The Seventh Inning Stretch

Moving

2005-07-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy for the last few days and this is a big reason why I haven't posted this weekend.

The Seventh Inning Stretch has moved. I was recently offered to blog for athomeplate.com, I've also been offered to write monthly columns about my beloved A's.

Apparently, somebody out there likes my writing style.

For my loyal readership of, what, twenty people my new address is http://athomeplate.com/athletics/. Here's a link. It's the same blog, with the same spirit, just a different location and for now, new colors.

This site will remain active as my archives.

So please, make the jump and I'll try my best to act like nothing has happened.

Arthur Rhodes haterism

2005-07-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hot and fresh from this morning's Chronicle:

Rhodes reacts: Indians reliever Arthur Rhodes, who opened the 2004 season as the A's closer, but lost the job in June, was booed loudly when he entered Wednesday's game.

"Do you think I care what they think?" Rhodes told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "I came (to the A's) and struggled. But I went out there and did my job today. I know I can pitch."

Rhodes pumped his fist after completing a scoreless inning.

"Yes, I was pumped," Rhodes said. "These fans don't bother me. They're not like the fans in Cleveland, who appreciate the game. These fans don't know much about the game. They boo you one day and cheer you the next."

Hmm...I don't know much about the game says Rhodes. Let's take a look at your stats from last year...

Arthur Lee Rhodes, RP, OAK
W-L: 3-3 ERA: 5.12 Opp.: 14 SV: 9

Rhodes lost the closer job in early to mid-June. In roughly two and a half months Rhodes blew five saves. How many games did Oakland miss the playoffs by last year? One game.

Mr. Rhodes, if you performed as advertised, the A's wouldn't have missed the playoffs, you would still be closing in Oakland and we wouldn't boo you. We boo you because we know the game and after an asinine comment like that, I've lose even more respect for you.

Arthur Rhodes was ineffective, he hated on Oakland fans even during his tenure in Oakland, and was not an ideal clubhouse type. I was not sad to see him go.

What I did yesterday

2005-07-28T22:56:00.001-07:00

After the game ended, I went to Kirby's Sports Bar, not too far from one of my friend's house in the Irvington District of Fremont. Kirby's is not a place I frequent because it serves an older crowd. Kirby's is very good sports bar but it's also a very much of a older person/blue collar bar due to the fact that many people who work at the NUMMI plant usually congregate there after their shifts. Me and my friends usually end up at Coach's up the street from Kirby's because a much younger crowd drinks there.

Anyways, I walked up to the bar and found out they were selling Coronas for two dollars a bottle. Now, I don't like Corona but in my frugal nature I decided to drink some Coronas.

At around 5:30 PM Nick Swisher arrived at the bar, many were expecting Bobby Crosby and brough their Crosby bobbleheads. But Crosby cancelled and Swisher took his place. Corona in hand I joined some friends in line and waited to get our items autographed by Swisher. Problem was, I didn't bring anything for him to sign. So instead, at the last moment, I gave him my hat to sign. And he obliged, he did seem tired and a but nonplussed but that's OK because a) he was tired from playing an extra inning game and b) I'm not a hot chick.

I took many photos of the event and only one of them ended up OK. Look below:

Look at the lady on the lower left hand corner. She walked up to me and said, "Are you a Corona drinker?" I said, "Uhhh....Yes." And then she handed me two vouchers for free tickets to any non-Yankees/BoSox/Giants game not in September or October. I looked at the vouchers and saw that they were for the Plaza Outfield, or layman's terms, the second deck. I got two free eighteen dollar tickets. I thought they were handing out free tickets to the cheap seats.

Now why was I so lucky to get free tickets because I was drinking Corona? This appearance by Nick Swisher was made possible by some promotion by Corona. It turns out that Kirby's was the highest seller of Corona in Alameda County at some period of time, by volume. With Coronas at two bucks, I could see why.

Well anyways, here's a picture of my new autographed A's hat. I still have no clue how the signature stands for "Nick Swisher." I mean my signature is a bunch of squiggly lines but you can make out a "K" and a "L."

sigh (of relief)

2005-07-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

CLE 4, OAK 5 10 innings

And Marco Scutaro hits his third walk-off of the season. He sure is clutch unlike Chavez who had a chance to put the game away without going into extra frames in the ninth. Chavez struck out with the bases loaded and that ended the ninth.

Since the game wasn't televised I was listening to "KGOD" 610AM. Chavez has been striking out way too much lately. I think the outside pitch is bothering him again. Is he lengthing his swing again? I can't tell, because I didn't watch the game.

The 3-4-5 hitters in the lineup went 0 for 14 with a walk today, just think about it.

Before the game Marty Lurie in the pre-game warmup show kept on mentioning that Scott Elarton is known as a fly-ball pitcher ad nauseaum. Guess who didn't get any ground outs? Well it sure wasn't Elarton because I think Lurie kinda jinxed the A's. Haren was not sharp but he did a great job keeping the game close getting outs in key situations. I don't know how this guy could pitch 5.1 innings and not get a groundout. He did K seven though.

The A's pulled this one out and remiain on top of the Wild Card standings.

O me of little faith

2005-07-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

CLE 2, OAK 0

Over at Athletics Nation, there's a "guess the outcome" game in which I'm a regular participant. The point of the game is to guess the outcome of the series as far as the questions offered are concerned.

I guessed the A's would win the series two games out of three. Personally, I knew the A's would drop this game. What I didn't guess correctly was how the A's would lose. I thought Blanton would allow just enough runs for the A's to lost and I was thinking of a final score of more like 5-3 Cleveland.

I did not expect a pitchers' duel and I didn't expect Blanton going seven innings of one run ball. I also didn't expect a shutout.

Yes, I didn't belive Blanton can pitch this well. I thought the league has figured him out again. I doubted Blanton.

Although it was a loss, it was a good an exciting game. Listening in on the radio the crowd seemed much larger than the 18,000 that was reported, it was loud. The game was exiting until the very end when a Chavez pop-up ended the game anti-climactically with two runners left on base.

It seems that the A's forgot to save some runs for today when they were tearing apart the Indians' pitching. Tomorrow is a new day and we'll see if making Root Beer Floats pre-game will have an adverse affect on the players.

State of Disbelief

2005-07-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

CLE 4, OAK 13

If this score is hard to believe, let me state a few things I thought would be impossible a few short weeks ago. As of right now the A's are:

in sole possession of the top spot of the Wild Card standings
have three everyday starters in the lineup with an AVG of over .300
have the third best record in the American League
only five games back of the division leading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Is this for real? Can the A's remain playing at this level? Is the AL West still in reach? In May I knew the A's weren't as bad as they are playing. But after watching a month of some of the most wretched baseball I have ever seen, I find this really hard to believe. It is said that what goes up must come down. In the inverse also true? After watching the A's I guess I would have to say, yes.

It is reported that the walk up crowd for tonight's game was 9,000+. The locals are noticing this. There's just a certain amount of excitement around in A's fandom. This is feeling reminiscent of "The Streak," something special is happening in Oakland right now.

What? Wild Card?

2005-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

OAK 8, TEX 3

When the A's began their resurgence at the beginning of June I wrote many comments on this blog to the effects of, "Look, let's slow down, don't think playoffs until the A's are back in second place." Soon after the A's have reclaimed second place, the playoffs are a distinct possibility. Today, after the victory against Texas the A's are tied with the Twins for the AL Wild Card.

Before the game today over at EiO Zachary Manprin said:

The A's go for the rare 4 game sweep with Rich Harden taking the mound.

Just don't expect a shutout.

You know, allowing three runs in Texas is like a shutout. Having a second left handed option in the bullpen besides Rincon has been gret for the A's and it's fans. My rate of hair loss has slowed down considerably now that Rincon is not put in in all of the wrong situations by Macha. Not that I'm saying Rincon's garbage, I think he's an excellent pitcher, as long as he's not overused and not used against righties. I might yet still have a full head of hair when I turn 30.

I used to listen to Extra Innings with Robert Buan on a regular basis after games, and I used to call in from time to time. But I don't do that anymore, sometimes the opinions expressed on that show are just slightly misinformed. There's people calling in to advocate a trade for Mike Sweeney as DH.

That's not cool, although Sweeney is a talented player, he is a big injury risk and unless if the Royals wan to send alot of cash with him to Oakland, he's going to be too expensive. Look, if it ain't broke, then don't try to fix it. The A's, with a few minor tweaks, have gone on an insane tear. Payton and the bullpen acquisitions are enough, we don't need to make trades for the sake of making trades. That's just bad baseball practice and that's why some teams are mired in mediocrity.

I don't like to make bold predictions but here goes; if the A's make it to the playoffs, then this will be the year. You know, the year the A's finally make it past the ALDS.

A Close One

2005-07-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

OAK 5, TEX 4

The A's won aver close game. I was very close to missing my entrance on the Prologue of Romeo and Juliet. I'm still pissed about that. Me and a few others were following the game on Gameday in costume in the dressing rooms. The stage manager conviently forgot to call places in the Men's Dressing room. I got back stage just in the nick of time.

That should have never happened. A stage manager is supposed to call places in every room, not just the green room. I'm still fuming.

In my estimation, I thought this was going to be the game the A's were going to drop, but Saarloos was effective enough in the Texas Band Box and the bullpen was used well. No Ken Macha haterism tonight. With Harden taking the mound tomorrow, I think a sweep is possible.

And people are in awe that the Rangers have one of the highest homerun totals in the majors. The A's hit four jacks today. If Ameriquest Field was the A's home turf, the A's would be renounded for their power. Arlington, Texas, where ERAs go to die. They don't call it Coors Lite for nothing.

Dontrelle-Mania and Hangovers

2005-07-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

FLA 5, SF 8

Hey, isn't this an A's blog?

Yes, but this is also my blog, since I'm a Dontrelle fan, I'll write a little something about the D-train. You can't help but write about Dontrelle when he's back in the Bay Area.

Why am I a Dontrelle fan? Two years ago, when Dontrelle was first called up to the bigs I was working for the Rec Department in Alameda, his hometown. Among my coworkers was one of his neighbors, the same neighbors who played strikeout with Dontrelle when he was a kid. When Dontrelle-mania swept through Alameda, I got swept up too. Dontrelle Willis is probably the only major leaguer who is very close to my age, he's about a week and a half older than me.

As an A's fan you have to at least respect Dontrelle, he grew up in the cheap seats of the Coliseum. His mom even helped build Mt. Davis, although that's not really a good thing.

Anyways, Opening Night was good to me, however it wasn't so good to Dontrelle. Dontrelle always starts the season hot and then hits a metaphorical wall at around the All Star Break. His last few starts have been less than stellar and his start in San Francisco was pretty much the same. He never seems to pitch well at SBC, perhaps this is because his mom and the whole Alameda crew is out to support him. Home jitters?

I wish the best for Dontrelle and hopes he rights himself and makes a strong big for the NL Cy Young this year.

After the show I was drinking in Alameda. There were no Dontrelle sightings on the Island.

Live from Hayward...

2005-07-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

OAK 11, TEX 10

...it's Opening Night.

As of right now it's intermission for Romeo and Juliet, it's going good.

The game was very exciting and I wish I could have followed it all the way but I had to start getting into character at about the seventh inning. Jason Kendall, he can't throw out baserunners, but he can block home plate. This was the hardnosed player I read about when the A's traded for him. He's a bit expensive, but he is delivering as promised, almost. He hit a triple today. If he only had a stronger arm.

Anyways, I have to go. The second half of Romeo and Juliet beckons.

Still in second

2005-07-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

OAK 6, TEX 4

I have learned today that Joe Kennedy's mugshot on MLB.com makes him look like Pvt. Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. Here's some photographic evidence:

Kenny Rogers is no longer the A's kryptonite. But then and again the game wasn't at the Coliseum.

Keith Ginter is being shopped. Why else would he start at third base today? I mean, besides giving us A's fans a heart attack or ammo for Ken Macha haterism. Problem is, the way he's been playing lately and his un-clutchness it seems that the A's will have trouble unloading him.

As a result of the A's showcasing Ginter's defensive versatility, Chavez was the DH. Ironically he didn't really do what he was designated to do, hit. He was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts, definitely not a good day at the plate. He didn't even draw walks. It seems that Chavez is a bit vulnerable to outside pitches, this is a problem I think many A's fans have seen before.

I have to tip my hat to Joe Blanton. I seriously though he was going to get lit up, but he buckled down and was effective for the rest of his outing. Also clutch hits by Swisher, Ellis and...Payton. I didn't expect Payton would be this good, color me surprised.

Romeo and Juliet opens today. I just came home from the final dress rehearsal. I hate tech week.

Say hello to second place

2005-07-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

OAK 3, LAA 0

And now the AL West looks like what I envisioned it to be. The A's in second place over a third place Rangers and the last place M's. This was a crucial series for the A's and I am glad the A's won it. That tiny thing in the Angels' rear view mirror just got bigger today.

Before the beginning of the bottom of the ninth. Mike Scioscia came out of the dugout and requested that Huston Street take off a bracelet. That bracelet was Huston's WWJD bracelet. So it's official; Mike Scioscia hates Jesus.

I do have to confess that earler this season, especially after Zito's shallacking by the D-Rays in his Worst. Inning. Ever. I lost my faith in Zito. I saw that he was hanging too many pitches, his curveball seemed flat or it wasn't being called a strike. Since that horrible outing, it seems that vintage Cy Young Zito from 2002 is back. His curve is back to being a beautiful thing, he pitches out of jams and whenever he goes out to the mound, I feel confident in an eventual A's win. Not only is vintage Zito back, he has also adjusted to the adjustments the league has made to him. He has added a 2 seam fastball and most importantly he's added a slider (or a slurve depending on who you ask). Zito's still young and he has his health, he still has room to improve.

And now the A's head off to Arlington, Texas to face the Rangers. It's going to be Blanton vs. Rogers tomorrow night. When is Rogers going to serve his suspension? The one thing about MLB that just sticks in my craw is how slow the suspension appeals process is. It's like the players can choose when they can serve their suspension. Appeals and due process is important, but can this whole thing be sped up?

NEWS FLASH!

2005-07-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

OAK 3, LAA 1

Today, Jason Kendall actually threw a potential base-stealer out at second. Can you believe that?

CS: Kennedy (3, 2nd base by Harden/Kendall).

Harden also continued his dominance today going 8.2 innings and allowing only one run in the ninth. Huston Street came in for a one out save opportunity. After seeing this guy in for 4-5 outs plus, it feels a bit wierd and yet comforting to see him have a one out appearance.

I'm sorry for not posting yesterday. It's tech week for Romeo and Juliet and I was working till late adjusting cues and when I got home I was dead tired and the blogging mojo wasn't with me. If you're in the Bay Area, check out Romeo and Juliet at Cal State ~~Hayward~~ East Bay. Not only do I play Friar Lawrence, I'm also the sound designer, and I do believe my design is awesome.

Back to the A's; in other news, DH Eurbiel Durazo is out for the year with Tommy John Surgery.

Tommy John, a DH? Durazo's not even an everyday position player. And what did he do to blow out his elbow? Mysteries abound. Every time I hear of a non-pitcher getting Tommy John I think of the time when Jose Canseco was allowed to pitch an inning in relief (I don't know what kind of drugs Tony LaRussa was on) and he proceeded to blow out his elbow on the first pitch, necessitating Tommy John.

When Durazo first came from Arizona, there were complaints abound that Durazo was too easily injured. I guess those complaints have some weight attached to them. I still don't understand how he could hurt his elbow like that. Some have postulated that his elbow has been hurt since Spring Training, which would explain his poor numbers this year. But could practice throws really blow out somebody's elbow like that?

The Battle for Second Place: DAY 4

2005-07-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

TEX 4, OAK 5 14 innings

I'll be honest with you. I wasn't really paying attention to the game. I was finishing up some work on my sound design for Romeo and Juliet at Cal State ~~Hayward~~ East Bay. For the last four hours I have been setting levels and troubleshooting at the theatre.

I'll post something about my upcoming events soon, I promise.

Thankfully I have my trusty computer in the booth and cable TV in the electric shop. However, MLB gameday was not so trusty. Towards the end of my time I was writing up the cue sheet and proceedure list that I was relying on Gameday for my updates on the game, which went into extra innings. Gameday froze at the middle of the fourteenth and I didn't know Kielty won it in a walk off until way after the fact.

I remember the beginning of the season where Kielty started off with a long o-fer streak. Many of us in A's fandom were ready to crucify him, especially when you put in his lack of production from last season. I can say that this guy has redeemed himself. His average is at .285 and is seemingly an integral part of the A's offense.

The new bullpen acquisitions have worked well today too. I think Joe Kennedy has finally gotten over the whole Coors Field thing, hopefully. He was a bit scary at times but he got the job done with three scoreless innings of relief and the win. Let see how this guy progresses.

Next up: Los Angeles de Los Angeles de Anaheim!

The A's are in prime position to close up gap hopefully claim second place.

The Battle for Second Place: DAY 3

2005-07-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

TEX 10, OAK 8

After bitching about a cold summer we finally get some hot weather in the Bay Area. It's not Texas hot, or even Texas humid, but for the Bay Area, it's hot. It's about 80 degrees where I'm at right now.

If the A's were to lose any one of the games of this series, it would have been this one. Kenny "I like the smash cameras" Rogers has always found little difficulty winning in the Oakland Coliseum. I feel that the Rangers pushed back his start to today not only because of his usage in the All Star Game but also to give the Rangers a must-win game of this series.

The Battle may have been lost, but the series can still be won. I'm confident about tomorrow's game, despite what you see on paper, I think Haren's much better than Young.

Although this was a loss, it was still a good game in my eyes because the A's made it exciting in the end. The old boring A's would go quietly after being down by such a big defecit, these A's just don't quit.

Payton homered again, welcome to Oakland, Jay.

The Battle for Second Place: DAY 2

2005-07-16T01:47:00.000-07:00

TEX 2, OAK 7

What a game indeed. Let's start with the pitching, when I watched the game today I had a sense of Deja Vu. Zito had a no-hitter into the eighth inning. Zito has again pitched well and has gone deep into a game. Barry Zito is back, and I mean the Barry Zito who makes the best hitters look foolish with that nasty breaking stuff, not the flat curveball throwing boyfriend of Alyssa Milano. Milano may be hot, but I do believe she's the Yoko Ono of baseball.

Good job, Zito. And it's good to have you back.

Also, tonight could have been called a tale of two Jays. Jay Payton homers in this first AB with the A's and the other Jay, Jay Witasick made things quite interesting in the ninth. Let's hope Witasick's current tenure with the A's will be better than his last, when I was still in high school. Still, making the game interesting while doing mop-up duty is not comforting at all.

Also, Dan Johnson who is a defensive wizard at first base, he took full advantage of the ample foul territory at the Coliseum and made some outs in dramatic fashion. He's too good to be sent back down when Durazo's back from the DL. When Ruby's back the A's will have another logjam.

Ironic

2005-07-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

Right when Ray Ratto writes something nice about the A's. Somebody Bay Area Columnist decides to be old school Ratto and make misinformed comments. (registration required) The meat of this column was saying that "Beane didn't value chemistry."

Here's some snippets:

To Beane, team chemistry is mumbo jumbo. It has as much to do with winning and losing in baseball as good luck charms and favorable Tarot cards.

Mr. Moneyball likes cold, hard numbers. He likes proof. He likes production.

(snip)

You can just imagine Beane saying chemistry, shemistry as he made the deal, sending Byrnes to Colorado.

There are two flaws to his argument.

One, Byrnes was not the most important guy in the clubhouse. The most important person in the clubhouse is some combination of Zito, Kotsay and Chavez.

Two, if Beane didn't value chemistry, then why did he trade away or refuse to sign clubhouse cancers like Durham, T-Long, Rhodes, Jose Guillen, etc.?

There's no disagreement that Byrnes was a fan favorite, but remember fan favorite does not equal clubhouse chemistry.

This guy wasn't really ripping the A's. The column was very much disjointed. One moment he was ripping Beane for trading Byrnes and "destroying clubhouse chemistry" and then he says Oakland's chemistry is fine as evidenced by last night's win.

Whatever.

The Battle for Second Place: DAY 1

2005-07-14T22:38:00.000-07:00

TEX 0, OAK 6

Let's hope this is just a sign of things to come. The A's will to their second half thing and surge, hopefully making the Wild Card and AL West exciting for us A's fans and the Rangers will do their second half thing and fade.

Before I go any further, I'm pretty sure I'm getting hits from France so let me take this opportunity to say, Happy Bastille Day.

I was in rehearsal tonight, what else is new, and during a break I flipped out my cell phone and got on to ESPN.com and checked the score, it said:

BOT 6R H E
TEX 0 0 1
OAK 6 6 0

I thought to myself, Holy crap! Rich Harden is on the verge of a...can't say it unless I want to jinx it.

Rich Harden allowed his first baserunner in the eighth inning. A perfect game was so close and yet, so far away. I applaud your efforts, Rich, and you'll get one someday, you're only 24.

I'm less than one year younger than him and I'm still in school, stuck in community theatre purgatory. It's time like these where I do feel a bit small in this world.

OPEN SEASON

2005-07-13T21:51:00.000-07:00

Eric Byrnes traded to Colorado. Also, those Jay Payton for Chad Bradford rumors have become fact. Ladies and gentlemen, the Billy Beane trading season has begun. But first, a haiku in honor of our departing players.

Eric Byrnes, Rockie
Bay Area native son
have fun in Denver

Chadwick Lee Bradford
was featured in Moneyball
now in the limelight

To OAK: Joe Kennedy, Jay Witasick (from COL); Jay Payton (from BOS)
To COL: Eric Byrnes, Omar Quintanilla
To BOS: Chad Bradford

This trade wasn't really unexpected, I called the Byrnes/Kennedy deal about a month ago. The euphoria of a winning June made me forget about the trade till today, when it actually happened. This was going to happen this season. Why else would a fan favorite be excluded from all of the A's TV ads and not get his own bobblehead this year?

I will miss Byrnes. His energy and "hustle" was always a joy to see...until he screws up badly in a key defensive situation. I sure hope he finds success at Coors Field, may his numerous Coliseum popups turn into Coors Field home runs. The A's have truly lost some RH pop against lefties, but the A's don't match up against that many lefties.

Bradford is another player I will miss. I hope the additional exposure from the East Coast media outlets (a la Tejada) will help him get a nice contract in the offseason. It has been observed that the A's bullpen has been transformed into a more conventional unit with pitchers with hard breaking stuff have replaced "funky" pitchers like Bradford and Mecir.

The trading of Quintanilla may mean that Beane is pleased with the current 2B platoon (Scutaro and Ellis, in my eyes), at least for now. I think Scutaro got on Beane's good side by learning how to draw walks during the offseason in the Winter Leagues. Quintanilla's average has dropped since previous years and on top of that, he isn't a prototypical "Billy Beane" player. I think Ginter's being shopped and will probably be dealt by the deadline.

So, is Beane a buyer or a seller this year? Is he tooling for the playoffs in '05 or '06? Will Beane get that power bat he's been searching for in vain?

I'm starting to believe that '05 is not a lost season after all.

To all the players who are leaving, I sure hope you succeed in your new enviroments. To all of the players coming in, welcome.

Wierd

2005-07-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

Bobby Abreu wins the Home Run Derby. But you know what's really wierd about that matchup? They didn't get the big sluggers of the league, instead they did some kind "UN of baseball" and select one representative from each nation. Is this a prelude to the World Baseball Classic? I thought it was supposed to be called the World Cup of Baseball.

Isn't David Ortiz a US Citizen? Why is he representing the DR? Wierd.

I thought Andruw Jones is from Venezuela, not the Netherlands. I guess the ability of speaking Dutch makes you qualified to be a representative. Wierd.

I have excellent German diction. Maybe I can represent Germany next year.

Where's the rep from Japan?

Why does Puerto Rico get it's own guy, last I heard Puerto Rico wasn't it's own country but instead is a territory of the United States. But I shouldn't bitch about this. Hong Kong used to send their own athletes to the olympics separate from the rest of the British Empire and I believe the arrangement remains with China.

But do you know what's really wierd?

I just bought the defeinite version of West Side Story conducted by Bernstein. This the way Bernstein wanted the show to have been done. This is the version that is done like an opera, they even hired big names in opera like Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras (you know, the other other one of the Three Tenors). Hopefully you know my stance on opera singers singing musical theatre (I hate it) but it kinda works due to the high tessitura of a few numbers.

I should be kringing, but instead, I'm a bit ambivilent. Wierd.

Oh, Danny-boy

2005-07-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

OAK 9, CHW 8 11 innings

You sure love those extra innings nailbiters (last game he started: OAK 10, TOR 7 11 innings), do you Danny-boy. After nine runs, fifteen hits, eleven innings and one blown save the A's have swept the White Sox in Chicago.

You know, people might bitch about Street being overused today. I for one, don't really care. Today is the only day that I will probably not bitch about Street's overuse, he has all of the All-Star Break to rest up.

The A's enter the break one game over .500. Not too shabby when you consider May.

I wonder if Haren's performance today is anyway related to the speedsters on the White Sox.

Good game, early on (and even later on) the A's threw alot of chances away, but in the end, they clawed their way to a win and a winning record.

It's a great day to be an A's fan...

2005-07-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

OAK 10, CWS 1

Why?

The A's won in a convincingly over the White Sox and once again prove to be Mark Buehrle's kryptonite.

Jason Kendall actually hit a ball to the warning track! Warning track power!

The A's are back to .500 and just 4.5 games behind the Twins for the WC (not that I'm counting these things).

The M's beat the Angels and the gap between the A's and the Halos narrow by one more game.

But most importantly:

KOTSAY SIGNS THREE YEAR EXTENSION WITH THE A'S!

If this was back in the Schott/Hoffman era, Kotsay would have been traded or been let go somehow, like a Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi or Miguel Tejada. This was when the A's had to strictly adhere to a low payroll like a NFL team deals with a hard salary cap. Now the A's have flexibility. I know the A's aren't going to turn into a high payroll team but when the right guy comes around, the money will be spent.

Kotsay is a stud and his defense is something special. Thanks for the three run jimmy jack and here's to three more years with the Green and Gold.

OK, Beane has locked up a 29 year old center fielder who is among the best in the league for three years at seven-plus million a year. Not bad. I wonder what his trades are going to look like this season.

"The Yankees A's are my daddy" - Pedro Martinez The Chicago White Sox

2005-07-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

OAK 4, CWS 2

Even if this season ends up bittersweet, at least the A's have won the season series from the winningest team in the AL. It seems like for the last few years the A's have always been Kryptonite to the ChiSox.

Huston Street notched his fifth big league save and his ERA is crazy low. Offensively the A's still have LOB problems. But so did the ChiSox both left nine on base. But the A's won and the team did amass a whole lot of hits.

C'mon A's lets win this series and prove to everybody that the road funk over.

On a more personal note, I'm tired of these endless rehearsals. I guess this is the price I pay for a free education. I'm starting to be burned out.

Jared (son of Carney) Lansford signs with the A's

2005-07-08T02:36:00.000-07:00

So I guess he isn't going to Santa Clara to continue his Catholic education after all.

Hmmm...So a former starting pitcher represents the son of the third baseman from the same team in negotiations with the fifth outfielder of the same team because the son got drafted, by the same team. Observation courtesy of a poster at Athletics Nation.

Wierd, isn't it.

One tends to forget that Beane was on that 1989 A's team.

I am psyched. I honestly think Lansford has a shot to pitch in the bigs. His mechanics are so fluid and easy, he's hitting low to mid 90's, and he has pretty good control (from what I can tell, I'm no expert on pitching prospects). When I think of the other HS pitcher the A's drafed, Craig Italiano, "Nuke LaLoosh" comes to mind. Heat, lots of it, can be wild.

In other news...

2005-07-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

IOC Drops Baseball and Softball from 2012 Olympics

Although I'm disappointed, I guess the loss of baseball is to be expected. Olympic baseball teams never featured Major Leaguers. What's the point of having an Olympic competition when the best players in the world aren't participating anyways. Would you rather have an Olympic gold medal in baseball or a World Series ring?

Softball on the other hand, I don't know. I don't think softball is as widespread as baseball.

Musical Theatre Update

You know what? It feels like I'm in a relationship in which I know a breakup with the girlfriend is impending. The worst part is, Musical Theatre is my first love when it comes to the performing arts.

Trade Kotsay?

2005-07-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

OAK 2, TOR 4

I big reason why I don't want to see Kotsay traded is because has defense. If he leaves who's going to take his spot in center? Thomas? Byrnes? I can tell you don't want Byrnes as an everyday CF and a good resaon for that is today:

Harden's sporadic performance was almost saved a batter before Wells took him deep.

With two outs in the fifth, Toronto's Frank Catalanotto sliced a pop-fly to shallow left field and Eric Brynes attempted a dive, but came up just short and Catalanotto wound up with a double.

-Jordan Bastian, MLB.com

Look, I'm not a Byrnes hater but it's obvious that his defense is sub-par due to his many bad reads and a horrible arm. He has a propensity to dive for too many balls and if things go wrong and nobody's there to back you up...

Byrnes can be a backup CF, used when Kotsay's hurt or needs a rest, but to be an everyday starter in that position? Hell no.

Let's hope the A's road funk ends before long.

Insomnia: My prayers go out to London.

2005-07-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys, the London thing's really got me bothered. It looks really bad and I do pray for those affect over there. Although the authorities are being smart and not jumping to conclusions, I however will venture to guess this isn't an accident or the IRA, but Al Qaeda.

This attack has shut down London's Financial District and Europen Stock Markets are currently tumbling. Isn't it Al Qaeda's MO to try to disrupt the economy of the West? The World Trade Center was target because of that, and a similar economic effect is happening in Europe and will probably hit our shores as soon as our markets open in a few hours.

Think of the coordination and the scale of the attacks of the attacks. Seven-plus explosions on both the Underground and bus systems in morning rush hour. I never heard of IRA attacks that have coordinated multiple bombings intended to do economic harm in addition to the chaos and destruction that a terrorist attack creates.

When will it be us again? I fear the Iraq quagmire is bogging down our resources instead of American forces sweeping Afghanistan and strengthening our Homeland defense. Airports and other high profile targert are more secure, but what about the more mundane things, like buses and trains? How is this reconciled with budget cuts in almost every major transit agancy?

Again, my prayers go out to those in London.

UPDATE 3:37 AM: Despite the British accents, the feed from Sky News I hear on KCBS feels eerily similar to the broadcasts that took over our airwaves after 9/11. I need sleep.

OT: Explosion in the London Undergound

2005-07-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

As I was about to go to bed, I turned my radio on to KCBS as white noise to help me sleep. I don't think it will be wise for me to listen to news radio while trying to sleep tonight.

Tube warning after 'bang' heard BBC News

British Transport Police said there were "walking wounded" but one person's life was reported to be "at risk".

The KCBS reports seem much more dire than this, it seems that more than one person was "at risk," and a breaking news report that a bus exploded in front of Scotland Yard.

I pray to God this isn't a terrorist attack.

"Shades of Willie Mays!"

2005-07-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

OAK 0, TOR 8

Does anybody remember that? It was from either the last year they did Triple Play Baseball, or the first year they did MVP Baseball.

This game sure brought back some not so fond memories of May. Especially on a situation where Ellis grounded into a DP with the bases loaded. The A's didn't really have a problem with getting people on base today, they just had a problem driving them in for runs.

Chavez was an o-fer today, his o-fers usually coincide with an A's loss, it's a rare day when he fails to get a hit and the A's win anyways. This game was just a montage of unkind flashbacks of May. And like the month of May, this was a shutout.

I had a funny feeling that the A's were going to lose today. I felt that they burned through some karma for a win yesterday. I'm not worrying much, Harden's up tomorrow.

Let's go for the series win.

Being a Professional

2005-07-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a professional musician. And why not, I make money making music. However, I don't make a living making music, I'm not at that level just yet. I've always believed that the moment you accept money doing something is the day you leave the ranks of the amateur and join the ranks of the professional.

Although my first paid role was about a year ago and I have done paid gigs as a singer since about 2002, I've always carried myself as a professional. I believe it's the polite thing to do when in a show. To me, carrying a professional demeanor means; showing up to calls on time, unless you explain a conflict to the right people well in advance, do what's asked of you, and treat everybody with the courtesy and respect they deserve. There is no room for divas and divos in the professional world of today, at least that's what I believe.

The flip side of being a professional is being treated with respect by those around you. I feel that in one of the shows I'm doing, I'm not treated with the courtesy and respect I give them. It eats me up inside and I try not to let it affect me, I've always felt that if I start bitching to directors that they'll think that I'm having a "divo moment" and think I'm being less than professional. So I keep these things inside me, and usually I just let it slide and we're all good.

I'm not going to go into detail of my troubles because I don't want The Seventh Inning Stretch to turn into a gossip blog and to air things out without going through the proper channels is, well, un-professional.

I can't do this anymore, at least not with this show, it's affecting me outside of the show.

So under a friend's advice I did voice my grievances in as much of a courteous fashion as I could. I used email because I could calmly gather my thoughts while typing on a computer instead of rambling emotionally in person.

So consider this a shout-out to Sean Cooper, a very talented individual who's going to make it in Musical Theatre (as opposed to me) for many reasons especially:

He's white (I'm asian)
He has the right kind of voice for Musical Theatre (light, while mine is big and heavy, or layman's terms "operatic," although we're both high tenors)

On top of that he's an excellent human being. I can't say he and I are the closest of friends, but I can trust him with anything. Did I mention he's an A's fan?

I think I'm done with Musical Theatre. The worst part is, I really love Musicals. At the level I'm at I feel like I'm stagnating and I can't stand the drama, and drama is un-professional. I can't seem to make it to the next level, even though I try, for many reasons I have stated before (ethnicity, height, weight, type of voice, etc.). After this summer I'm going to take a big break and not perform in one. I may design or try my hand as a conductor/musical director but as an actor, I'm done.

Here's to opera.

It's official...

2005-07-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

OAK 10, TOR 7 11 innings

The A's are no longer a bunch of losers. However, the A's aren't a bunch of winners either, they're a .500 team now. With today's extra innings victory over the Blue Jays, the A's have made a triumphant return to .500. I never knew I could be so happy seeing the A's at .500.

Today was also another rarity, a slugfest. In this season the vast majority of A's victories were either close games or blowouts, it's rare to see the A's allow seven runs and still win.

Bobby Crosby, you are the man. Crosby just has that extra something, and that extra something is a big part of the A's resurgence, in my opinion. As long as he doesn't get himself or another teammate hurt anytime soon, it's all good. Crosby is a guy who refuses to lose. I remember after the A's were eliminated from playoff contention last year, he was visibly pissed. You could have seen that from the telecast. He as an intensity and fire I deeply respect. I believe that he has the same kind of fire in baseball as I have in music. I hope my career in music can be as sucessful as his in baseball.

Mr. Macha, why did you put in Street for a five out save? Roman's going to have a field day on this. You could have put in Yabu or even Duke (you know, the All-Star) in the eighth. I have serious concerns that Street's arm is being abused. Just because this guy once pitched eight innings of relief for the Longhorns doesn't mean you can trot him out for multiple innings. I know there was a botched DP in the ninth, but I think having Street coming in fresh in the ninth could have made things different.

Well, at least the A's won despite the blown save and the botched DP, unlike in Seattle.

Why Lew Wolff is better than Steve Schott

2005-07-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

From the Billy Beane interview over at Athletics Nation:

Blez: Has your overall budget increased since Lew took over? Or will it be basically more of the same?

Beane: There's the right time to do things and Lew is all for making good baseball decisions. I would probably say, let's do it at the right time. When the right baseball decision comes along and it fits short-term and long-term, then I have no doubt (the budget will increase) as he said it to me. But there's a right time to do some things. I won't necessarily go out tomorrow and take on some bloated contract so everyone can say, "Hey, they're spending money." That's not the right thing to do or the right way to run the business.

(empahsis, mine)

The only way this goodwill can be burned is by having the A's move out of the area. Consider this a warning, Mr. Wolff.

What I am ecstatic about is the fact that the A's payroll is going to go up is the correct opportunity presents itself. In this respect the A's are doing all the right things, they've signed Harden and Crosby (I think) to long term deals and the way the A's have been dealing recently, I can easily envision a payroll of around $70 million next year. Now that Beane has money, I wonder how this is going to affect the trade situations this year, how will the extra payroll room be utilized?

If the A's had this kind of resources like that back in the heyday of the Big Three the A's might have made it past the ALDS. I still maintain that 2002 should have been a repeat of the Bay Bridge Series.

I'm glad to see the new ownership is running the A's as more than just a profit making business, as Schott and Hoffman did in their tenure.

After the A's were elminated from the playoffs by the Red Sox in 2003, Beane publically stated that if he had a higher payroll the A's would go deeper into the playoffs. I think it's time for Billy to put his money where his mouth is.

Billy Beane + $$$ = Championships?

I'm not talking about '05 but subsequent years, of course.

Now, if only the stadium issue can be resolved quickly.

No A's baseball today...

2005-07-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

What? No A's baseball on the fourth of July? That's so un-American.

Happy Independence Day.

As it should be

2005-07-03T15:32:00.000-07:00

CWS 2, OAK 7

I wasn't worried ablut last night's loss (CWS 5, OAK 3) for two reasons. One, I was pretty drunk last night at a friends Independence Day Party and by the time I sobered up, felt too lazy to update or post on this blog, sorry. Secondly, Friday night was the game the A's should have won anyways, Harden was on the mound. Saturday was the A's number five vs Garland, one of the better pitchers for the ChiSox and a so-called lock for the All Star Game. Today would be the true test of the state of the A's. Buehrle against Zito, who contrary to his record has been pretty hot as of late.

At first, I thought it was same old Zito, doing good except for a solo home run or two and getting pegged for a loss thanks to paltry run support. Before the offense broke out the A's were leaving base runners on like crazy.

The A's are either lucky or good. After taking a series from the winningest team in the American League, I think the A's are getting good. They are now one game under .500.

Deja Vu

2005-07-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

7.1.05
CHW 2, OAK 6

6.30.05
SEA 2, OAK 6

6.29.05

SEA 2, OAK 6

Spot a trend? Wierd, isn't it? After suffering through a few eight game losing streaks earlier in the season, it sure feels good that the A's are on the winning end of a eight game streak.

Rich Harden had a rocky start to the game but got better with each passing inning. Jose Contreras started the game sharp but got progressively worse and wilder with each passing inning.

Despite throwing nearly 40 pitches in the top of the first, Harden acquitted himself well the the following pitching line:

R. Harden: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 5 K, 1 BB

Contreras didn't even last five.

Early in the game the A's had a hard time executing in clutch situations. Later, in another bases loaded situation in the fifth, instead of getting a hit the A's drew two walks, walking in two runs and leaving the bases loaded. Is there a such thing as "clutch walking?"

It wasn't until the eighth inning where the A's finally executed in yet another bases loaded situation. The A's have a really wretched LOB number tonight, but they won, and that's the important thing.

I saw the game from the left field bleachers. I'm glad I sat in LF because the game was really long as the ChiSox burned through their bullpen. The clock hit nine when the game was still in the sixth inning. It was a three hour game. Sitting in the LF bleachers is fun and I'm glad we have a percussion section again.

One observation I made tonight was the new Marco Scutaro chant is eerily reminiscent of the T-Long chant:

[bump, bump] MARCO! [ba-ba-bump] SCUTARO!
[bump bump] T-LONG! [ba-ba-ba-bump] T-LONG!

It's just a little bit eerie, when I heard that, I had flashbacks of T-Long's tumultous departure from Oakland. Not the flashbacks of the good times he had when he first was traded to the A's. I'm not a big fan of the new Scutaro chant. The good old "MARCO....SCUTARO!" is good enough for me.

As the game was long, so was my BART ride home. My train was stuck at the Coliseum station for almost ten minutes as the paramedics were called to assist with somebody who was sick or injured. It probably was serious, since an ambulance was called. I didn't get home till almost midnight.

All in all, good game.

Goodbye June, you have been kind to me.

2005-06-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

SEA 2, OAK 6

The A's have gone 19-8 in June and won seven of the eight series in this month. A team that was once firmly in the AL West cellar is now poised to break back to .500 and overtake the Rangers for second place. That's what a hot month can do to you.

As Haren had a minor hiccup in the second inning allowing back to back solo home runs, I was not concerned about the A's losing. I had a feeling that their pitching was going to give way sooner or later and the A's could come back from behind. However I was afraid of losing the "Guess the Outcome Game" over at AN. In a fit out optimistic euphoria on Sunday I had predicted the starters ERA at 2.00 for the series and today, I was hoping for Haren to last long enough to keep the ERA down. Now I don't look like that big of a fool over there.

The A's refused to lose and won in the end.

Although the LOB numbers remain high, I'm glad the A's are really starting to execute in vital offensive situations. Now it's time for the Mariners to out-hit their opposition only to lose the game. O, how I tired of that in May.

Also, Ichiro was caught stealing second today. But Melhuse was behind the plate today so it wasn't that big of a surprise. However, it is good to see Haren be much more confident in situatons where there are runners on, especially speedsters like Ichiro. Haren got burned in a Tampa Bay series early in the season because the D-Rays stole at will with him on the mound. At the time he took damn near forever to get set on the mound. His rhythym on the mound has improved vastly.

With another Angels loss today the A's are finally under 10 games behind in the AL West. The White Sox are coming and I think I want to go to the game tomorrow.

We'll see what happens.

A reason for optimism?

2005-06-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

From today's Chronicle:

One stumbling block that has cropped up: Kotsay, who would drop his player option for the deal, would like a no-trade clause, something that the A's have refused. Genske said that he and Kotsay are open to finding a creative means around that, perhaps some sort of limited trade clause.

(empahsis, mine)

I sure hope Kotsay stays for a few more years. If he stays, is this what A's fandom has been looking for all these years, an increased payroll? Will the A's be a $70 million team next year?

Insomnia: Blogging Points

2005-06-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

I've always had difficulty sleeping on hot nights, so I'm just going to express a few thoughts and then try going to bed again.

High Socks and Stirrups on Baseball Players:

There are many female baseball fans who love high socks on baseball players, they think high socks make ballplayers look hotter. I, however like high socks because that's just way a ballplayer should look. A baseball player with high socks and stirrups was the image etched into my mind when I was a little kid. Also, since there has been a mini-revival on the practice of wearing stirrups, I'd like that to come back in wider use. Barry Zito was a pioneer in this field but is now just wearing long green socks now, he needs to go back to stirrups.

The Iraq War and the President's latest remarks (OMG! I'm going political!):

First thing's first, the United States should have never invaded Iraq in the first place. I have always believed that only soft cultural power can create lasting peace. The end of the Cold War was an example of that.

America won the Cold War not by the strength of our military, but by the strength of our economy and culture. At the end, all of the Soviets and the other Eastern Bloc countries wanted to be like Americans and drink Coke, eat at McDonalds, wear blue jeans and listen to rock music. To effectively combat terrorism, one must also eliminate the reasons why people choose to become terrorists. People become terrorists because they feel that they have no other options and their situation is very dire. A big reason of this is the totalitarian regimes in the middle east and the poverty of the average Arab. We must give the people out there a viable and better alternative to terrorism. I feel that the United States is failing in this respect.

That being said, I actually do agree with my president for once. We must stay in Iraq until the job is done. Look, we shouldn't have been there to begin with, but due to American actions there, we created a big mess. We can't leave Iraq a mess. If we abandon Iraq, then Iraq will become a terrorist state, just like what happened to Afghanistan after America abandoned it during the Cold War. Remember, bin Laden was once on "our side" against the Soviets in Afghanistan. If this happens to Iraq, the blood of countless innocents will be on our hands, in addition to the blood of those who have already died.

Liberal Atheists ragging on Christianity:

Whenever an Atheist goes off belittling the Christian Faith I am deeply offended. Often times they say such things like, "Don’t Christians have churches and homes to decorate with the Ten Commandments? Is their faith so fragile that they fear they will stray if not reminded of it constantly?" Always implying that God does not exist and all those of his who worship Him are fools. This is my response.

Yes I am a Liberal, I voted for Howard Dean in the Primaries last year and I have voted Democrat since I my first election at age 18. I also happen to be a Roman Catholic. A Liberal Atheist who consistantly derides religion and mocks the faithful is no better than a Conservative Fundamentalist who tries to impose a Christian morality on all Americans, Chrisitan or not.

We're supposed to be the better ones.

I don't walk up to Atheists and say they're going to hell for not worshipping God, so please don't come up to me and criticize the way I worship.

Remember, Dr. Martin Luther King was an ordained minister and a Christian. The Abolitionists who tried to free the slaves were Christian.

If you wish to mock Fundamentalist Christians you can say they are straying from Jesus' teachings that promote Peace on Earth or being a good steward to God's Creation. I still maintain that I am more Christian than many of those Fundamentalists out there and that being liberal and religious aren't mutually exclusive.

On the Ten Commandments and the recent Supreme Court decision:

I could see how the court would swing both ways. The Ten Commandments display can be construed as an establishment of a religion. However American Legal Code is based on older legal codes, such as English Common Law, Justinian's Code, or even much older laws such as the Law of Hammurabi or, the Ten Commandments. The descision is right, it's case by case and dependant on context.

If it's a plaque with all of the commanments written on it especially the first one ("I am the LORD they God...") then yes, it's illegal becuase it does promote a religion. But if it's more abstract with the tablets with just the Roman Numerals combined with another display of other ancient legal codes, then I can't see the problem with it. The display shows the evolution of the law, from it's beginnings to the present day.

That's it, I'm done, I'm sleepy now.

Summer has arrived

2005-06-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

SEA 2, OAK 6

Yes, summer has finally arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area. It actually felt hot today and justified the wearing of shorts, and flip-flops. Earlier in the season I was wearing shorts and flip-flops out of defiance saying to myself, "It's summer dammit, and I'm going to dress like it's summer."

Just as a red wine goes with a steak and a nice Riesling goes with Pork Chops (trust me on this), baseball is the perfect thing to go with a summer day. As the horrid month of May gave way to a glorious (that's how you spell it, Blez) June a certain quote from Shakespeare come to mind:

"Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this sun of York."

-William Shakespeare, Richard III

The winter that was our discontent in May has been turned into glorious summer by this recent streak good exciting baseball by the A's. The A's are curently in their longest win streak of the season at six games and with today's victory over the Mariners, have now won eight of their last nine series. The A's are also three games below .500. There was a time when I thought the A's would never come close to .500.

The bats are alive, the extra base hitting is happening, the pitching is on, that is way the A's are winning. I mean the A's have hit three doubles tonight.

Let's go for the sweep.

LAA 6, TEX 7 11 innings

The A's have gained a game against the Angels but are still 2.5 games behind the Rangers. Still pondering who I should "root" for, but after tomorrow, it would be too late.

Dilemma

2005-06-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

SEA 1, OAK 8

So this is what happens when Zito gets some run support. Barry Zito pitches well and gets a win when he gets some run support, what a novel concept.

Back in May, while I was in the depths of despair from the horrible A's funk I wrote a post on my other blog, The Standing Ovation. At the end of my post I did a quick analysis of the predicament of the A's at that time, it went something like this:

I'm not going to do a sabermetric analysis on the A's. In the end it'd be a bunch of fancy looking numbers and abbreviated gobbledygook that can be boiled down to:
The A's aren't winning because they fail to drive in runners in scoring position. This is attributed to:

Lack of power hitting, in general.

Lack of extra base hits.

OBP and slaphitters don't win you games, they just put you in a position to win games. The A's need some consistent extrabase hitting. And they also need to get Kendall out of batting in the 3-hole.

Well in the month of June the A's are drawing walks and those walks are followed up by extra base hits (like Kielty's 2 doubles today and the hit parade on Sunday). The A's offense is finally showing some power. That coupled with quality starting pitching is recipe for winning A's baseball.

The A's were in last place a week ago when they started their most previous series with the Mariners, now they are in third. The A's have been a tear lately and in about two weeks they went from bottom feeders to knocking on second place, this brings me to my dilemma.

LAA 5, TEX 1 11 innings

Who do I want to lose in the other AL West matchup? If the Angels lose the series, the gap between the A's and the division leaders is narrower, but the A's would remain in third place. If the Rangers lose the series, the A's would have a very good chance for second place by the end of the week but they would not gain much (if any) ground against the Angels.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. The A's should focus on their goals in the following order and I shouldn't let my expectations get out of control:

get to a .500 record
get into second place
the Wild Card
the AL West

If the A's just accomplish their first two goals on the list, I would be a happy man.

Just when I thought things were going good...

2005-06-28T00:37:00.000-07:00

Another reason why I read blogs. Just check this out:

Barry Bonds and Oakland's Big Three aren't the only things missing at the Bay Area's baseball stadiums this summer. The pennant races that have provided excitement for nearly a decade seem like a long shot right now for both the Athletics and Giants.

So far, it's been a bummer summer by the Bay. The 49ers aren't even playing and they've been making headlines for their now infamous training video. It's those perennial losers the Golden State Warriors Â gasp! Â who many area sports fans are turning their attention to now.

"I don't blame the fans for being disappointed," A's outfielder Eric Byrnes said. "I don't think anybody expected us to have the record we do at this point of the season."

The Giants were swept and completely embarrassed by Oakland over the weekend, including Sunday's 16-0 loss on the heels of their five-error game Saturday. And while the A's are on a roll, they're still 10 1/2 games back in the AL West and five games under .500....

(emphasis, mine)

-"Bay Area Baseball Fans Getting Impatient" by Janie McCauley, AP

Although I do consider myself a nice guy and a gentleman and try my absolute best to be nice to those of the opposite sex, I can't help but to say, "You're an idiot Janie!"

First of all the A's and Giants have not enjoyed playoff appearances for the last decade. Ten years ago, they weren't even contenders, they sucked. The Giants got good (as in become a playoff contender) again at about '97 and the A's returned to respectability in '99 or 2000. One also forgets to note that both teams failed to make the playoffs last year.

Secondly, yes, the A's are still 11 games behind the Angels but A's fans are in no way "impatient" as the title of the column implies. Just look around the A's blogosphere on my sidebar, we are all, for the most part, happy and content. Giants fans on the other hand..Well, let's not talk about them. Yes, this team is probably not going to the playoffs (despite what a few overzealous fans might say on Athletics Nation), but the A's are a fun and exciting team to watch again. Also, a great deal of us A's fans know that 2006 will be a better year, Giants fans on the other hand...

"Miss the Big Three?" Not really, considering that Danny Haren, one of the guys we got from the Mulder trade is actually doing better than Mulder and Hudson's on the DL again. The A's starting rotation is solid, even if the rookies have a bad outing every once in awhile. If Oakland still had the Big Three, the record would not be adversely affected. The A's would still suck.

Please, get your facts straight. If you're writing something about the fans, why don't you interview a few? I thing I can say is us A's fans are not impatient with this team. We're not like a bunch of asshole Yankee fans where it's always "Championship or Nothing."

Nothing gets me more riled up than horrible reporting and ignorant, half-baked opinions. If I only knew that the standards were so low, I would have gone into journalism.

Bragging Rights...

2005-06-27T23:47:00.000-07:00

They sure are sweet, especially the traditonally pro-Giants press starts wrtiting stuff like this:

"The 2005 Giants are worse than bad. They are excruciating to watch."

I have been waiting for this day for quite some time. Today is the day the Giants pay for always building a team to make the playoffs now and not creating a team who will contend for a few years. Now the Giants are a team with too many bad contracts. Although they have more monetary resources than the A's I really think it's going to take some time for them to dig out of this, a la the 49ers.

The best thing the Giants have is they're probably not going to lose too many bandwagon fans (although they will probably lose alot) because they have a nice ballpark in a trendy neighborhood while the A's have their stadium in the ghetto. The Giants should be thankful for a lot East Bay drama surrounding a new A's ballpark.

Insomnia: My love/hate relationship with Musical Theatre

2005-06-27T01:14:00.000-07:00

After promising myself not to do any Musical Theatre for awhile I find myself back in the saddle. I just haven't had positive experinces in Musical Theatre in the last few years, I've been accused of being too fat, not white enough (or not being white at all), too young, too short, sounding too much like an opera singer and "limited acting range." Thank you Music Department at Cal State ~~Hayward~~ East Bay, you have totally transformed me into a ~~dumb singer~~ musician. It's good to know that my $1200 a quarter was put to good use.

The show I'm doing is Children of Eden at Cal State. I'm doing this show because I'm helping out a friend who is the Music Director of the production and to use this summer as a "victory lap" at the Theatre Department I started my college education at over six years ago. Besides, they gave me a fee waiver and I'm going to school for free this quarter. I'm taking some classes I didn't do too well or withdrew from my freshman year. I'm so almost done with my undergrad degree.

My current culmulative GPA is 2.91, not bad, especially considering I spent my first two or three years at Cal State as a total and complete drunk. Although I still talk a good game about drinking and getting drunk nowadays, I am responsible now, trust me. Two and a half years ago, my cumulative was at 2.2, I've worked my ass off to improve my grade and I really want to leave Cal State with at least a 3.0 cumulative. It would look good for grad school. Which I'm hoping is either going to be Cal or Stanford, with a 3.4 Major GPA, I think I have a shot. And if I don't, it's San Jose State for my Masters (in Musicology, not Performance) and I'll apply again to Cal and Stanford for my Doctorate.

Back to musicals. I'm glad I'm with the show, I have a cool solo, though I don't have a part and I think I'm going to have fun. Music rehearsals have been a blast, if not physically exaustive. The music's good but the tessitura is very high for Musical Theatre. Tessitura is a fancy Italian term for "where most of the notes sit," you can have a piece with a moderate tessitura and still have high notes if most of the notes of the piece are in the middle of your comfortable range. Children of Eden does not do that. Most of the tenor line sits at the top of the "tenor" treble clef E,F,G,Ab. For a comparison, most tenor parts in your average musical rarely touches G let alone sit around there for a very long time.

It's Stephen Schwartz. Stephen Schwartz is to American Musical Theatre is like French Opera to the rest of Opera, very high tessitura. I am so spent at the end of rehearsals, but at least I'm a smart singer and I mark often when I'm tired.

I love Musical Theatre, but it pains me to the ends of the Earth that I don't see any immediate future in it. The American Idol-ization of the genre kills my enjoyment of the art and my chances of getting parts. Casting directors want a light, aspirated, pop-like sound when they're casting nowadays. I walk in and when they hear me they think "opera singer" even though I'm singing with my Musical Theatre voice because my voice is big. The ironic part is I'm not ready for big opera parts, not yet.

I feel that outside perceptions is forcing me into a box. I guess the best thing I can do is to get comfortable in that box, work hard to get better, then break out of it. I guess Children of Eden is going to be my last musical for awhile. If I've been forced into the "opera box" then let me explore it for a bit. Although I love Musicals, I've always had more fun performing operas, there's less personal baggage and excessive egos in opera, at least from what I've seen so far.

OT: In other news...

2005-06-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

U.S. Box Office Hits Longest Modern Slump

All I can say is, no duh.

The vast majority of movies out there are either:

remakes
sequels
based on a comic book

There's nothing out there (in wide distribution) that really stretches the moviegoers experience and expectations out of a movie. You know the current slate of movies this year is in a dire state when Batman Begins is one of the best movies you've seen all year, and it's June.

Don't get me wrong, though, Batman is awesome.

Also...

Sharks lower ticket prices (registration required)

A great move by the Sharks to attract more fans to the HP Pavilion...If only the NHL wasn't on strike. I miss Sharks hockey.

Giants Suck

2005-06-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

SF 0, OAK 16

First, a haiku:

Your SF Giants
seem to play sub-par baseball
without Barry Bonds

And what sub-par baseball it was, the Giants got swept out of Oakland in a record setting (or tying) day for the A’s. Today the A’s won with the biggest shutout margin, ever. The eight doubles hit today tied another franchise record. Rich Harden pitched seven innings of one-hit shutout ball and Jason Kendall was tearing it up like it was his birthday, oh wait, it was his birthday. Kendall went three for three with a walk and three RBI. Kendall is slowly become what he we expected all along, a catcher who could handle a staff with a slightly sub-par arm who can get on base like a fiend.

A month ago, the A's were in a deep funk and the Giants were doing all right considering their injury situation. O, how the fortunes have changed since the A's and the Giants last met.

I stopped really watching the game at around the seventh inning. It's fun to see the A's blow somebody out like this, I haven't seen something like that in a long time. The Giants got emasculated today and left town with their tail between their legs. The bragging rights belong to this side of the bay and the A's are up in the overall series by two games. The A's are slowly inching their way from the cellar.

It's a good day to be an A's fan, and a really sucky day to be a Giants fan.

Comedy of Errors

2005-06-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

SF 3, OAK 6

Comedies are funny, and today's game was very funny, at least to us A's fans. Your SF Giants committed five errors and there were many a routine fly ball dropped by the outfield. There were a few times when the ball left the bat and I thought "Oh God, pop up" and it turned into an error. The Giants aren't a dome team, they can't blame their errors on not being used to playing in the sun. When you commit five errors in a game, you don't deserve to win.

The A's still have problems in RISP situations, but again, why bitch? The A's are winning and with Seattle's loss, are out of last place.

Tailgating was fun, we ate all the food we brought and drank almost all of our beers. My cell phone broke today, but thankfully the phone was under warranty. Unfortunately, all my phone numbers are lost.

Attention: all cute girls who I have exchanged phone numbers in the last few weeks, call me, I lost your number! It's not my fault! I don't want to dig through my cell phone bill to find your number, and besides, it feels stalker-ish.

Who am I kidding?

The A's now lead the overall series by one game.

The Smell of Marinade

2005-06-25T00:57:00.000-07:00

SF 3, OAK 4

I will be tailgating before the game tomorrow, I think I'm going to get pretty drunk. I have bought beer, hot links and flank steak. The scent of the flank steak marinade still lingers on my hands and soon I will go to bed.

So this is another warning, I'm probably going to be too drunk to blog about tomorrow's game. We'll see what happens.

Today I "watched" the game on my laptop via gameday. I was working at the Theatre at Cal State, it was a dance event. These dance events are unique it combines art with athletics. The art part is the dance, the athletic part is the chatter ranging from "Pop it Girl!" to a drunken father's "Go Haley! Shake what your mother gave you!" And believe me, all quotes are taken verbatim.

I could say I was distracted by the game, especially in the later innings when the Giants closed up the lead. My eyes darted between Gameday, the game thread on Athletics Nation and the show. I can honestly say that I only messed up a cue or two. Not bad. And the show was pretty good to, the dance company that visited Cal State was a good one this time.

The game was all in all exciting, if at times frustrating. For a while, during the seventh inning I thought this was going to be Wednesday Redux, I was thinkfully wrong. The A's won despite having atrocious LOB number, but I can't bitch too much, the A's won, and it was against the Giants.

The overall series is now tied.

New A's Ballpark: The Plot Thickens

2005-06-24T15:50:00.000-07:00

The Oakland Athletics of Fremont, California?

I'll take it.

Although I would like the A's to stay in Oakland, Fremont is a very viable alternative. And I swear that I'm not biased because it's my hometown. I think many A's fans agree, Fremont is still East Bay.

The City of Fremont officially joined the fray today when Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman (voted for him) and County Supervisor Scott Haggerty (also voted for him) wrote a letter urging A's owner Lew Wolff to relocate the A's to Fremont if their options in Oakland don't work out.

The Argus broke the story today and is the cause celebre of the A's blogosphere today. Well, just AN and New A's ballpark.

The site in question is a big parcel of empty land owned by NUMMI (to see picture, click here), an auto plant jointy owned by Toyota and GM where Toyota Tacomas (that's my truck) are assembled, the only auto plant in California, to be exact. The land is perfect for a ballpark, it's close to two freeways (I-880 and I-680) and close to the proposed BART extension. However there are some obstacles because NUMMI want to expand their facilities, I hear. Check out New A's ballpark, this guy has his ear very close to the ground when it comes to this.

There's a second, less transit friendly plan to build the ballpark across 880 from the NUMMI plant at Pacific Commons, a new shopping center of big box retailers. Either way, it seems that the political leadership is willing to be firmly behind ballpark plans in Fremont, unlike in Oakland where half committals seem to fall through, as in the hype for the estuary plan.

Now why would Fremont want the A's? I believe it's a move to get more things to do in Fremont. Fremont is two things, a bedroom community and the northern end of Silicon Valley. It has no vibrant city center where people dine out, or hip trendy entertainment districts where young people go out to on a Friday night. I know, I live there. A big issue at each mayoral election is how the candidates try to keep the money of Fremontians in Fremont.

A good example is me. The money I make I usually spend in localities outside of Fremont, such as; San Francisco (drinking, the opera, the symphony, plays, etc.), Oakland (the A's), Berkeley (drinking and Cal Football), Alameda (drinking; mostly at Lucky 13 and McGee's), Hayward (drinking and school), Newark (where I buy most of my clothes; NewPark Mall), Pleasanton (the other place where I buy my clothes; Stoneridge Mall), Union City (movies) and Dublin (movies). What money I spend in Fremont is usually on groceries and gas.

I am pretty sure that Fremont officials envision a ballpark could be the spark in which an entertainment district filled with bars and restaurants could built, thus keeping the hard earned cash of Fremontians in Fremont, and hopefully some cash of some out-of-towners. Also it might bring some prestige to the city.

Yeah, this is a symbolic move but what a symbol for Fremont the A's would be is they moved here.

If the move occures, they're probably going to remain the Oakland A's, since there's a preceedent on naming conventions. The old PCL Oakland Oaks actually played in Emeryville where Pixar Studios now stand. The other options would probably be; The Fremont Athletics, The California Athletics (stealing a page from the Angels) or The Oakland Athletics of Fremont (really stealing a page from the Angels).

The Battle for Third Place: DAY 4

2005-06-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

OAK 5, SEA 0

The Battle for Third Place may have been lost last night, but the series has been won today. How about that? What is this, six out of seven series won since Crosby's return from the DL? Now this is the A's baseball I remember; fun, exciting and winning.

Last night, in the depths of despair from the dissapointing extra innings loss we were lamenting the status of our bullpen. We feared that since Saarloos was "five inning pitcher" the bullpen might be too depleted of fresh available arms to keep the game close once Saarloos was out of a game. We were resigned to accecpt a series split, and I am sure I wasn't the only one with a defeatist attitude last night. It was because we were absolutely sure that Saarloos can't go deep into a game.

Well Kirk Saarloos served up a lot of crow for us A's fans to eat today, and I, for one, will eat it with relish. Here's his pitching line:

K. Saarloos: 9 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K

We didn't even need the bullpen today. His last two starts have been stellar and not only that he has been getting deeper and deeper into games, culminating in a four hit complete game shutout.

And now the A's come back home to face the BALCO Giants of San Francisco. In the history of inteleague play, the A's and Giants have been tied for the overall series. The Giants won the first series two out of three and I am more than confident that the A's will win this series. How about a sweep, so the A's can have the overall series lead by one game going into next year. We already have a better record than the Giants, lets now take the series.

Bay Area bragging rights are on the line. With the playoffs a longshot for both teams, this time, it counts.

The Battle for Third Place: DAY 3

2005-06-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

OAK 4, SEA 5 12 innings

Why Bobby? Why? A DP could have ended the game? If you didn't GIDP with the bases loaded in the eigth. So many missed opportunities, it hurts...

Let's win the series tomorrow, Oakland.

What a letdown.

Oh yeah, The Battle for Third Place is lost (at least for this series), the best we can do is pull to within a half game of Seattle tomorrow.

UPDATE 11:22PM: Ken Macha is a Moron and I Hate Him (AKA Fire Ken Macha in my blogroll) is going to have a field day. Because this is how I feel about Macha.

The Battle for Third Place: DAY 2

2005-06-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

OAK 4, SEA 2

Wow...it's like as if Harden never left the A's. If it wasn't for the fact the he was pulled after pitching five innings of one-run ball. Harden will probably be kept on a short leash to ease him back to the big leagues.

But the big story around the MLB tonight is how bad the Deil Rays are. It takes a special team to cough up a huge lead and then some. I mean special as in short-bus special.

I was in Alameda earlier in the day and saw the beginning of the Yanks-DRays game at Scobies, it was Taco Tuesday and those dollar tacos are pretty good. I casually looked at the game and saw this:

TB 10, NYY 2 BOT 4

Hours later during a rehearsal where I kept my laptop on the internet on MLB Gameday gamecast of the A's/Mariners game. God bless college productions, ethernet drops in every rehearsal room because they double as classrooms. I happened to catch the the final score from the Yanks/DRays game.

TB 12, NYY 20 FINAL

Holy Crap, a thirteen run eighth inning? I mean how bad can you possibly be when you cough up an eight run lead and end up eight runs behind?

It harkens back to the old saying that good teams will find a way to win while bad teams will find a way to lose. Granted, this Tampa Bay team has bested the A's in the season series. But the A's are a different creature now and even when the A's sucked they would never suck like the DRays did today.

The Battle for Third Place: DAY 1

2005-06-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

OAK 6, SEA 2

In wondrously horrible month of May (Im wundersam schrecklichen Monat Mai) anything that could go wrong for the A's, did. I'm not saying that everything is breaking in the A's favor but I am very content with this baseball team right now. Both Swisher and Kotsay came out of hitting funks today with home runs. Kendall is getting on base like a fiend, his OBP was crazy today as he was 2 for 3 with 2 walks.

Swish made a sick defensive play robbing Jeremy Reed of a home run.

And what about Haren, another strong start. With each and every start it becomes clearer that this man is the "Rich Harden" of St. Louis organization last year. Again, the Mulder trade is looking good.

And speaking of Rich Harden, this guy is coming off the DL and is starting a game for the A's tomorrow against Joel Piniero. This is earlier than I was expecting. I was thinking he'd be back by Thursday but, this is a very pleasant surprise.

With Third Place at stake, the A's are heating up, and it's about time.

Happy Fathers Day

2005-06-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

PHI 2, OAK 5

Didn't watch the game, did Fathers Day backyard type stuff with my dad. Unfortunately, it involved physical labor. Fortunately, I did have some good "bonding" time with my dad. I wasn't in good earshot of the radio either so I heard snippets of the game only. I knew the the Phils came out early and the A's took the lead later.

Since Crosby's return (and I'm sure I'm not the only one to point this out, I got the idea of this from the Oakland Tribune yesterday) the A's fave won five series out of six. So far, in the month of June the A's are 10-6. With Harden's highly anticipated return and Huston Street recovering from his strained hammy, the A's are only going to get better. Any crazy midseason trades the Beane is going to pull is icing on the cake.

Duchsherer got the save, this man is a good fantasy pickup.

To all you fathers out there, happy Fathers Day.

Tales From the BART Bridge

2005-06-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

If one is going to the Oakland Coliseum by way of BART, then the BART Bridge is an integral part of the Oakland Athletics Baseball Experience. To cite a few examples from around the MLB, Cubs fans have the Wrigleyville bars (been there, I love it), Red Sox fans have Yawkey Way (never been there), Giants fans have the swanky and way-too-expensive bars and restaurants around SBC Park in "South Beach" (been there and I hate it, not because it's the City, I love bar hopping in the City, but it's just too expensive), and us A's fans have the BART Bridge.

The BART Bridge is not a singular event that repeats itself in a game experience. In fact there are two distinct events those are:

The walk to the Coliseum before a game.
The walk to the Oakland Airport/Coliseum BART station after a game

On the way to a game, after going up the steps from Coliseum BART the first thing you see is a fleet of wheelchairs, each staffed by an A's guest services person. These people are waiting patiently to assist any disabled A's patron in getting to the Coliseum. After walking past the wheelchairs you see a group of cops both from the Oakland PD and BART Police. Not fifty feet away from the police resides the scalpers. For the rest of the walk the predominant speech you will hear is "Buying tickets selling tickets?" I don't know how these scaplers can ply their trade in so close proximity to the cops. The cops either don't care or are on the take. I personally think the cops just don't care, but you never know.

After you encounter the scalpers if you look ahead of you the monolithic Mt. Davis, named after the megalomanical owner of the Oakland Raiders, Al Davis, will come into view. That structure serves no purpose whatsoever for baseball games and in my opinion, is one of the worst seats ever made for any sport. The monotony of this mountain of concrete is only broken up by two huge banners. One black banner with the Raiders logo and their "Commitment to Excellence" motto and a green banner with the A's "corporate" logo (the A's use a different logo for their promotional materials). At the other end of the BART Bridge is the BART Plaza, there is a day of game ticket office different kiosks hawking programs and A's merchandise and other promotional offers. One promotion this year is a GM promotion in which a car is awarded to a fan in attendance at every Friday game. I think it's an MLB wide promotion.

For those showing up to games where promotional giveaways are handed out, the gates by the BART Bridge are usually the gate that don't run out of giveaways until much later. That is how I got my A's Brand "Trucker Hat" despite going through the gate while the National Anthem was being sung.

The walk back to the stadium may seem the same but really it's different. First of all in big crowd games such as Yankees, Red Sox or Giants series, the BART Bridge can really be jammed up and secondly, after a disappointing loss, the quarter of a mile to the BART Station can seem like a long march.

Also, there are no scalpers, instead they start selling other things and become hawkers. These hawkers can be really annoying after a crowded game because they take up valuable real estate on the BART Bridge and cause pedestrian traffic congestion. And remember, the magic words with these hawkers is "Five Dollars."

Knockoff A's caps in a variety of colors? Five Dollars.

Knockoff A's T-shirts? Five Dollars.

Knockoff A's jerseys (even Reggie Jackson throwbacks!)? Five Dollars.

DVDs? Ten Dollars.

What? Ten dollars for knockoff DVDs? Why would I buy a knockoff DVD for ten dollars when I can get a fake throwback jersey for five? Besides, those DVDs probably won't even work on my DVD player anyways.

Any mention of a trek back to Coliseum BART is not complete without mentioning the BART Bridge Sax Guy. This guy plays a variety of tunes on a Tenor Sax that is in desperate need of a new reed. He often plays the Flintstones theme but he will surprise you from time to time, his repetoire is far greater than a few Hanna-Barbera cartoon themes.

Once you reach the BART Station the end of your baseball experience is in sight. All you need to do is wait for your BART train and board it. That train will whisk you away to wherever you came from, no worries about traffic jams, that's leaving a baseball game in style.

Shadows and Sunlight

2005-06-18T15:38:00.000-07:00

PHI 1, OAK 2

As I got to my seat just minutes before first pitch most of the Coliseum was in shadow, the sun was obscured by remnants of rain clouds from last night (What is up the rain? It's June!). Jimmy Rollins ripped the second pitch for a solo home run. Then the sun came out.

How about Kirk Saarloos, 6.1 innings of one run ball. And how about Ricardo Rincon, a man that I have often derided as a LOOGY pitching two full innings of scoreless relief. I am sorry for all the bad things I've ever said about you, Ricardo. How about the defense, Mark Kotsay is a stud.

The Duke came in to shut the door on the game in which yours truly and 20,331 other people attended. All throughout the eighth inning I saw Duke warming up in the bullpen and I said, "Where's Huston?" It appears that Street was hurt during pregame warmups. I hope the best for Huston and hope it's just one of those things that require rest, I think Duke will do OK as the backup (of the backup) closer.

All the offense the Phillies could muster was a leadoff home run by East Bay native Jimmy Rollins from Encinal High School in Alameda (he's in my fantasy team!). The A's were outhit by the Phils, but at least they executed in RISP situations.

Jason Kendall's defense still scares me, he couldn't throw out a guy at third with a left handed batter in the box, what gives? And he's not even hitting as advertised, he just keeps on hitting weak-ass infield singles. I guess the A's are paying him $10 million this year to call games, at least he's doing a good job with that. I sure hope this guy warms up like Kotsay did last year.

One more note. I woke up at 11:00 AM this morning for a 12:15 PM start. I got to my seat by the final few notes of the national anthem and still got one of the giveaway hats.

Not a bad hat, I must say.

UPDATE 4:23 PM: OK according to Ken Macha, Huston Street pulled his hamstring. I hope no DL time is involved with this. First Dotel gets Tommy John Surgery and now this, what did the A's do to piss off the closer gods? Was it the Arthur Rhodes thing? If Duke's going to be the temporary closer than I'm picking him up.

Hazing

2005-06-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

From Today's Chronicle:

A's Swisher takes advice, acts like rookie

-By Susan Slusser

Before Oakland's 9-6 loss to New York at the Coliseum, Swisher explained that he is listening to the advice of some veteran players and just trying to do his job without some of the chatter and swagger that has characterized him since he came up in September.

"As of late, I haven't stood out,'' said Swisher, who made a diving catch in foul territory and hit a two-run homer and had an RBI single. "I try to be the guy who hides in the corner. It's not me, but it's something I need to work on, to be the guy who lies in the weeds, does what he's told.''

When third baseman Eric Chavez told the A's to straighten up and fly right on the team bus after being swept at Washington last week, the remarks were especially aimed at some of the younger players. Among other things, Chavez explained the next day, some of the young players were "too comfortable. '' When he was coming up, he said, there were standards to adhere to, and Chavez didn't want those to slip.

(snip)

"Still, there have got to be certain boundaries. I keep telling Swish he's lucky Tony Phillips (a fierce type who played for Oakland when Chavez was a rookie) isn't here.''

Several veterans have ridden Swisher pretty hard. Mark McLemore did so last fall, and catcher Jason Kendall has spoken to the right fielder numerous times this year. The themes, according to Kendall, are, "As a rookie, you want to lay low and don't do anything until someone says something. Keep your head in your locker and don't say anything.''

Consider Nick Swisher hazed.

Two tell tale signs that Swish was recently been hazed:

Veterans were trying to "put Swisher in his place" because he was too cocky.
After the hazing he's been told that's he got it easy compared to when the veterans had to go through it when they were rookies.

I think this is working out pretty well. I hope the Swisher concentrates on his baseball and not on being Nick Swisher. I honestly beliebe one needs cockiness and high self esteem to be able to perform in pressure situations but too much cockiness is always a bad thing, no matter what your occupation is.

I'm glad to see Chavez stepping out of his shell and lead the clubhouse for a change. He may not be a cheerleader, but he can lead with his bat and whatever wisdom he can impart.

This does not mean I condone hazing in any form because hazing, when perfromed by idiots, can go horribly wrong. The Carrington family has my deepest condolences.

This is wrong

2005-06-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

NYM 9, OAK 6

First of all, it's raining today, and hard. If the game was a night game it would have been rained out. It's not supposed to rain in mid-June in Northern California. This is not Atlanta, Chicago or even Hong Kong, but it's Northern California.

The A's lost today, which I was half expecting a loss since Ryan Glynn, our backup number five guy, I guess, took the mound. How the A's lost however, was not expected.

Juan Cruz had another meltdown on the mound resulting in a seven run fifth inning for the Mets. Granted, Glynn lost the lead with 3-run Beltran blast but the game was still in reach when Juan Cruz came in. Instead of putting the fire out, he poured gasoline on it. Instead of being a fireman he was a Ray Bardbury fireman and started burning things, like the firemen in Farenheit 451. This guy has good stuff but, he's just wrong in the head. Send him down to AAA, he's no good to himself or the team in Oakland.

With Meyer still injured and Charles Thomas in AAA looking for his swing (and apparently suceeding), the Tim Hudson trade isn't looking so good. But on the other hand, neither is Hudson; he has oblique troubles, again.

Seriously, why didn't they use Yabu in long relief? I trust him more than I trust Cruz, and ethnicity has nothing to do with it.

On the good news department, Harden's going to start his rehab assignment in Sacramento tomorrow. And please check out Batman Begins, this is probably the best movie I've seen all summer. It was everything I expected and more. Good action and deep, deep plot. The Batman Franchise has redeemed itself.

Nice one, MLB.com

2005-06-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, the mixup between Rich HARDEN and Danny HAREN. To clarify for those at MLB.com Rich HARDEN is the one of the DL who just threw a simluated game and is about to begin his rehab assignment. Danny HAREN was the guy who struck out eight in seven innings.

Clutch/Unclutch

2005-06-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

NYM 2, OAK 3

Clutch: With two on, two out, in the bottom of the ninth Marco Scutaro hits a game winning RBI single to drive in Bobby Kielty. No extra innings needed. The A's have now won three in a row and are poised to sweep the Mets tomorrow.

Unclutch: The Angels lose to the Nationals 1-0 while leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Angels fans are pissed.

It's good to see a team that's not the A's have RISP disease. It's also good to see two very strong outings from the highly touted rookies of the A's starting rotation. The A's have been playing with a new energy since Crosby's return from the DL, it's as if the season started in late May. Consider the corner turned.

The rational part of me knows that the playoffs are mostly out of the question. But the dreamer says, "Remember the 2003 Marlins, anything can happen." The dreamer in me is also ecstatic that the gap between first place and last place in the AL West is back in the single digits.

Despite the A's being in the AL West cellar. I'm a happy man.

Go Joe!

2005-06-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

NYM 0, OAK 5

Joe Blanton had a perfect game coming into the fifth inning. He then had a one hitter coming into the eighth. In a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the eighth with one out Huston Street came in and tossed a wet blanket on the Mets rally by inducing a DP.

He then finished the game allowing only one hit to Carlos Beltran in the ninth to notch his fourth big league save.

And thus, Apu's favorite squadron, the Ny-Mets were defeated.

The day started in confusion when it was reported by the Sac Bee that Keith Ginter was called up from AAA. The most confusing part was that the callup wasn't feautred prominently in the article (registration required), it was buried in the middle of the article and wasn't prominent in any way.

I heard rumors that Ginter was called up to start tongiht, but what really surprised me was he was starting at 3B and Chavez was DHing. It turns out that Chavez has a sore shoulder and is resting from the defense for a few days. Perhaps it's the sore shoulder that affected his offence today. He was an 0-fer.

I honestly believe that Ginter is being shopped. There's a plethora of second basemen on the A's and all are legit major leaguers. I think he was at third tonight to display his defensive "versatility." A's fandom is itching for a trade, but that's because we feel one coming. Let's see what Jedi Mind trick Beane will pull this time.

Why I read blogs

2005-06-14T00:11:00.000-07:00

It is said that people read blogs because people, in this day and age yearn to read something that shares their biases. A good example of this is the plethora of political blogs out there, convervatives flock to conservatives blogs and liberals likewise to liberal blogs. People from both sides of the political spectrum, turn to blogs when they tire of "liberal media bias" or how the MSM isn't tough on this current adminstration.

The same goes for us sports fans.

I tire of the incessant anti-A's bias in the local sports media. I rarely read the sports columnists in the Chronicle, the Mercury or the Tribine because they don't offer any intelligent discourse on the state of sports in the Bay Area. Case in point, Monty Poole of the Oakland Tribune/ANG Newspapers. Today he wrote a column called, "Drive to 75 wins rages in Bay ball." It's about the recent lack of excellence in Bay Area baseball. It's an undeniable fact that both the A's and the Giants have had a pretty horrible season right now, but just look he asseses the current situation:

ON THE LEFT SIDE of the Bay, the Giants are swept at home over the weekend and slink out of town with their bats between their legs, losers of 14 of their last 16 games.

On the right side of the Bay, the A's, winners of one in a row, return home from a 2-4 road trip, maintaining their 21-day grip on last place in the AL West.
(empahsis, mine)

I know sometimes writers can try their hand at snarkiness but one forgets context. Despite their "one game winning streak" the A's are at a much more respectable six and five for the month of June after a disastrous May where they went seven and twenty.

Dan Haren leads the A's with four wins, which puts him on a pace for 11. With about 20 losses.

Brett Tomko leads the Giants with five, which puts him on a pace for 14. With about 23 losses.

The nominal aces? Well, A's left-hander Barry Zito's nabbed his third win on Sunday, one day after San Francisco's Jason Schmidt failed to get his fourth. Both are mired in mind-numbing, arm-torching seasons and seem to be averaging about 40 pitches per batter.

Another pet peeve of mine is when columnists pull out the win-loss statistic when evaluating pitchers. Win-loss is an overrated stat and is no indicator of a pitcher's actual performance. Even without resorting to using fancy sabermetric stats, one can use ERA as a more reliable indicator of a pitcher's performance.

Furthermore, the Giants' situation is more urgent. It's a team built for now, which is bound to tear at general manager Brian Sabean's patience. Because his pitching can't be expected to improve with experience, we can't assume Sabean won't trade for a quality veteran arm, even if it means sacrificing a valuable prospect.

The A's? Well, they're built for some other year, some other time and maybe some other place. General manager Billy Beane is smart enough to know it would require a roster overhaul to contend and he's too patient and poor to generate that.

Billy is more likely to ride it out. If 75 comes, it comes.

OK I get the message, the A's suck and so does the Giants. I'm not some deluded pollyanna who is hoping and praying for another 20 game win streak to propel the A's to a playoff berth. But how come every time a columnist decides to ravage the A's they always dangle the "well the owners can just move the franchise" carrot? It's old and the there's no real basis for these claims, it's all rumor and speculation. I thought you guys were here to report the facts.

As for the fan, well, consider 2005 a test. How much bad ball can you tolerate? The best that can be said of local baseball is that fewer than seven weeks remain before the local NFL teams open training camp.

I can swear using a countdown to NFL training camps when the local baseball teams suck is in the sports columnists bag of tricks. Unfortunately, you can't use that trick, both Bay Area pro football franchises probably suck worse than the baseball teams.

College football isn't much more hope either since Stanford has been sliding to a Cal-like futility in the past few years due to a football-inept AD. The resurgent Golden Bears of California has lost most of their starters from last year, including star QB Aaron Rodgers to the NFL draft, it's going to be a "retooling" year for Cal next year though the program will remain strong as long as Tedford's there. Did I forget anybody? Oh yeah, San Jose State, but it doesn't matter since they're probably going to lose their D-IA football program in the near future, and besides, they suck, real bad.

I know, you can tell me to chill, but the A's get this treatment even when things were going good. People would still bitch about the payroll, or complain about the lack of small ball or say the Coliseum's a craphole while they gush poetic on the Giants and their shiny new ballpark.

Maybe I should chill, because for the first time since the Giants got their new yard has media been savaging the Giants as much as they do the A's.

So in a nutshell, I enjoy reading A's blogs because the people who write them are just like me, A's fans. If there's any bias in the writing, it's pro-A's not anti-A's.

Boy, did I ramble on this one. Whew, I feel much better now.

It worked

2005-06-12T18:37:00.000-07:00

OAK 11, ATL 5

My Chavez Tracker, that is. If you don't know what my Chavez Tracker is, look at my sidebar.

E. Chavez: 5 for 5, 2 HR, 4 RBI

Didn't I say something regarding the correlation between Chavez's hitting and the A's winning? I did, and I'm not the only person to recall it.

It would be a bit foolish for me to say that the A's victory is solely attributed to Chavez's offensive production, there were many others who produced in clutch situations too, like Scutaro, Kotsay, even Kendall threw out a runner at second (and he got on base a lot too). The A's finally won a series on the road again, and it's about time.

After watching the entire season where the A's were hapless in RISP situations, it felt good that the A's were finally able to break a close game wide open.

I'd also like to thank Adam Bernero for making this win possible for the A's. You have redeemed yourself quite well since you screwed up my fantasy team.

Why I hate Al Davis (Reason # 12,473)

2005-06-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

From today's Chronicle:

The A's have given up on the Coliseum area as a site for a proposed new park and Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente has proposed a new site on the waterfront.

(snip)

"The other tenants objected to our building a new park,'' Wolff said, "and frankly, I can't blame them. They're trying to run their own operations, and this would get in their way.''

(empahsis mine, of course)

"Other tenants," eh? Like who? Could one of them be the Oakland Raiders, owned by Al Davis, the king of litigation in the world of sports?

First, Al Davis decides to move the Raiders back to Oakland, erecting Mt. Davis and ruining the Coliseum for baseball. Due to the financial fallout from the Raiders' Coliseum renovation, East Bay voters are leery of publically funding any sports venues. And when the city of Oakland and Alameda County are racked with record budget defecits, Al Davis decides to sue to Oakland and the rest of the county for alot of money.

This is Karma, Mr. Davis. Sooner or later, it's going to come back and bite you in the ass. Perhaps it already has since the Raiders choked real bad (on my 21st birthday) the last time they were in the Super Bowl and since have been mediocre, at best.

I could read between the lines, if Lew Wolff was to continue with his plans to build a ballpark in the Coliseum Parking Lot, Al Davis would sue the A's for some BS lost parking revenue and stuff.

So it's off to another site. The Esturary or Oak to 9th. The new A's ballpark blog has great info regarding the site. The author has done a great job scouting out all of the possible sites. It'd be kinda fun to have the "anti-SBC Park" bayside. But there are problems, the big one being transportation.

The place is a really small site, of which I don't envision good parking. However I'm pretty sure that this site is closer to the BART track than the Coliseum is. I can easily envision a pedestrian bridge that takes people over the rail yard and the freeway separating the site and the BART tracks. But there is no station there, just the tracks. I don't know how much it would cost to construct a new BART station at that site but I can safely assume it would cost a "crapload" of money. Since this ballpark plan is tied with a big housing development, perhaps state and federal funds can help with the construction of a new BART station on the Richmond-Fremont line.

It's no guarantee, but I think building a new station at that site would be a whole lot easier than extending BART to San Jose.

Also, Wolff has not really discussed this matter with Ignacio De La Fuente, the presumptive sucessor to Oakland Major Jerry Brown or anybody from Signature Properties, the people who will develop that site, but this is a good start.

I'm glad to see that somebody in the Oakland government cares about the A's. It's really been the only franchise that has brought sucess to Oakland.

Recap

2005-06-11T17:23:00.000-07:00

6/11/05:

OAK 3, ATL 5

Eric Chavez: 0-for-3, 1 BB

6/10/05:

OAK 6, ATL 4

Eric Chavez: 2-for-4, 2 RBI

Notice a trend anybody? If Chavez hits the A's win, if he doesn't the A's lose.

Eric Chavez-2005 Season (YTD) AVG: .237

With BA like that, he isn't hitting enough. I don't recall a game in which Chavez did well offensively only to have the A's lose.

I know pegging the loss to Chavez's lack of production is useless. The A's failed to really take advantage of a bases loaded situation in the sixth when they managed to score only one run. Duchsherer also didn't have a good day at the office either, but if we just had a little bit more offense...

Well, I'm back and I'm glad I didn't commit a BUI (blogging under the influence) last night. Everybody, say "Happy Birthday" to my mom, Julia Louis.

Consider this a warning (plus social commentary)

2005-06-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

Due to a perfect storm of graduation parties (not mine), A's watching parties, friends birthday and my mom's birthday I don't think I will be able to post or update much on this blog this weekend.

Also forgive me if I write a long rambling incoherent drunk post, you have been warned.

Last night, at another friend's graduation party I saw something that made me want to do a social commentary. I saw some freshman girl of the "Abercrombie set," problem is, she's seriously obese. Now I don't crack on fat girls or fat people in general, I'm fat too. I used to be 5'7" 160 lbs in my senior year of high school, then college and the partying/fast food binge started and I ballooned to a Bartolo Colon-esque 250 lbs. Now I'm back to 195/200, still fat, not obese.

Back to the girl. She was wearing a top that would have allowed a midriff to bare on a skinner girl. Problem is, she wasn't revealing a midriff, she was revealing a gut, and big one too. Her gut drooped below the waistband of her miniskirt (don't get me started on her skirt). Look, my gut does not droop below the waistband of my pants.

The point of this story is; if you got it, flaunt it. If you don't got it, don't flaunt it. I dress appropriately for my weight. I have been attracted to bigger girls who dress appropriately for their weight. The point is, you can still dress sexy and weight appropriate if you're bigger than others. However if you're a big girl who dresses sexily exactly like skinny girls do, you will get plenty of looks, but those looks will be looks of revulsion.

I don't want to be impolite, but I did stare at her more than a few times last night.

I was staring at a girl in denial.

Looking at the positives...

2005-06-09T20:19:00.000-07:00

OAK 3, WAS 4

Well, at least the A's scored runs in innings other than the first...

At least the game was exciting and close at the very end...

At least Blanton struck out six...

At least my fears about Kotsay's back were unfounded...

But in the end, it was another A's loss. Does anybody notice the corellation between Chavez's hitting and the A's winning? He may not be a clubhouse leader, but he sure is an offensive leader. OK, tomorrow is A's at Atlanta. Let's hope that Haren continues his recent excellence and if the A's are behind, let's pray for a Braves bullpen implosion. I had Kolb and Bernero in my fantasy teams and they both proceeded to stink things up for me.

Let's turn the corner, A's.

UPDATE 8:53 PM: Same name, similar thoughts: Ken Arneson is also looking at the silver lining over at Catfish Stew.

Rumor Mongering

2005-06-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

According to the folks over at EiO, it appears that
Matt Watson has been called up to the big club and is en route to Washington, DC. The A's have yet to make any kind of a release to confirm this but have they ever been wrong about callups? Especially Matt Watson callups?

OK, Watson's going to rejoin the A's, who already have a plethora of outfielders, but who's spot is Watson taking? Possibilities abound:

Kotsay's back is more screwed up than we are led to believe. Let's face it, he's been a big o-fer since he's missed those games with the back spasms. DL time?

Charles Thomas (aka Two Buck Chuck, Chucky T., Chuck T., etc...) is sent down to AAA to get regular playing time. Which is not a bad idea since I believe he's suffering from Kielty's Disease; an inability to find their "offensive groove" due to lack of ABs, since their offense sucks, they aren't given AB's, a real Catch-22.

Ryan Glynn is sent down. This "Fifth Starter by committee/whoever we can call up from AAA" is not working too well, the pitching rotation sure misses Rich Harden.

Or...a trade is brewing.

In the offseason there was a virtual crapload of Byrnes trade rumors, mostly Byrnes for Mike Cameron from the Mets. I hated those rumors, not because I enjoy seeing Byrnes'...eccentricities on field, good or bad, but Cameron was (and still is) too expensive, too old and too injury prone.

Peter Gammons (I can't find the link, sorry) wrote that the A's were interested in Joe Kennedy of the Rockies a week ago. In fact, some have reported that the Rockies have sent a few scouts to see the AAA Rivercats. I sincerely believe Kennedy would be a good pickup, this guy had a 3.something ERA at Coors Field last year.

Byrnes and Kennedy both make the same at $2.2 million this year. Kennedy's next start is slated to be early next week. Is it a perfect storm? Is it pull the trigger time for Billy Beane?

Interesting times for A's fandom.

There is no "O" in Athletics

2005-06-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

OAK 2, WAS 7 FINAL

Can I say I told you so?

Maybe we can get some kind of hypnotist and hypnotize the A's into thinking that every innning is the first inning, maybe that's how the A's will score. At least we saw Bobby Crosby hit his first HR of the season.

Looking at the bright side, this was our #5 starter, the Nationals are on fire as of late. And at least we're not Giants fans experincing another loss against the Kansas City Royals. I'm pretty confident the A's won't go into another extended losing streak, but I think it high time for Giants fans to feel the pain of a few eight game losing streaks.

Here's to a no-sweep tomorrow.

Off to church...

2005-06-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

OAK 2, WAS 7 TOP 8

I'm off to church for my choir rehearsal (I have to make money), which means I can't see the conclusion of this game.

It doesn't matter though because boring A's baseball is back and they're probably going to lose.

At least it's not like the bad old days of May while during those eight game losing streaks the A's showed a total inabilty to score runs.

The A's, thankfully, aren't like that anymore. You see, they can score runs...as long at it's in the first inning. Scoring runs in any other inning seems like a foreign concept to them right now.

More musings when I come back from church...

Oh yeah, it's raining today. It's June and it's raining, the weather report says it was snowing in Tahoe. What is up with this weather? It should rain in Northern Californa right now. We're supposed to be in the California Dry Season right now. And why do they call it global warming when I swear our summers are getting colder?

Insomnia: Blog Makeover

2005-06-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

OK... I've redone the color scheme on the sidebar. The green bullet point was replaced with a smaller, different one that I got off of a similar blogger template, I like to thank Surviving Grady, not that anybody from that blog helped me, but looking at their blogger template helped me out a lot.

The underlines in the sidebar have been tweaked. I like the green on "goldenrod" although it's not the exact A's colors, the overall effect does harken back to the 1970's dynasty, not that I was alive for that.

I've removed some superfluous A's graphics (it really didn't serve a purpose), all I need is one on the header, and that is more than enough. There's a unity between all of the colors on the site now; between the posts, sidebar, header, footer and the graphic on the header. It's also less cluttered. It's very aesthetically pleasing, at least I think so.

Although I am using a blogger template for this site, it's evolving to something more than just a cookie cutter template.

This probably marks the end of my alterations to this blog. I can't change things much more. I tried to change the background color but that wasn't a good idea because the rounded corners of the boxes are actually .GIFs of rounded corners of actual backgorund color. If I changed the background, then the corners would be ugly, it'd look like broken HTML.

If any thing is changed from here on out, it's going to be a very minor tweak. I doubt I'll do much changing, I'm satisfied with my work.

Again, please let me know of any readability problems and enjoy this site.

Work in progress

2005-06-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the recent work on my other blog I've decided to tweak my template just a little. I've removed the "blogger about me" box and changed the color of the sidebar to a more A's appropriate color. I'll probably tweak it some more if I have the time. Let me know if there are any readability problems on this site.

UPDATE 10:18 PM: OK, Richard, here's the favicon I promised. I just needed a place to host it and I found it. The favicon is the coat of arms of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, of which I'm a member and past chapter president. Although this is mostly an A's blog, this is also a blog about the rest of me. Music is a big part of my life and the fraternity was a big part of me growing up into an adult from snotty high school kid. I owe Delta Sig a great debt so I might as well use the coat of arms as my favicon.

To all those Delta Sigs out there who happen to drop by this site, YITBOS.

Good News/Bad News

2005-06-07T19:03:00.000-07:00

OAK 1, WAS 2

Good News: Mark Kotsay's back spasms aren't that bad, he went with the team on the trip and no DL time for him.

Bad News: He should have taken tonight off. He was 0 for 5 and stranded runners in every key situation (he's killing my crappy fantasy team), including his last at bat: Bottom of the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, down by one. One clutch hit can change the momentum. What happens? Weak grounder to 2nd.

Quasi-Rhetorical Question: Why can't Zito get any run support?

Good News: Zito got his first career hit, a single to left. Very good hit.

Bad News: The A's lost and Zito got pegged for another loss.

OK, let's just blame this on the A's not being used to the Washington heat and humidity. Let win one tomorrow.

Lots of pitchers

2005-06-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

No this is not a post about my drinking exploits last Friday night, I had lots of pints, but this is a post regarding the pitchers of the Oakland A's organization.

Huston Street:

This man is a stud. Excellent article about him the SJ Mercury today (registration required), check out this quote:

``It's not about intimidating,'' the former University of Texas closer said. Hitters ``know if you go out there and come after them, that's all you need right there. You earn respect by getting the job done, not by facial hair.''

For all those lady A's fans out there, don't hold your breath to see if Huston's gonna go all "Cali" and grow out his hair like Zito or Haren. He going to stay a clean-cut Texas boy for awhile, and no, he won't sport a soul patch. Excellent quote, and his ongoing series at ESPN.com is a good read, too. I heard he was an English major at UT, it shows.

A gentleman and a scholar, this guy's a class act. I need to add "buy a Huston Street authentic jersey" to the list of personal things to do as an A's fan.

Dan Meyer:

A part of the Tim Hudson trade, many have felt that Dan Meyer was damaged goods when we went on the DL at AAA Sacramento. Well thanks to a link from Corey on his A's blog I read an interview with Dan Meyer over at Balls, Sticks & Stuff. It was a very good interview with Meyer. The following made me feel quite good:

How did your injury come about and what is your prognosis? Timetable for return? Rehab?

Meyer: I originally pulled a muscle in my shoulder during spring training but I didn't say anything but I was supposed to be fighting for a job in the rotation. That was a big mistake because I changed mechanically to compensate for pain and it only got worse. The best thing for me is that I did not severely hurt myself in my act of stupidity so hopefully things will back to normal at soon. Time table for my return is mid-June.

Good, this wasn't a pre-existing condition, although so far the Hudson trade does not look good at all, with Thomas not hitting and Cruz just sucking at his every appearance, Meyer might just redeem this. I hope for a speedy recovery. I doubt he's going to be called up before September. I need to make a roadie up to Sac to see this guy pitch at Raley Field.

The Draft:

Just look at this, the following are the A's second round picks:

# 53 Thomas Italiano, RHP, Flower Mound HS, TX
# 69 Jared Lansford, RHP, St. Francis HS, CA

Two high school pitchers? In the second round? Insert your favorite Billy Beane throwing chair at wall joke [here]. It does make sense though for Beane to draft high schoolers sooner or later because after Moneyball more and more teams began to draft college pitchers. The big thing about Moneyball is not OBP or lack of smallball, but it's valuing the undervalued. Since the market trends skewed towards college pitchers, it wasn't that surprising to see Beane draft some high school pitchers.

What came as a surprise though, was Jared Lansford. If that name sounds familiar, it's because Jared is the son of Carney Lansford. Earlier in the year, in one of the local papers, it stated that Jared Lansford signed a letter of intent with Santa Clara University. I guess he ain't going to college, Beane must have already talked to him and got some kind of commitment from him, or he wouldn't have been drafted so high.

It's cool that the future of the A's is also linked to it's glorious recent past but it was a surprise to see Lansford drafted. On the plus side, I heard he throws at 94 MPH. I honestly though he was going to pursue a Catholic education at Santa Clara. Best of luck to him, I hope the baseball genes runs strong in the Lansford family. If this pans out he'd be the second son of a 1980's era position player to become a big league pitcher, the first being Tony Armas, Jr, who the A's will face later today at RFK Stadium. Was Tony Armas, Sr. a third baseman too? Nope, he was an outfielder/DH. Thank you, baseball-reference.com.

UPDATE 1:26 PM: Now it's three high school pitchers.

UPDATE 2:05 PM: Now it's four high school pitchers.

UPDATE 2:59 PM: For Billy Beane, this is a crapload of high schoolers, especially during this point in the draft. Normally you wait to the much later rounds for Beane to draft high schoolers. Exploiting a "market ineffiency" is one thing, but this is nuts. What has Billy Beane been smoking? First 4 or 5 picks aside, is the a punt year as far as the draft picks are concerned?

UPDATE 3:43 PM: Just looked at the entire list of draftees over at EiO. I am older than all of the draftees, the oldest one is 22. Damn, I feel old at 23, what have I been doing with my life? I'm still in college!

Insomnia: Freudian Slip?

2005-06-07T02:29:00.000-07:00

The White Ho?

-Courtesy of the Wonkette

Why am I still awake? I have a final in 6.5 hours. I just can't sleep!

Off day musing: Finals Stress Management

2005-06-06T23:35:00.000-07:00

Finals week is upon me.

This is an assessment of my place in life right now.

When this quarter is over. I will have three GE classes and the rest of my Piano Profiencency left. I will also audit several graduate musicology seminars.

I need to look for GRE test prep this summer, or at least self prep with a good program. I also need to call the Music Departments at the following schools; Stanford, Cal, SF State and San Jose State and get information regarding their graduate programs.

I'm excited, I really do believe I might be able to get into Cal or Stanford. Cal would be nice so I could BART to school every day and get an extra half hour of sleep since I wouldn't be driving to Berkeley. Also, Cal Football and it's the school that many in my family has attended, I guess I'm from a Cal family. Stanford has it's plusses too, better weather on campus (compared to Cal), the Sunken Diamond and great baseball. Oh yeah, the academics and the research facilities (especially old music manuscripts) at both institutions are top notch.

I'm glad I decided to blog the A's. Since the inception of this blog I genuinely feel that my writing skills have improved, and it has reflected in my research papers that I write for my classes. In those papers I obviously write in a different style, but words flow much easier onto the page nowadays.

I can say that when I started doing this, I was kinda copycating posts on other blogs. Now I can honestly say that content here is more original now. As the A's season progressed I guess I settled into a good routine. This is a happy place for me.

I must go to bed now, I have another final in approximately nine hours.

There is an "O" in Oakland

2005-06-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

TOR 4, OAK 12

Before I go any further, I would like to say that as of right now, Mark Mulder and Danny Haren have identical ERAs at 4.17. To all those who said we should have kept Mulder and Hudson I'd like to respond with this; pitchers can't get W's when they don't get run support, nobody was getting run suppor in the month of May with the exception of Keiichi Yabu. With Calero back in the 'pen the Mulder trade looks better by the day. The Hudson trade on the other hand...you can't win 'em all the time.

The ball sure gets lively in those day games. The bats came alive in the early innings and the A's never looked back. Chavez homered again, his bat is really warming up. Also, Scutaro missed the cycle by a triple.

Everythings coming together, the coming roadtrip isn't going to be easy, but the A's finally have some confidence behind them. It's time to end their road funk.

A long night's journey into day

2005-06-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

TOR 2, OAK 5

To recap:

"We're looking for somebody to give us consistent starts, deep in games and give us a chance to win," Macha said. "The objective is to get at least six innings out of your starter."

-SF Chronicle, earlier today

So Macha's mind trick worked. Not only did Blanton go deep, he got his first major league win. Huston Street got his second big league save.

I'll be honest with you that early in the game I was scared that the A's couldn't come back trailing by two. Good to be proven wrong and good to see momentum on the A's side for a change.

Bats came alive too, with home runs by Chavez and Byrnes. When I saw the lineup today and saw Byrnes in CF I had an "oh crap" thought, as did the rest of A's fandom but his arm didn't suck that bad and was credited with an outfield assist that was a key out. There's still discussion on whether or not the Blue Jays disrespected his crappy throwing arm because I heard it wasn't hit that deep. I listened to the game on radio and I really can't be the judge of that.

Kotsay sat out today with a "stiffness in the back." Kotsay had back problems in SD, let's hope it just stiffness and nothing more.

All right Oakland, let's win this series.

The Late Late Edition (plus Music Review)

2005-06-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

TOR 6, OAK 2

Sorry for the late reporting. I got really drunk last night and crashed at a friend's place in Alameda, spent most of this morning recovering. But I was at the game with 12,000 other fine A's fans. Come on, a Friday night, that wasn't balls cold with Roy Halliday on the mound and only 12,000 showed up for the game, that sucks. Went drinking in Alameda after that game, more about it later.

First things first, I accept full responsibility for the loss, I got a haircut yesterday. As a fan superstition, I do believe (tongue in cheek, of course) that my haircut was one of the factors of the A's loss. That Sampson thing is for real.

Boring A's baseball is back, and I hope it doesn't stay boring for long. This series against the Jays is a true litmus test to see if the A's have bounced back from their horrible start, as far as respectability in 2005 is concerned I do believe this is a must win series.

The Foothill High School Chamber Singers sang both the Canadian and American national anthems. In the baseball blogosphere I do believe I am uniquely qualified to critique their performance, so here goes. Very good blend, especially considering this is a high school group. At parts of our national anthem, the sopranos were pressing, they were probably nervous, and were sharping as a result. Towards the final cadence the bottom seemed to drop out of the bass section, it sounded like they tried to sound like mature basses instead of sounding like what they are, high school basses. They could have been reaching real low note, that kind of tension is not good for a vocalist. All in all, good performance, Foothill has one of the stronger choral programs in the East Bay, but they still can't hold a candle to Mt. Eden or San Ramon Valley, those two schools arguably have some of the best high school choral programs in the state.

Back to baseball. After an odd delay of some sort, the game started at 7:10 PM, the starting pitcher was Ryan Glynn, a callup from AAA Sacramento. I was surprised, to say the least, I was expecting Seth Etherton. It turns out that Glynn's promotion may have been intended as a shakeup of the starting pitchers. Let me give you a Ken Macha quote:

Namely, the A's put their starters on notice: Work into the late innings or risk removal from the rotation. Manager Ken Macha did not put it so bluntly, but he's clearly not interested in peering toward his bullpen in the early innings.

"We're looking for somebody to give us consistent starts, deep in games and give us a chance to win," Macha said. "The objective is to get at least six innings out of your starter."

-Susan Slusser, SF Chronicle 6/4/05

To ask the starters to go deeper into the games is not an unreasonable thing to ask, since the bullpen is so depleted with injuries. I really do wonder how this is going to affect Blanton tonight. Blanton's recent outings have been uh...less than stellar. If Blanton blows up, it's a sure thing that he's going to be sent down to AAA and get regular starts, but who's going to take his spot on the rotation? AAA is pretty depleted with injuries too. I'm going to guess that Yabu will get a few starts, if this scenario plays itself out in this manner.

There's not that much to say about the game itself except that Glynn pitched really well and was aggressive in the zone, it was too bad he was replaced by Juan Cruz who helped the Jays break the game open for them. The A's got hosed in the Hudson trade, but the Mulder trade was good.

The hitting was back to the boring ways of the losing streaks. Let's hope the A's return to their winning ways tonight.

About the beer I had last night. After the game, my friend Geoff and I went to Lucky 13 in Alameda, after a few rounds of Stella and PBR I decided to try La Fin du Monde. I'll tell you, that beer was so devastating that the French Canadians had to call it "The End of the World." It was 9.0% alcohol (!) by volume and tasted somewhat like root beer. I was slurring like a mo'fo' after that beer. That was the end of my night. And this is the end of my post.

And now it begins...

2005-06-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

TOR 3, OAK 5

The Huston Street Era, that is. This kid notched his first big league save, and he's 21. I'm 23, I feel so useless. Good job Huston, and here's to many more saves with the Oakland A's.

Bottom of the fifth, bases juiced, one out. Chavez up. A few weeks ago I'd expect wither a strikeout looking or a GIDP. Tonight was different, he hit a grand slam. He went 2 for 3 with a walk, 4 RBI. Is the current A's offense here to stay? I sure hope so.

They wore green tops tonight, just like they did on the other games of this four game winning streak, the longest winning streak of the 2005 season to date. And I also wearing my black alternate A's cap. Respect the streak.

Do'h!

2005-06-02T18:48:00.000-07:00

Dotel is going to have Tommy John surgery anyways, against the recommendation of two doctors. He'll be out for at least the rest of the year.

Wow, what a news day for the A's.

Now the A's will have no return in their investment in Dotel. They can't use him and they sure as hell can't trade him now. But here's the good news:

Dotel hopes to be back in a game by the middle of next season, and he hopes it's with the A's. He feels he owes them something to earn his money — even if his salary is lower and he has to be the setup man for rookie Huston Street, the new closer.

"Hey, if I've got to play for free, I'll do that," he said.

He knows he's taking a big risk he also knows that not may teams will sign him in the offseason. If Street progresses the way we expect him to, having Dotel to be the setup man would be awesome.

It's Huston Street's show, now. The Street Era has begun.

D'oh-tel: No Tommy John needed

2005-06-02T16:37:00.000-07:00

Octavio Dotel got a second opinion on his aching elbow on Wednesday and it was about the same thing he'd been told before: The A's closer is going to have to get used to pitching with pain.

Like fellow arm specialist Dr. Lewis Yocum before him, Dr. James Andrews did not recommend surgery for a painful case of tendon calcification in Dotel's right elbow. Dotel expressed concern last week that the problem was more serious, so he decided to visit Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. He'll be back in Oakland today and will sit down to discuss plans for his treatment with the training staff

-Susan Slusser, SF Chronicle 6/2/05

Whew, just dodged one. So he's OK(ish). Now let's get on a rehab program and get off the DL, get some saves and build up some trade value. However, the trade value will not be as high as it once was now that Dotel is an "injury risk." Either way, trade or no trade, I don't envision Dotel in the Green and Gold next season.

E-S-P-N

2005-06-02T16:09:00.000-07:00

I don't know why ESPN does the spelling bee. It's not a sport, but then, neither is poker.

I'm jumping into the spelling bee coverage, too.

Eighth-Grade Boy Wins U.S. Spelling Bee -AP

"Appoggiatura" was music to 13-year-old Anurag Kashyap's ears. Spelling the word that means melodic tone correctly, he clinched the 2005 national spelling bee championship.

Actually "appoggiatura" is not just a melodic tone, it's an unprepared upper neighbor tone. Or an unprepared suspension. But then I'm very surprised that the winning word in the spelling bee is a musical term this year. It's a good word to use in a spelling bee, it's a little obscure outside of the musical word and it's hard to spell. I can't even spell it correctly, I always miss a "g." Oh yeah it's not really a "melodic tone" it's an un-harmonic tone.

Yeah, I'm a lifer in music.

How sweep it is

2005-06-01T22:31:00.000-07:00

TB 2, OAK 11

Finally the A's look like the A's and the D-Rays look like the D-Rays. And the A's are on the happy side of a sweep. In the last two games the A's have scored a total of twenty one runs. In the seven games before that they only scored twenty two runs. Just think about it.

The A's had a certain energy since that extra innings win and even though the Coliseum crowd was pretty small tonight you could hear them loud and clear on the radio. This baseball wasn't the boring baseball of late. This was exciting and fun baseball, it was fun for the players and it sure was fun for us fans.

Barry Zito finally got some run support and got a win.

I'm also glad to see that this time it's the other team that had nine hits and only two runs to show for it.

Team LOB: 8 (TB), 5 (OAK)

I know, it's only the D-Rays and Toronto, a much tougher team is coming in soon. But you know what, the A's needed these wins and I do believe that momentum is on our side. The A's are having fun again.

Hideo doesn't bother the A's no mo'

2005-05-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

TB 1, OAK 10

Wow, an A's blowout. Haven't seen one of those in awhile.

Haren going for the complete game, never seen that before. His slider (slider? I mean splitter! I was drunk.-K) was filthy at times.

I think Kendall has found his happy spot in the A's lineup. I thank God profusely that he's no longer in the 3-spot.

To all those who thought that Crosby and Swisher were rushed in their rehad assignments, it doesn't seem so tonight.

I'm kinda drunk from celebrating a rare event in this season, a two game winning streak. I'm not in the best state of mind to write about the A's. Maybe tomorrow.

Patience

2005-05-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

TB 4, OAK 5 11 innings

Patience, it's a virtue, isn't it?

For those attending the game to see the fireworks one had to exercise patience, for the game went into extra frames. I really wanted to be there at the Coliseum but I was at school, working. I had to exercise patience too, most of the time I was at work I was just sitting on my ass, which wasn't a bad thing since this downtime allowed me to watch a good two-thirds of the A's game on TV and write two papers due on Wednesday.

My job at the theatre at Cal State can broken down into two different kinds of moments; moments where I get paid (i.e. sit on my ass) and moments where I earn my money (where work my ass off). I was paid for most of the day, but I did put in some work.

I had the option to leave early, but I felt it would not be proper for me to leave. I wanted to leave because I was a little concerned with some of my schoolwork. But I again I was patient and waited for everybody with KBLX to leave. As I was locking up, I was tipped $50 by one of the guys in charge. If I left early I wouldn't have gotten that fifty bucks. So in the end I:

finished my schoolwork for Wednesday so I can...

get drunk on Tuesday night with...

the fifty dollar tip buying my beers so it won't even make a dent into...

the ($10.80 x 13.5 - tax) I made working the event

As an A's fan I have been patient over this eight game losing streak and the patience has finally paid off. I saw Kotsay's catch in the eight and for the first time in this season (that I could recall) I said to myself, "OK, this is a momentum shifter, the A's are going pull this one out."

And they did.

The baseball the A's played tonight was not boring for a change. Let's hope they don't regress back into the suckage. Perhaps the A's clubhouse missed Crosby's presence since he has just been activated from DL. Or not.

My Day

2005-05-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

OAK 2, CLE 6

I worked through the game and was unaware of yet another loss in which the "A's rally falls short." I'm wondering how can this team, outhit the other team and still lose.

I really want to go to the game tomorrow, but I'm working the KBLX Stone Soul Picnic tomorrow and I think I might be able to make it, but barely. I'm non-union bitch boy, if times were better and the union was more short-staffed, I might have been an overhire making $26 an hour and learning valuable experience on how to run a concert. Instead I'm the Cal State "liason" making $10.85 an hour sitting on my butt babysitting facilities. Wait a sec, I'm not technically a "non-union bitch boy" since I'm not even working any kind of a running crew gig. I guess I should be thankful for the easy job.

Last year at the Stone Soul Picnic, one of the headliners was Rick James. Yes, the Rick James, bitch. I have a cool Rick James story, but I'll save it for later.

How am I coping with the A's season? I just think it's still basketball season and I'm watching the wretched pre-Baron Davis Warriors. But at least the Warriors play in a top-notch facility, not a football stadium.

Be careful what you wish for...

2005-05-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Cleveland -- Octavio Dotel is worried enough about his sore right elbow that he has decided to seek a second opinion, the closer told The Chronicle on Saturday.

Dotel said he will travel to Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday to see renowned arm specialist Dr. James Andrews.

"I'm glad that the (first) doctor (Lewis Yocum) said that I don't need surgery, but I think there has to be something more," Dotel said. "From the first game of the spring, bang, I felt it. When I brush my teeth, I can feel it.

(snip)

Athletic trainer Larry Davis said Dotel's condition -- which has been diagnosed as tendon calcification -- is one that probably will give him trouble throughout his career because of the way he throws. In essence, Dotel will have to become accustomed to pitching with pain. Dotel, though, just wants to make doubly certain that surgery is not required.

-Susan Slusser, SF Chronicle 5/29/05

Hey, A's fans, remember when people were clamoring for Huston Street to become the full time closer in his rookie year? Well we may get that wish.

Some people say that at 21 Huston is just too young and inexperienced to be a closer in the Bigs. But at the the rate the A's are going, it doesn't seem like he's going to get many save opportunities anyways.

Streaking

2005-05-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

OAK 3, CLE 6

And the losing streak is at six.

The Good Lord giveth and the Good Lord taketh away. We were once given a twenty game win streak for our enjoyment, is this the flip side of the now famous Streak?

The longest winning "streak" of this season is at two games. This current streak is tied for the longest losing streak of the season.

Chavez went 2 for 4 today. I'm not going to say anything positive about that because the last time I said anything positive about Chavez, he immediately proved me wrong by going on an extended sucking streak.

Dan Johnson still looking for his first big league hit.

Another loss, what else is new?

2005-05-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

OAK 1, CLE 4

The game ended with the bases loaded for the A's.

How...expected.

At least we didn't get shut out, but that's not much of a consolation at all.

FREEDOM!

2005-05-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

According to EiO, Dan Johnson has been called up from AAA Sacramento. Still no confirmation from the media outlets, but I trust the people over at Elephants in Oakland.

And now DJ is freed, hopefully. Durazo is probably going to the DL with a bad elbow of some sort. Is this the offensive pickup the A's need? Remember, this guy was super-hot in spring training and in AAA.

I sure hope so. Lately the emotions I get from following the A's can be summed up by a certain verse from "Flow my tears," a song from Elizabethan England:

From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.

-John Dowland, Second Booke of Songes (1600)

Hopefully, this "winter of our discontent" will be made "glorious summer" by some good A's baseball. Please?

I'm not even asking for the playoffs, I'm just asking for an end to the suckage. Is that too much to ask?

Empowered

2005-05-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

OAK 1, TB 2

The A's got swept again, this time by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Let me repeat for all to see:

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays

I guess the A's don't feel very empowered right now. Yet again, they fail to drive in runs in key situations with runners in scoring position. Once again, Baez allows two runners on base and still the A's don't do anything with it. This sucks, instead of writing about the game, I'll write about me.

I do feel empowered right now. I looked at my Transcript and feel that I can still make it to a good grad program. My cumulative GPA is 2.85, which is not good, but my major GPA is 3.31, which is good. I'm going to audit many grad classes at Cal State next year to master the art of writing a musicological research paper so I can build up a portfolio for submission to a master's program. If I work at the writing and do GRE test prep, I think I have a good shot, even to an excellent school, I know my letters of reccomendation will be top notch.

Due to family issues I can't leave the Bay Area, which means I will apply to the following schools, Cal, Stanford, SF State, San Jose State and as a backup, Cal State East Bay(Hayward). I'm going to set my sights for Cal and Stanford but anywhere but Cal State will do fine by me.

Imagine this, me going to grad school at Cal or Stanford. Despite the A's horrible suckage, I'm a very happy man right now.

Say it ain't so, Joe.

2005-05-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

OAK 6, TB 14

For awhile, Blez over at Athletics Nation referred to Joe Blanton as "Smokin'" Joe Blanton. Joe sure got smoked tonight.

I'd be lying to you if I say I didn't imbibe the Billy Beane kool-aid in the offseason. I knew with the loss of two of the Big Three and a whole bunch of rookies in the mix, the A's would be a long shot for the postseason. But, at least they won't suck.

Well that's what I believed at the start of this season.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the A's truly suck.

Even though I did drink the Billy Beane kool-aid, I was never that high on Blanton so I never expected too much from him. However, I didn't expect this kind of performance from him:

0.1 IP, 8 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Some of Blanton's detractors claim that since he had excellent command but questionable "stuff" after a while the league would catch up to him. Well tonight, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays sure did catch up to him. That or the poor defense behind him is affecting his confidence.

Look on the bright side, at least the A's finally got some hits with the bases loaded. But the LOB numbers are still pretty atrocious:

Team LOB: 11

The A's are a mess right now, the most pivotal players are either hurt (like Dotel, Calero, Crosby, etc...) or grossly underperfroming (Yes, I'm talking to you, Chavez, Kendall and Durazo). This team is easily the Oakland Triple-A's with all of the River Cats on the roster. I wonder how Billy Beane has been treating his furniture lately. Time for a trade?

And why the hell is Kendall still batting third? Drop him in the order!

OT: Well, ya got trouble my friend...

2005-05-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

...I say trouble right here in River City!

Suburbanites envision trouble with a capital T
But in Clayton, it rhymes with B and stands for bocce- SF Chronicle 5/24/05

Kudos to the SF Chronicle for thinking up a witty headline for their article on a proposed bocce court in Clayton. Now I got Music Man stuck in my head.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2005-05-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

OAK 4, TB 5

The Good: Nine hits this game, I guess the bats are coming alive.

The Bad: The A's lose.

The Ugly: Have you seen the manner in which the A's lost today? How many runners were left on base?

Team LOB: 10

The bases were left full yet again. This stopped being funny at least two weeks ago.

The top of the ninth killed me. The A's had two on due to fielding errors with no outs. Then Baez retired the side in order for the save. The D-Rays handed the A's a chance to win and again this A's team squandered it.

Yet another "hard-luck" loss.

The A's didn't deserve to win today, and unless they don't start hitting in key situations, and they were plenty of them, then they don't deserve to win, period.

OT: Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side of the Force

2005-05-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

It appears the Darth Vader is up to no good, this time on the Planet Earth.

Darth Vader robs Illinois theater

(Springfield, Illinois-NBC) May 22, 2005 - It appears Darth Vader delivered an unwelcome show of force at an Illinois movie theater this weekend.

Police in Springfield, Illinois say a man wearing a Darth Vader mask walked into a movie theater, shoved an employee out of the way and grabbed a bunch of cash.

Wow. Let's see what else happened.

Investigators say the robber didn't display any weapons- not even a light saber.

Of course Darth Vader doesn't need any weapons. He only needs the lightsaber to fight Jedi. Ordinary humans cannot withstand his Force powers, like blocking blaster bolts with his hands and that choke thing.

Where have I seen this before?

2005-05-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

OAK 1, SF 3

OK, the A's fail to take advantage of favorable situations early in the game to drive in some runs.

Inability to start or maintain a rally.

Not really an inability to hit, but an inability to hit with runners in scoring position.

Old and mediocre pitchers suddenly "find their stuff" when they're facing the A's.

Another good pitching performance by Zito wasted. Zito did do well today, throwing many first pitch strikes. Just that obligatory HR late in the game.

Another "hard-luck" loss.

Team LOB: 6

Really, where have I seen this before? And I thought the A's were "righting their ship." I guess I thought wrong.

Cros, Swish, I pray for a speedy recovery, I think the A's really need you guys right now.

The A's are back in sole possession of last place in the AL West.

Well look on the bright side, Family Guy in 54 minutes.

UPDATE (9:32 PM 5/22/05): No Family Guy on FOX tonight, just Star Wars Episode II, like I need to see that movie again. Now I'm pissed.

Gas Prices

2005-05-22T18:27:00.000-07:00

I remember when I was a senior in high school, six years ago, gas was around $1.05 a gallon. Every once in awhile there'd be a gas station in where there was a one time $.99/gallon promotion. Then all of a sudden gas jumped up to $1.40 and we all bitched that it was a ripoff. Today I pay $2.40 a gallon. It really affects my driving habits and controls what kind of gigs I can do. As a young musician, I should "pay my dues" and do as many gigs as possible, paid or not. But now, due to the price of gas, I now have limitations on dirving distance to free gigs.

I'll do any gig, paid or free as long as it's no more than 20 miles away from my home, no farther than Oakland. If it's any farther I just can't afford the drive and I must be paid. I don't want to appear as somebody who's "too big for my britches" but due to the ugly economic realities I can't afford those gigs.

Oh how I wish gas was back ar $1.40 a gallon and hoe foolish I was in my youth for thinking that $1.40 was expensive.

Hungover

2005-05-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

Last night was good. I performed the hell out of my program and afterward I was drinking Spaten at my truck with a few friends listening to the rest of the A's/Giants matchup. You absolutely have to drink German beer after singing a landmark German song cycle. Didn't miss any of the good moments of the game, like Ginter's bomb. I guess that the RH pop the A's got in the offseason.

Here's a lesson for all. After drinking a fine German beer do NOT drink Budweiser, even when given to you for free. After drinking sweet Spaten, the Budweiser tasted worse than normal, and it already tastes pretty bad. My tastebuds were ruined.

Good to see the A's win, even if I only heard it on the radio. The Giants are the best team for these A's to right themselves.

D'oh-tel is on hiatus, and so am I.

2005-05-20T00:57:00.000-07:00

According to a poster on Athletics Nation it seems that Octavio Dotel has been placed on the DL and Jermaine Clark has been called up from AAA, again. Yeah, this is an unconfirmed report, but this guy has "sources" and was correct in predicting Clark's first callup after Swisher's injury.

I wonder what is exactlty wrong with Dotel.

Oh yes, today is the big day, it is the day of my senior recital. Don't be surprised if I don't post anything for the weekend. I'll be in various states of recovery, that or work.

A Reflection on # 22

2005-05-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

"He's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."

-FDR

Yes, Eric Byrnes is a son of a bitch. This guy misplays more than his share of outfield balls, but at least he makes ordinary catches look spectacular. Yeah, this guy can go on extended cold streaks at the worst times, but he does break out into a hot streak sooner or later. He also has a horrible throwing arm.

Yeah, definitely a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. And a local to boot, he's from Woodside and lives in Half Moon Bay, before Yabu's move to San Mateo, he was probably the only guy from the A's roster to live on the Peninsula.

In the article about the A's win in the San Francisco, there was one of those feelgood stories about Byrnes at the end of the article. The Oakland PD gave Byrnes a set of handcuffs in appreciation of him helping apprehend some guy who rushed on to the field. Byrnes, being who he is, decided to play around with those 'cuffs, hilarity ensued:

In one of those "only Byrnes'' moments, an Oakland police officer gave him a pair of handcuffs to salute him for chasing down Sunday's errant fan, and Byrnes promptly snapped them on his bat and couldn't remove them.

"Yep, I cuffed my bat,'' he said, shaking his head. "I was trying to cuff (Keith) Ginter, and when he avoided me, I tried my bat, and they wrapped so tight I couldn't get 'em off. I had to run to the dugout for another bat. Welcome to my life.''

-Susan Slusser, SF Chronicle 5/19/05

I know Byrnes is probably not going to finish the season in Oakland. The A's are making a move to ensure future sucess and with the callup of Watson one can easily see the outfield of the future, as far as the A's are concerned is Kotsay, Swisher and Watson. Byrnes is the odd man out. One can hope that this guy goes on a big hot streak, increasing his trade value. Trading Byrnes is a good move for the A's, but I will be sad to see this guy go. He's such a joy to watch on the field...until he misplays a ball in a key situation.