (Joe Kukura)......

We have to admit that we're not terribly excited about the All Star Game next Tuesday. None of the players who play really care despite the "This Time it Matters" hype and usually by the sixth inning, when most of the actual stars are flying back in their rented private jets, you get all the excitement of watching some reliever for the Devil Rays facing off against some guy from the Nationals. The only thing that will make it worth watching is to see the ball park and the city get shown off. Well, that and they're expecting so many boats in the Cove that the Giants will only allow boats that register to be out there. We love when the Cove is filled with boats. ...

Authorities are worried that the violent weekend is a harbinger for a bad July 4th. With 12 people dead (two more people were shot after the articles about 10 people killed went up), and half of those killings in Oakland, the Oakland PD is going to be upping patrols this Wednesday. Yikes. A Golden Gate Transit bus driver is on trial for allegedly deliberately hitting a bicyclist after becoming enraged that the bicyclist had rapped......

Here's todays sports news...