I came across this interesting article on Paul Allen and the current NBA negotiations:

Blazers’ Allen sets fire to labor talks

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USA v England - World Cup Group Stage Game 1 - Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg -11:30am Pacific time on ABC

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The Treaty of Westphalia was signed on 15 May 1648.

Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division, died on 18 May 1980:

Some people are pissed off because May 20 is Draw Mohammed Day.

The penultimate episode of Lost airs tonight, who will die next?

(please be Kate)

The Lost finale Sunday night will be DVR'd as it's up against Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad as an ABC sitcom:

Baseball links below

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I don't really have much to say, I just read a few articles on Josh Outman and they pissed me off...

Odd Man Outman

During his sophomore year at Lindbergh High School, Outman’s baseball coach refused to allow him to pitch for the entire season, based on his pitching style.

"He said if I used conventional mechanics then I could pitch varsity," says Outman. "I wasn’t changing."

Outman went to the athletic director, principal, superintendent, and even the Board of Education to plead his case. It was when the coach saw him pitch in a travel, summer league game, however, that he changed his mind. Outman went 8-1 with a 0.82 ERA that summer prior to his junior year and became the Flyers’ ace during the next two varsity seasons.

 

I really hope this coach was fired.

Josh Outman vows to return from injury

Pitcher changed motion to please scouts, then suffered injury to his elbow

 

Outman was not drafted out of high school and went to Forest Park Community College, where he pitched a no-hitter and won over at least one person, his coach Darin Hendrickson.

"We just look for results, technique is not important," Hendrickson was quoted as saying at the time. "When you see a guy that’s a little unorthodox, you don’t know what to do with it as a hitter. By the time you figure it out, the game’s usually over."

Outman moved with Hendrickson to Central Missouri, where he went 10-2 as a junior and led the Mules to the Division II World Series. It was at that point, however, that Outman reached the crossroads of his career.

Enough professional scouts had seen him pitch by that point that he was convinced he would never be drafted or given a job in pro baseball unless he changed his motion to a more conventional delivery. The choices were dramatic – stick with what he and his father knew worked, but never have a chance to pitch in the major leagues, or change his motion and continue to work toward his dream.

"There’s only so much talking you can do," Outman said this week. "There’s only so far you can go with something before you have to admit it’s futile. Fighting the system only works to a point.

"It came down to whether I wanted to make it to the major leagues or stick to my guns. I did what I needed to do."

So Outman changed, and was drafted in the 10th round by the Phillies in 2005. He had to re-learn how to pitch, changing virtually everything he had done his entire life.

Outman changes to a more conventional pitching motion, Outman has Tommy John surgery, Outman's dad is not happy, Outman plans to make subtle changes to his pitching mechanics:

 

For more than 20 years, Fritz Outman had worked to perfect a motion he thought would keep a pitcher from hurting his arm. In his son’s 20th game in the majors, after changing his motion, he found himself heading to Alabama to see Dr. James Andrews to undergo "Tommy John" surgery.

"He (his dad) was obviously not happy about the whole situation," Outman said. "We were trying to avoid this in the first place. Maybe this would have happened anyway. I thought maybe it was just a cramp or tendonitis, then the doctors told me I had torn a ligament."

...

When he comes back, don’t be surprised if there are a few changes in Outman’s pitching mechanics.

"I’m not going to be able to go all the way back, but there are certain things I may try to change," Outman said. "I’m going to make it a little more subtle."

Considering Outman missed out on pitching for a year in high school because of a stupid coach, had to learn a conventional pitching delivery in order to get drafted and then had control problems for 3 years as a result (his BB/9 was in the mid-4's), and will now missed over a year following Tommy John surgery (that's a lot of wasted time for a pitcher who is only 25 this year), I doubt learning a third "hybrid" pitching method mid-season is the best idea.

Someone (Blez? Slusser?) should ask Beane if the A's are willing to let Outman return to his old pitching mechanics.

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According to Baseball Analysts: Moves of the Expansion Era

1968: Kansas City A's to Oakland

Apparently, being an average market team wasn't enough. Once in Kansas City, the Charlie O. Finley started looking around for a new home which would earn them even more revenue. Perhaps he had not seen that the San Francisco Giants were struggling at a below average clip themselves. It wouldn't take a genius to see that adding another team to that market wouldn't be the smartest of all ideas. But nevertheless, the White Elephants moved westward once again. Oakland did indeed prove to be a tough market. Throughout much of their time there, they have hovered at around 80% of a typical team's gate. They stand today as the team with the 2nd worst fan base (behind the Florida Marlins). Meanwhile, the Royals are about at the middle of the pack. KC hasn't put a good product on the field for quite some time, but once we account for that, the fans come out at an average rate. Overall, the A's would have been much better off staying in Kansas City, and perhaps even sticking it out in Philadelphia rather than moving to the already saturated San Francisco market.

Verdict: Major Mistake

via baseballanalysts.com

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Remember Michel Inoa?  Well, don't get used to that name.

07/02/08:

The A's have announced they will hold a news conference this morning at the Hotel Jaragua in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They will then introduce their prize amateur addition: 16-year-old Dominican right-hander Michel Inoa, who was not allowed to officially sign a contract until 9:01 p.m. (PDT) on Tuesday. Inoa's signing bonus is $4.3 million according to a source, breaking the A's record for an amateur signing as well as all records for non-Cuban Latin American amateurs.

The A's might introduce the 6-foot-7 pitcher as "Michael" Inoa, as there have been thoughts about anglicizing his name after he signed.

02/21/09:

Right-hander Michael Inoa, considered the top prospect in Latin America when the A's signed him last summer, is scheduled to arrive in Phoenix on March 9 and will stay four or five days for an orientation. Inoa, 17, will return April 9 for extended spring training. And according to A's director of player development Keith Lieppman, Inoa will start going by the original spelling of his last name, "Ynoa." Somewhere along the line, there was a mixup on the spelling, and the pitcher's name made its way into the public forum with an "I."

And he's really 37 years old.

But seriously, all of baseball had his last name wrong?  And he and his family didn't bother to correct them until now?

Also, here is the paragraph on #20 overall prospect Michael Inoa from Baseball Prospectus 2009:

It's hard to get a PECOTA projection when you've yet to pitch a pro inning, and even more difficult when you've barely pitched a competitive inning at all.  But Inoa is deserving of far more than just a comment at the tail end of the chapter.  The talk of scouting circles all spring, the Dominican wunderkind signed for $4.25 million, more than doubling the previous high-water mark for a Latin American pitcher.  Many who saw him called him the best 16-year-old arm they've ever seen; he already touches 94mph, has a very good breaking ball, and with a long, loose six-foot-seven frame, his potential is almost immeasurable.  Obviously he's very young, and countless things could go wrong between where Inoa is now and potential stardom, but his talent is borderline historic and deserves mention.

Feel free to post your Jairo Garcia --> Santiago Casilla and Mychael Urban jokes below.

Happy Birthday to Frank Thomas, born May 27, 1968.

There is an interview with Billy Beane on the front page.  Read part 1, part 2, and (eventually) part 3.

Some USSM readers see almost every Beane comment as a personal attack on their own front office:

I mean, he didn’t reference the M’s FO by name, but wow, could he at least be a bit more subtle when insulting the M’s.

This was a sad photo.

Your 2008 Oakland Athletics - A Visual History

John Sickels of minorleagueball has a Top 50 Hitters Status Report.

It's still early, but these four teams

Rays 31-20 $44m (29)
Marlins 30-20 $22m (30)
D-backs 30-21 $66m (23)
A's 28-23 $48m (28)

are playing better than these four teams:

Yankees 25-26 $209m (1)
Mets 23-26 $138m (2)
Tigers 21-30 $138m (3)
Mariners 18-34 $118m (9)

Ichiro made a great catch yesterday:

Lookout Landing:

Yeah, that's a called strike three on a pitch well off the plate. Giambi obviously didn't think much of it, but then, this isn't a new phenomenon - umpires just have a crazy different strike zone for left-handed hitters. Check out this article by John Walsh, and, if you want to skip the meat, scroll down to the bottom. Hello, outside strikes. I don't know how or why this is the way it is, but a smart pitcher - that is, someone who's aware of PITCHf/x - that is, Brian Bannister - - should absolutely be using this to his advantage. Unfair or not, that's the reality, and it would be silly not to exploit it.

More Pitch f/x:

Preliminary Aging Curve for Fastball Speed

It appears that until pitchers reach 28 or 29, they increase the speed on their fastball by about 1.5 mph. After 29, there is a rather sharp decline in fastball speed.

During the next five years, pitchers lose just over four mph.

Another article on Pitch f/x:

Baseball's nerd machine

While nobody is sure what this means for baseball, it is generating a great deal of talk. Earlier this month in San Francisco, Sportvision Inc., the sports-entertainment technology company that helped develop the system, hosted a Pitch f/x "summit." By the end, the stats wonks, engineers and nine team representatives in attendance could barely contain themselves. "It's tremendously exciting for people like me," said Mat Olkin, a Kansas City Royals consultant.

Keith Woolner, the manager of research and analysis for the Cleveland Indians, said the ability to capture such detailed measurements is "the next step" in baseball knowledge and strategy.

...

The scene at the Pitch f/x summit was symbolic of baseball's increasing wonkiness. The 52 attendees — some of them college professors — met to discuss how to improve the system and how to interpret its results. Participants swapped theories about determining the coefficient of drag and made jokes about the difficulty analyzing Boston pitcher Tim Wakefield's knuckleball. Nine major-league clubs sent representatives to the summit, including the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

5/29/08 DLD

"I've never felt so accepted in all my life. These people look deep within my soul and assign me a number based on the order in which I joined." -Homer the Great

AN 3.0 is up, and we no longer have numbers.  >:-(   Damn, we early adopters just got screwed...

Now that Diaries have been replaced by FanPosts, what happens to the Diary Police?  And what happened to OaktownTribesman and his A's-related Photoshops?

Lookout Landing users have created the Meme Police.  #1 on my list for AN would be the "day to day" jokes.

Will Caroll has started doing the 2008 Team Health Reports.  The first team is the Padres so we don't really care, but:

"Projected lineups appear courtesy of SportsBlog Nation"

Also, did AN diaries show up on Google News before AN 3.0? 

Edit: How come this one didn't show up?  Athletics Nation Oakland A's Oakland Athletics Google News Oakland Fremont buy Viagra Oakland A's porn sex free Britney Spears video.

Grant is jealous of our photos and our auto-refreshing comments.

John Sickels reviews the top 50 prospects from 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Five Questions answered by the SJ Mercury News and SF Chronicle.  I prefer the Chronicle version because it restates the five questions at the end.

Monkeys are taking over THT.  The first paragraph has links for various projections and since I didn't read the rest of it, I'll just paste that:

"Player projections! It's become a rite of spring on par with pitchers and catchers. Over the last several weeks we've been treated to projections from Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster, Bill James and Baseball Info Solutions, Sean Smith's CHONE system, Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA and Dan Szymborski's ZiPS. In a few weeks, The Hardball Times will throw its hat into the ring with The Hardball Times Season Preview 2008."

Finally, some non-baseball (but still relevant) stats here (scroll down) and here for the real nerds.

Susan Slusser reported the A's may still be interested in Barry Bonds:

According to industry sources, before Bonds was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice this month, talks between the A's and Bonds were further along than anyone has let on.
Even with the indictment, no one with the team has flat-out rejected the notion of signing him.

But should the A's sign Bonds? Sure his 1.045 OPS was the highest in the NL last year, but the Giants offense only scored 683 runs with Barry clogging up the bases.  And they only won 71 games, whereas they had won 72 games without him.

Continue reading this post »

Only 12 hours until Game 1.  

The experts and the computers have all made their predictions.
If anyone else wants to make predictions, they can do so in this diary.  

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This is the Daily Link Dump.  
Your 2006 AL West Champion Oakland A's are going to Minnesota to play Johan Santana and the Twins.  Be afraid, be very afraid.

There are no links yet, maybe people will post some below.  Or maybe they'll just make inside jokes and post slightly amusing photoshopped images.

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I really like our GM, I like that he's innovative, respected, high profile, and in demand as a speaker for a big event like this.  

But with the trading dealine just days away, I really hope this doesn't interfere with his ability to get a deal done.  Either we need to be buyers and get a hitter or maybe another starting pitcher, or we need to trade Zito.  

Blair to join Galaxy of Stars at Pebble Beach
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/29/MNGD5K7V4U1.DTL

Prime Minister Tony Blair's first visit to California has a bit of everything: serious environmental discussions, business meetings, a foreign affairs speech -- and a star-powered, incredibly eclectic gathering of world thinkers, leaders and luminaries in posh Pebble Beach.

The tony, private event, a five-day management retreat for 250 executives of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is set to bring together a VIP guest list for the ages to chat about issues like volunteerism, technology and politics. Among them: Blair, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, former Harvard University President Lawrence Summers and even U2 lead singer and international do-gooder Bono.

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http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2006/7/3/132032/8850

"batman" writes a diary comparing US troops to Nazis and those who "support the troops" to Nazi sympathizers, and his diary is merely edited to remove any comments that violate the community guidelines?

this doesn't seem to be the same treatment that other people get when they violate AN's community guidelines.  
for example, a few days ago, some ANer posted a diary attacking baseballgirl and the diary was deleted, i'm assuming his account was deleted as well.  why wasn't the offensive material simply "removed per Community Guidelines" as in this case?

and what does that even mean, "removed per Community Guidelines"?  where in the community guidelines does it say that if you write something that violates the guidelines, that is all that will happen to you?

is it because louismg is one of the people who has the power to make these decisions and was defending batman's comments?

what happened here?  was batman contacted and asked to remove the offensive material?  did louismg unilaterally remove it?  will offensive diaries not be completely deleted from now on or is this an exception?

Peter Gammons just said on ESPN that there is a good chance Selig will suspend Bonds.  He also points out that Bonds could be disciplined just for associating with known steroids dealers, which he compared to associating with gamblers.  
Remember, Victor Conte and Greg Anderson both plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and one count of money laundering.  

Ex-commissioner Vincent calls for investigation of allegations vs. Bonds.
Former commissioner Fay Vincent and the lawyer who investigated Pete Rose for him called on commissioner Bud Selig to hire an outside investigator to research allegations of steroid use by Barry Bonds.

Bonds could face suspension after prior steroid warning.
Citing unnamed sources within the sport, the Chicago Tribune reported that major league commissioner Bud Selig is considering a suspension for the San Francisco Giants star among a wide range of possible responses.
The report also said a ruling could be made before the Giants' April 3 season opener.

The Tribune also reported that Selig met with Bonds during spring training in 2004 over concerns about claims that Bonds took steroids.
Selig made a vague offer of leniency to Bonds if he had anything to confess, the Tribune reported, but also warned that consequences would be "much worse" if he proclaimed innocence and evidence blater revealed him as a steroid user.

Also, Schmidt stung by steroid speculation.
Last year, "Schmidt began hearing rumblings in the San Francisco clubhouse that there was a different reason for his decline. Word got back to him that a teammate or two had speculated that his stuff was slipping because he had stopped taking steroids."

So Schmidt "changed his routine and spent part of his offseason at the Athletes Performance Institute in Tempe, Ariz. He played catch in the mornings with Boston's Curt Schilling, took a crash course in nutrition and hit the weights diligently enough to add 20 pounds while simultaneously shedding body fat."

Best quote: "If someone saw me in the shower, they'd never think I was on the juice," Schmidt said. Over at McCovey Chronicles, a reader wonders, "Was Schmidt referring to his physique or the size of his testicles?"

I was bored today, so I decided to look at the predictions AN made last April:
2005 Prediction Thread
http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2005/4/4/22150/96023

Almost everyone had the White Sox third or fourth in the AL Central, eck767 was the only one who had them finishing second.
The most popular incorrect playoff picks seem to have been the A's, Twins, Dodgers, Marlins, and Cubs.
I think the most correct playoff teams picked is 6 of 8 by MJB.
I'm pretty disappointed because I only got 3 of the 8 playoff teams, and they were the obvious ones (yanks, red sox, cards).

Some notable predictions:
K56: "AL MVP: Eric Byrnes (dark horse)"
Colorado Fan: Barry Bonds "will be back very soon"
iceplant: "The tigers will win the AL central on the back of Cy Young winner Jeremy Bonderman."
SurfingOC: "Zito over Hudson in Game 6" of the WS  [I like how specific this one is.  What will their pitch counts be?]
ohad: "Mariners (much better than last year. MUCH MUCH better)"
Steve in Napa: lots of bizarre predictions, including "Nevin top 5 in MVP voting"

I'm sure Blez will create a front page thread for predictions in late March or so, but if anyone else wants to make predictions now, go for it.
Mine are below.

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50 Coolest Websites 2005
http://www.time.com/time/2005/websites/

SportsBlogs Nation
sbnation.com
Home base for nearly two-dozen baseball blogs, most of them devoted to specific teams. There's Lookout Landing (for Seattle Mariners fans), Fish Stripes (about the Florida Marlins) and Amazin' Avenue (Mets), as well as the terrific Beyond the Box Score and John Sickel's Minor League Ball. And each one has a diary where readers can chime in--a feature SportsBlogs Nation co-founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga ported over from his popular (leftie) political blog, Daily Kos. If you blog about a team not yet represented here, make yourself known--score a spot on the roster and you get a piece of the ad revenue. Also good: BaseballBlogs.org

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So, are we all on the same page when it comes to the playoffs?

I will be rooting for a somewhat implausible Cleveland v Houston, Philadelphia or San Diego World Series.
Philly over Cleveland would be nice and forgettable.

I think most A's fans would never root for the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, White Sox or (ugh) Giants.

Some might be tempted to root for the Braves or the Cardinals because they like Hudson or Mulder, but it doesn't look good when A's players go elsewhere and get rings (Damon, Foulke).  That's not the type of thing we want to encourage if we are trying to convince certain players to stick around.  
The Braves have their own book for those who hate Moneyball.
If the Cardinals win, the A's drop to third in World Series victories as the two teams are currently tied with nine.

A Poll:

"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." --Churchill on the rebuilding of the House of Commons.

Most A's fans agree that the organization should do more to embrace the long and glorious history of the franchise.  

Among the ideas for the new stadium:

An A's Museum and flags from all 9 World Series victories, not just the 4 from the Oakland era.  
The name "Haas Stadium" was suggested by Blez.

More retired numbers or uniforms.

A Hall of Fame with plaques or statues.

A facade like that of the old Shibe Park, with an office for Billy in the tower.

I think these are all great suggestions and should be brought to the attention of Mr. Wolff.

A Statue Poll:

jason giambi has hit two home runs in each of his last two games, and 10 in his last 14 games.
he is hitting .289 with an OPS in the mid .900s

as the yankees entered oakland on may 12th, giambi was hitting .195 and a frustrated steinbrenner was looking to get rid of him.  

on may 12th, ohad posted a diary arguing that the a's should bring giambi back if they could get him for under $2 million.  who knows if that would have been possible, but $2 million, that's like joe kennedy money.

although this a's team has the pitching (if saarloos and blanton hold up) and the defense, one has to question whether they have the offensive firepower they will need to make the playoffs.  giambi at DH (as opposed to scott hatteberg, who would make an excellent pinch hitter) would have made this quite a potent and deep lineup.  

surprisingly, 55% of 148 voted to bring giambi back:

1. ANers are pretty smart.
   
2. we were pretty desperate in mid-may.

AP Photos/Ben Margot

7/14: harden perfect through 7 1/3

harden in the first inning

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i don't know why he hasn't posted it here yet (out of modesty, maybe?), but our fellow ANer sal wrote a pretty interesting guest article over at beyond the boxscore.  the more stat-oriented folks here at AN should definitely check it out.  we're lucky to have such smart people as a's fans!

i've only read 1/3 of it so far, and there are tons of excellent points that i had never even thought about...

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/story/2005/7/1/17483/60819

back in the middle of may when the a's sucked and only kotsay could hit, i suggested that the a's
"get those new contact lenses brian roberts is wearing".

from slusser's a's report:

Red eye: Harden, Street, Joe Blanton, Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Bobby Crosby were fitted with Nike's MaxSight contact lenses. The amber lenses made Harden look like a werewolf, and he plans to wear them during day games and twilight games to cut glare. "Those 5 p.m., 6 p.m. starts, the sun is right in your eyes and you can't see a thing," Harden said.
Tony Cichoke, a Nike representative, said the lenses provide the benefits and protection of sunglasses.

are these similar to the contact lenses brian roberts is wearing this year?  i seem to remember those were by bausch & lomb or something, but the amber color / werewolf part sounds familiar...

Beyond the Boxscore recently compared Mulder and Haren, as did Gammons:

Mulder         Haren  
7-4     W-L     4-7  
13      GS      13  
83.2    IP      80  
89      H        77  
25/50  BB/SO   29/59  
4.30   ERA      4.28  
1.36   WHIP    1.33  

It's looking pretty good right now, when you consider the difference in salary.

Of course Meyer is injured, but what about Hudson vs Hudson?

04 Hudson       05 Hudson  
12-6     W-L      6-5  
3          CG       0  
8         HR        8
44/103  BB/SO   39/51  
3.53      ERA      3.78  
1.26     WHIP    1.52  

first, let me admit i know nothing about the baseball draft.  i usually know three or four of the picks, plus whoever the a's take once i read about them.  
however, it seemed clear to me that the a's should draft pitchers, which they seem to have done.  heck, even pennington can pitch.

in the draft preview / goldstein interview thread, i suggested that the a's should draft lots of pitchers.  here is my reasoning:

more starting pitchers please!

if the a's have playoff aspirations for 2006-2011, they're going to need to get the starting pitching back to the level it was at over the last few years because the offense is never going to score enough runs to win texas rangers style.  

even when the a's missed the playoffs last year, the rotation of hudson, mulder, zito, harden, and redman gave the a's a decent shot at winning every single game.  last year's offense was pretty good, probably as good as we can ever expect it to be in the near future.  now that the bullpen problems have been addressed, if the starting pitching can get anywhere close to the 2004 level, the a's should be in playoff contention.

assuming haren continues to put up mulder numbers (last year's mulder), with a healthy harden putting up hudson-like numbers, only two of the five spots are secured.  

even if either blanton or meyer turns into a good #3 (which looks somewhat doubtful right now unless it's meyer coming back from his injury), what about the final two spots in the rotation?

the a's could be dealing with as low as a 33% success rate with the current batch of "major league ready" pitching prospects (haren, blanton, meyer), and the a's prospect rankings on minorleagueball don't give the a's another starting pitcher with a grade above C+.
.................................................

Continue reading this post »

i now go to lookout landing and mccovey chronicles every fews days just to check out the win expectancy graphs.  
does anybody on AN know how to do these? if so, please do them for a's games!

.................................................................................................... ...............................................

i first read about steven levitt about a year ago in the economist after he won the john bates clark medal, which apparently "says more about the winner's excellence as an economist than does the better known, but rather less exclusive, Nobel prize."  
he does some interesting research and seems like a smart guy.

now he has a book out and has appeared on programs such as the daily show.  
a few weeks ago, someone posted a diary on the shots levitt was taking on his blog at the a's, beane, and moneyball.  

his anti-moneyball comments seem to be getting more and more ridiculous, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that he's doing this just for the reaction (people pointing out how silly he is being):

Will the real Billy Beane please stand up!?
"Whenever I post on baseball, people get very agitated. So I figured it was time to ruffle a few more feathers."

the latest:
Are Billy Beane Believers still expecting 97 wins this year?
"What do the 100+ angry baseball fans who have posted livid responses to my earlier postings about Billy Beane have to say about the new data that has been assembled since I made my first claims?"

one wonders if mr. levitt has even read moneyball.  or is he the joe morgan of economists?

From the Washington Post:

Hurlers in Chief
Since George Washington and his men played a pre-baseball game called rounders at Valley Forge, U.S. presidents have had various connections to the national pastime. Sixteen U.S. presidents-all but one since William Howard Taft-have thrown out first pitches at home openers. (Jimmy Carter never threw a first pitch while in office, but his brother Billy and mother Lillian did.) Some genuinely loved the game, others thought it was just good politics.

i wonder if johnson pitched in that 3-0 win over the athletics in 1910...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/08/SPGB7BM3C31.DTL

Gwenn Knapp on Jose Canseco's book signing in the bay area:

For the record, though, none of the reporters who went to Barnes & Noble initiated the steroid talk. Canseco did that himself, hollering to Rickey Henderson's in-laws as they walked away from the table with three signed books: "That's one of the players who's not on steroids."

Rosalind Ono said she and her husband, Ed, lined up outside the store at 4 p.m. to see their son-in-law's former teammate. They entered first, with a cell phone connected to Henderson in Phoenix. They handed the phone to Canseco, who talked for a short time and then signed one of the Onos' books especially for Henderson: "To a great player, a friend."

The Onos stopped to talk to the media and vouched for the author. "One thing Rickey said is Jose does not lie," Rosalind Ono said.

Several of his former teammates have said the same thing, although La Russa has vilified the man he managed during their glorious run in Oakland. Determined to protect the legacy of McGwire, who also played for La Russa when he broke the single-season home run record with St. Louis, the manager has said that Canseco had to resort to steroids because he wasn't willing to work hard enough.