Several posters have mentioned that we of Hawkeye Nation should not have expected much from this year's team because it was to be a "rebuilding" year.  My question....how could it be a rebuilding year when it was, by any rational measure, a year of failure.  We all thought, coming off an 11-2 record in 2009, that we had a pretty good shot at (gasp!) the National Championship in 2010.  Foolish mortals!  The Football Gods decreed that, for our hubris, we limped to an 8-5 finish, only salvaged by a truly miraculous and totally unexpected interception return by Micah Hyde.

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All the stories about the 2011 Dodgers roster talk about who made the team (deJesus, etc), but there is very little about where the other people went.  I gather Juan Castro has to decide whether to go to Alb. and Kapler has to decide whether he will retire or not.  I think he should, but old dreams die hard.  Rubbie looked good vs the Mariners (although that is not hard to do), but I have heard no words about the guy who hit a monster HR, my man Corey Smith.

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James Loney don't get no respect.  He's a pretty good hitter, although the HRs are not exactly his strong point, he's pretty good defensively, and the quiet way he goes about his business shows a certain degree of humility.  All of this adds up to a Dangerfieldian lack of respect---he ain't flashy, he ain't fleshy, he don't have a big head.  All of this is a preface to saying why I've decided to give him a lot more "respect," and a little bit of pity.  He must be considered the best sport on the Dodgers.  And I'll tell you why after the jump.

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I was watching the Dodgers-White Sox game on tv today, and, unfortunately, I was forced to access the WGN feed.  OK, we all know that "The Hawk" Harrelson are Steve Stone are unbearable homies.  I hate it when Harrelson calls the Sox  " the good guys."  I can take them in small doses and I suppose I could have turned off the sound and listened to Steiner and Monday on the radio.  Still, every now and then this tandem does something so incredibly awful that it defies description.  I will describe what Stone did after the jump. 

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As dramatic and incredible Ethier's slam was, we shouldn't forget that we were present at the birth of two new stars, Ely (who looked incredible, if a little jumpy and nervous) and Xavier Paul, who looks like a hitter and made a very good catch in the outfield.

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Seems to me that Bucs have a jewel in their midst that nobody pays much attention to---Jack Taschner.  The guy is an athlete (did you see that jump he made to snag that chopper agaist the Dodgers?).  He was a center fielder in his college days and he even looks like a hitter.  Plus, his overall record, injuries and all, is now 10-5.  Maybe we should make him a starter.  Lord knows we need one.  When will Brad Lincoln ever be ready for the Show?  Is seems like we've been waiting for him since Littlefield (ptuie!) was in short pants.  Taschner is a heck of a player.  Let's give him a shot.

Whatever happened to Josh Lindblom, the phenom of the spring?  I noticed that he was used in relief yesterday (the 12th) and pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up some runs.  His ERA right now is over 4.00.  I think the kid has got something----but maybe he's lost it or he's hurt. Does anybody know what his status is?  Has he fallen out of favor?  I certainly hope not.  He certainly looked good in the spring.  Any insights?

At the end of last season, Manny, romantic soul that he is, stated that he wanted to come back to the Dodgers, that the first uniform he ever wore, when he was a little tyke, was a Dodger uniform, that he loved the fans and his teammates, etc.  All of which he seems to have forgotten---or maybe he didn't mean all that soppy, treacly stuff in the first place.  The more interesting question is, why won't other teams touch him?  Can it be that the word is out that, when he doesn't get the love he thinks he deserves, when he, for whatever reason, has a slump, when he decides that he won't play hard in the outfield, he becomes the proverbial spoiled brat?  Of course he was awesome for us last year, but all this back and forth, with spring training already started, means that the bloom is off the rose of love that Manny himself created.  If he had just been straight and told us that he was looking for a lucrative deal, well, ok---that's baseball 2009.  But all his sickeningly sweet love for the Dodgers proves to be false.  He's made tens of millions of dollars in baseball, he's 37 years old, for God's sake---what does he want.  I say we should have gotten Abreu---that guy is a ballplayer---and I think we might take a look at Anderson, but Manny?  Enough with the violin music.  Sign with us or move on.

An interesting thing has happened over the last, oh, ten years or so.  When I first began teaching, hardly any of my students, both men and women, had tattoos.  Tattoos were for guys in the navy, or, sometimes athletes who wore that barbed wire thing on their biceps.  Now, it seems like virtually all of my students have tattoos, some of them macho and vulgar, some of them quite beautiful and extensive, some of them intimate, drawing the eye to private places.

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I was in Oakland for the win on Wednesday, and had a great time.  Spoke to fans around me, perfect strangers all, and we all shared our love for the A's.  However, there is something rankling me.  Around the field there were these signs, obviously the A's current marketing slogan.  
"Not JUST (underlined) athletes, Athletics."  So, the emphasis is on the word "just", implying that these athletics are not just athletes, but poets, peasants, professors---in short, that they have other, interesting lives.  This is not what is meant, or what is supposed to be meant, by the slogan.  If I read it correctly, it means to say that that these guys are not just ATHLETES, they are Athletics;  in other words, something special.  Therefore, the underlining should go under the word "athletes", not under the word "just."  Do you agree?  Does anybody care?  I sure do.

Today (Saturday) on NPR's Morning Edition, they had a piece on the new stadiums going up around baseball, and focussed on the new A's stadium in Fremont.  Based on an article in the NY Sun, the idea was that such stadiums, with small seating capacity (35,000 in Fremont) will be tipped toward expensive seats and corporate luxury boxes, with very little seating for the common fan and his family.  This may be great in the short run, but is terrible long-term thinking, because it would keep out the regular Joe and his young kids---and when you are marketing a product, if you don't get 'em young, you don't get 'em.  If you do, it's just the opposite---note the success of Mickey D's. So baseball loses its future, at least as a live event.  I think what we are seeing is the beginning of the end of actual attendance at games, the corporality of baseball---many people just don't go anymore, they just watch on tv or on the internet.  Not to mention, that this is another example of the growing disparity between the life of rich people and everybody else on the planet.  It's always been about money in sports--ok.  But this is a mistake and cruel, to boot.  

As I wrote in a previous post, I am coming up to Oak-land for the day game on July 18 and I'm wondering if any other denizens of SoCal will be there.  Seems to me this is a perfect opp to play hookie from school/job, etc. I'm sitting in Sect. 108, Row 32, Seat 1.  You'll recognize me because I'm coming up with my crew.  Lyssa Milano will be there, Lin Lohan and her main squeeze Hank Kissinger, MK and Ash Olson---you know, the regulars from our weekly kaffee klatch at the IHOP. The Gang.

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Yeah, we went into the All Star break losing some games---but the way we lost them really pissed me off.  I see no spark in this team, I see a team going through the motions.  Case in point:  Chavez's toss to Ellis should have been crisp and hard--instead, it was a lazy toss---one certainly couldn't dignify it by calling it a throw.  If it was what it should have been, we might have had a DP.  

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I live in SoCal, and I am thinking of coming up to Oakland to see the midweek day game on July 18.  Yes, I'm going to fly up (boy, will my arms be tired), see the game and fly back.  Here's the thing---would love to see the game with any and all AN folks. So---do any of you all have tickets?  Are there any AN folks from SoCal who would like to join me?  Here's where the difficulties come in:  I am a strange first date.  I'd like to sit at field level, under the upper deck and/or out of the sun.  I'm willing to buy such seats (or reimburse one of you) if we could sit together.  So---please let me know---it would be great to meet some of you guys and gals.  You can respond by replying to this or going to my email: levy@chapman.edu  Hope we can make this happen.

AP reports that Harden had a slight ache in his shoulder after pitching one inning in yesterday's forgettable loss.  This guy, as talented as he is, will never be a starter---I say make him a closer.  With his stuff, he is a strikeout machine, especially if used after a guy who doesn't throw flame, like he does. So, his pitchcount in that one inning is virtually nil. That way, he stays healthy, we get a killer closer and Huston Street becomes expendable.  Street has a good reputation, so we might be able to trade him for
(YIKES!) a HITTER!  A HITTER!  What a concept!

Jack Cust is a great story.  On the ESPN info page there is a head shot of him decked out in a San Diego Padres hat---and he is the absolute image of Babe Ruth, his great big pudding of a face smiling out at the camera.  For me, at least, he is Il Bambino Novo (I don't know if the "Novo" goes before "Bambino" in Italian, so I'll just use my knowledge, such as it is, of other latinate languages).  

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We know that we are (ta-daa!) A's Nation and that we are scattered far and wide.  What I'm wondering, and here I think we need our fellow Nationites to contribute, is whether any of us have pictures wearing A's Gear in front of, say, the Eiffel Tower or the Maj Mahal or the Great Pyramid or The Great Wall of China.  I think 'twould make for an uplifting experience, in these times of sturm und drang, where our pitcher tonight, bless him, gave up ten (count 'em) ten runs and now has, I think, an ERA of 27.00.  I don't want to be tarred and feathered like other members of the Nation, but unless something miraculous happens, this really ain't our year.  We've had a good run, but the fates are against us, we don't have the money to go out and get somebody really good, we're depending on guys coming back from injuries to save us...doesn't sound like a good scenario to me.  Anyway, let's see some pics with an A's cap mounted on a kangaroo's head....at least we'll be able, as they say on HBO's "Extras," to "have a laugh."

Oakland,CA---In the wake of acquiring a player who will not play one game during 2007 in an attempt to stockpile players for the 2008 season and beyond, the Oakland A's today announced that it had acquired Al (Boom Boom) Schultz, 11, currently playing in the Culver City, California Little League.  Schultz, currently leading the CCLL in hitting with a .530 average and .860 OPS. is considered a prospect for the 2016 A's lineup.  Schultz, who pitches, plays first base and is on the Honor Roll at Culver City Middle School for Perfect Attendance, could not be reached for comment.  He had to do his homework.

For the past several games, the Chicago announcers, including a former pitcher, have noted that Huston Street is not on the rubber at all when he throws his pitch.  He slides over to the side and his toe is not even touching the rubber.  This, according to these pundits, is a sin and (gasp!) illegal.  They say that a pitcher has to have his whole foot on the rubber, not just the toe---and Huston doesn't even have that!  So---how come nobody (like an umpire) has called Huston on this?  Do such things matter in the big leagues? Does the fact that Huston is a successful pitcher make such talk inconsequential?  Don't get me wrong---I don't care what he does---he can go up there with a bazooka---but how can he get away with this?

Was it just me, or did our friend Mr. Swisher look hungover in the early innings of Sunday's game?  He did not look good in the field, did not help Crosby at all on the error (which I believe Swisher should have caught), was making faces to try to get some blood going into his face, stuck out what was obviously a very dry tongue.....the kid is a hard-partyer;  more power to him.  But whatever he did Saturday night, he did not look good on Sunday.  I think it took a while to shake off the cobwebs and he looked like he was in the game later on.

As a professor of Communication Studies here in SoCal, I've been amused and interested in this thing that's happening in NoCal, hyphy and its attendant activity, "ghostriding in cars," that is, putting your vehicle in neutral, stepping out of car so that there is no driver, walking around the car, dancing on the roof, etc.  Got a lot of coverage on You Tube, etc.  Now, one of my students has informed me that the whole thing started out as a protest against the A's moving to Fremont.  Is this so?  The student then tells me, somewhat ominously, that I should "watch the home opener," because interesting things may happen---hyphy is kind of thug lite, so I don't think anything really bad is going to happen---but, can anybody comment on all of this?

We all know that the candidates for the 5th starter have been less than stellar---though I think Komine is the only one who has brought his ERA down, after a horrendous start (still like the kid).  In any case, I do think Gaudin should be given a shot (he won't be) and I am certainly even less convinces than I have been about Jason Windsor.  Now, I read that there might be some interest in Josh Fogg.  I like this idea---he was pretty good for the Pirates, a woeful team, and last year, although his ERA went up (whose doesn't in Colorado), he was a couple of games above .500.  Kendall knows him---and, from what I gather, Fogg is a bulldog, continually confounding those who tell him he can't pitch.  I hope we get him, if Kennedy continues to flunk his test.

OK---so we all agree that we need a left-handed bat. Maybe that bat is Durazo (a good story, since he will come back to us---I think we treated him shabbily when he was hurt and we let him go---but Beane is definitely a cold-eyed realist; no room for emotion in his universe).  Problem is, everyone sez Durazo can't play 1B.  What about giving Clark a chance---he hit (both minors and winter league) 26 HRs in 2006.  Certainly that deserves a look.  As for Keilty---I think as one fellow ANer has posted, that he should hit right-handed ALL THE TIME.  He has a clumsy left-handed swing---and he would get better hitting right-handed pitching the more he saw of it.  I like him as an outfielder, and this might give Swisher more time at 1B.  Problem solved.

All the symptoms of grief have occurred because Zito is leaving.  Several posters have bemoaned the fact that, because of the skewed financial structure of baseball, just when you are getting to love an A's player---pooof! He's gone, like a dream you once had, or a lover....in fact, the posts have been of a most personal nature, with love as one of the main metaphors.  Creepy.

Let's look at real life:  Marital life is not what it once was (check the divorce rates in this country; 2 out of 4 end in divorce); job security (is there such a thing anymore?---placement agencies continue to advise their clients to be flexible and resourceful, codewords for Darwinian competition); personal finances---a high rate of personal bankuptcy, a very low savings rate= a recipe for falling off a financial cliff.  Not to mention that people fall in and out of love all the time.

I submit that, as an A's fan, we have nothing to be sorry for, when our players leave.  It's the nature of the beast---and our beast has been rather beautiful---and not just because of wins.  Zito was here for 7 years; Tejada for 7 years; Giambi for 7 years; Hudson for 6 years; Mulder for 5 years.  In marital terms, that is a lifetime---in sports terms it is a miracle.  And if you can't fall in love with a player in, say 2, or 3 years, you ain't playing attention.  The first time I saw Ellis I was, gulp, in love.  Same thing for Harden.  I'm already in love with Barton.

Please.  Spare me the sad story of betrayal and disillusionment.  We have had wonderful players who have played for us for many (yes, many) years---and, although I'm not happy to see Zito go, I wanna see Komine, Gaudin, even Windsor (although I'm not convinced) pitch;  I wanna see Barton, and Suzuki. And other guys---like Clark. That's why I love the A's---turnover, not stability.  Romance, passion, the unpredictable that leads to drama and great theatre.  I like college sports for the same reason---a new team with new kids all the time. Yeah---and I'll take 7 years of Zito anytime.  

This year it seems that many baseball players, mediocre or not, are pulling down enormous salaries, just for being able to tie their shoes and put on a glove. A question: Mr. Frank Thomas, who is beneath contempt, in my view, since we gave him a chance to rejuvenate his career and he spit in our face to go to Toronto, justified his decision by saying he had to "do what was best for his family."  Ok, fair enough---but wasn't he earning literally millions all those years in Chicago?  So, when you add up all his million-dollar contracts, it seems to me he is a very, very rich man, aside from what he got from Toronto.  Here's my question:  is it too early to tell whether all this wealth is passed down from generation to generation---in other words, are any baseball players' kids going to Ivy League schools, having benefitted from private schooling in the lower grades?  Common sense tells me that such wealth is generational, dynastic, if you will.  Does anyone know if such wealth has reached the kids, yet?  Or---is it too early to tell whether, say, Jason Kendall's kid will one day grow up to be a lawyer, enter politics and become a senator.  There is a monied class in this country---are baseball players' families among that monied elite---yet?  

Yes, Mr. Frank (Thank You Oakland For Giving Me Back My Manhood) Thomas has gone for the money, and everyone is asking who we might get by either the FA or trade route.  And I say, fuggedabout it.  I think now's the time we give our own guys (Barton, McClain, Thomas, Clark) a shot.  I wish I could have included Rouse in there, but that's another sad story.  I think, contrary to what most folks think, that we do indeed have talent we can use, talent that won't cost lots o' money and talent that comes with mythic stories that would make any of those guys a joy to behold.  I saw Barton once on some clip before last season, and he looks like a real ballplayer to me---a combination of strength and grace.  McClain---yeah, he's old, but he hit 28 hrs at Sacramento (am I wrong about this?)---give him a shot. I'm not including Bocachica because he doesn't impress me---but those other guys?  Why the heck not?  And what about Komine---give him a shot.  Wottastory!  That's what baseball is for me---yes, performance on the field, but a myth behind each player. Ellis?  Scutaro?  Guys with a story! That's what gives the sport resonance.  Thoughts?

Ellis, who is one of my favorite players, sez that Geren can be "in your face' when he has to be and "cuddly and gentle", as well. Sounds like a good combination to me, not only in a manager, but as a human being as well. Ellis, however, leaves out another necessary quality for an A's manager to have---absolutely no ideas of his own.  Yeah, he might bunt a bit or hit and run when it is absolutely necessary, but over the long season, it's going to be Billy's way or the highway. That's why Hershiser was never really a choice---he's smart and he also thinks he's smart, a deadly combination working for a man like Beane.  I'm not knocking it, it seems to work, but being A's manager is not the job for a creative thinker.  

So many people have weighed in on the move to Fremont that the issue has been seen and spoken about from what seems like hundreds of angles. Luddites and Modernists have had their say;  Romantics and Realists have cried from their hearts and exhibited their quite logical reasons for the move.  I want to take a slighly different tack.  I think to call the team the ___of Fremont is a mistake.  It puts us right in the morbid category of the "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim," who actually play in some imaginary place like Laputa or CloudCuckooland.  If any name does not run trippingly off the tongue it is certainly that name---ugly and ungainly and clearly a marketing device that is naked in its greed.

I live in LA and I work in Orange County and, trust me, the fact that the Angels pretend to be an LA team is a joke to both locales.  Certainly in Orange County everyone knows they are not in LA (and some of them are damn proud of it); and in LA, well, Anaheim is not LA.  I've lived in LA---and Orange County/Anaheim/Santa Ana is not LA.  Heck, you can't go to a foreign film in Orange County except in one lone theatre.  Besides, everyone can see the transparent marketing ploy Moreno has tried to create.  I would be interested to hear if anyone believes that he is drawing people from LA to Laputa because of his new name---people may come because his baseball team ain't bad, but it surely isn't because of the name.

Which, again, brings me to the ____of Fremont.  I think if the team is in Fremont it should be called the Fremont Athletics.  What's wrong with that?  Is Fremont so terrible? Doesn't the name conjure up the West, and isn't it, considering we are in the high-tech 21st Century, a workingman's town, just like Cleveland or Pittsburgh or Akron or some other place where people worked with their hands and got said digits dirty?

I will say this.  I would root for the Fremont A's and take down my Oakland A's car window decal and put up one that says Fremont A's on it, if necessary. I will root for the team until they officially change the name to include that "of Fremont" obscenity.  And then I will root for another team that has one name.  Maybe it will be Pittsburgh and its woebegone Pirates. The city?  Certainly an underdog, certainly cursed by mismanagement, a brutal police force, decreasing population, etc.  But it has one name and the team is actually in Pittsburgh, a very beautiful city, by the way.  

I know the A's have to move---ok, Oakland couldn't keep them , just like "loyal" heart-on-his-sleeve Frank Thomas spit in our face after we gave him a chance to prove he could still play.  OK---asi es la vida---but don't tell me to root for a team that literally is from Noplace.

Let's go Fremont! (clapclap, clapclapclap) It ain't so bad. It ain't good, but it ain't bad.  

While BBG and assorted A's fans from SoCal are up in Oakland watching the game in person, I'm toying with the idea of watching the game at Grunion's in Manhattan Beach, home of our last TV watch, rather than at home. Depends on whether anybody else would like to join in the festivities should we clinch, or even if we don't. I get off work at 12 noon, so I can catch the game.  So---any takers?

...for putting together last night's AN/SoCAl group love-in at some stadium in Orange County where the Angels of Laputa play (with apologies to J. Swift). It was great, putting names/faces with AN board handles.  And it turns out that we did indeed make a lot of noise, so much so that other A's fans came over to check us out---and when they found out that we were the AN crew, they gave it up for BBG, who is something of a celebrity.  Ah, fame.....