Yup. This is a reason why I gave up season tickets.
It became absolutely clear to me that ESPN wants me to attend home games on my couch and the university is going along with it. As I've said many times before, this is why game attendance is declining.
The expansion of the TV schedule has absolutely hurt in-game attendance, especially on the West Coast. West Coast schools have helped ESPN and other networks to round out their evening broadcast schedule, but it has come at the cost of revenue from tickets and concessions. I would also imagine that ad revenue from radio contracts has also declined as a consequence.
If more fans are watching games on TV, it stands to reason that radio ratings have also declined: fewer radio listeners in-game and at home. Cal compounded their error by building in a delay in the radio broadcast that is quite noticeable when you're in the stadium UNLESS you buy (rent?) one of those special headphones that has no delay.
All of this has hurt fan engagement with the game in the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.
Ehh, Cal's best attended game last year was a night game (Miami). Home afternoon games vs. Oregon State and Syracuse barely drew at all. It's the team's performance that is holding down attendance more than anything.
I will point out to you that Miami was ranked in the Top 10, was undefeated before that game, and drew well throughout the year whether at home or on the road. Also, Cam Ward was a Heisman Trophy contender at that point in the season.
Even so, about 10,000 seats were NOT filled for that game. It was sold out when you exclude the tarped seats, but tarped seating reduces capacity by approximately 10,000 seats overall. Tarping is an admission that there are seats that will not be filled. It is my contention that the relative program strength has a greater effect on attendance, but TV also has had an effect in suppressing attendance.
They've done so much to drive me away from home games. At the rate they're going I can actually envision a time -- probably in my dotage -- when I give it up.
The good news is that these games tend to get pretty good ratings, since they are often the only thing on at that time. Not as good as the major network telecasts, but about one rung below is still good.
I continue to be annoyed at how Stanford always seems to luck their way into getting a major network broadcast when Cal hasn't had one since 2022 (and isn't likely to get one this year either). This year they are playing Hawaii in Week 0 so it's on CBS.
Well, crap. I typically watch the games at a local bar - but the 10:30 pm start times often means I miss the end of a game is usually right at closing time, which is suboptimal.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Ballers failed to score in just a couple of contests in their inaugural season, both occurrences against the Yolo High Wheelers. They could not erase the goose egg on Wednesday in their 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Grand Junction Jackalopes, their first shutout loss of 2025.
Grand Junction got off to a fast start with a leadoff walk and two-run homer from the game's opening two hitters. California native Alex Pimentel smashed the long ball to left field for his first professional round tripper.
The San Francisco Giants tripled their scoring from the first two games in Detroit. Their pitchers struck out 16 Detroit Tigers, their relievers gave up only two hits and a HBP in four innings, and the defense played eight errorless innings. Heliot Ramos hit his 10th home run of the season. But the 5th inning was bad enough that the Giants endured a 4-3 loss and a series sweep.
I think the team is probably still pretty good, just on a cold streak with the bats right now. They've gone 12-13 in the month of May, but 10 of the losses are by two runs or less, while 7 of the wins are by three runs or more. The record could easily be positive with a few breaks here or there.
That said, their high end was always going to be a "compete for a wild card" and not "win the division." In part because the division is really hard.
Absolutely right. The NL West may be the toughest division in baseball right now. The Giants are in 3rd place and have a 31-25 record. Three other divisions have 3rd place teams with sub .500 records. No other 3rd place team is within 3 games of 1st place as the Giants are.
The Dodgers held a three-run lead in the seventh inning but the top arms in the bullpen trust tree blew the game in a 7-4 loss to the Guardians on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Dodgers relievers have pitched over a dozen more innings than any other major league team on the season, averaging roughly 4⅓ innings per night. The bill for that heavy usage has come due this month, as cracks in the foundation have started to widen.
I was wondering about that earlier, after the news Clemson stole our coaches. Did Cal have any counteroffer? If yes, was it at least competitive? Or was Knowlton caught asleep?
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Ten men from the California track & field team kicked off competition at the NCAA West Regional on Wednesday, going toe-to-toe with dozens of the nation's top athletes across seven events at Texas A&M's E.B. Cushing Stadium.
Garrett MacQuiddy was the first Golden Bear to earn a qualifying berth to Friday's quarterfinals, posting a tremendous kick to place fourth in his 1500m first round heat and earn the auto-Q at 3:50.92. Johnny Goode joined him in Friday's field later that evening, taking third place in his 400m first round heat with a to-the-wire third-place finish of 46.01.
Eleven California women's water polo student-athletes have been named to the MPSF All-Academic Team, the conference office announced.
Seniors Ruby Swadling, Rozanne Voorvelt, Jessie Rose and Claire Rowell each earned the honor for the third time while graduate student Elena Flynn and junior Abbi Magee are now two-time selections. Sophomore Kate Meyer, Feline Voordouw, Julia Bonaguidi, Julianne Snyder and redshirt freshman Talia Fonseca all earned the accolade for the first time. True freshmen and first-year transfers are ineligible for the award.
The California men's rowing team will be the top-ranked crew heading into this weekend's Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships that take place Friday through Sunday at the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey. The Golden Bears came in at No. 1 in the latest IRCA men's varsity 8+ poll. The Bears will race their top three varsity 8+ boats along with their varsity 4+.
CHARLOTTE – Home games against four 2025 NCAA Tournament teams, including Duke and North Carolina, highlight California's conference opponents for the 2025-26 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season.
The Golden Bears' 2025-26 conference foes were announced during the ACC Network's ACCPM Program on Wednesday.
BERKELEY – Sammie Yeanay has signed to play for the California men's basketball program in the 2025-26 season. Yeanay, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward from Gainesville, Florida, spent his freshman season at Grand Canyon in 2024-25.
Yeanay was a consensus top-100 high school prospect out of AZ Compass Prep School in Chandler, Arizona, before signing with Grand Canyon. He played five games for the Antelopes between Nov. 4-Dec. 19 before missing the remainder of 2024-25 with an injury.
I started looking into America's history of anti-immigrant legislation and a lot of it is wildly skewed toward promoting WASP eugenics. It's honestly quite depressing how much, how long, and how frequently we've gone through this. BTW - screw you Leland Stanford Sr.
The right wing is definitely getting a lot more comfortable with overt claims about a given race being better or worse than another (not that it's overall popular to do this, but the instances seem to be increasing). I suspect a backlash to this will be coming too.
SHE BLINDED ME WITH...
Tell the DBD a pedantic fact (eg, tomato is a fruit)
Quite a few things we consider "vegetables" in a culinary sense are fruits in a botanical sense:
Squashes (including zucchini)
Peppers
Peas
Eggplants
Cucumbers
It's just because they have a savory taste while things normally considered "fruit" have a sweet or sour taste.
Pillbugs are not insects.
I knew that, since insects must have exactly six legs. Didn't realize they are actually crustaceans, though!
LATE
Start times for all but one of the Cal football games scheduled up to this point: https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/29/football-set-for-multiple-night-games-to-begin-season.aspx
Okay, so this is the schedule I've gathered from the announcement -
(all times Pacific Daylight or Standard Time)
Aug. 30 - at Oregon State, 7:30 PM (ESPN)
Sep. 6 - vs. Texas Southern, 3:00 PM (ACC Net Extra)
Sep. 13 - vs. Minnesota, 7:30 PM (ESPN)
Sep. 20 - at San Diego State, 7:30 PM (CBS Sports Net)
Sep. 27 - at Boston College, TBA (TBA)
Oct. 4 - vs. Duke, TBA (TBA)
Oct. 11 - BYE
Oct. 17* - vs. North Carolina, 7:30 PM (ESPN)
Oct. 24* - at Virginia Tech, 4:30 PM (ESPN)
Nov. 1 - vs. Virginia, TBA (TBA)
Nov. 8 - at Louisville, TBA (TBA)
Nov. 15 - BYE
Nov. 22 - at 'Furd, TBA (TBA)
Nov. 29 - vs. Southern Methodist, TBA (TBA)
* Friday game
Six games scheduled and already four of the hated 7:30 starts, two at home. I'm not a happy Bear.
As an east coaster I know I’m not going to be up for the whole game so sometimes I don’t even bother.
Yup. This is a reason why I gave up season tickets.
It became absolutely clear to me that ESPN wants me to attend home games on my couch and the university is going along with it. As I've said many times before, this is why game attendance is declining.
The expansion of the TV schedule has absolutely hurt in-game attendance, especially on the West Coast. West Coast schools have helped ESPN and other networks to round out their evening broadcast schedule, but it has come at the cost of revenue from tickets and concessions. I would also imagine that ad revenue from radio contracts has also declined as a consequence.
If more fans are watching games on TV, it stands to reason that radio ratings have also declined: fewer radio listeners in-game and at home. Cal compounded their error by building in a delay in the radio broadcast that is quite noticeable when you're in the stadium UNLESS you buy (rent?) one of those special headphones that has no delay.
All of this has hurt fan engagement with the game in the pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.
Ehh, Cal's best attended game last year was a night game (Miami). Home afternoon games vs. Oregon State and Syracuse barely drew at all. It's the team's performance that is holding down attendance more than anything.
It’s a prejudice against orange.
I will point out to you that Miami was ranked in the Top 10, was undefeated before that game, and drew well throughout the year whether at home or on the road. Also, Cam Ward was a Heisman Trophy contender at that point in the season.
Even so, about 10,000 seats were NOT filled for that game. It was sold out when you exclude the tarped seats, but tarped seating reduces capacity by approximately 10,000 seats overall. Tarping is an admission that there are seats that will not be filled. It is my contention that the relative program strength has a greater effect on attendance, but TV also has had an effect in suppressing attendance.
They've done so much to drive me away from home games. At the rate they're going I can actually envision a time -- probably in my dotage -- when I give it up.
ESPN making use of Cal for their After Dark time slots again. This was part of the point of getting us in the ACC.
Yes, it was. It also helps to fill out ESPN's nighttime schedule.
The good news is that these games tend to get pretty good ratings, since they are often the only thing on at that time. Not as good as the major network telecasts, but about one rung below is still good.
I continue to be annoyed at how Stanford always seems to luck their way into getting a major network broadcast when Cal hasn't had one since 2022 (and isn't likely to get one this year either). This year they are playing Hawaii in Week 0 so it's on CBS.
Well, crap. I typically watch the games at a local bar - but the 10:30 pm start times often means I miss the end of a game is usually right at closing time, which is suboptimal.
Solution...come out for the games.
As much as you do, no apologies necessary.
Sorry I am late. I'm in class today.
PRO
Oakland (Ballers) Suffers Shutout Loss to Grand Junction (5-0)
https://www.oaklandballers.com/sports/bsb/2025/releases/202505293cgcrl
OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Ballers failed to score in just a couple of contests in their inaugural season, both occurrences against the Yolo High Wheelers. They could not erase the goose egg on Wednesday in their 5-0 defeat at the hands of the Grand Junction Jackalopes, their first shutout loss of 2025.
Grand Junction got off to a fast start with a leadoff walk and two-run homer from the game's opening two hitters. California native Alex Pimentel smashed the long ball to left field for his first professional round tripper.
A’s Drop Second Straight to Astros 5-3
https://www.athleticsnation.com/2025/5/28/24438754/as-drop-second-straight-to-astros-5-3
The A’s dropped the second and final game of their quick series against the Astros on Wednesday afternoon, falling 5-3 and leaving Texas winless.
Giants can’t overcome terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad 5th inning in 4-3 loss to Tigers
https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2025/5/28/24438912/sf-giants-terrible-5th-inning-4-3-loss-detroit-tigers
The San Francisco Giants tripled their scoring from the first two games in Detroit. Their pitchers struck out 16 Detroit Tigers, their relievers gave up only two hits and a HBP in four innings, and the defense played eight errorless innings. Heliot Ramos hit his 10th home run of the season. But the 5th inning was bad enough that the Giants endured a 4-3 loss and a series sweep.
This feels about right. After a tantalizing start, a reversion to the expected.
I think the team is probably still pretty good, just on a cold streak with the bats right now. They've gone 12-13 in the month of May, but 10 of the losses are by two runs or less, while 7 of the wins are by three runs or more. The record could easily be positive with a few breaks here or there.
That said, their high end was always going to be a "compete for a wild card" and not "win the division." In part because the division is really hard.
Absolutely right. The NL West may be the toughest division in baseball right now. The Giants are in 3rd place and have a 31-25 record. Three other divisions have 3rd place teams with sub .500 records. No other 3rd place team is within 3 games of 1st place as the Giants are.
And then we have the Rockies.
...and the D'backs.
Dodgers find no relief, blow chance to sweep Guardians with 8th-inning implosion
https://www.truebluela.com/2025/5/28/24438831/dodgers-bullpen-bad-tanner-scott-alex-vesia-guardians
The Dodgers held a three-run lead in the seventh inning but the top arms in the bullpen trust tree blew the game in a 7-4 loss to the Guardians on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Dodgers relievers have pitched over a dozen more innings than any other major league team on the season, averaging roughly 4⅓ innings per night. The bill for that heavy usage has come due this month, as cracks in the foundation have started to widen.
Nice going, Falcons
https://www.the-sun.com/sport/14343702/atlanta-falcons-delete-controversial-tom-brady-super-bowl-post/
CAL
Go Bears!!!
I cannot begin to state how big an implosion the Cal WGYM experienced. From a national title contender to a smoking crater.
I was wondering about that earlier, after the news Clemson stole our coaches. Did Cal have any counteroffer? If yes, was it at least competitive? Or was Knowlton caught asleep?
[T&F] MacQuiddy, Goode Advance To NCAA Quarterfinals
https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/28/track-field-macquiddy-goode-advance-to-ncaa-quarterfinals.aspx
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Ten men from the California track & field team kicked off competition at the NCAA West Regional on Wednesday, going toe-to-toe with dozens of the nation's top athletes across seven events at Texas A&M's E.B. Cushing Stadium.
Garrett MacQuiddy was the first Golden Bear to earn a qualifying berth to Friday's quarterfinals, posting a tremendous kick to place fourth in his 1500m first round heat and earn the auto-Q at 3:50.92. Johnny Goode joined him in Friday's field later that evening, taking third place in his 400m first round heat with a to-the-wire third-place finish of 46.01.
[WPOLO] Bears Place 11 On MPSF All-Academic Team
https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/28/womens-water-polo-bears-place-11-on-mpsf-all-academic-team.aspx
Eleven California women's water polo student-athletes have been named to the MPSF All-Academic Team, the conference office announced.
Seniors Ruby Swadling, Rozanne Voorvelt, Jessie Rose and Claire Rowell each earned the honor for the third time while graduate student Elena Flynn and junior Abbi Magee are now two-time selections. Sophomore Kate Meyer, Feline Voordouw, Julia Bonaguidi, Julianne Snyder and redshirt freshman Talia Fonseca all earned the accolade for the first time. True freshmen and first-year transfers are ineligible for the award.
[MROW] No. 1 Cal Heads To IRA Championships
https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/28/mens-rowing-no-1-cal-heads-to-ira-championships.aspx
The California men's rowing team will be the top-ranked crew heading into this weekend's Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships that take place Friday through Sunday at the Cooper River in Camden, New Jersey. The Golden Bears came in at No. 1 in the latest IRCA men's varsity 8+ poll. The Bears will race their top three varsity 8+ boats along with their varsity 4+.
[MBB] Cal’s 2025-26 ACC Men’s Basketball Opponents Unveiled
https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/28/mens-basketball-acc-unveils-2025-26-mens-basketball-opponents.aspx
CHARLOTTE – Home games against four 2025 NCAA Tournament teams, including Duke and North Carolina, highlight California's conference opponents for the 2025-26 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball season.
The Golden Bears' 2025-26 conference foes were announced during the ACC Network's ACCPM Program on Wednesday.
[MBB] Sammie Yeanay Transfers To Cal
https://calbears.com/news/2025/5/28/mens-basketball-sammie-yeanay-transfers-to-cal.aspx
BERKELEY – Sammie Yeanay has signed to play for the California men's basketball program in the 2025-26 season. Yeanay, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound forward from Gainesville, Florida, spent his freshman season at Grand Canyon in 2024-25.
Yeanay was a consensus top-100 high school prospect out of AZ Compass Prep School in Chandler, Arizona, before signing with Grand Canyon. He played five games for the Antelopes between Nov. 4-Dec. 19 before missing the remainder of 2024-25 with an injury.
DBD AV CLUB
Boys in the Boat
https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/12/05/new-boys-in-the-boat-movie-and-a-unique-campus-class-spark-pride-in-cal-s-rowing-history/
ELSEWHERE IN COLLEGE
POLITICS
Rubio focuses international student visa ire on Chinese students. There goes the UC Berkeley's budget balance.
https://apnews.com/article/international-students-visas-trump-guidance-social-media-a1f5180ce83560aff66dd65534906697
How long before the Chinese Exclusion Act (1923) is reinstated? (And I'm not kidding.)
I started looking into America's history of anti-immigrant legislation and a lot of it is wildly skewed toward promoting WASP eugenics. It's honestly quite depressing how much, how long, and how frequently we've gone through this. BTW - screw you Leland Stanford Sr.
The right wing is definitely getting a lot more comfortable with overt claims about a given race being better or worse than another (not that it's overall popular to do this, but the instances seem to be increasing). I suspect a backlash to this will be coming too.
Anyone with an innate, empathetic sense of justice would hope so.
One hopes.
HHS cancels $590m contract with Moderna for Covid vaccines
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/28/health/hhs-moderna-bird-flu-vaccine