Apparently there was some baseball yesterday. People kept throwing around the words "opening day" and being all excited. But the schedule tells me that the A's first game of 2011 is actually tonight (7:05 PDT! Cahill vs. Felix!)... so, yesterday? Glorified exhibition games. Ignore them. Real baseball starts TODAY.

Since obviously no one will be working today (shouldn't it be a national holiday?), I am going to help you fill your time by telling you all you need to know about the A's players who are currently on Twitter. We've had some changes since last season, with a few new faces (and a returning one!) joining. And I've been following all of them... so you don't have to! Read on to find out which A's players best fit your Twitter needs.

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We haven't had a dump in DAYS. This is getting ridiculous. It's February, people! There's actual baseball "news" to discuss!

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Don't worry, I'm not planning on posting all 900 pictures. (That's an approximate number, by the way.)

This is a chronicle of my season at the ballpark. What's that you say? The season's not over? Well, mine is, because after this week, I will once again be an NRAF. Sigh. I'm most upset to be missing Turn Back the Clock Day. Y'all know how much I love throwbacks. 

Anyway. As you could probably tell by the title, I tend to take a lot of pictures. I'm not a professional photographer or anything close to that; I just snap photos with my point-and-shoot digital camera. But I snap a lot of them, so usually there are a few that turn out halfway decent. And now I'm sharing them with all of you.

Join me on this journey through the season, from Opening Night to Root Beer Float Day, from the time of Beef-Brawn-TNT-Dynamite to the freshly minted Tommy Everidge Era. You'll laugh, you'll cry more, you'll mourn the loss of half-a-dozen players, you'll wish we could start the season all over again.

Or something like that.

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This part of spring training is actually kind of boring: there's not much news to report, as far as I can see. I'll just take the optimistic approach and say that's a good thing. At least we're not hearing about thirty-seven different injuries to twenty-five different players... yet. [knocks on wood]

I do have a couple links, though...

Giambi did show up yesterday, according to SuSlu:

Jason Giambi did report to camp yesterday, but it was late in the afternoon after all the players were done with workouts and after the media, including writers from several national publications, had departed.

"Veteran move," he just told me with a big grin.

Urban is excited to see Crosby hit against real pitchers:

The pitchers are always way ahead of the hitters at this point, but I'm still pretty fired up to watch Bobby Crosby in the box. I've been watching him take BP against the standard 68-mph offerings of the coaching staff, and I like what I've seen thus far. His stance is completely different than anything he's employed as a pro, legs spread far apart to maximize his balance, and the ball has been jumping off his bat. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up against legit stuff.

And their other articles: Slusser writes about the bullpen, Stiglich writes about Ziggy and the WBC, and Urban writes about Holliday being a team leader.

Last but not least: a happy picture. Because I like pictures.

So I guess I should put some links in this here link dump.

John Shea on the Winter Meetings.

Visit the Hot Stove Blog if you're craving rumors.

"But, Officer, my wife's in labor!" No joke.

Ah, the joys of family.  Who hasn't wanted to throw a Christmas tree at his dad?

Okay, that's enough of that.  On to the Caravan!

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Time for a new link dump!

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It seems to be time for a fresh link dump.

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I would like to personally extend my thanks to the Mariners for crawling to the Coliseum this weekend (yes, that is a shameless link to AN's millionth comment, which, in case you missed it, just happened to be made by me!) and allowing us to SWEEEEEP the series. Three wins in three days? Who knew it was possible?

And even though this is a lost season, full of frustration and pain (especially for all the guys who got injured), I always have a great time at the Coliseum, and I always, always want the A's to win. Draft picks, Stephen Strasburg, we could've had SmOaK!!!11, blah blah blah--I cannot root for my team to lose. If they happen to lose, which was a far too common occurrence this season, so be it, but I will keep rooting for them to win, as hard as I can and as long as I can.

Thankfully I didn't have to deal with any losing this weekend. Instead, I saw lots of winning and lots of celebration, and I took LOTS of pictures. No, really, this post is huge. You have been warned.

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It's early afternoon and we don't have a community dump yet, so I figure my photo diary/fAnPoSt can do double duty... but I'll leave the link dumping to y'all, 'cause I'm sticking to my pictures.

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That's what I get for complaining about the lack of a DLD.

Beating the Angels is fun.

In related news, there was a 2.1 earthquake detected in Anaheim as Frank chugged home from third to score on a wild pitch.

 

Also:

Kurt Suzuki, who is from Hawaii, is happy his state produced the Little League World Series champs. "It's awesome," he said. Reliever Alan Embree was just as excited. "One of them said I was his favorite player - I almost fell over," the 38-year-old left-hander said.

 That kid needs help.

Gio Gonzalez and Eric Patterson were named to the All-Pacific Coast League team.

Woohoo! We have All Stars! Or something.

Time for instant replay, starting Thursday.

It's not for everybody. Cubs manager Lou Piniella said, "When an NFL coach drops that red handkerchief, I go to the refrigerator for four or five minutes."

I think he meant to say that it takes him four or five minutes to walk to the refrigerator.

Okay, let's see: I've got links, block quotes, and a photo. That'll do. Now, dump!

I'm slowly recovering from the fifteen root beer floats [belch] I had yesterday, as well as my weird sunburn (I think I need that colored sunscreen that shows you where you already put it, so you don't get random fingerprints on your shoulders...). Here's some pictures from Friday's game debacle vs. the Rangers, and a lot from Root Beer Float Day yesterday.

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Rise and shine-- it's another day of September A's baseball!

...meaning, of course, that the A's lost, but so did the Angels, so our magic number is down to 14.

And in case you hadn't heard, Frank Thomas has now homered in six straight games.

Frank Thomas has set the A's franchise record for consecutive games with a home run, and is closing in on the major-league mark:

Dale Long, 1956: 8
Don Mattingly, 1987: 8
Ken Griffey Jr, 1993: 8
Frank Thomas, 2006: 6

Also, from the same link, Jason Kendall has been playing with words and superglue:

Kendall was behind the plate Monday despite taking a broken bat off the noggin the night before.

"It felt like somebody cold-clocked me," Kendall said.

The flying barrel hit Kendall so hard, the foam pad on the inside of his helmet gauged an inch-long cut on his head, so he was taken to a hospital for repairs. He didn't need stitches, though.

"They basically super-glued me back together," said Kendall, who has caught a season-high 22 games in row. "I have a hard head."

Kendall tries to downplay it, but trainer Larry Davis estimates Kendall has had four or five concussions in his career, which is a concern, especially considering that Giants catcher Mike Matheny had his season ended by too many blows to the head.

"You play addition games with him, give him words to remember," Davis said. "He's fine today."

Davis saying "he's fine today"? Right. So how long till the funeral?

Speaking of funerals, apparently Rich Harden isn't dead quite yet. And he's even throwing changeups!

"He looked OK," pitching coach Curt Young said. "He came out of it healthy and was able to throw two simulated innings, 42 total pitches."

Among those pitches, Harden threw a handful of changeups for the first time since he sustained the injury throwing that pitch in early June.

A's at Twins tonight, 5:10 p.m. Pacific time. Be sure to watch the A's in their house of horrors and chronicle all the ups and downs in the game thread, so I can read about all the emotional turmoil you go through without actually having to experience it myself. Here's hoping the A's actually, you know, win a game in the Dome, as strange of a concept as that is.

Dump away!

Kirby Puckett died yesterday at the age of 45.

Various tributes:
Jayson Stark
Jim Caple
Tim Kurkjian

And MLB.com's tribute page, with plenty of links.

In order to reduce the number of positive drug tests, teams will start selling approved supplements to players.

Kirk Rueter retires after thirteen seasons.

Our old friend, Mark Redman (now on the Royals), had arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday. No word on when he will return.

Team USA vs. Team Mexico today, 1 p.m. PT, ESPN2. Jake Peavy vs. Rodrigo Lopez. John Shea reports on Team USA's outlook.

And as for the A's:

Urban's mailbag. Nothing terribly interesting in this one.

The A's lost 12-3 to the Cubs yesterday. Good thing spring training doesn't matter, because we all know we don't want to continue in this pattern:

The A's gave up four home runs and hit one themselves. ... They also left 15 runners on base.

Slusser on Saarloos.

Thomas took BP yesterday, and he's still alive. Hooray!

Also in that article:

Bobby Crosby was sent home with a minor eye infection; he was scheduled for two days off, anyway. There's a good chance he'll play in the field this week.

Why does that not sound very promising?

Nobody else posted one, and I need the link dump, so here goes.

Slusser: Barton to get a long look this spring. Also in the notebook: DJ wants to be able to bunt for a base hit if teams put the shift on him.

Johnson calls his running style a "crabwalk,'' but he said he spent the winter working on his speed and agility, and strength coach Clarence Cockrell confirmed that Johnson is faster now.

Ha. Crabwalk.

Notes from the main website: Perez winning some fans. Bla bla bla, all that important baseball stuff, but what I want to see:

Dog days: The Arizona Humane Society provided dogs Tuesday for pictures with players and staff for the A's promotional calendar, which is sponsored by Central Garden and Pet. Calendars will be given out to the first 15,000 fans on April 15 for a game against the Rangers.

Huston and a puppy? <dies>

I would put more links, but I have to go to class, plus all this html stuff takes me forever. Link away!

This has been an amazingly fun past three days of baseball for me. 3 games + root beer floats + special Extra Innings with Harden and Street = :D  For photographic evidence, read on...

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