Here’s one time we’ll actually cheer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as ICE agents tried to set up shop in the Dodger Stadium parking lot before tonight’s game, but the Dodgers say that “They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization.”

We have to say we did not ever anticipate a Twitter fight between the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and the Department of Homeland Security. Yet here we are, as the Twitter spats below between the Dodgers, DHS, and ICE broke out this afternoon.

The Associated Press reports that ICE agents attempted some sort of operation at Dodger Stadium Thursday morning, amidst the statewide ICE raids looking for undocumented immigrants. The Dodgers organization said in their tweet that “This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots. They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight’s [7 pm game against the Padres] will be played as scheduled.”

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security both dispute this version of events. "This had nothing to do with the Dodgers,” assistant secretary for public affairs for the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to the AP. “CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”

Either way, you can see in the video above that federal vehicles were for some reason at the gates of the Dodger Stadium parking lot. A crowd of protesters greeted them, and LA Police Department vehicles escorted the federal vehicles away from the stadium grounds.

In a very timely article, The Chronicle’s Scott Ostler has a piece today on how sports teams are planning for possible ICE raids. They reached out to several organizations, but the only one that responded on the record was the Oakland Coliseum.

“We try to make sure that the people we hire are here legally,” executive director of the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum Joint Powers Authority Commission Henry Gardner said to the Chronicle. “It’s not a perfect system. But we don’t want our staff to be intimidated, so we do have protocols in place for how they should behave and how our senior managers should behave should [ICE] show up.”

But legions of service workers at those games are undocumented, and the fear among them is very real.

“It’s scary as hell to think that [ICE agents] could just come in here and do what they’re going to do,” one anonymous usher for an SF sports team told the Chronicle. “I’d say more than half the people I work with … are just targets for [ICE]. It’s horrifying. I have a lot of friends who work in immigrant communities, and they’ve been saying a lot of people are just staying home, they’re not going to work, they’re so afraid.”

Related: Scott Weiner's Latest Bill Would Ban ICE Agents From Wearing Face Coverings in California [SFist]

Image: Los Angeles, California, USA - November 10, 2022: Elevated view of Dodger Stadium. The stadium is a baseball park located in downtown Los Angeles that is the home field for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the city's Major League Baseball franchise.

Two veteran flight attendants, both women of color, are suing United Airlines, saying they were demoted off of working L.A. Dodgers team charter flights because the airline prefers “white, young, thin women” for that assignment.

Apparently it’s a pretty prized assignment to be airline flight staff on charter flight duty for professional and NCAA sports teams. Charter flight staff get perks like bonuses for longer flights, premium accommodations, a higher per diem rate, and even tickets to games and team merchandise.

But two veteran United Airlines flight attendants are suing the airline, saying they were demoted from L.A. Dodgers team charter flights over their age, ethnicity, and appearance, according to the Bay Area News Group. The plaintiffs Darby Quezada (44) and Dawn Todd (50) filed their suit Wednesday in a Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging racial discrimination and religious discrimination.  Quezada is Black, Mexican and Jewish, Todd is Black.

Both Quezada and Todd have been with United Airlines for more than 15 years.

“Major American corporations like United Airlines must understand that it is illegal to make staffing decisions based on an employee’s race and looks, even if it is meant to please major clients like the Los Angeles Dodgers,” their attorney Sam S. Yebri said in a statement. “United’s blatantly discriminatory staffing decisions allowed the cancer of racism and antisemitism to metastasize on the flights themselves.”

Quezada reportedly got the Dodgers charter flight gig in 2020, and Todd in 2022, after what they say were “extensive interviews.” Both were then demoted off that crew later in 2022, and replaced by attendants whom the two say did not even have to interview for the positions.

The lawsuit alleges that “When Todd and Quezada asked United why certain flight attendants were added to the ‘dedicated crew’ or ‘dedicated list’ without having to interview like they did, Todd and Quezada were told that these White flight attendants fit a ‘certain look’ that the Dodgers’ players liked.”

According to Business Insider’s writeup of the lawsuit the replacement flight attendants were "white, young, thin women who are predominately blond and blue-eyed."

For their part, a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement that “United fosters an environment of inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We believe this lawsuit is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.”

The attendants are asking for unspecified damages and a jury trial. United was similarly sued in 2020 by attendants who said they were denied charger flight assignments based on their appearance. That suit was settled out of court.

Related: Another Racial and Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Filed Against Tesla [SFist]

Image: Emiel Molenaar via Unsplash

Did the Dodgers curse themselves with their clumsy disinviting and reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their Pride Night? Because the Giants swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles during the series, their first sweep of the bums in L.A. in 11 years.

From a public relations standpoint, the Dodgers had already lost this weekend’s series against the Giants a month ago, when they disinvited the Sister of Perpetual Indulgence from their Pride Night game at Dodger Stadium, and then caved amidst backlash and reinvited the drag nun troupe. While that whole brouhaha was four weeks ago, the actual Pride Night game itself was this past Friday night. And as seen below in one of the most bizarre baseball plays you will ever behold, the Dodgers further embarrassed themselves on the field.

The Giants should have been the embarrassed team. With a two-run lead in extra innings, they were in a grand position to finish off the Dodgers. The Dodgers’ Mookie Betts hit a routine pop-up for what should have been an easy out, but rookie third baseman Casey Schmitt dropped a ball that anyone reading this could have caught easily. Then worse, pitcher Jakob Junis wildly overthrew the ball to first base, prompting announcer Jon Miller to declare "Man, that was just disgraceful!" and “now the Dodgers will have two runners at third.”

Except you can not have two runners at third. Some very inattentive base-running from Mookie Betts allowed the Giants to chase the runners down, and they recorded the easy out they should have had. “It ended up being a Greek tragedy,” Miller said as the Giants held on for a 7-5 victory.

Then the Giants went on an offensive juggernaut Saturday, highlighted by a J.D. Davis grand slam, for a blowout 15-0 win. As ESPN pointed out, it was the Dodgers’ “worst home shutout loss since 1898,” and left the Giants only a half-game behind the Dodgers in the NL West.

They capitalized Sunday for a 7-3 victory to complete the sweep. The Chronicle points out that this was  "San Francisco’s first sweep in Los Angeles since Aug. 20-22, 2012." KTVU adds that the Giants outscored the Dodgers 29-8, and the Chronicle also throws in the nugget that  29 runs is the most the Giants have ever scored in a three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

And well, well, well, take a look at those NL West standings! The Giants’ current seven-game win streak has them not only ahead of the Dodgers, but now in second place in the division.  They’re but three-and-a-half games behind Arizona, and return home Monday night to start a four-game series against the Padres.

Related: Shortstop Brandon Crawford Gets To Pitch In Blowout Giants Win, Throws a Scoreless Ninth Inning [SFist]

Image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 18: Brandon Crawford #35 of the San Francisco Giants and Mike Yastrzemski #5 celebrate after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-3 at Dodger Stadium on June 18, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

Last week's dustup surrounding the L.A. Dodgers' dumb decision to disinvite the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their Pride Night at the behest of misinformed Catholics and conservatives like Marco Rubio has taken another turn: the Dodgers have apologized and taken it all back.

As of Monday afternoon, as the LA Times reports, the Dodgers relented, issued an apology for their earlier decision, and re-invited the Sisters to their June 16 Pride Night game.

“After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the Dodgers said in a statement. “We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night. We are pleased to share that they are agreed to share the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work they have done tirelessly for decades.”

Those "honest conversations" came about because many in the LGBTQ community, includng co-hosts of the event, called foul over all this and told the Dodgers they may as well just call the entire event off if they were going to kowtow to conservatives and disinvite the widely beloved Sisters.

In trying to placate one group of people — Catholic Dodgers fans who were told by Sen. Marco Rubio and Catholic activists that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an "anti-Catholic hate group," which they are not — the Dodgers managed to piss off the entire LGBTQ community and many of their allies. And instead of removing what they saw as a controversial distraction, the team's management miscalculated in this culture-war dustup, creating a much larger distraction from baseball, and from whatever good will they showed in establishing Pride Night a decade ago.

At the heart of the controversy was the notion that the Sisters are mocking Catholic nuns, when in fact they say they are inspired by and emulate real nuns through their good works — even if it's done in a tongue-in-cheek way.

The pressure mounted quite quickly in the days following the decision. We learned last week that the LA Pride organization and the LA LGBT Center were both pulling out of the Dodgers' Pride Night, which seemed like it would imperil the June 16 event.

Then the mayor of Anaheim, Ashleigh Aitken, tweeted an invitation Saturday for the Sisters to come to the Angels' Pride Night on June 7, saying she was "disappointed in the Dodgers' decision."

And, as the LA Times notes, fans are tweeting that the Giants should consider sticking it to the Dodgers by inviting one of the Sisters to throw the first pitch at this Pride Night game on June 16, which they will be playing against the Bums at Dodger Stadium.

Sister Bearance Knows with the LA order of the Sisters went on CBS LA early Monday to talk about the controversy, and to brag about the fact that it's only resulted in $15,000 in donations to the Sisters (so far), and interest from across the globe in starting new chapters.

But, now, after flexing its muscle, the LGBTQ community and all of Drag Twitter can rest assured that the news is not not all about anti-drag and anti-trans laws getting passed— some good things still happen too.

According to the LA Times, "Dodgers staffers across all sexual orientations were vocal in their dismay at the decision" last week. And one anonymous employee quoted by the paper said, “We knew the Sisters would react, but we didn’t have a feel for how swift and strong the response was going to be and how it would pull in others."

That same Dodgers employee told the Times, after the brouhaha escalated, "We’d lose our Pride Night, [And] I don’t know how we’d come back from that.”

The Los Angeles LGBT Center posted a statement Monday, saying, "Today’s decision by the Dodgers to publicly apologize to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and roll back their exclusion from next month’s Pride Night is a step in the right direction, and we support the Sisters’ vote to accept their much-deserved Community Hero Award."

The Center added, "Last week’s debacle underscores the dangerous impact of political tactics by those who seek to stoke the flames of anti-LGBTQ bias at a time when our rights are under attack."

Previously: Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and Others Respond to the L.A. Dodgers' Dumbness In Bowing to Marco Rubio

Top photo: ladragnuns/Twitter

Late Wednesday we learned that the L.A. Dodgers had decided to disinvite the L.A. chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their annual Pride Night game at Dodger Stadium — something the drag nuns were invited to this year to be recipients of the team's Community Hero Award.

The negative reactions have been widespread especially among San Francisco's queer community, though Senator Marco Rubio is pleased with himself. Rubio sent a letter the other day to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, saying that by honoring "a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians" the Dodgers were not being "inclusive and welcoming to everyone."

After the Dodgers' widely publicized disinvitation, which they framed as trying to avoid "distraction" and "controversy," the Los Angeles LGBT Center announced they would be backing out of Pride Night, which they have participated in at Dodger Stadium for years. "Any organization that turns its back on LGBTQ+ people at this damning and dangerous inflection point in our nation’s history should not be hoisting a rainbow flag or hosting a ‘Pride Night,’" said the center's CEO Joe Hollendoner.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Los Angeles responded with their own statement Wednesday, saying they were "sad to learn the Los Angeles Dodgers have chosen to rescind their award, succumbing to pressure from persons outside of the State of California and outside of our community."

"Our mission is to uplift our community and all marginalized groups, especially the ones ignored by larger organizations, spiritually oriented or otherwise," the group says. "We are both silly and serious. We use our flamboyance in service of our charity work and our message, which is 'There is room in our world for each person to be who they are, as they are, free from shame or guilt, and alive in joy and live for their own self.'"

This all falls into a long-running series of dustups the Sisters have had with the Catholic church, conservative politicians, and with church-y people writ large — and it's shameful whenever fools like Rubio, who don't get any of the context or don't know any of the history, decide to target them for political points with their Christian base. Because the work the Sisters do is far more Christian in its intent than the hateful, divisive shit most self-described Christian politicians get up to. Anyone remember the uproar over that Last Supper poster for Folsom Street Fair in 2007?

As writer Mark Harris wrote on Twitter, "The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence was founded in 1979. One was on Newsweek's first AIDS cover. They were major activists in the 1st years of the crisis. They are sewn into the AIDS quilt. This is a pathetic capitulation to bigotry and an insult to their long fight against it."

Harris is referring to the fact that the Sisters' first chapter in San Francisco — they are now worldwide — is responsible for publishing the first safe-sex pamphlet in 1982, long before anyone understood what the HIV virus was or how it was spread, trying to get the word out that it may be spread through unprotected sex.

It's particularly egregious that the Dodgers would capitulate to this conservative pressure, particularly in a moment when Red State America has decided that all drag is evil, or that it's promoting some woke agenda — maybe because of the great visibility and popularity of Rupaul's Drag Race, or Drag Queen Story Hours, or the fact that Republicans have seized on their latest LGTBQ wedge issue in the country's long-running culture war, which is trans kids.

"What the Dodgers and the hateful 'Christians' protesting the Sisters may not know (or are choosing to ignore) is that the Sisters are not mocking Nuns. We ARE Nuns," says San Francisco's Sister Roma, the most visible of the Sisters who was in that 2007 Last Supper photo. "We feed the hungry, we minister to the sick, we support queer and trans youth, we fund queer arts, and we have always defended the most underserved and marginalized communities. AND We have raised millions of dollars for charity and looked fabulous doing it."

Roma adds, "I'm angry. I'm disappointed. I'm worried. The red wave of queer and trans hate that has drenched the South has come to our shores. Now is not the time to be complacent."

California state Senator Scott Wiener, also had some words, writing on Twitter Wednesday, "In the past month, right wing mobs demanded that Anheuser Busch stop featuring a trans woman in an ad & that the Dodgers kick drag queens out of its Pride celebration. Both Anheuser Busch & the Dodgers caved.  The danger to our community grows by the day."

He added, "We expect more from our sports teams — even the Dodgers."

The Dodgers' full statement is below. Boycott the Bums!

Previously: Dodgers Disinvite Sisters Of Perpetual Indulgence From Pride Night

Photo: ladragnuns/Instagram

Top photo: The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence bestowing sainthood on Stormy Daniels. Photo: Facebook

It’s believed that it will be the first major American sports game with both teams wearing LGBTQ+ Pride logos, when both the Dodgers and the Giants will sport Pride-ified logos on their hats and uniforms for their June 11 Pride Night game.

Your San Francisco Giants were trailblazing LGBTQ allies back in 1994 when they were the first major U.S. sports team to hold Until There’s A Cure Day. And back during that Candlestick Park era, even the innocuous red ribbon to promote HIV/AIDS awareness was kind of a controversial third rail. Former Giants PR director Bob Rose writes the Giants “knew that many of their season ticket holders might feel uncomfortable if Until There’s A Cure Day was perceived as merely a ‘Gay Day.’

Yet “Gay Day” would indeed become a thing, initially for a very wrong reason. In the year 2000, security guards for our rival Los Angeles Dodgers kicked two women out of Dodger Stadium for kissing. The backlash forced the embarrassed franchise to make amends with a "Gay and Lesbian Night at Dodger Stadium" a month later (though it was sponsored and hosted by GLAAD, not the Dodgers). The Chicago Cubs were the first team to put their name and logo on it with “Out at Wrigley” in 2001. The Giants held their first “LGBT Night” in 2002, which still continues on as Pride Night or Pride Day, depending on whether it's a day or night game.

The Giants became the first team to actually incorporate the Pride rainbow colors into their logo for Pride Day just last year. And the two NL West rivals are making LGBTQ+ sports history again this year, as the Bay Area News Group reports both the Giants and the Dodgers will both be wearing Progress Pride Flag-colored logos for their Pride Day matchup on June 11.

Oh shit, did I just embed a Dodgers ball cap? I did, and as a palate cleanser, here’s Honey Mahogany singing the National Anthem at the 2021 Pride Day game.

You’ll notice the logo is the Progress Pride rainbow that also incorporates Black, Brown, and Trans Pride colors. The Dodgers otherwise have their own Pride Day home game on June 3 against the New York Mets, and will wear the colors that day too.

As a bonus, the news group adds that anyone with tickets that night  “will also get socks with the 11 colors of the Progress Pride flag and a Giants logo.”

You can cynically sneer that this is just a ploy to sell tickets and additional hats and merchandise, and you would to some degree be correct. But it’s also a quiet milestone  that pretty much every team in baseball now does a Pride event during June. The only remaining holdout is the Texas Rangers, and as the Dallas Morning News reported last year, “The Rangers are the only team that doesn’t have a pride game promotion of any kind. There’s no indication that they’re planning to have one in the near future, either.”

Related: SF Giants to Be First MLB Team to Display Pride Rainbow Colors on Uniforms [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 05: First Base Coach Antoan Richardson #00 of the San Francisco Giants looks on while wearing a jersey with patches saying "Black Lives Matter" and the Giants logo dressed with rainbow colors that symbolize the LGBTQ community on San Francisco Pride Day against the Chicago Cubs in the bottom of the first inning at Oracle Park on June 05, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

It's going to feel like playoff baseball, as the Giants and Dodgers head in this weekend's three-game series tied for the best record in baseball, for their last series of the regular season.

Get ready for some playoff-caliber baseball at Oracle Park in San Francisco, starting Friday night. The Giants just snapped a four-game losing streak after beating the Brewers 5-1 Thursday night at home. The victory was enough to pull the Giants into a tie for first place against the Dodgers, the night before the Dodgers come to town for a three-game series.

In fact, after last night’s win Giants fans were chanting “beat L.A” as they left Oracle Park.

Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb said the atmosphere against Milwaukee had a playoff-like feel. So you can bet this weekend’s series will as well, even though the Giants aren’t looking as good as they did earlier this season. “We’re very aware that we’re not playing our best baseball right now. We have not been at our best, not firing on all cylinders, for a couple of weeks. The timing has not been great,” manager Gabe Kapler told the Chronicle before the win against Milwaukee.

Fans haven’t been packing Oracle Park lately mainly because of the fear of the Delta variant, but this weekend you can expect large crowds, with Saturday night already sold out. Although these three games are very important for both teams, the Dodgers and Giants are both expected to make the playoffs unless they utterly collapse at the last minute.

The series could help predict which team will win the national league west and who will play in the do-or-die NL wildcard game.

Giants outfielder Darin Ruf is expecting to see some intensity out on the diamond against the Dodgers. “Pretty intense. What a series, to be tied. I don’t think a lot of people thought we’d be in this position,” Ruf told the Chronicle.

Anthony Desclafani takes the mound for the Giants Friday night against David Price for the Dodgers. Tomorrow the Dodgers will use Julio Urias and then Walker Buehler on Sunday.

The Giants have not announced their probable pitchers for Saturday or Sunday, because the pitching staff has been hammered by injuries. Kapler told the Chron, “I don’t love the word ‘panic.’ There’s legit no reason to be in that state. It’s not a helpful state in baseball.”

One thing is for sure, more wins against the pitching-heavy Dodgers would help the Giants get more confidence and balance, which they badly need heading into the home stretch of the season.

Related: A Massive Therapy Rabbit Was the Real MVP at Last Night's San Francisco Giants Game [SFist]

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 27: Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers laughs with Evan Longoria #10 of the San Francisco Giants after his triple during the third inning at Dodger Stadium on May 27, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Dear Rain,

I haven't lived here my whole life, but it has been a good long while (23 years!), and while I can't remember where I first heard it, it seems like there's always been some kind of consensus that "San Francisco hates Los Angeles." So, I'm wondering: do you hate LA? If so, why? And do I need to hate Los Angeles to be considered a "true San Franciscan"?

Signed,
Maybe I Hate LA?

Dear MIHLA,

I don't hate Los Angeles. But I DO hate the Los Angeles Dodgers, and that's a requirement for true San Franciscan status. (And I don't care if you don't give a shit about baseball. You still just have to hate the Dodgers. Period.)

In all seriousness, I do think the general opinion that San Francisco Hates LA is, at its heart, just a baseball rivalry. But for some people it's since extended into a general dislike of Los Angeles, with the irony being that while some of San Francisco may spend a lot of time hating Los Angeles, I don't think LA spends much time thinking about us at all.

So, why would a non-baseball fan bother to hate the city of Los Angeles? I can think of a few reasons. There's the general claim that Los Angeles is shallow, full of face-lifts, boob jobs, and midlife crisis convertibles; that you can't live in LA without a car, which results in its ugly sprawl being filled with never ending bumper-to-bumper traffic; and it's a one industry town, and can get pretty boring having to talk to people about self-branding, auditions, and their screenplays every place you go.

But a lot of those criticisms could easily be made about San Francisco. There may not be as many face-lifts and boob jobs, but ask any single person here and they'll tell you, San Francisco is plenty shallow. Traffic here has gotten worse and worse, and while it's still not as bad as LA, (because the city is just smaller), it's still a nightmare. And it's also a one industry town! LA talks about screenplays; SF talks about killer apps.

The one place San Francisco definitely has Los Angeles beat is in the beauty of the city itself. Even the highest mountain in Los Angeles won't give you a view to match the one you'd get at the top of any hill in San Francisco.

For a long time, I only thought of Los Angeles as the wall of traffic that prevented me from getting to Disneyland as soon as possible. But as I've spent more time in the city itself, I've begun to like it more. As a visitor, I get the feeling it has a little more appreciation for history; there are so many restaurants and bars and buildings that have remained virtually unchanged since their beginnings. Perhaps the reality is they're just as willing to bulldoze history to make way for an ugly metal stack of condos, but as a non-resident, I'm, luckily, able to remain blind to that.

And as a movie fan, I love that the entire city is basically one giant movie set. It's pretty cool being able to visit settings of films shot decades ago, and still recognize them. And, because the city is such a sprawl, and real estate isn't at as much of a premium, I love that there are still neighborhoods filled with 1930s bungalow houses scattered all around Los Angeles.

But the drawbacks are still there. Whenever I visit, it always feels like the places I want to see are always at least 30 minutes away. In San Francisco, if worse came to worst, and I was stranded, I could walk home, regardless of where in the city I was; that is virtually never an option in Los Angeles. And as thrilling as it can be to see movie stars just walking around the city, pretending they're regular people, it does get tedious that no matter where you go, people are talking about their showbiz careers.

So, maybe this general "SF hates LA" thing is based on a notion that Los Angeles, with all of its (so-called) glamor, and movie stars, and fame, somehow thinks it's better than us. And fuck anyone who thinks they're better than us!

But as more and more people move to San Francisco from places afar, I think that feeling has begun to fade a bit. I could be wrong, but I personally don't hear complaints about the suckiness of LA as much as I used to. So, I think you can have any opinion about Los Angeles you want to... at least between the months of November and April. But then, once the first pitch of the season is thrown, you'd better have one and only one opinion.

And that's to BEAT LA!

Rain Jokinen was born and raised in San Francisco and, miraculously, still calls the city home. Her future plans include becoming a millionaire, buying a condo complex, and then tearing it down to replace it with a dive bar. You can ask this native San Franciscan your questions here.

#PuigYourFriend #DontLookAtMe 👀 #Puignotlookingatyou 🙈 @JDL_87 @Adrian_ElTitan pic.twitter.com/2r1JULNyMK

— Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) September 20, 2016

Monday night's Giants game against the Dodgers was embarrassing for a host of reasons: the team's late collapse, an accidentally anti-Semitic tweet sent out by the organization, and a bench-clearing argument between pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig. Well now we learn via CBS Sports that the exchange which sparked the brawl — Bumgarner repeatedly telling Puig not to look at him — has been picked up by Dodgers players in an effort to add insult to injury.

In fact, they literally printed it on some shirts.

Video of the disagreement shows Bumgarner throwing Puig out at first to close out the inning. As he walked off the field he can be seen telling the outfielder where not to direct his eyes. "Don't look at me," he was quoted as saying. "Don't look at me. Don't f**king look at me."

Puig apparently didn't take kindly to that suggestion, and this is what followed:

Let's take a closer look.

And just to make sure the message got across, Dodgers Nation reports that Puig signed one of the shirts and sent it to Bumgarner.

And the Dodgers aren't the only ones piling on — the Chronicle penned a piece saying management needs to control the pitcher and has failed to do so. With all that pressure, many fans are going to be watching tonight's game against the Dodgers closely. Just don't look too closely, or, you know, our star pitcher might lose it.

Related: Giants Tweet, Then Delete, Unintentionally Anti-Semitic Slur

There is no joy in Torture Town today. The San Francisco Giants will not defend their World Series title. With a dismal 8-0 loss to the Dodgers Tuesday night that let LA celebrate and drink champagne at our field, the Giants are officially, mathematically eliminated from MLB playoff contention. Last year's World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner was yanked after giving up consecutive home runs in the sixth inning, while the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw threw a complete-game, one-hit shutout. Ironically, it was the first time the Dodgers have won a game at AT&T Park yet this season.

Here they are, celebrating...

Five home games remain on the schedule at AT&T Park, but the 2015 Giants will not repeat as champions. It was still an intriguing, fun, winning season despite the unsuccessful title-defense. Madison Bumgarner rode out on a horse for the home opener and then hit so many home runs that he was contemplated as a designated hitter. Rookie Chris Heston threw a no-hitter. Hunter Pence played video games with our old friend (and SFist editor) Brock Keeling. The Giants met the President. A fan dove into McCovey Cove chasing a ball. The team made a Full House video. Jon Miller did a running “Hello Kitty” joke that produced whimsy for weeks

And through it all, Pablo Sandoval completely sucked for his new team in Boston. That was always nice to fall back on.

But fall back we did, as the injuries were so relentless it’s a wonder the Giants even contended this deep into the season. Hunter Pence (oblique), Brandon Crawford (oblique and calf), Brandon Belt (concussion), Joe Panik (back), Gregor Blanco (concussion), Nori Aoki (concussion), and Tim Lincecum (hip) are all sidelined as the season ends. Matt Cain (tendon strain) started the year on the disabled list, and finishes the year in the bullpen while rehabbing from a separate stay on the disabled list (elbow). That’s a lot of last year’s World Series roster gone, as all but Cain and Aoki were on last year's 25-man roster that won the title.

The season’s end brings some permanent farewells. Pitcher Tim Hudson will definitely retire from a stellar Bay Area pitching career. Tim Lincecum has an expiring megabucks contract and a degenerative hip condition, so that’s going to lead to some uncertainty. Marco Scutaro (still on the roster!) is giving signals he's retiring. Pitchers Ryan Vogelsong and Jeremy Affeldt are both free agents.

Yet the minor league prospects called up during this oblique-and-concussion outbreak were impressive. Nobodies named Kelby Tomlinson, Josh Osich and Jarrett Parker have been keeping the Giants mathematically alive lately. Matt Duffy was in the Rookie of the Year conversation. There’s no reason to think that the even-year formula these Giants have established — longer offseason with a chance to heal, hungrier team getting less respect, solid youth with a key acquisition and some good, old-style Bochying — might not kick in again for the Giants to have a great shot in 2016.

There are a few games left at AT&T Park, but the Giants will start shutting players down and effectively end the season. So goodbye, Renel. Goodbye Kruk & Kuip. Goodbye, Bruce Bochy Show. Goodbye, Hello Kitty. Don't stop believin’.

Bryan Stow, the Giants fan who made the mistake of wearing Giants gear to an opening-day game at Dodger Stadium in 2011 and was savagely beaten by Dodgers fans as a result, is now getting screwed out of a large piece of his court settlement by his health insurance company, who have delayed his family from seeing a penny of it. A Los Angeles jury awarded Stow $18 million in a civil trial last July, finding the Dodgers organization and the stadium 75 percent responsible for the attack on Stow because of lack of proper security and lighting — meaning they owed him $13.9 million of the settlement, and his attackers owed the remaining amount. However, as Bloomberg reports, under a long-standing legal concept in the insurance world called subrogation, Stow's insurer, Envision Healthcare, has put a lien on Stow's settlement, delaying payment to his family until they are reimbursed the millions they spent covering his medical care.

And in a gross but expected twist of corporate avarice, the Dodgers' liability insurer bought the lien from Envision at a discount — they said they were owed $3.4 million for Stow's care, but they sold the lien for $1.8 million. When the Dodgers' insurer then sent a check to Stow's lawyer, they deducted the full $3.4 million, meaning they netted $1.6 million in the deal. Meanwhile Stow still has to pay his own lawyer $3.6 million, SF General wants $1.2 million for care not covered by insurance after Stow was transferred there, and Stow's attackers, Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood, are never expected to pay their share of the settlement. So that leaves Stow's family with $5.8 million of the full jury award, which is a far cry from the $30 million that it's estimated his lifetime of care will require.

Stow remains wheelchair bound with significant cognitive disability from a brain injury, at the age of 46. Prior to his beating four years ago, he had been a healthy EMT, and is the father of two children, and he now lives under the constant care of his parents in Capitola, near Santa Cruz.

As CBS 5 adds, Sanchez and Norwood, who remain in prison, both had earlier felony convictions and still face weapons charges separate from their assault convictions in the Stow attack. They'll be sentenced on the weapons charges in May.

All previous coverage of Bryan Stow on SFist.

For all those Giants fans still bitter at Brian Wilson for defecting to the enemy LA Dodgers in 2013, the day of his comeuppance has arrived. After two seasons playing mostly middle relief, Wilson has basically been relieved of his duties in the Dodger bullpen, as CBS 5 reports.

Technically he has been "designated for assignment," but it basically means that he's done.

Unfortunately for all former fans and current beard-haters, Wilson may be owed a $9.5 million payday unless another team comes forward with an offer.

Wilson's 4-5 record with a 3.77 ERA may not likely win him any plum jobs.

And then there's his attitude.

Jurors reached a verdict in a civil trial today finding that the L.A. Dodgers and their stadium were responsible in the egregious 2011 beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow. Stow and his family sued the team for damages to cover Stow's ongoing rehabilitation and care, and this trial follows on the one that ended earlier this year in plea bargains for Stow's two attackers, Marvin Norwood and Louis Sanchez. They are currently serving four- and eight-year sentences, respectively.

As you probably remember, Stow had traveled to Los Angeles with several friends to see an opening-night game between the Giants and the Dodgers at Dodgers Stadium on March 31, 2011. The Santa Cruz resident was brutally assaulted in the parking lot after the game by two drunk Dodgers fans, Norwood and Sanchez, and ended up in a coma with a severe skull fracture and brain injuries. Three years later, at age 45, he remains wheelchair bound and apparently suffers some cognitive disability.

This latest trial lasted four and a half weeks and nearly ended with a deadlocked jury last week, but the judge sent jurors back for further deliberations, as NBC Bay Area reports. In total, jurors deliberated for nine days, and ended up concluding that Stow should receive $17.8 million in compensatory damages to cover medical expenses and loss of employment. The jury found that Stow was not responsible for his own attack, despite being portrayed as drunk and irresponsible by the defense, and that the stadium failed to provide adequate lighting and security following the game. While jurors found that Norwood and Sanchez bore 75 percent of the responsibility for the attack, the stadium was 25 percent responsible.

An attorney for the Dodgers, way back in the fall of 2011, suggested that Stow likely played a role in the fight, saying, "I have never seen [a case like this yet in] which it didn't take at least two people to tango."

Stow, who appeared twice in the courtroom in a wheelchair, did not testify in this or the previous criminal trial.

Reporters outside Los Angeles Superior Court asked Stow's parents how they felt about the verdict, and his father, David Stow, replied, "He did get some money to help his future. He's not going to be 100% for a long time, and maybe never." He added, "It takes a lot to take care of him, and it's more than [his mother] and I can do, so we have to hire people to help."

Stow's mother, Ann Stow, was especially thrilled when the jury concluded that Stow himself was in no way responsible for the events on that night. "I was so excited... None of them attributed any [responsibility] to Bryan, and I was just ecstatic... It's a big weight off of our shoulders."

Tom Girardi, the attorney for Stow's family, said that the verdict should have an impact on sporting venues nationwide. "This is telling people that run stadiums all over the country that you better watch out, and you better protect the people who come there."

[NBC Bay Area]
[KTLA]

Previously: All Bryan Stow coverage on SFist

There was once a time when there was a National League and there was an American League. There was a time when never the twain did meet—until it mattered. Back in those sepia-filtered days, there was a race in each league to the top, and the two teams that snatched the two pennants met in the World Series. In 1989, those teams were the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's.

As of June 9 of this year, there were two teams in baseball: The Giants and the A's—1st Place in the NL West and 1st Place in the AL West, respectively, and they owned the two best records in Major League Baseball. Yes, it was only June, but it we began to feel it as fate—the 25th anniversary year of the Bay Bridge Series and the new eastern span of said bridge having just opened—the two local nines were destined to meet again in the World Series!

Then the last four weeks happened and that was that. Caltrans bridge engineers sighed in relief. Granted, all is not lost for the 1989 redux, but with the L.A. Bums now in 1st place in the National League, a 1988 series is now more likely.

Still, thanks to the abominable scourge that is interleague play, the Giants and A's will face off with two games in Oakland and two games in San Francisco.

These games will sell out because we are sheep.

Seventeen years after it was decreed that National League teams and American League teams will play a few games against each other in the regular season, we still flock to see this sorry spectacle and do exactly what it was designed to do: separate fools from their money.

There you will see the type of fan that owns both of these hats. That is not right. That is the type of fan that has never been to the Fillmore but loves Outside Lands. That fan is from Walnut Creek, but claims Oakland, but is a Giants fan—for now. Do not be that fan. Do not support interleague play.*

*Being a Giants fan from Walnut Creek is okay! Being an A's fan from San Mateo is also okay! Being a fan of interleague play is not.

The Giants just took 2 out of 3 from the San Diego Padres. They even won two in a row. That deserves a limp, unenthused huzzah.

Season To-Date: 49-39 (.557), 2nd Place in the NL West (0.5 games)

Last Week
Tue: against the Cards (WON)
Wed: against the Cards (lost)
Thu: against the Cards (lost)
Fri: at San Diego (lost)
Sat: at San Diego (WON)
Sun: at San Diego (WON)

This Week
Mon: at Oakland (do not watch this game)
Tue: at Oakland (do not watch this game)
Wed: against the A's (do not attend this game)
Thu: against the A's (do not attend this game)
Fri: against the D'backs
Sat: against the D'backs
Sun: against the D'backs