Oakland A's Days

Oakland A's Days Presents: Guest Blogger 8 Year Old Charlie

A's, Let's Not Be Like This

We were feeling like we had sort of come to terms with the 2008 A's.  Sure, most of our favorite players are gone, and the core of the team is made up of guys who love being injured more than we love chili fries (we're looking at you Crosby), but we STILL felt excited about the season getting under way.  We even bought our tickets to Phoenix just so we could watch a bunch of random guys in A's uniforms run around playing baseball.   And there were some things that actually gave us hope.  Joe B. is still around.  And Huston Street.  And Travis Buck.  And Daric Barton might be the first baseman and he is awesome.  We even had this idea that maybe this is the year Rich Harden would get off to a good start and do all the things everyone has been hoping for.  But then Ray Ratto wrote this for the Chron today.  Ugh.  This is not the nice start we were hoping for. Harden should not be blaming the A's for his zillions of injuries.  And it is hard to see how the A's pressured him to come back when it feels like the last time he pitched was in the 1990s.  And even if everything is the A's fault (again, not something we are really buying) what is up with airing grievances to the press, and especially to negative king of the world Ray Ratto?  This is not what the A's do.  No way.  This kind of stuff is not A's-ey in the least.  It is gross.  We are going to pretend it didn't happen. 

Go A's!

New Old A's

We have lost many beloved A's to free agency over the past few years.  Miggy, Jermaine, Barry Zito…  The list of A's that we would have liked to have kept is long.  And for the most part, we would be happy to have these former A's back.  But over the weekend, the A's signed the one guy from this list who we are LEAST excited about having back.  Keith Foulke was obviously a good closer while he was with the A's.  But by many accounts, he seems to be a real jerk, and clearly not a guy with any sparkle whatsoever.  Sadly, this feels all too appropriate with the rest of this off-season's dealings.  We'd like to believe that we hit bottom when Nick Swisher was traded, but we've read that having Foulke could allow the A's to trade Huston Street.  If that happens, it will be indisputable evidence that the A's are working to assemble the most sparkle-free team possible (and appropriately dressing them in bizarre black jerseys).  On the other hand, we are oddly excited about the Mike Sweeney news.  It's a little random, but he seems like a good guy and we hope that he will be a good A.