don't get me wrong, i like winning just as much as the next guy, but being raised on an a's team that was bad more often than good, i'm also a fan of paying for the cheap seats and sitting wherever I want. well folks, if the first weekend day game of the season, against last year's cy young winner who happens to be local, is an indication, those days have returned. with a group of 4, we got plaza reserved tixs today and spent most of the game in the plaza infield, until we followed the sun in the later innings. ushers were few and far between, and the general sense of "we're just glad you came" was in the air. the field level in the outfield ($30 bucks?) was totally empty.

I've definitely enjoyed watching billy bean turn this team into a winner, but i gotta admit, today made me realize how much i missed the a's of the mid-late 90's that fielded the best AAA team in the majors, and where you could pay as little as you wanted and sit just about wherever you wanted.

these days are limited guys. once the team leaves oakland there will be no $9 tix, even with obstructed views of all deep balls to the outfield. but right now there is cheap baseball to be seen in our home town. yes, when you share the coliseum with only abother 10,000 folks, you can't help but be reminded of how ugly it is since mount davis was erected, and sure, we're gonna lose a lot of games this year, but if today is indicative, this year will be a great opportunity to get a close view of some unproven players trying to prove themselves. Sound familiar? 1997? 1998?

So I was reading through the game thread when i came across GreenNGoldSooner's comment about the bullpen. Seemed completely on target.

Then I caught sight of his signature. Obviously my brain read "Macha" the first time, but after a double-take, I just couldn't get the image of a poll out of mind. Who knows, this may actually turn out to be discussion worthy.

Poll

Who is your all-time favortie A's player?

100%

FIRE LARRY DAVIS NOW!!!

14 votes

14 votes | Poll has closed

(first, i've gotta say that I'm a bit nervous about creating yet another Barry Bonds diary when I could have posted this message on a previous thread. however, i do think that's i'm trying to start a discussion that hasn't been had head-on. i hope at least some of you will agree that this discussion needs to take place.)

We all seem to be in agreement about two things:

1. bonds is jerk.
2. bonds took steriods.

seems like we've known he was a jerk for a while, so for any of you that have been booing him for being jerk for a while, please feel free to go on booing. this post isn't really aimed at people who want to boo bonds just cause they don't like him.

the steriods knowledge is "new". it's a bad thing that's been going on for a long time, but officially, we just found out about it. bonds is the poster boy for this "discovery".

personally, i don't really care that bonds is a jerk. but i am deeply affected by his steriod use. you know why? because he reminds me that giambi (and maybe tejada) were cheating when we had the best team in baseball. he reminds me that canseco and mcguire were cheating when we had the best team in baseball. he makes me feel ashamed of the team i love.

as an a's fan, i would feel like a total hypocrite for booing bonds because he took steriods. you want to boo him because he's a jerk? go ahead. make signs saying, "you made my kid cry when you wouldn't sign an autograph, you big meanie." but before you start preparig your syringes and drawing your big * sign, think about how you'd feel if those flags in the outfield said 1988*, 1989*, 1990*, 2000*, 2002*, and 2003*.

bonds is only the messenger, and the message heavily implicates the a's.

Remember when the AL West was a powerhouse? In the last 5 years we saw 12 teams win 90 games, 3 wildcards, a season with two 100-game winners and a season (almost two seasons) with three 90-games winners. One of my regular season pleasures used to be gloating to my friends back east over the yankees playing losing ball during their west coast trips.

This year I can imagine the A's winning the division without winning 90 games. I can imagine them being the only team to play .500 ball. What happened to our division?

Sure, the Bosox have stepped up, taking away a playoff spot. But they can't be solely responsible for the drop off in wins.

It seems like the division is on a decline. To me it's quite telling that the central has a winning record over the west right now. When is the last time that happened? Somehow, in a matter of years, we've gone from having three (sorry texas) legitimate championship caliber teams to having four teams that are going to beat each other up to determine who gets knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. We've gone from the gauntlet to the joy ride (anybody noticed how bad our division is at home).

What happened?

Poll

How far will an AL West team make it this year?

10%

Lose first round in 4

4 votes

43%

World Champion

17 votes

7%

Get swept in first round

3 votes

15%

Penant

6 votes

7%

First round winner

3 votes

15%

Lose first round in 5

6 votes

39 votes | Poll has closed

(link http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060507&content_id=1442446& ;vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak)

I guess it's too early for the DLD still, and seeing as I should be working now, I'm not going to try to create one, but I had to comment on this article. When I first read the title I thought it had to be a joke. Payton is a good baserunner? According to what definition of good?

Granted, I'm very bitter about yesterday's loss, and granted, we did win the game on Saturday and Payton did score the winning run, but his baserunning was horrid.

His "stolen base" was dumb luck. He (and all of us) were tremendously lucky that the rays' infield was as spaced out as he was. Against any half-way awake team, he gets thrown out on that play.

Then, on the wierd double play, sure, he hustled back to second, but if had played it differntly, we end up with runners on 1st and 2nd with one out instead of runner on second, 2 outs.

I remind myself that we won that game and that my frustration is about yesterday's game, not saturday's, but it seems ridiculous that there is an article praising his head's up hustle when in reality his "instincts" betrayed him twice in that game.

Hi all,

This diary is only indirectly A's related, but I suspect some of you will find it at least mildly curious.

Check out Jacob Luft's latest column at SI.com (or yahoo sports if you prefer. Here's the link for yahoo http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=cnnsi-bestofthebunch&prov=cnnsi&type=lgns, a video at SI froze up my browser).

He's writing specifically about Bagwell, but check out the metrics he looks at:

"WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player), RCAA (Runs Created Above Average), Adjusted-OPS+ (OPS index adjusted for park and league difficulty; 100 is average) and Bill James' Win Shares"

I found it interesting to see this sort of statistical analysis in a mainstream publication like SI/CNN/Yahoo.

BTW, can anyone teach me how to make one of those cool grey boxes for long quotes? My HTML skills are pretty good, but I suspect all you box creators are using some blogspeak as opposed to HTML. Thanks!

(I haven't seen this in any other diaries or in the game thread, so here goes nothing.)

I assume most of us are familiar with the "Rookie Report", a radio segment that Buan did with Swish last year. During today's broadcast (6th inning?) they asked for suggestions for what to name the show this year, seeing as Swish is no longer a rookie, and the sophomore slump show may have great alliteration, but not a very nice ring.

ideas need to be sent to radio@oaklandathletics.com, they didn't say anything about a prize.

I couldn't help myself, so I already sent in two suggestions that are destined to be rejected:

• Putting It Bluntly with Nick Swisher
  
• The Blunt Truth with Nick Swisher
• I think they're pretty funny seeing as Swish is known for being pretty blunt, and, well, his name is Swisher. <hides in smoke filled closet, or squints proudly behind sunglasses, depending on reaction>

Anyway, I think my suggestions have no chance (although they probably have at least as good a chance as Nick's Porn Corner), but I think that as a team AN is more than capable of coming up with a great name, and that it would be great for the show to be named by AN. So let the games begin!

I'm all suggestioned out, but I suspect that there's huge potential to get the Pound in the mix, seeing as Nick is projected to spend a lot of time there this year.

This diary is not about statistical analysis or first colossal dogs; it's about catharsis and commiseration. I hope that it is also about the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

I want to talk about the early play-off exits of 2000-2003. Since 2000 I've spent my off-seasons obsessing over the why's and hypothesizing about the what if's. This off-season has been different and I believe that next year's will be even better -- our days of game 5 defeats are behind us and the strength of this year's team merits the end of our bitching about the fact that the big three never got us out of the first round of the play-offs -- but those first round exits continue to haunt me. In an attempt to get them out of my system, I'd like to enter a dialogue about the frustration and emotional pain of the 2000-2003 play-offs.

I hope that this poll will be a good way to start.

*The seeds for this diary were planted by the discussions generated by and Nick86 (http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2006/1/26/17337/4320) and Dynamic Hispanic (http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2006/2/6/19451/11496)

Poll

Which play-off exit was most painful for you?

1%

2000 (Zito forces game 5, Heredia can't get out of the first inning)

2 votes

39%

2001 (The Jeter Play)

53 votes

5%

2002 (Hudson pitches hurt, defense doesn't help)

7 votes

54%

2003 (Basepath Bungles in Game 3)

73 votes

135 votes | Poll has closed