A Reflection on # 22

"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.