Notebook: Pitcher's park at Pac Bell?

Back in the day (circa 1999), going on the road was fun for the San Francisco Giants because they could play in warm-weather venues.

While they did have a definite home-field advantage at Candlestick Park, it was still no fun to play a Wednesday afternoon game in 40-degree weather - in the dead of July.

Going to places like Arizona, Los Angeles or (God forbid) Philadelphia gave the Giants a chance to see how the better half lived.

Now going on the road is curing San Francisco's ills for a different reason. As we slouch toward May and watch helplessly as our roto teams slip into fantasy baseball oblivion, the Giants have a real possibility of finishing 0-for-April at Pacific Bell Park.

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful place to play baseball. The problem is that Pac Bell is no pitcher's park, and the Giants aren't exactly a team full of flame-throwers.

Of course, the Giants haven't been much better on the road, but at least they've won a few games against the likes of Arizona and Cincinnati.

Joe Nathan and Russ Ortiz have pitched well early on, but San Francisco needs better contributions from Livan Hernandez and Kirk Rueter if it wants to compete in its new digs.

More notes from the world of sports...

-- The most beautiful thing about the Oakland Athletics: Watching all those overweight sluggers work the count for a walk.

-- The player of the future nobody's talking about: Athletics third baseman Eric Chavez, the victim of a poor rookie year, but a legit star in the making.

-- Early roto surprises: Mike Lansing, Scott Schoenweiss, Phil Nevin, Pokey Reese, Kenny Lofton.

-- Early roto busts: Todd Zeile, Jeff Cirillo, Jeff Kent, Kris Benson, Chuck Knoblauch.

-- The things left-handed hitters think and do not say: Randy Johnson is not an attractive man.

-- The great thing about the 49ers' draft: Being able to say "Giacomazzi" a lot.

-- One well that was tapped dry by sports writers nationwide last weekend: How many funny jokes we could make about the Oakland Raiders drafting two kickers.

-- The kicker, so to speak: Oakland's first-round choice, Sebastian Janikowski, has a record.

-- In all of Einstein's parallel universes, this is the only one where: Terry Mulholland pitches the first complete game of the season for the Atlanta Braves.

-- After scouring the earth, we think we've finally found a way to stop Pedro Martinez: Rain.

-- The best player in baseball right now, and the hardest one to find on TV: Vladimir Guerrero.

-- One fit of hyperactive zeal that was silenced by an eight-game losing streak: Kansas City's coronation as the second coming of the '27 Yankees.

-- The envy of Carson City this week: Carson High's baseball team, which faces three arduous games in Hawaii.

-- With two huge playoff upsets in recent history, one surprise about the San Jose Sharks' first 2000 playoff series: The St. Louis Blues clearly took them lightly.

-- OK, here's some NBA playoff predictions: Sacramento Kings upset the Los Angeles Lakers in five, and Toronto makes it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals.

-- If that's not fearless enough for you: Portland over Indiana in six games.

-- One guy we hope makes it to the finals and wins the MVP award: Sean Elliot.

-- One guy we hope scores 70 points per game and gets bounced from the first round on a missed free throw: Shaquille O'Neal.

-- Here's a use for that useless millennium clock: Reprogram it to count down the WNBA season.

Jeremy Littau is the Nevada Appeal sports editor. Write to him at jjleditor@yahoo.com