Greetings, everyone,  my name is Wes and I'm visiting from Athletics Nation. I do so in a spirit of goodwill, though. Yes, the Rockies will be in Oakland this weekend and yes, it wouldn't surprise me if the Rockies thumped the A's all weekend. Nevertheless, I can't help but be in awe of the way the Rockies are playing these days. It's been awhile since I saw a team that looked to be so effortlessly dominant. It's been....oh I don't know....since September of 2007. Yes, I hope the A's are able to play well against the Rockies this weekend, but as a fan of baseball, and not just the A's, it's a lot of fun watching your guys go on another rampage.

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I had no idea about this until my friend Abbey mentioned it to me tonight, but I figured I would pass it all your way. Apparently there's an organization called the Bay Area Vintage Base Ball League. Apparently the guys who plan in said league are like Civil War reenactors, only a) they prefer to glorify the likes of Wee Willie Keeler instead of Jubal Early and b) they don't try to glamourize (in an aw-shucks kind of way) the Western League as a "Lost Cause." (Sorry, my geek love for History is never far from my lips. Or, in this case, my fingers.)

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I am an A's fan. This you can all see. But what might not be as clear is just how much I love all of baseball in addition to the A's. Billy's moves might be the ones that I obsess over the most (I loved the Giambi pick-up BTW), but I'm just as intrigued by Mark Shapiro's moves over in Cleveland. My memories of the game begin with Rickey Henderson, my favorite player as a kid, but I also enjoy reading about Tris Speaker, a man who played his best ball before my 93-year-old grandmother was born. I am a baseball fan. Which means it's probably for the best, lest I drive my family and friends insane, that I was given a SABR membership for Christmas.

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This fanpost is going to be off-topic, short, and not a little nonsensical. Still, it's AN-related all the same so I encourage you all to pick up the magazine referenced in the subject line.

Yes, it has several enjoyable cartoons and yes, its political coverage remains perceptive. But what really caught my eye in this week's issue of The New Yorker was one of the feature pieces. I never thought that I would find myself reading about the creator of Gears of War in the magazine, but that too is one of its charms. Especially when the piece is as well-written and as informative as this one.

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On the surface, it makes no sense at all.  Why would I, an A's fan for more than half of my twenty-six years on the planet, choose to enter the belly of the beast that is Angel Stadium?  Am I a masochist and take perverse pleasure in surrounding myself with fans who have to rifle through their programs to remember the names of their players? Or am I merely naive enough in my love of baseball to find the thought of setting foot in a new stadium, any stadium, to be a rewarding possibility?  Or might I just be an idiot?

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So I know that I'm not exactly unique in this little dilemma, but I figured I should say something all the same.  I mean hell, if I trust the masses at Craig's List, I might as well mention it to our wonderful little experiment in democracy here.

I have a ticket for Wednesday's game.  A ticket I won't be able to use since the Red Sox whined to Selig and company and got the start time of the game moved forward.  It set me back $28, but I'm more than happy to pass it on below its value.  Maybe not for free, but I'm definitely flexible.  If anyone's interested, let me know either here or via email (my address is in my profile) and I'll find a way to get it to you before the game.  And if you're not interested, well hey, what do I care, you're still an A's fan so chances are you're still good people. :-)

Anyhoo, thanks for putting up with this rather shameless plug.  Here's to a great season!

All right, I'll be the first to concede that the subject of this diary is a bit, shall we say, rudimentary.  But there is a point to it and it goes deeper than just Blanton facing off with Bedard.

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I'll keep this short and simple, my friends:

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Forgive me, folks, if this subject isn't particularly diaryworthy, but it is something that I'm genuinely curious about.

I have heard from more than a few of my friends that the A's have, in the past, held an end-of-the-year outdoor sale.  Apparently it's a bazaar of sorts, with all sorts of A's merchandise and memorabilia available for sale.  I say apparently because my knowledge of the event is strictly secondhand.  Or at least it has been up to this point.

I intend to change that this year.  I am committed to making it to the A's sale this year, both simply to see what exactly is available and also to hopefully bolster my A's merch collection.

The reason for this diary, then, is to ask any or all of you if you know when this sale might happen?  I've already made plans to attend the last three home games of the year and while I would think that would be a logical time to have the sale, I don't know for sure.  Thus, I figured I'd turn it back to all of you to see any of you know for sure when the sale is. Even if it's not next weekend, I'd still appreciate knowing when it goes off as I'd be more than happy to drive down to attend (I live in Arcata, up in Humboldt County.)

Thanks in advance for any reply, folks, I do appreciate it.

Having come up to the Pacific Northwest to finish my time as an undergrad (at The Evergreen State College in Olympia) I can often feel rather separated from my beloved team.  All of you at AN sure help, as does Gameday Audio, but still, I frequently miss my days back home in Northern California.  It's only natural, then, that when the A's come into Seattle, I dip into my student loan money and snag some tickets at Safeco.  

The past four days were no exception to this rule.  I drove up to Seattle on Thursday afternoon (what could be better than skipping class for baseball?) and promptly bought four tickets for each of the games.  And while I did, of course, love seeing Blanton, Zito, and Harden dominate the M's bats, while I did cherish Kotsay's homer and triple last night and Chavy's 2-run shot this afternoon, my favorite moment of the weekend took place before the second of the games had even started.

Being as devoted as I am to the green and gold, there was no way that I was going to show up ten minutes before game time and find my seat.  Oh no.  I had to get to Safeco two hours beforehand each night, both to see The Big Hurt work his magic in BP as well as to hopefully snag some autographs.  Anyhoo, I was down the left-field line on Friday night when Rich came out of the bullpen.  He was immediately bombarded by the calls of fans to come over and sign.  He was more than happy to oblige, signing everything from the commonplace (a lot of baseballs were handed over) to the cockamamie (why, oh why, would Mariner fans want him to sign the M's calendars that were given out that night?  Do they really want to be reminded that King Richard's our star, not theirs?)

At one point, I handed him a ball of my own and as he was signing, I told him that I still got goosebumps thinking about his game against the Rangers immediately after the All Star Break last year.  It was a random comment, and I really didn't expect much of a response, if any.  Instead, Rich momentarily stopped signing my basebal and looked up at me.  A huge smile crossed his face.  "That was fun," he said.  "That was just a lot of fun."  He proceeded to audibly run through the game again, telling me of his favorite moments, and just how excited he was to be on the mound that night.  All the while, he kept smiling.  

I'll tell you, AN, I'm pretty friggin' stoked to see our guys boasting a 5-2 record.  They were amazingly fun to watch and while there were moments of concern (I do hope Esteban's okay, just as I hope the bullpen's hiccup today was a one game only experience) they looked like every bit the contender we expect them to be.  

Be that as it may, I'm even more stoked that the guys on our team are as good guys as they are.  I know a lot of you were at FanFest so perhaps this is old news, but these A's have a genuine graciousness to them that is both exciting and enjoyable.  I hope you're proud of this team, AN.  You have every right to be, both on the field and off.