CAL SOFTBALL ITEM OF THE WEEK: In a word... Ouch. Lindsay James, Cal's leading hitter and base-running bad-ass, broke her left hand after being hit by Washington's Ashley Boek last Friday, meaning she's likely to be out until the NCAA regionals -- or longer. With All-America Vicky Galindo and James at the top of the order, Cal was a threat to jump on anyone it faced. Now the third-ranked Bears (37-5) must get by without James's .478 average for awhile (her replacement, Kristen Bayless, is hitting more than 350 points lower), though they're doing a good job thus far. Cal has won four of five since James went down, including Saturday's dramatic 2-1 victory over UCLA on Emily Friedman's single with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Against the Bruins on Sunday, in another rematch of the past two NCAA championship games, Bears catcher Haley Woods broke up freshman pitcher Angelica Selden's no-hitter with a two-out, two-strike homer to right, her 12th of the season, in UCLA's 2-1 triumph. Cal's weekend slate includes a pair of games against Pac-10 leading Oregon State in Corvallis.

TRIPPIN ON (E) MAIL

"I'm surprised the Cal regents have not complained about your using 'God's University.' I'm sure you must have offended at least 10 people at the very Politically Correct University of Cal."
 -- Jim Lester from Lancaster, Pa.

Jim, while it is true that the University of California's long history of social activism and spirited political debate is one of the institution's many noble features, neither the U.C. Regents nor those who've had the honor of attending G.U. could not possibly be riled by its truthful depiction in this column. For what it's worth, I am certainly not offended.

Sincerely...

The Big Guy in the Sky

P.S. The BCS, however, is blasphemy.