Front page material from the SF Chronicle. Written by Susan Slusser, no less. An earth-shattering move by the A's if so. Bonds is an unpopular personality right now. Then there's this pending appearance at the Federal Courts in SF tomorrow. Makes it a real headache. But Billy Beane, ever the genius, believes he can sort thru this madness and the team can come out a winner with this signing. If it ever happens.

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Now that he has departed the team, Marco Scutaro still won't be forgetten by us fans. There were just too many wonderful moments...so many game winning hits, walk-off heroics and clutch performances. Who can ever forget the ALDS '06? The walk-off against Mariano Rivera last April? The dunk walk-off hit against the Giants on Dotel's A's debut....multiple walk-offs against the Indians...the walk-off against his former team the Mets....the list goes on and on. The guy just left us with tons of great memories.

My favorite Marco moment was his walk-off HR against his now teammate BJ Ryan back in '05. It was his first among many. And this encounter with Scutaro himself the day after.

So which one was yours?

So apparently A-Rod's asking price starts at $350M.

There is no question that A-Rod is the best player in the game right now, and perhaps he deserves the best pay in MLB. But I think that's just too much dough to commit to a player (probably $35M per year?). Heck he'd surpass a couple of teams' payroll (Marlins-$30M, Devil Rays-$24) by himself! And remember Lew Wolff & Co only paid $175M to buy the A's franchise.

Certainly there'll be a big-market team that could (and will) splurge on A-Rod. But is he really worth every penny of the gazillions he is asking?

Now that the playoff match-ups have been set. There is no doubt that the A's have the most formidable 1st round foe in the Twins. They face the game's most dominant pitcher maybe twice. The Twins have the best home record in the bigs...and consequently the place has been the Athletics' house of horrors the recent past. Then even the pundits have a gloomy outlook. SI's Gennaro Filice calls the team AL Chumps and even this week's Sporting News Magazine mentions "The Athletics won't make it past the first round again - because they'll struggle against hard throwers."

Prognosticators would probably peg this as a sweep or a 3-1 series win by the Twins.

But hey, isn't it fun to root for the underdogs?

And the team has some positives too, like:

Frank Thomas can change a game w/ a thunderous swing of his bat.

The A's play 2 day games in Minnesota. The A's have won 2 of the last 3 day games they played in Minnesota. Haren's fabulous start against Liriano and Zito's 4-hit gem Aug 4th last year. Our team has the best day W-L record in all of baseball (40W-21L).

Our defense might have the slight advantage. Kotsay and Hunter cancel each other out, but we have great defenders on 3B, 2B and RF. Heck even Swish is good.

And our pitching rotation is at least 4-deep vs the looming Santana and the Boofs and the Garzas.

True the A's bullpen is suspect. And the team can hardly touch Nathan...but that too can turn around when the pressure's on. Joe Nathan has an 8.44 career post season ERA (5 games), so he's not that invincible. The Chisox rode a string of near complete game gems by its starters last year onto the World Series.

The A's can very well replicate that.

As the cliché goes: pitching and defense wins championships.

Remember a couple of seasons ago when Jason Schmidt poked fun on a Giants ballboy by placing a blown-up bubble gum on top of the boy's cap....and the kid had the gum on for most of the game until JT Snow told him so. That incident was even played out on Sports Illustrated when an article was written about Schmidt...that he was oh-so-playful.

Sitting in the dug-out for a couple plus hours, multiplied by 162 games...can be boring sometimes, esp for benchwarmers or starting pitchers who only get to play once every five days. So we mostly see them munching on bags after bags of sunflower seeds or picking their noses....(see Durazo, Haren, Zito...).

Last night, the TV broadcast showed Haren getting into the dug-out after exiting the game and into the high-fives and handshakes of his teammates. Zito was in the foreground and was casually sitting on a cooler box...Loaiza comes over to Zito, and guess what Zito does? He playfully flips a baseball into Loaiza's crotch. It was just a hilarious scene caught on TV, even if briefly.

I did a review of all the A's losses (29) to this day. Checked the old box scores and play-by-play.

Wanted to find out who in a last-out situation when the team was trailing made the last out (sort of rolled over like a puppy) instead of fighting it out, getting a hit and prolonging an inning.

So w/ one remaining out in a game, I gave a player a score of +1 if he gets thru w/ a hit or walk, and -1 for the player (batter/hitter) who provides the last strikeout, groundout or flyout.

Result?

Dan Johnson and Scutaro. Worst performers. Score of -4. Four times they've stood at the plate and just let the game end and the team lose.

Lionhearts, Kendall and Kotsay who've provided a couple of hits to prolong a losing game, but negate that w/ a couple of equal outs they've made. So consider that a wash.

The only A's player w/ a positive score: JayPay. The player on the team, who refuses to lose. At least according to the boxscore.

Funny but true, Keith Ginter comes in relief, pitching for the Rivercats last Saturday.

His line: 2.0 IP / 3H / 1BB / 2R.

As Defrancesco mentions, the Rivercats are "battling" as the A's recent callups have depleted their roster.

I am just amazed how KG who 2 years ago was hitting a bunch of homeruns for the Brewers (19, 2004) has evolved not just into a utility infielder but a relief pitcher as well.

I guess the organization has to make sense of the money they are throwing into Ginter this year. I believe he earns around 1.5M.

Korea won a close one against bitter rival Nippon. 2 runs in the 8th inning dashed a pitcher's duel. A solo homerun by Japanese Nishioka in the 9th inning rounded up the scoring 2-1. Too bad for the Nippon-jins, they carried a one-hitter till the 8th inning.

It opens the door for the US. They just have to beat Mexico to proceed and salvage (or regain)some pride in this inaugural tourney.

It should be a treat seeing a Korea-Dominicana championship match.

Let's escape the Ken Macha hoopla and look into next year's schedule:

The A's open the season here in Oakland. Versus the Yankees. Not a bad draw.

They close the season w/ a 4-game set vs the Angels in Anaheim.

During the interleague, they play the NL West this year.

They're on the road for stretches of 7 games in April, May and Sept, 9 straight in June and August, and 10 in July.

They finish the season w/ 7 on the road via Seattle and LAA.

Since we are half a year away from the start of another Athletics season, let's enjoy these fun and random numbers. I have to emphasize that these are non-Vorp, non-scientific figures but a simplistic view of sports, athletes and the A's in general.

Manager's Pay
Ken Macha (ex-A's) $7,045 per win ($620K/annum, 88 wins)
Joe Torre (Yankees) $67,368 per win ($6.4M, 95)
Lou Piniella (ex-Rays) $48,507 per win ($3.25, 67)

Perspective
Macha is cheap by a whole lot. Peanuts compared to the Lakers' Phil Jackson who hauled $142,857 per win in his last full season w/ the Lakers (03-04 season).

A's Superstars & the McAfee Box-Office
How many bleacher tickets need to sell to cover an A's player per home game salary....
Formula:
'05 salary / 2 (half home, half away) / 81 home games / $9 bleacher ticket
Kendall 7,251 tix
Chavvy 5,830 tix
Crosby 240 tix

Perspective
Mike Tyson earned $30M in his "bite-your-ear-off" fight w/ Holyfield in 1997. And that was just for one fight...equates to 3.3M bleacher tix in Oakland.

Pitcher Cost Per Start
'05 sal / # of starts '05
Zito $160,000 per start
Harden $39,473 per start (discounting relief app)
Blanton $9,590 per start

Perspective
What about Pavano, rounding up $529,411 per start this season ($9 mil/17 starts)? And what about wall-puncher Kevin Brown who got $1,208,791 per start registered this year?

Caught Stealing?
Cost of runners caught stealing per catcher's salary.....
Posada (Yankees) $282,051 ($11M, 39 caught)
Matheny (Giants) $51,282 ($2M, 39)
Miller (Brewers, ex-A's) $135,416 ($3.25M, 24)

Perspective
Our Jason Kendall, $480,520 per baserunner caught-stealing ($10.6M, 22). Expensive.

Tidbits
Michael Jordan got $36M for ONE year in his last season w/ the Chicago Bulls (97-98). That translates to:

$11,317 per min that he played (3,181) or $679K in hourly salary.

A-Rod? How much does his triple (3B) cost this year? $25.7M. He made only one and the latter figure was his '05 salary.

I was sitting on a stoplight at the corner of Shattuck and Vine in Berkeley around noon yesterday, when this guy strolls along the crosswalk. He was by himself, in deep thought, but he was smiling.

I was wondering what was going thru this guy's head...but then he looked familiar. When he was just about to complete the crosswalk that I realized I knew this guy. My brain had to figure out in a split-second (considering we come across hundreds of faces each day!) that this guy was Nico of AN! Nico of the "Chez Nico" pics posted on this board a few weeks ago.

It's just amazing how strangers suddenly become faces you are familiar and can relate with thru the power of AN!

This leads me to a story of about a year ago. Orioles in town. Night game. Harden vs Chen. A pitcher's duel. Late in the game, Scutaro made the defensive play of the night sliding to his left, spun around and nailed the runner gunning for 1st base.

Bottom of the 9th, still scoreless, guess what. Scutaro hits a walk-off HR off BJ Ryan. A's win. Scoot gets creamed (by Mclemore) while being interviewed by Kuiper.

The following night. I was standing in line at Mcdonalds inside Walmart in San Leandro. In front of me was this hyperactive little girl that her Mom can barely contain. Then this guy (just about my size, but a bit buffed) squeezes in between to calm the little girl down. The girl ran around my legs so the soft-spoken Dad had to excuse his kid. I said that was fine.

Then I thought this guy looks like Scutaro, whose face was on TV the night before. Nah, I dismissed that, thinking that if it was Marco, he should be at the Coliseum at that moment playing baseball.

But then again, I realized that day was Wednesday and the A's played a day game. So is this Scutaro in front of me?

Nah, I said. The guy in front of me had thinning hair...but I guess we only see him with his cap or helmet on right? This might be Scoot. But this was Walmart, a very public place. How come no one even recognizes this athlete?

So I waited for my turn in the line. This family was completing their order. I'm up. But then again, when this buffed but soft-spoken Dad reached for his wallet, his forearms showed a long and nasty scratch...oh yeah, this was the same guy who took a dive for the ball in the hole last night! The defensive play last night?! In a split-second, I told this guy in-front of me "nice hit last night Marco (should've said great walk-off homerun!)." The guy turned around and sheepishly said "Thanks."

Later, I got a table and munched on my quarter pounder and Scutaro and his family headed out with their take-out bag.The funny thing, I was the only person in the building to have recognized him.

Oh yeah, I had to drop my sandwich for a while I thought. I gotta get his autograph. The only thing I can have him sign was my BART ticket.

The family was at Walmart's check-out counter. Marco obliges. He was quiet and soft-spoken. We said good luck to each other and he puts his attention back to the "Faded Glory" jogging pants and sandals he was going to buy. The guy was so ordinary. I walked away and glanced at my BART ticket.."Scutaro #49"

Sorry if this is a bit long-winded. 1st diary. Hope you enjoyed these stories of chance encounters.

Let's Go A's!

Postscript: Nico, I gave you a "friendly" honk but it was the street bum at the corner who took notice, and I just have to drive on as the light turned green....striped-shirt, greenish outfit?