Oakland A's Days

Old Timeyness

We love that the A's have an old fashioned double header today (and that we decided to work from home so we can watch all 6+ hours of it on tv).  It reminded us of the hilarious video below. But -- and this probably goes without saying -- if the A's don't win at least one of these games, this double header could quickly become a real slog.  One of the sloggiest slogs of all. So we are really hoping that the A's look great today.

Go Oakland!

Superstitious

We don't want to jinx it, so we aren't going to say anything else about what the A's could do today. 

Go A's!

Apropos of Nothing

These new Stockton Ports alternate logos are absolutely bonkers jonkers.  Elephants and anchors just don't go together, right?  However, they are almost so ugly that we like them.  Like greyhounds or aardvarks.

Thanks to this cool blog for the tip.   

Dang

Diagram via

Last night is not what we would have wanted.  We aren't sure why Geren is so cagey about who the real, official closer is going to be and we aren't sure why the A's have so many baserunning problems.  We also aren't sure why, with all the crazy mistakes that we have seen this year, Geren suddenly decided to publicly call out Rajai Davis.  First, we will admit that we like Rajai.  He is a mess offensively, and we were skeptical about the A's getting a guy that even the dumb Giants didn't want, but he wears knee socks and everyone says he is the best A's barber since Rickey.  More importantly though, it just feels wrong to read about Geren blaming Rajai when the team is bad on so many levels.  To us, Rajai might be infuriating, but he is not the A's biggest problem.  If Rajai became lock-down awesome tomorrow, the A's would still have problems.  He could definitely be better and he shouldn't make dumb mistakes (especially with such a limited role), but honestly, there aren't many A's you can't say that about right now.  It feels like we just have to keep hoping that the A's get this season figured out sometime soon.  But we will admit that we are beginning to wonder whether that is even possible.  In any event, we are excited to see Dan Haren tomorrow and imagine what could have been.  We are going to try really hard not to cry.

Go Oakland!

Hey A's, Let's Keep This Frigging Thing Going!

Go Oakland!

Reminder from the Brightside

One upside to all the losing is that each win makes us feel like we won the lottery.  Not like winning a megamillions jackpot of course, more like a $100 scratcher.  It doesn't change your life, but it's more than you were realistically expecting, however optimistic you may have been when you bought the ticket.  At this point in the season, one win doesn't change much.  The A's are still way down in last place and .500 is still far away.  But winning in extra innings on a huge Holliday homer after several great pitching performances sure feels good.

Go Oakland!

Things are so bad, we are afraid that it is going to start raining frogs...

On top of all the losing, here is some really sad news about Chavy's health.

Is This the Apocalypse?

The horrendous weekend has stirred some real soul-searching amongst A's fans.  Nico at Athletics Nation is pondering how else he might spend his summers now that Billy Beane loves soccer so much.  Although we're not on board with all of his points, we understand how gut-wrenching it is to watch the A's lose again and again.  And we get how over time it drives otherwise reasonable fans to the brink of insanity.  Or melodramatic letter writing.  The fact is this: if you love the A's as much as we do (and as much as Nico obviously does) it makes you miserable to watch a team that just underperforms in a completely depressing, uninspiring, unfun way.  It feels like something is wrong and someone needs to fix it.  Nico wants Billy Beane to fix it by quitting.  We don't think that is the answer.  Billy Beane is one of the best things we have going (he is going to be played by Brad Pitt in a movie about the A's for God's sakes!) and we do think he wants the A's to be successful.  While you can definitely quibble with his decisionmaking (Chavez's contract, not keeping Marco Scutaro, trading Dan Haren, the ongoing troubles of Bobby Crosby, etc.) we aren't at the point of thinking that any of it was done negligently or in bad faith (sorry, we are lawyers).  But, in any event, we agree that the A's seem to be phoning it in right now.  We cite as evidence (again, we are lawyers) the shoddy and unpredictable defense and the at times half-hearted seeming offense.  And we totally agree that if Bob Geren wasn't Billy's BFF he probably would have been fired already (for those of you counting, that is a conflict of interest).  Accordingly, we have drafted our own note to Billy Beane to add to the pile.  It's less of a letter than a few simple requests that will, in our estimation, save this season from being a major disappointment.  Here goes:

Dear Billy Beane,

We humbly suggest the following:

1. Lower ticket prices.
2. Lower food prices.   
3. Re-hire the breakdancing Stomper and his friend who wore the jacket and sunglasses.
4. Clean the tarps. 
5. Make some t-shirts we actually want to buy. (They have to be green and gold; no pink.)
6. Bottle whatever makes Kurt Suzuki so awesome lately and inject it into Holliday, O-Cab, Giambi, Hannahan, Buck, and Cust.
7. Outlaw injuries. 
8. Fire Geren. 

Yours truly,

OAD

Tribute to DB

Go A's!

2 In a Row!

By the way, we have recently discovered and are delighted by the A's Ticket Services blog.  If you haven't already, you should check it out here.