It’s Been So Long!!

I’m back!! Oh my gosh, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted on here, too long! Since it’s been a while, I have so many things to cover, and I’ll probably forget something…but let’s start at the beginning…

* Congrats are in order to the World Champions the San Francisco Giants, great job boys

* Next on the list…Rajai!! It’s been a couple of months now, & I’m still not over the trade of Rajai Davis. Sure his batting average wasn’t what it was from the prior season, but he stole 50 bases last season..which equals runs. Not only that but his personality was just awesome. During the ’09 season, we attended a game & he was getting his bat & everything ready (right before going up to bat) when my Mom asked for an autograph…and he had no problem signing her hat! Gotta love this guy. Rajai will definitely be missed in my opinion.

* Next on the list…very happy to see that Sweeney will be staying with us, missed him during the last half of the season.

* Welcome Hideki Matsui! I see good things with him as our DH

* Harden is back!! I can’t tell you how big the smile on my face was when I read this. Hopefully I can make it to a game to see him pitch in person.

* Last but not least, I see there’s players still up for arbitration, please don’t get rid of: Kouz (we need his arm @ 3rd & he wants to stay in Oakland), Ziegler (gotta love the submarine), Breslow (“smartest man in baseball”), or Braden (he will probably tell you to get off his mound, lol)

Well I think that sums up a lot of what’s happened since I’ve last blogged. I promise I’ll be on more often.

Go A’s!

Dan Haren back in the AL West

Well the A’s will get to see a lot more of Haren this season…he just got picked up by the LAA from the Diamondbacks. And to show how fast business is done in the world of baseball, Haren is even starting tonight (I’m not sure he even had time to unpack his suitcase). This should definitely be interesting, and for me it will be odd to see Haren play against us so much each season, but we will have to wait until September when we play them next.

Go A’s!

All-Star Game

Well the American League’s streak came to an end tonight. The National League hasn’t won the All-Star game since 1996 until tonight! That just seems crazy to me, but like the announcer’s said during the game, Jeter was a rookie and Mauer was still in Little League the last time the NL won.

On a plus, Bailey got to pitch tonight!! I was hoping he would get a chance, since it’s his second year (back to back) to get invited (and sadly didn’t get to pitch last year). And as soon as I saw Bailey warm-up a huge smile came to my face. When he did get a chace to pitch he walked the first batter, but with runners on and 2 outs Bailey got in his groove and got the 3rd out with the next batter.

It was so great to see Cahill & Bailey lined up with the rest of the All-Star players tonight. Way to represent the A’s!!

All Star Voting is in…

Ok, so I’m a couple of days late…but Cahill made the All-Star team!! Sadly though, it looks like he won’t get a chance to play. The A’s have him starting the Sunday before the All-Star game, which wouldn’t give him enough time to rest. Ugh. But the good news is he is representing the A’s, which puts a smile of my face. I do think Suzuki should be joining him though. Suzuki is one of the best catcher’s in the American League right now, and his stats are there to prove it, along with how great his defense is behind the plate. Hopefully next year…

As for the “Final Vote” I made sure to cast my votes for two former A’s players: Nick Swisher & Carlos Gonzalez. After all, once an Oakland A’s, always an Oakland A’s…good luck guys!

Go A’s!

Home Sweet Home

Now we all are aware that this season our A’s haven’t done as well as we would like while on the road. But after this road trip, I’m so glad to hear that we’re coming home, especially since we were 2-7 (sigh).

Well, enough of that…it’s time to get back into the game and start winning again. Especially since we are 8 games back!! Ouch, I can’t believe I just typed that. That’s ok though, maybe that will give us more motivation to get out of this slump. Besides, our boys have been in first place for a good majority of the season, I say it’s time to claim that spot back.

So first up we’ll be facing the Reds, followed by the Pirates (can’t wait to see Crosby play against us & I just found out Eveland is now with them as well), and then the Yankees (one word…Swisher). I’m definitely looking forward to these upcoming series: familiar faces, and Turn Back the Clock day on Saturday. Can’t wait!

Go A’s!

Everything All Rolled into One…

First off…lets start with the nice win we got today against the Cubs. But it didn’t come easy, after we took a nice lead early on…all of a sudden the scoreboard read 5-4 (yikes). Luckily we hit a nice inside the park Home Run….boy did that help, along with the errors. Also, Cahill got on base tonight!! They didn’t give him a hit, because of an error…but he got an RBI.

Moving right along…the A’s made some moves within the past couple of days. Fox was sadly put up for assignment on Sunday. It sounds like it might end up like the Cust move at the beginning of the season, where he will end up staying with us in our minor league division. So that’s good. On a plus, we got a new player today….Conor Jackson from the Diamondbacks. Besides reading some quick notes on his batting average and stuff, I don’t really know the guy. Any comments on how well he can play would be great…Thanks.

Next up, I forgot to write about the draft last week….shame, shame. A few days ago I was reading the list of the players that the A’s agreed to terms with, one of which really caught my eye, a right-handed pitcher named Andrew Bailey!! I know it will probably be a while before this Andrew Bailey gets called up to play, but how funny would it be to see two Andrew Baileys (both right handed pitchers) play in the same game & on the same team! I say if that ever happens they should have some fun with the jerseys. Some thoughts:

1) Reversing the numbers…since our current Bailey is #40, the new Bailey should be #4

2) Have his number read 40 1/2

3) Or, my favorite…have our current Bailey’s jersey read ROY

Ok, I know…this probably won’t happen, but it sounded good.

Let’s just hope our boys can keep getting  the wins we need….being 4 games isn’t too fun. Besides, 1st Place sounds much better.

Go A’s!

Win, Lose, Draw

Well, you win some, you lose some…and then in this case you tie. The A’s came back during today’s afternoon game against the LAA, and took the win…which split the series at 2 wins each. Believe me, I am much happier to have a tie in the series then a loss.

Now we are getting ready for interleague play, and first up for us is another Battle of the Bay series against the Giants. Should definitely be interesting. Lets hope the A’s can play as well as we did against them in our last series.

Go A’s!

Home Runs For All

4 Home Runs (2 by Suzuki & 1 each by Cust & Kouz) + a win against Boston + Texas lost = We’re back in & tied for 1st place!

Today’s win definitely wasn’t easy, we won 9-8, but that was after Anderson was taken out due to his elbow, and Sweeney left the game after he dove for a foul ball and Ellis ran into him. Hopefully everyone is alright.

On a side note, Selig decided not to reverse the call from last night’s game (should have been a perfect game) for Detroit’s Armando Galarraga. I know there are all of these rules but I can’t understand how during today’s game, the Ump’s were able to check instant replay on a Home Run hit by Boston, but they couldn’t or wouldn’t take 2 minutes to check the tape from yesterday’s game. At least the Ump that made the call last night realized it was the wrong call and fully apologized.

Well tomorrow we are back in Oakland and playing against the Twins, hopefully we can get some more wins under out belt.

Go A’s!

The Curse of the 5th Inning…

Back to back games now, against the Red Sox, seems to start out great. I mean whenever we can take the lead early on it brings a smile to my face. But then, the 5th inning starts, and it’s downhill from there!

Both games now we have let out lead slip away in the 5th inning, kind of weird. I’m going to call it the Curse of the 5th Inning, that’s my only explanation for it.

Even though we didn’t win, it was nice seeing Kouz hit a Home Run over the Green Monster. Heck, he hit it so hard it landed in the parking lot behind the stadium.

Let’s just hope we can get at least one win in for tomorrow’s game. We’ve been doing so well during this road trip, it would be a shame to end it by getting swept.

Go A’s!!

A’s News

– First off…the A’s are back in first place! And boy did we miss it, lets just hope we can continue to do well, win more games, and stay in first place.

– Second, Anderson is back! And he didn’t allow 1 run…great to have him back, we need his arm

– But as we get Anderson back, we sadly found out that Duke won’t be coming back this season…as a result of him needing hip surgery. I just hope he can make a speedy recovery, I really like seeing him on the mound. We’ll miss you this season Duke!!

– On a side note, I read that Swisher is engaged…Congrats!

– And last but not least, today history was made again….Roy Halladay became the 20th player to pitch a perfect game!! I only got to see the last 2 outs, but a big Congrats to him!