The U.S. Open rainout is the only thing that made this a Saturday where I could manage my sports intake (thanks Rafa for dispensing with Gonzalez in about 32 minutes this morning before the rain started) and participate in the rest of my life.

The day’s big news: the Sharks finally delivered on their longtime promise of Big Changes.  They acquired Dany Heatley, giving up Cheeeeeeech and Milan Michalek.  And Richard Seymour finally arrived in Raiders camp.

The Heatley trade is a good one for a several reasons: some obvious, some not so.  The Sharks couldn’t very well open training camp today (Why, oh why is the NHL such a numbskull league: media day on the same day as NFL opening Sunday????) without having done anything of note. Not after all the big promises, the anger, the autopsy.

So it’s good for that reason alone: they had to do something. It’s good because Heatley is a heckuva player – at least when he’s gruntled as opposed to disgrunteled, which he has been too often in his career. He’s asked to be traded from his last two teams: Atlanta you can understand because it had too many tragic memories after the car accident that killed his teammate. Still some mystery about his hate-on for Ottawa. Supposedly something about his “diminished role” but in his conference call he dropped hints that there may have been other issues.

This is also a good trade because it takes the heat off of Patrick Marleau, while keeping his talent on the roster. He doesn’t have to share the load with Thornton – he gets bumped down to third now in expectation of offensive output. He doesn’t have the C on his sweater, which means he’s allowed to disappear every once inawhile.

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Seymour’s arrival meant a treat: a Saturday night Al Davis press conference, which was broadcast live on Comcast. Seymour seemed like a great guy – making you believe him when he said that his priorities were as a husband and a father and that, after being blindsided by the trade, he had to figure out what was best for his family.

Davis was high theater as always, calling out the “eastern” media, calling B.S. on all the rumors about Seymour, questioning reporters about what “analysts” they were quoting, answering questions directed at others.

The legend still has it. And now he has a run stopper who, as Seymour pointed out, “Now, I can rush the passer too.”

Let’s see what he can do in Monday night’s opener against L.T. (which – more news – is a sell out as of Saturday night and will be televised).

And to top things off: Dodgers and Giants tied 1-1,  and Dodgers fans making plenty of noise at AT&T. And USC-Ohio State tied 10-10 at the half.