By RAY RATTO, San Francisco Chronicle

As Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum walked from interview to interview on his Cy Young celebrity walk, San Francisco general manager Brian Sabean kept asking to anyone who approached him, "How do you quantify this?"

Nobody is quite sure yet whether to continue to press Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh on his future or to start thumping the tub for Saturday's Big Game with Cal, so let's go to Plan C -- the Emerald Bowl.

With all due respect to Quarterback Roulette here in the Bay Area, the stealth big story of the day is a report that Mark McGwire is ready to become a public figure again.

Well, Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable lasted long enough so that no matter what happens to him viz. the legal system, he'll still have it better than Jim Zorn.

In the Seven Years of Utter Darkness, this is the week when it dawns upon even the Oakland Raiders themselves that the groundhog has popped up, seen nothing but shadows and vows 12 more weeks of awfulness.

Finally, there is something Lane Kiffin and Tom Cable have in common -- a desire to pound Oakland Raiders assistant coach Randy Hanson into a gray paste.

Only Kiffin suspended Hanson for five days a year ago, helping hasten his falling-out with The Al (as in Davis), and Cable actually did it by physical force 13 days ago, according to multiple reports.

So here's the question that arises from Terrell Owens' almost-a-demand that Michael Vick serve no suspension at all, and that he be allowed to resume his football career like, sort of today-ish.

Is Owens trying to improve on Brett Favre's undoing in Green Bay?

Embattled NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield may be completely bat-guano crazy. He may also be a man of extraordinary principle. Or maybe it's just the methamphetamine talking.
Now read those three sentences again and tell me you're not hooked on what comes next.

Barry Bonds is surely bemused by the outrage expressed over the Atlanta Braves' treatment of Tom Glavine. Bemused, that is, in that "What, you were surprised that's how this works?" kind of way.

The beauty of the college football coaches poll has always been that it had the three most important ingredients for any gathering and processing of opinions.
One, the indifference of the voters unless the issue involved direct self-interest.
Two, the essentially meaninglessness of the vote until the end of the season, when all manner of skullduggery can and has occurred.