Oakland A's Days

Bright Spot

Andrew Bailey winning ROY sure makes us feel better about what was often a trying season ending in a Yankees World Series win.  Yay Bailey!

p.s.  We are little disappointed Mark Ellis didn't win the Gold Glove. Just saying. 

Fake Umpires

We love these guys.  We are so happy they came to Oakland.  They made last night's game a real treat to watch on tv. 

Go Oakland!

Five Things We Are Loving Even In These Dog Days of August

1.  The great A's breast cancer commercial with Rajai and Sweeney.
2.  That the Giants lost last night.
3.  That Kurt almost hit another homerun after getting plunked.
4.  That by beating the Angels the A's helped Ronnie Wash just a little bit.
5.  That every day gets us closer to next season when the A's have to be better.

Go Oakland!

Good Luck, Duke

We Hate You Matt Holliday

Hate is a word we try to use sparingly around OAD-land.  But that is how we feel about Matt Holliday.  Nobody was more excited for him to come to Oakland than we were.  At spring training we swooned over his huge hairless arms and thought he was going to make this season something incredible.  And then he was nothing but meh the whole time.  Like just completely phoning it in.  Suddenly, however, now that he is a Cardinal he is a frigging hitting machine.  It makes us furious.  We are done with him.  And this is to say nothing of the fact that Huston Street has saved 32 of 33 games and Carlos Gonzalez is a home run machine.  Ugh.

Go A's!

Yankees Ambivalence

Shutting out the Yankees was awesome.  Losing to the Yankees was terrible.  Listening to the game on the radio was terrible because the cheers whenever something good happens for the Yankees are as loud (if not louder) than when something good happens for the A's.  Watching the game on tv was awesome because Fosse talked about Dibs and ballpark food for like 10 minutes.  Seeing all the Yankee fans in Oakland makes us wonder where they all came from and what percentage of them have ever set foot in the Bronx.  But seeing all the A's fans in attendance reminds us that A's fans are loyal and proud and quirky and awesome and so we kind of feel sorry for people who'd prefer to just jump on the $250 million bandwagon.  Listening to Nick Swisher tell Marty Lurie how much he loooooves being a Yankee made us want to vomit.  But listening to all the gracious things he had to say about his time in Oakland reminded us what a delightful A he was.  We still hate A-Rod.  And Jeter.  But we still love Swisher and CC.  We hate that the A's had so many errors.  We love that the Kurt Suzuki revenge homerun is a real thing now.  Can you understand our ambivalence?

Go Oakland!

OAD Time Machine

We have often wanted a time machine.  We would use it to do all the regular stuff: stop Hitler, buy Google stock, keep our preteen selves from getting perms.  But the last few games have made us want a different kind of time machine.  We want a cut and paste time machine.  Here's why.  Rickey Henderson day on Saturday was amazing.  Rickey's speech was perfect ("Rickey have tears in his eyes, Rickey have love in his heart...").  Rickey holding up a golden base was perfect.  Rickey wearing a vest straight out of the Arsenio Hall show was perfect.  And the fact that it was an extremely enthusiastic sold out crowd made things so fun we could hardly stand it.  It was a reminder of what it was like back in the days when the A's went to the playoffs and the stadium wasn't always 2/3 empty.  Even the game was exciting -- until Ryan Sweeney didn't swing at a single pitch in the bottom of the 9th and the A's lost in the most anti-climactic, disappointing way.  So that is what we would do with our cut and paste time machine.  We would take the ending from Monday night, with the incredible Rajai walk off triple, or we would take all of the awesome offense from last night, and paste it on to Saturday night so we can have one perfect, glorious A's memory from this season.  

Go Oakland!  

Good Riddance

Today's loss was very frustrating.  Borderline heartbreaking.  It's hard not to be mad at Jack Cust for being so terrible in the outfield.  And super sad for Jairo for having become so terrible in general.  Not to mention that we are irritated at Geren for playing both of them, especially considering Cust has been in a slump lately and Jairo should only pitch with a huge lead or when a game is out of reach.  But with that said, we are still really proud of how the A's have been playing lately.  They look pretty good!  Plus, we can think of several other legitimate brightsides right now.  For one, we really are so happy that we don't have to watch Kevin Youkilis take another at bat for the rest of the season.  (And that we no longer have to look at his disgusting goatee, although we do enjoy his silly overreactions when he strikes out.)  We are also happy that we no longer have to suffer through Papelbon's 45 minute pursed-lip set-up and zero-in routine that takes place before every pitch.  And nevermind the depressing and completely painful David Ortiz steroids business.  In short, we are over the Red Sox and all their quirks and we are grateful that we don't have to watch them play the A's again until next season.

Go A's!

New Favorite A Candidate: Tommy Everidge

Dallas Braden on Everidge:  "He's a house. A one-story house, maybe, but a house."

Last night's win was amazing!  Let's go Oakland!

Banjo Man is Everywhere

Go Oakland!

photos via flickr

Brightsiding It

In our ongoing effort to enjoy the A's, we're going to focus on several positives from the series at Yankee Stadium.  Sure, it's not fun to lose 3 of 4.  But there were some things we really enjoyed about the series. 

For one, we loved listening to Ray Fosse call people out.  After the 5th inning of Friday's game when Joba Chamberlain totally overreacted to a couple of strikeouts, Ray said "that is not how you act."  Particularly because he had created the jam himself with a couple of walks.  (Glen told him to act like he's been there before.)  Later in Friday's game, he even told the Yankees to "swing the bat like a man" which is a great thing to say to the Yankees.  He also called out NY Post writer Peter King for
calling the A's pathetic.  On Saturday, the home plate umpire was driving Ray crazy by giving Andy Pettitte the outside part of the plate but not doing Gio the same favor.  You could tell, Ray just wanted to go after that ump.  We love hearing him stick up for the A's that he loves so much.  Especially since defending the A's can be so hard sometimes.  And it was great to be reminded that the A's are going win lots of games at Yankee Stadium in the coming years. 

For two, we were really nervous about Gio's start.  We didn't have any confidence in him after that awful start at the Coliseum versus the Twins.  But we hadn't realized that he hadn't pitched in like 2 weeks.  And much to our surprise, he was by far the best A to start a game in the whole series.  Great job, Gio!

For three, we love the A's Rootbeer Float Day Commercials.  Rajai continues to amuse us to no end.  We are glad he is an A.

For four, Rickey's speech was glorious.  From beginning to end, it was hilarious and sweet and humble and great.  More than we ever could have asked for or expected.   

So that was the weekend from the brightside.  We are going to use our positive attitude to will the A's to win some games in Boston this week.

Go Oakland!

p.s. One thing we can't put a happy spin on from last weekend is G-Force.  It is God awful.  Secret agent guinea pigs seemed like a sure thing to us, but avoid it if you can.   

Embracing the Inevitable

Well, we all knew this day would come.  Farewell, Matt Holliday.  It was short and it wasn't as exciting as we had wanted it to be.  We hope the same isn't true for G-Force.  Anyway, Matt Holiday, it was nice having you and your big hairless arms in Oakland while it lasted.       

 

Go A's!

16 Great Things About Yesterday's Game

1.  16 runs!
2.  Scoring 5 runs in the first inning
3.  Not stopping there
4.  A new season high
5.  Hairston's 3-run homer
6.  .500 w/ RISP (unbelievable for this team!)
7.  Rajai's amazing A's flair socks
8.  Rajai's amazing offense
9.  Matt Holliday going 3 for 3 in (maybe) his last home game as an A
10. Trevor Cahill getting back on track
11. Edgar Gonzalez preserving the 15 run lead, despite walking too many dudes
12. Another edition of Live Dot Racing
13. A pretty big, spirited crowd
14. Bert Be Home Blyleven in the booth with Fosse and Kuiper
15. OAD not even caring that we went to the one dud game of the series
16. Bring on the Yankees!

No Big Whoomp! (There It Is)

Although we knew it wasn't likely, we had hoped that last night's game would have some of the magic of Monday.  It didn't really.  There were 12,028 people there.  Braden pitched pretty well.  The offense didn't really do too much.  Joe Nathan mowed down the A's in the 10th.  And some dope brought a professionally printed sign that said, "Cuddyer was Safe."  Despite this, we had a really nice time.  We got to sit in Row 21 which is our favorite.  There was a cute dance off on Diamond Vision between a kid in section 122 and a guy way out in the bleachers.  Daric Barton looked really good.  And the fans around us were A's-ey and positive especially when we almost got decapitated by a Ryan Sweeney foul ball during the last at bat.  As we walked to BART we realized that it may have been the last game we will see in person where Matt Holliday is an A.  We don't feel great about that, but we just aren't as sad as we would have thought we would be.  This ambivalence is probably how the rest of this season is going to feel -- we want the A's to win and try hard, but really, we are just going to do what we can to enjoy whatever happens.  

Go A's!  

Hanging Our Heads

Dear Loyal OAD Readers,

 

We can't even pretend.  We were not watching last night's game.  Sure, we have seen the highlights and read the recaps.  But instead of watching what was probably one of the best A's games ever, we were watching The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All.  There is no excuse.  There is no explanation.  It was a pretty good episode, but Wes didn't even show up.  Chris Harrison spent way too much time talking about "Man Code."  And we don't even know if Jillian ends up getting engaged.  

 

We are sorry.

 

Regards, 

OAD

 

p.s. Go Oakland!  We are going to the game tonight and hope last night's tremendous win gives the A's some momentum! 

Let the Rickey Love Flow

This weekend had high points (Anderson on Sunday) and low points (error buffet on Saturday).  This article about Rickey was a definite high point for us.  We love all the Rickey retrospectives.  And for some reason, this quote from the A's current third base coach might be our fave:

Mike Gallego on Henderson's "threat" to play like Gallego if he were paid like Gallego: "I took it as a compliment. That's what I told the reporters, and a couple of them asked, 'How could you take it as a compliment?' I said, 'How many of you can say Rickey knows your name?' "

Go Oakland!

For the Captain

This shout out (wow! does that term feel dated) to Ken Korach couldn't be more well-deserved.  The Captain is a comfort even in these trying times.    

BEST REASON TO KEEP AN AM RADIO
Ken Korach
KTRB 860 AM

For fans who believe that baseball is the soundtrack of summer, it's essential that the voices they hear wear well over a 162-game season. A's fans are blessed with a broadcaster who gets it. Ken Korach took over as lead announcer for the locals in 2006, and he tells you what you're not seeing. "A routine fly ball ... playable" means you can exhale safely. "That's hit to right center field ... and nobody's going to get it" means you should turn the volume up. If you tune in in mid-August and the score is 10-2, you can tell from Korach's tone without him once mentioning the tally. He delivers the proper proportion on the game and the season. In baseball, like in life, not every moment is a 3-2 count in the bottom of the 9th. But when it is, and Korach's on the mic, you don't want to miss a pitch.

Go Oakland!

Summing It All Up Before the All-Star Break

Positives
1.  Rickey Henderson retrospectives
2.  Live dot racing
3.  Great seat availability
4.  Puka Shells
5.  Dallas Braden's awesome bizarreness
6.  Andrew Bailey random All-Star
7.  The insanity that is Barry Zito's twitter posts
8.  Rajai's smileyness
9.  Moves that might help the offense (aka Hannahan to the Mariners, getting Scott Hairston)

10.Ending the first half with a series win

11.Things can only get better, right? 
 
Negatives
1.  The A's being super-totally-way-dead last
2.  Geren
3.  Beane making excuses for Geren
4.  Giambi
5.  Beane making excuses for Giambi
6.  Nomar being hurt so much
7.  Matt Holliday being so meh
8.  The Giants being fun and exciting
9.  The shelving of the Moneyball movie

10.The A's offense being the most boring thing since Robert Buan

 

As always, we like to think the positives still outweigh the negatives (even if just barely).  And we appreciate a chance to stop worrying about the A's and focus on the All-Star fun times.  We are pulling for Prince Fielder in the home run derby tonight.   

 

Go baseball!

The first positive thought we have ever had

about Bartolo Colon came from this article.  We are sad about MJ too. 

Ed Hardy -- Killing Baseball Style, Not So Slowly

We are sad that our favorite sad clown pitcher didn't really knock em dead last night in Boston and is now on his way back to beautiful Sacramento.  We are happy to have Scott Hairston though.  Maybe he is the offensive spark the A's need.  And it will be nice not to see Jack Cust in the outfield so often (even though he has been better defensively than last year). 

But what is really on our minds is the scourge that is known as Ed Hardy.  Last night, we caught a little bit of an interview with Juan Uribe after the Giants game.  He was dressed in Ed Hardy head to toe.  Hat, shirt, jeans.  And it looked ridiculous.  Ed Hardy is the worst thing to happen to baseball style (not to mention style in general) since the goatee.  It must be stopped.  Should baseball players really be wearing the same bedazzled shirts and hats favored by the likes of Britney Spears?  We think no.  So for all the major league baseball players out there who read this blog -- please give the Ed Hardy a rest.  In a few years, you will thank us for this good advice.  We promise. 
 
Go Oakland!