IN EARLY MAY, San Francisco was chosen as the headquarters city for California’s new stem-cell research endeavor (officially: the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine). The winning bid included 10 years’ worth of free office space across the street from SBC Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

Unfortunately, it didn’t come with a promise to help cure for what ails the Giants–and the chronic misery that is the Bay Area’s assorted professional sports franchises.