Howdy

I know that a lot of A's fans on here are Raiders fans as well so i thought i would offer these here first. I have a bobblehead of Randy Moss and one of Bill Romanowski that need a good home. Neither one has a box, the Randy Moss one has him in a black top no helmet and is a 'Knuckle Head.' The Bill Romanowski has him in white top with helmet on and is made by 'Bobble Dobblers'. Other than that i dont really know anything about them

Dont want anything for them except a good home where they might get the respect and appreciation they deserve. I will be at the game on Sunday so i could meet up there or some other such idea could work i am sure.

Oh also, i have some baseball cards (several boxes) from like between 1989-1992 various makers. I doubt there is anything of value but if anyone needs a card or cards for a set or collects a certain player or something let me know and i can see what i got and pop em in the mail to you. Or if there is a better way to do this let me know, i dont have much experience with cards.

Thanks and Go A's!!!!

Evening All

I had posted a request on behalf of my wife a couple of weeks ago, concerning her mother and a wish to try and give her one more special memory before she passed away. If you wouldn't mind, i am going to share this wish and this story with you.

On July 11th, we received a phone call late at night letting us know about Bertie (my wifes mother) being taken to the hospital. Bertie had been battling lung cancer and after several rounds of chemo was told early on this year that her tumour had shrunk 25% and things looked hopeful. Well, after several tests and several hours in the ER, we were rather casually informed "that the tumour in her brain was bleeding." To wit we replied, "What tumour in her brain?" For some reason her cancer had spread and spread fast and we were told that they was nothing they could do. So after a couple of days and much angst she was sent home.

Now Bertie has been a dedicated A's fan since the beginning, her 5 children are A's fans and in turn they have co-opted others, myself being one. So my wife wanted to try and do one more thing for her mother with her beloved A's. No, try is the wrong word, she was determined to do SOMETHING. She didnt know what, just that she had to try. I will admit here to being somewhat skeptical that anyone would care enough to help or really be in the position to do something, i mean just where do you start? The goal was to take her to one last game if possible, if not then maybe some kind of letter or photo from the A's thanking her for being an A's fan all these years.

After some prodding from my wife, i posted a request for help on where to start here after we had tried to call the A's ourselves and getting nowhere. My wife also posted something on facebook and sent some emails out to old friends. We then got caught up with the family as Bertie got worse and worse quite quickly and needed more and more people to care for her. My wife and two of her siblings moved in at that point and there just didnt seem like we would even have the time anymore to follow through, or that maybe Bertie wouldnt have the time even if we could. 

A few days after we had put out help requests and had some responses from people willing to do whatever they could, (season ticket holders, a radio intern,) we received a phone call from a most unexpected place. The lady on the phone introduced herself as Detra from the Oakland Athletics, that she had heard about the situation and was calling to see what was going on and what she might be able to do to. My wife was here at the time and she was able to have a conversation with Detra and explained about taking her to a game but it was now too late and she could no longer make it. Detra then suggested that maybe she could do something else. That if we could tell her what player, she could take a ball and try to have it autographed to Bertie when the A's were back in town to face the Royals on Monday. This was still Wednesday last week. My wife looked at me for help and all i could think was Kurt. I remember having conversations with Bertie about Kurt when he first took over from Kendall and she was enthralled with him. My wife then gave Detra her mothers address as Detra even promised to ship it right to her door so that she would know exactly where it came from. At the end of the call my wife hung up and she was so thrilled!!  Me? Well I'm the skeptic and i was still thinking no way, that is never going to happen, they must get thousands of requests like that. We didnt even know who this Detra was, never mind how was she getting the ball signed.

On Sunday, Bertie took a turn for the worse and we were told it wouldnt be much longer. She was on so much pain medication by then that she was only with us for short periods at a time as she would drift and sleep a lot. She stayed with us Monday, when the A's were back in town and was still with us Tuesday. When i went over to visit Tuesday evening, i was able to sit with her and call the game against the Royals for her. She stayed with me until we tied the game in the 4th before she drifted off with a smile on her face. Its hard to describe how something that brings pain can bring joy and vice versa. 

Wednesday morning arrived and Bertie was still with us, still determined to be around. Wednesday morning also brought a small package addressed to Bertie. My wife called me and said you HAVE to get over here. I'm like Why? She says you'll never guess what just came for mum! Detra was every bit as good as her word and then some. My mother in law became the proud receipient of a baseball. Not just any baseball. One just for her. Unbelievably, there was a message handwritten on the ball. "To Bertie Foster. Thanks for being a longtime A's fan." It was signed Kurt Suzuki. Emotions were running quite high in that little room for a while.

I am amazed that a large professional organisation still cares about the fans as individuals. Its such a small insignificant gesture, yet, it can mean the world to so many people. I couldnt believe that an official with the A's (turns out Detra is the Director of Community Relations) and a star player would spend the time to brighten up the last few days of a fan they had never met. My wife and I are so grateful for Detra's amazing help, to Kurt for honoring the request and to everyone that helped us and got Detra to call. I've also never been happier to be an A's fan or more proud of the organisation.

Bertie passed away yesterday. Peacefully and surrounded by people that loved her. She will be missed and she will be remembered. I'm glad that my wife was able to give her mother one last special moment of joy and I am sure that there will be many treasured memories from her last few days with us. For me, mine will always be intertwined with the one passion we always shared. The Oakland Athletics.

Morning all. i am posting this here at the request of my wife with the idea that we might be able to find a good starting point. I can give you the whole story and yet its probably similar to many you will come across in life so i will try to stick to the relevant details.

This post concerns my mother in law and her rapidly declining health. Last weekend she was taken to hospital with what was thought to be pneumonia. ( She has been battling lung cancer for about twelve months.) Unfortunately, while scans were being done that night and the following morning, it emerged that her cancer has spread quickly and viciously, both lungs, chest wall and finally worst of all, a stage four brain tumour. The following morning was tough, especially when a phone call was received from her sisters family (my wifes Aunt and Godmother) that her Sister has passed away, from the same cancer. As you can imagine, her own options as explained by the doctors were very limited and she has in fact elected to go home with hospice care and wait till the end, which we have been told will be a matter of weeks not months. 

So what does that have to do with the A's? Ah yes, well my mother in law and I have not always seen eye to eye, but where we have connected is our support of the Oakland Athletics. This is the lady that taught my wife to love the green and gold who in turn showed me what is means to support our A's. I owe her a lot for that if nothing else. ( I cant repay what i owe her for her daughters love. :-) Yes Yes, I hear the groans, yes I'm soppy and no, I don't care who knows it!)

My mother in law has been in declining health the last few years and has not seen her beloved A's in a long time and my wife really wants to try and do something special for her mother to rectify this. So we have been trying to kind of figure out what could we do and this is where we are hoping that someone here might have an idea where we could start. We are thinking about taking her to a game, although we would probably need significant help from the A's to do this as she is weak already. We have put a call into the A's Community Relations about that and are currently waiting for them to get back to us. Another thought we had if the trip to the game doesn't work out, would be some kind of personal contact, be it a letter of support of some kind or miracle of miracles, some kind of community visit from a former or current player or staff. We had contacted The Dream Foundation about this possibility, however we were told that the application and review process can be six weeks. That seems like it might be too long for our current situation. So we are here asking if anyone knows of any community organization that might be able to help with this idea. Would there even be a specific department within the franchise that might handle requests like this? We both realize that with the short time we truly are asking for miracles and i am sure that hundreds if not thousands of people probably would like something similar as well. We don't even know if this IS something that ever happens. At this point we both figure it can not hurt to try.

If anyone has any ideas, organizations, phone numbers or anything that might be helpful we would be very grateful. Also, if anyone cares to think of, or remember her in whatever way that you might, that would also be welcomed and appreciated. Her name is Alberta Foster, she is 75 and i will always remember her getting upset and irate when she told me the story of her brother calling her A's the "Oakland A**holes." Classic Bertie, she's always been a feisty woman.

Thank You AN for your help, your kindness and your support

Take Care All

Reading AN this morning, this comment from OaklandSi caught my attention

if Sheets is pitching well and the A's are in contention at the break

I don’t think Beane will trade him. In fact, in that circumstance I think he’d be a buyer, to pick up whatever piece the A’s need….think productive hitters that are in their walk year...

So, i did as suggested and started thinking. I used Cots as a base to identify potential free agents at the end of this 2010 season and OK 70 is quite a lot. Not going to be as easy as i thought. Time to tax the brain and try to establish some parameters. Unfortunately this is going to be based upon some assumptions on my part, so please be kind and i will at least try to explain my point of view

I think we all probably agree that if the A's are in contention/AL West lead come late July, it will be because of our pitching and not hitting. Obviously with two premium hitting prospects in the minors the easy answer is promote one of them, however I am also going to assume that we don't want to base our WS shot on the hitting of one or two rookies, as such i will assume one of Carter and Taylor are going to be held back, whether its performance or other issues.
I will go out on a limb here and say Taylor is the one we bring up as opposed to Carter. My rationalization for this is twofold. One is an opinion that i think Carter will benefit more from a full year at AAA and secondly, if we are doing well, i think we can safely assume that Barton will be a big part of it and will have 1B covered, leaving only DH available. Do we want to bring Carter up to DH for the rest of the year? i dont think the A's brass do. Having Taylor as a call up provides better flexibility this season, he fits the faster more running A's of this year and i just think he will be more ready by June. Also by not bringing up Carter we then leave the DH spot to bring in a legitimate veteran bat on a rental. I think come July, Chavy will be retired/injured/released. If we are in contention it will be in spite of Chavez not because of him.

I much prefer looking at the trade target list, knowing i dont have to worry about positional placement and defense. There is a couple of nice bats to target but if they had to play the field, i am sure the sabremetrics crew could prove we would be shooting ourselves in both feet and not just one. So all i care about is the bat. Great!!! Now i dont have to worry about where to put them this will be easy... or maybe not
I am going to eliminate any potential free agent that is on a potential contending team. Also, looking for a guy with some pop, some good OBP skills and a history of driving in runs from the middle of the order. Light hitting shortstops ala Bobby Crosby will be eliminated from possible contention. Again this is somewhat subjective but i am left with the following list of  8 players

Lance Berkman HOU * Has 15M option for 2011
Adam Dunn WAS
Paul Konerko CWS
Derrek Lee CHC
Lyle Overbay TOR
Jorge Cantu FLA
Ty Wigginton BAL
Magglio Ordonez DET * Has 15m option for 2011
 
Lance Berkman - Would be a great addition to the team if he proves his health between now and July. If available though, i suspect some competition from the A Gonzalez losers. I would imagine we would have to give up a fair bit for Berkman, i would imagine at least two near MLB players would be asked such as Mazzarro and Weeks. I am not suggesting we should pay this, just where i think the conversation would start. If we are not planning on exercising the option, and i dont know why we would, then i am not sure if this would be worth it. (of course any trade is worth it if you win a World Series)
 
Adam Dunn - I am a Dunn fan. Love his attitude and his style and love 40 homers a year. Dunn has been cast as a DH for several years now and would slot nicely into our lineup, providing a real legitimate threat to opposing pitchers. However there has been ongoing talk about Dunn signing an extension to stay in Washington and that would put paid to any hopes of a trade.
 
Paul Konerko - I really dont know that much about Konerko. His numbers have been consistent for many years and certainly fit the sort of veteran presence and a proven WS winner to boot. Anything more than that though will require someone else here helping me out. I dont think the Sox contend and i thought i remembered hearing something about Konerko not getting extended. I think Konerko would be cheaper to acquire than the other two, though i doubt Kenny wants to get fleeced AGAIN by Billy.
Hey Kenny? You interested in Desme for Konerko straight up?
 
Derrek Lee - He is here in this list, more because he fits the profile i was looking for, than that i believe the Cubs will trade him. However stranger things have happened. Cubs have a massive payroll that needs to be trimmed and if you are the Cubs, do you really see Derrek Lee as your 1B man for the next few years and if not, then surely it makes sense to trade him when you have the best opportunity. Would probably require at least a B prospect plus one other low minor.
 
Lyle Overbay - Lyle is my "hmm not sure he belongs here" candidate. I think he could be had, i am not sure he is quite the impact player i had in mind, but his numbers do suggest he is a better hitter than i thought he was. He is off to a slow start but with a career line of 276/360/445 he instantly becomes one of the better hitters on the team. Not sure if thats enough for my half season rental though. With Brett Wallace tearing the cover off the ball in the minors, the Jays could shop Overbay and it might not be for that much. Someone would have to really convince me though that this would be a truly good idea.
 
Jorge Cantu - Always loved the Bat, always hated the defence. I could handle Cantu hitting 4th or 5th for us for the last two months as long as he  NEVER played the field. Its the Marlins though and they have reportedly trying to shop Cantu for the last two years without success. This tells me that the demands must be pretty outrageous, because i could think of a lot of teams that could use his bat, even if it meant losing a little in defence. AN, any ideas on what it would take to pry Cantu from the Marlins?
 
Ty Wigginton -  Has been one of the more underrated players in the league. Not saying he is a star, but he is a very solid player the last few years (2009 excepted) and the only player on this list that wouldnt at least be totally embarrassing if played anywhere other than DH. Has had a great start to the year and while will ultimately cool off a bit, he could still be interesting in the A's lineup. The Orioles are still in rebuilding mode and i think he could be had for a couple of low minor high upside prospects. In terms of this list though, i think Wigginton isnt that much higher than Overbay and as such might not really be a good solution.
 
Magglio Ordonez - Yeah... this ones tricky. 2006 will forever remain seared in my brain. His absolutely AWFUL start last year as well gives me some major concerns. He did get it together better in the latter half of the year without the power and that seems to have come back this year. If anyone knows the score here better than i do please fill in what you can. I think the Tigers will not be in contention this year, hence why i think Mags could be available, i know others will disagree with me on that. I do think the Tigers will want a pretty good SP prospect and while we do have depth, i guess it would really depend on WHO as to whether i would make this deal.
 
I have tried to take at least a semi 'This could happen' approach as opposed to trading for Pujols or Howard.
I hope other can weigh in on their opinions of these and other players and also maybe give a better idea on what it would take to land these guys. I have given my best guess on some of them but its not really my thing, i know there are others much more knowledgeable about potential trade scenarios than i am.
This are the most likely candidates i could find in a couple of hours. I would love a Berkman/Dunn trade but i think i would hate the price. Obviously it depends on the trade package for the right guy, i could see us doing Overbay/Wigginton more than Berkman/Dunn but hey California Dreamin right?
Who would you trade for and why is it possible?

Thanks for reading and "LETS GO OAKLAND!!!"

Howdy All

Well i am not sure about anyone else but somehow the postseason does not seem alluring without the A's involved, so i thought i would embark on my own little rosterbation attempt. ( My first! Dad would be so proud!)

However before i can complete it i would like to know how i would find out which of our prospects need Rule 5 protection this year as i am not familiar with the rules exactly. Could someone please direct me to the right place that i can access this info?

Appreciate it

sunofawhatthestuarrghhhh.... i hate this stuff.... all my typing got lost when i tried to preview so lets try a shorter version

OK, so basically a local radio station (KJOY 99.3) has this deal today at 10am and its limited to 100. For a total of $28.75 ($25 plus $3.75 S&H) you get a certificate good for 4 MVP seats and a mini bat souvie. The tickets are usually 10-11 each so its a pretty decent deal and a great way to take your family out to the ball park. When your certificate arrives in the mail all you have to do is exchange it at the box office for the game you want to see. If you have never been to Banner Island before then this is a great chance to catch a real Minor League Gem of a ball park at a real nice discount.

I have used some of these deals in the past through this radio station and i have never had a problem with any of them.

Anyway i will let you all decide but i hope this is useful to someone

Ports Ticket Offer

Have a great weekend one and all and GO A'S!!!!!!!!!

Ok so i will let you know that this is part rant before it gets started then if you dont want to carry on reading stop right here...

I ask this because i have only be able to attend one game so far this year and that was on wednesday, but has anyone noticed if there has been a lack of guest services staff ? Now i understand that if you are figuring on less fans in seats then you will not need as mnay people to 'help' them but you should still have enough to keep an eye on things happening in the stands. Either way, on a night that you have $ dogs you should expect to have a few people show up.

My wife broke her foot over last weekend, but she still insisted that we go to the game. (she really wanted that blanket) Now we like to sit in the LF bleachers, i mean hey who doesnt, and with the fact my wife is in a wheelchair we use one of the platforms they have about halfway up. They have railings on one side to stop people coming back and forth in front of the wheelchairs etc. Usually (at least every game we attended last year) they have always had at least one staff member out in the bleachers just keeping on eye on things.  They had none on Wednesday and so people didnt care about going the long way around, they would just climb over the railings. After a couple of near misses the inevitable happened, as some idiot climbed over and stepped down straight on my wifes bad leg and actually catapulted her forward out of her chair. i exchanged some words with him but was more concerned about getting her out and to the first aid station, get some ice that sort of thing.  Trying to find a rep was rediculous and when we finally encountered a service rep, she directed us to a first aid station that was closed. We then saw a supervisor who instead of offering to help us in any kind of way, told us we had to go to the other one on the other side of the stadium. As we all know, its hard to walk around the concourse at times, you try doing it with a wheelchair!!! After finally making it around and with my wife in tears, we walked in to two people bickering back and forth about whose job it was to be where and to answer what call. We sat there for 5 minutes before my wife got upset and told me to take her home. Then they decided to acknowledge us and oh did we need help? Yeah but too late now we are going home. We could have used an escort to the first aid station or better we could have used someone getting us some basic items like an icepack and bringing them to us rather than being forced to navigate our way around the stadium.

Going back around we saw one security and one guest services member in the 20 or so sections we covered. I dont know if i am worried by that or appalled. i dread to think what would happen if anything serious happened on the concourse or in the seats

It was not until we were leaving up on the bart plaza, that two ladies at the door noticed something was wrong and asked what happened. i was so pissed off by then i couldnt speak very well and said we were just going home. They stopped us and insisted that our problem whatever it was get sorted out before we left or at least make a complaint. Has anyone ever made a complaint at the coliseum that has actually elicted a response? i am curious because i am not really expecting to hear back from anyone. Anyhow they did call their boss, who i guess called the Stadium Operations Director whose name was David Avila. He talked to my wife a bit and the supervisor pulled me aside and asked me what happened and to write a statement. Do you know what his response was to me? He asked me why didnt i hit the guy that fell on my wife? I mean seriously, what kind of response is that? Sure it might have given me some satisfaction but it wouldnt have helped as i would have been the one getting thrown out!!! i could not believe he said that to me, as he confided that this is what he would have done! Is this for real? is this the attitude that the people working their have? Oh they will sort out their own problems we dont need to interfere? Crazy...

Whats even more crazy is we are actually going back tomorrow!!! I will be taking a lot more precautions tomorrow and i hope we make the whole game this time. If anyone who was sitting in the rows in front of us reads here, i want to say thanks for the offers of help and suggest that maybe the A's should be giving you guys and gals jobs and firing who they got now. To everyone else here, if you want to stop by and say hi please do so, you cant miss us. I'm the big loudmouth lunk sitting beside the lady in the wheechair and we will hopefully be on the second or third platform in from the flag poles.

There will never be anything happens that will make me hate the team on the field, but damn i cant wait for fremont and a modern stadium...

Night all

The League i created that i tried to base on the A's style of play, drafts tomorrow (saturday) at 10am. I am still short a number of players, as of now we have 5. If anyone else is interested in trying this format here are your details. Also set to be a full 25 man roster exactly per a real team. I think it could be fun and i hope you guys and gals will too

Yahoo League Id: 103600

Password: athletics

Hope to see some of you there

MAF

I am sure everyones sick of the fantasy baseball posts by now.... however.... (you saw it coming huh?) I have or am trying to create a league based on the A's style of play. So the stats for example include on base, walks, but not SB or average. If anyone is interested in playing or giving me some help in maybe tweaking the stat categories here are the details

 Yahoo League ID 103600

Password athletics

 Draft is set for next Saturday at 10am.

Hear from you all soon

Well this was definetly a much more exciting game than the A's game!!! Bees took the early 3-0 lead in the top of the 3rd, helped by a wild pitch from Tadano. However his teammates picked him back up in the bottom half courtesy of a 2R HR from Putnam and then Blasi following up with a dinger to the same part of the yard to tie the game.
After a lead off double in the fourth, Tadano did not allow another baserunner until the 8th, retiring 13 straight.
In the 5th Blasi connected with his second Hr of the day to give the Cats their first lead of the game. They should have added another in the 6th but Putnam was cut down at home by a throw from the left fielder, although the call was hotly contested by Putnam and The Cats manager.

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So I thought it woud be a nice way to spend a Friday evening with my wife by watching the Ports take on the Bakersfield Blaze last night. It was a lefty-lefty matchup with Brad Davis going for the Ports and Glenn Swanson taking the mound for the Blaze. It was warm, dry, with a decent breeze blowing out to center field and this bode well to seeing a few balls leave the park tonight.

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Yes you read that right, our AAA affiliate lost to our High A outfit. It was actually a really good game between the two teams although it was a little confusing with Sac having 2 DH's at the same time (Suzuki and Barton)
The game started off lightning fast with Vince Mazzaro pitching for the Ports having a little control problem. He walked Mellilo and then a passed ball had mellilo at second. A single to center followed but no run as Mellio was nailed at the plate by a great throw for Herrera.. That guy has a cannon of an arm!!! However Barton made up for it with a 2 run shot to left field in the top of the first. The Ports replied in the bottom of the first with Lloyd Turner hit a towering solo shot to center field out over the 389 mark and then Herrera followed up a couple of batters later with a RBI single to tie the game.

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Hi All

Just wanted to let you know that the Cats will be taking on the Ports tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at Banner Island Ball Park in Stockton. Tickets are only $5 each general admission. I was there buying tickets today for me and my wife and i found out that they have hundreds of tickets left. The guy i talked to said that he thinks no one knows about it as they have not advertised it very well. So come on all you guys and gals who want to see some future A's stars and get on down to the park tomorrow. First pitch is 7.05 with gates open at 6. Also if any of you want to stop and say hi i will be in section 117 front row next to the Ports dugout. Cant miss me, i am huge (6'6) and will be wearing an A's Jacket
Hope to see some of you there and its a great excuse to check out the ports new stadium if you have not seen it yet

As the Fantasy leagues posted so far are all full I thought that I would create another one. So for anyone interested (and I hope that SOMEONE is) here are the details

League ID 71215
League Name The Drum Beats Slow
Password lfbleachersrock
Draft Time: Fri March 9th 7:15pm

My tribute to our drummers who make our games a great experience. I dont know all their names but I thank them heartily

Good Luck one and all and I can not wait for April, I NEED TO SEE SOME BASEBALL!!!

Hey All

Just wanted to wish all here at AN a very Happy New Year, Lots of Good wishes for the year ahead and all that. Also want to thank everyone here for getting me totally and hopelessy addicted to this place. I found AN a year ago and although I dont always have much to post about, i am always hear reading, both for the insight and the humour.

So thanks and all the best, hope this year brings you all everything you need and maybe just a few things that you want. (Beside a World Series Win, we all want/need that!!!)

Thomas

Well as I can see that everyone else is too busy out shopping the sales to care about a DLD I figured I would give it a shot.

So supposedly Carlos Lee is going to the Astros. Probably for way too much money. Now the Astros have two lumbering sluggers that play a poor outfield instead of one (yes Berkman I am talking about you)

Also this report about most over and under rated free agents available. I include this because guess who is #1 on the list? thats right our own Barry Zito.
We all know Barry's good, maybe not quite as good as he is hyped, but most over rated FA? give me a break... See Carlos Lee, Gary Matthews Jr. Gil Meche.... The esteemed reporter totally disagrees with me about Gil Meche!!!

And finally because I have not seen it reported anywhere.. Stockton Ports get to host the High A All Star Game this coming season. If you have not been to Banner Island yet, this would be a good time to see it, it is a real gem of a ball park.

Sorry I dont have anything more interesting for you all, hey its a slow day..

Have a happy day after Thanksgiving and dump away (links I mean)...

Brewers give up lee, and then go and get David bell.

Braves send wilson betemit to dodgers for danys baez and willie aybar.

Does anyone seriously think we are going to do anything at all? Personally i dont, i think with Bradley coming back and Chavez HOPEFULLY turning a corner we will stay as we are. in all the names i have seen bandied about, i dont really care for any of them, most of them not even minor upgrades over what we have right now, at least what we potentially have.
Lets face it, we wont get soriano, or miggy back, anything else thats available is just fluff... Not worth giving up what little prospects we have and certainly not worth giving up our current MLB roster for....

Well i dont see this mentioned yet anywhere so here we go. A's finally confirm that Jason windsor will pitch against Baltimore on monday

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So my wife and I decided to go to the game on Sunday, partly because it had been a while, but mainly because my wife is a fanatic Huston fan and we just had to get one of the jerseys that they gave away. It was also a good way to use the free tickets that I won in a raffle at my work and experience how the rich people see the game.(they were MVP Seats) Me, I had one task for myself, I wanted to get a picture of The Big Hurt swinging his rebar. I remember it talked about on a post here a little while ago but no one had a pic to show it.

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and where the heck are we from.

Curisoty has finally bugged me to the point that i have to do this diary and ask. I have noticed that us A's fans seem to be all over the world and from all over the world, so i thought it would be cool to find out where everyone else, and where everyone is originally from. I hope to see alot of answers too this, if only to satisfy my own warped interest.
I have seen comments that have led me to believe that there are a lot of people from different parts of the world and i want to know if thats true

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I was reading Marklodi's diary and something in there struck me about beginners asking questions and getting help. I am not so sure if i am a beginner anymore however my baseball education is far from complete as i missed the elementary education that you all learned as a child growing up with this wonderful game. Shamefully and sadly i have to admit i have never played any version of this great game. I do not know how to pitch and have only tried to swing a bat once.
but anyway i digress, i have always kinda felt weird to have to ask what would be to some a basic question and yet its something i dont understand so here goes and call me a fool if you must.
Will someone please explain to me what the heck designates a BALK!!! i thought i understood it but i see plenty of situations that i thought should be called a balk and are not, so oviously i dont understand the rule. I beseech someone to please explain the rule so that even this brain dead englishman can understand it
Thanks in advance for the kindly soul who will tell me

Ok so i am bored and i cant sleep...
Here is my view on who should replace Harden...

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If it really does seem impossible for the A's to stay in Oakland and we all know of the hassle associated with the other front runners, Why not move them to Sacramento? Keeps them local, opens up a larger part of the valley to them and no offense to oakland, but also gives them a higher income local population, which would hopefully translate to more butts on seats in home games!! In turn giving us more money to better keep our stars for the future. I am fully aware of the history of our team with oakland and would rather stay there but if we had to move, why not Sac? Sure is plenty of room in the area to build a new custom stadium. We could just trade the A's with the cats. What do ya all think?