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Baseball 2023: Alex the Great (Rabbit) takes his furry bows at San Francisco ballpark

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

In a game where much depends on fate – a ball that takes an unlucky bounce, a sudden gust that sends a sure home run just foul, a hard hit ball that careens off the corner of a base and miraculously ends up in the first baseman’s glove – is it any wonder that ball players put a lot of stock in good luck charms?They follow rituals, wear lucky socks, eat the same pre-game meals, all in hopes of recapturing a bit of baseball magic. The San Francisco Giants’ lucky charm is a rabbit’s foot. Four of them, actually.Alex the Great, a giant Flemish rabbit who weighs in at 32 pounds (34 during the offseason), has become the Giants’ unofficially official rally rabbit. He has a proven record, when it comes to bringing good luck to the boys by the Bay. The Giants have won 24 games when Alex was in attendance and lost just four.Many of those victories, says Alex’s owner, Josh Row, were come-from-behind wins, including Alex’s first game, where the Giants were down two runs, before the rabbit magic...

Gael Force: Oakland A’s Waldichuk latest pitching star to come out of tiny Saint Mary’s College

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

A’s fans might have been a little surprised to learn that Ken Waldichuk, the franchise’s top pitching prospect, got his start a few miles up the road from the Coliseum in the tree-lined hills of Moraga.But word of the pitching pipeline coming out of Saint Mary’s College is spreading. Quickly.Saint Mary’s fielded its first baseball team in 1872 and was the dominant college program on the West Coast in the early 20th century. But in the modern era, nothing has come close to this new golden age of Gaels baseball.The Gaels’ reach was on full display last summer during All-Star weekend at Dodger Stadium. Former Gaels pitchers Corbin Burnes and Tony Gonsolin were members of the National League team, and two more – including Waldichuk – participated in the Future’s Game, the annual showcase of the top prospects in the minor leagues.After being lightly recruited out of high school, Ken Waldichuk’s career path changed dramatically after arriving in Moraga in 2016. After three seasons with th...

TasteFood: Cheesy breadcrumbs top this pasta dish

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

Spring cleaning is a refreshing and cathartic ritual, and the kitchen is a great place to begin. Clean out the refrigerator, toss any items with long-past use-by dates, and refresh those old spices parked in a drawer. As you fill your trash and recycling bins, keep one exception in mind: Under no circumstances should you throw out any stale bread.Stale breads are the faded belles of glorious loaves past. In their prime, they are tender and golden, piping hot from the oven and swirling with yeasty steam when broken apart. Dressed with a pat of butter or a drizzle of olive oil, they are luxuriously simple. And while the pleasure of eating freshly baked bread is sublime, it’s also fleeting. Once the loaves are exposed to air, they cool and begin to lose their moisture, drying out and hardening as time passes. After a day or two, the fragrant fresh loaf is often considered a has-been, banished to the corners of the bread tin, the back of the refrigerator or discarded.Now, before y...

San Jose neighborhood inundated with pigeons; will they ever leave?

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

DEAR JOAN: Over my 45 years in New Almaden, there have been periodic visitations of wildlife that disrupt my peaceful country life. This time it’s pigeons: California native pigeons, according to the Internet, plump gray critters with orange feet and beaks.They roost in my oak trees, way up there, and then like a mighty wind, rise up together and roar up and across the road to another bunch of tall trees for a while, back and forth. A lot of poop is involved in these travels, as I’m talking about at least 50 or more birds in concert; a veritable murmuration!They go elsewhere at night.I am hoping that like the wild pigs, rattlesnakes and other visitors, they will move on soon.Have you heard of this type of pigeon behavior before? And will they likely move on with the spring? And is there anything that will dissuade them other than my strong daily objections?— Kathleen Eagan, San JoseDEAR KATHLEEN: It appears you’ve got a flock of band-tailed pigeons visiting. Outsid...

In Silicon Valley, nearly a dozen renters compete for every available apartment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

The Bay Area rental market may be steadying after three years of pandemic fluctuations, but competition is heating up for Silicon Valley apartments as would-be homebuyers are squeezed by astronomical real estate prices and high interest rates on home loans.Rental listing site RentCafe, in a new report, found that 11 renters are vying for every available South Bay apartment. That compares to a nationwide average of eight applications for each advertised rental unit.A severe lack of housing has long pushed Silicon Valley residents into fierce competition for apartments. But now, high mortgage rates topping 6% are making it even harder to afford local home prices that regularly top $1.5 million, meaning more people are on the hunt for rentals, said Doug Ressler, a housing market expert with RentCafe.Another reason: Excitement over artificial intelligence and other innovations by the South Bay’s leading industry is luring back tech workers who emptied out of the region during the ...

Would you buy a dog toy from these guys? Bay Area pet owners and companies say yes

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

Axl the goldendoodle didn’t even need to see the prototype dog toy developed by three South Bay students — he could smell it in the backpack one of the teens brought home.“Axl literally opened his bag and just stole it,” said Arin Jain, 18, who invented TuffToy dog toys with his 17-year-old high school classmates and longtime friends Rohan Gorti and Zubin Khera.The goldendoodle’s high interest in the toy — a brightly colored fabric “skin” over a scented rubber ball — has now been matched by dog owners: The Harker School seniors have sold more than 2,000 units since June, and this month got their products into Bay Area pet boutiques. On Monday, they secured a $17,000 deal with a Silicon Valley software company for TuffToys embroidered with the firm’s logo.TuffToy started in 2021 in an entrepreneurship class at Harker, a private K-12 institution in San Jose, when Jain, of Saratoga, Gorti of the Silver Creek neighborhood of Sa...

Water windfall: Key California reservoir fills for just third time in 12 years

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

Five months ago, San Luis Reservoir — the massive lake along Highway 152 between Gilroy and Los Banos — was just 24% full, an arid landscape of cracked mud and lonely boat ramps painfully far away from the dwindling water’s edge.But today in one of the most visible signs that Northern California’s drought is over, San Luis is full. Since Nov. 8, the water level has risen 144 feet — roughly the equivalent of submerging a 10-story building.The state’s fifth-largest reservoir, a key water supply for millions of people from Silicon Valley to San Diego that also irrigates hundreds of thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland, is at 98% capacity and expected to reach 100% in a few days.“A lot of people are coming out to take photos of it,” said Arzan Kermani, a state park aide working at the lake’s south shore this week. “They’re really surprised. The happiest people are the boaters. Hopefully, it stays this way for a long time.”Hi...

Man shot, killed in parking lot of Pleasant Hill bar

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

(KRON) -- Police are investigating a homicide in a Pleasant Hill strip mall parking lot that left one dead. This is the first homicide since 2021, according to Pleasant Hill's crime statistics.Police responded to reports of a shooting just before 1:15 a.m. Monday in the parking lot of Farrington's Bar. Police said they found a 37-year-old man from Concord dead at the scene. Pleasant Hill police have not confirmed what caused the incident, but they did have to call in Concord police to help with crowd control.Video shows a chaotic scene at Pleasant Hill Plaza. It sits off Contra Costa Boulevard and Gregort Lane just west of I-680. Video shows multiple people in distress. Police have also taped off a large part of the strip mall and placed evidence markers near a sedan and the body that laid not far from it.Fire and medical services were called to the scene. Police have not confirmed where the incident originated from, but the plaza does have more than a dozen businesses, including a ...

Southbound 680 closures start Monday night

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

(KRON) -- One lane of southbound 680 will be closed from Monday through Friday near the Gold Hill Road exit in Fairfield. The closure will run from 5 p.m. through 5 a.m. daily.Crews are working to repair a mudslide that took place in the area last week.Caltrans hopes to have everything back to normal by 5 a.m. Saturday.

Missing 91-year-old from Santa Clara found

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:00:01 GMT

Update: Lawrence Lara has been found safe and returned home, according to the city of Santa Clara.(BCN) -- Santa Clara police said at 11:55 p.m. Sunday they're looking for a 91-year-old missing man. Lawrence Lara left his home near Santa Cruz and Cabrillo avenues around noon. He was driving a silver four-door Saturn, license plate number 6AOZ004, and may have been headed to Campbell. He is 5-feet-7-inches tall and weighs 130 pounds. It wasn't known what clothes he was wearing. Police ask anyone who sees Lara to call 911 immediately. Copyright © 2023 Bay City News, Inc.