A group weblog for Oakland A's fans
Saturday, August 27, 2005
All of a Sudden the A's are Hot Again
The A's are an inscrutable team. After a terribly dissapointed homestand, they go to Detroit and win 2 of 3, and then win the first 2 in Baltimore starting Blanton and Kennedy. I oughta be loving it, but I feel my love has been burned enough times that I am just hopeful and trying not to get to emotional about this team. But all of a sudden they are tied for the wildcard spot and only a 1/2 game behind the Angels in the west. There are a lot of games to go, we take it one game at a time, the good Lord willing, it will all work out.
The A's are an inscrutable team. After a terribly dissapointed homestand, they go to Detroit and win 2 of 3, and then win the first 2 in Baltimore starting Blanton and Kennedy. I oughta be loving it, but I feel my love has been burned enough times that I am just hopeful and trying not to get to emotional about this team. But all of a sudden they are tied for the wildcard spot and only a 1/2 game behind the Angels in the west. There are a lot of games to go, we take it one game at a time, the good Lord willing, it will all work out.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Just when I was about over my A's Addiction...
Just when I was thinking the A's were going to go quietly into the night, their 2 months of dominance a forgotten summer dream. Maybe they still will fold like a house of cards, but at least for tonight, they were crushing the ball all over the yard against the Tigers. They are a good young team, not a great young team. Maybe they will make the playoffs, maybe they won't. They sure have had a fun year, but the streakiness of this team is wearing me out. They go from beating everyone to not hitting a lick. It seemed like there was a man stranded at 3rd with less than 2 outs the whole 12 game homestand. After playing over .700 ball for 2 months they go 4-8 on the homestand. I gotta get a new hobby. But baseball is such a great game and the A's are so addictive, I guess I gotta keep bleeding the green and gold and try to ride this out. Let's go A's.
Just when I was thinking the A's were going to go quietly into the night, their 2 months of dominance a forgotten summer dream. Maybe they still will fold like a house of cards, but at least for tonight, they were crushing the ball all over the yard against the Tigers. They are a good young team, not a great young team. Maybe they will make the playoffs, maybe they won't. They sure have had a fun year, but the streakiness of this team is wearing me out. They go from beating everyone to not hitting a lick. It seemed like there was a man stranded at 3rd with less than 2 outs the whole 12 game homestand. After playing over .700 ball for 2 months they go 4-8 on the homestand. I gotta get a new hobby. But baseball is such a great game and the A's are so addictive, I guess I gotta keep bleeding the green and gold and try to ride this out. Let's go A's.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Should this anger me?
We were at this game, in Section 114 (just to the right of home plate), row 26. An aisle/railing separates the premium seats of rows 1-20 from row 21 and above.
11 innings came and went. As the 11th inning ended, people who'd had enough started streaming out of the park. With our seats in the shade (and kind of cold), Julia and I moved up to try to fill seats in the sun... utterly denied by the usher, as we didn't have tickets for that section.
Rows upon rows of sundrenched empty seats went to waste for the greater good of enforcing price discrimination to the bitter end. He was "just following policy," as he explained it, but enforcing it even when half the fans have gone home is just an ass move.
It's also perfectly in line with the organization that put opaque green clapboards between the concourse and first bowl level, because god forbid you be able to see the field when you're standing in line for something.
As deeply as appreciate the A's commitment to winning on a tight budget, and despite my generally not minding the piss-poor customer service (most notoriously the slow, borderline-retarded people they have working concession stands), I do take exception to a man going out of his way to spend time and energy keeping us out of his section and denying us the chance to move eight rows up (from shade to sun).
I no have no interest in post-season tickets, nor in renewing my season tickets for 2006. Probably an overreaction but an organization that treats fans this way shouldn't be rewarded for that by receiving overpriced gate. On the other hand, I'll readily admit this is kind of a pissant thing to protest about, probably better off just being let go, certainly not worth the effort of driving back to Ticket Services first thing Monday to kvetch.
For all I know the real reason I'm angry is dropping two straight to the Royals of all teams. Even there, though: The guys who blew it in the 8th inning today were the very guys we got as swag for fan favorite Eric Byrnes. For maximizing on-field performance trading Byrnes was probably the right thing to do, but again it's such a callous thing to do to particular fans that if you're going to be that way, you'd better get the results on the field. And if you don't... call me a sourpuss or worse-yet a fair weather fan, but if I'm not getting my money's worth then I'm not throwing any more money down that particular hole.
We were at this game, in Section 114 (just to the right of home plate), row 26. An aisle/railing separates the premium seats of rows 1-20 from row 21 and above.
11 innings came and went. As the 11th inning ended, people who'd had enough started streaming out of the park. With our seats in the shade (and kind of cold), Julia and I moved up to try to fill seats in the sun... utterly denied by the usher, as we didn't have tickets for that section.
Rows upon rows of sundrenched empty seats went to waste for the greater good of enforcing price discrimination to the bitter end. He was "just following policy," as he explained it, but enforcing it even when half the fans have gone home is just an ass move.
It's also perfectly in line with the organization that put opaque green clapboards between the concourse and first bowl level, because god forbid you be able to see the field when you're standing in line for something.
As deeply as appreciate the A's commitment to winning on a tight budget, and despite my generally not minding the piss-poor customer service (most notoriously the slow, borderline-retarded people they have working concession stands), I do take exception to a man going out of his way to spend time and energy keeping us out of his section and denying us the chance to move eight rows up (from shade to sun).
I no have no interest in post-season tickets, nor in renewing my season tickets for 2006. Probably an overreaction but an organization that treats fans this way shouldn't be rewarded for that by receiving overpriced gate. On the other hand, I'll readily admit this is kind of a pissant thing to protest about, probably better off just being let go, certainly not worth the effort of driving back to Ticket Services first thing Monday to kvetch.
For all I know the real reason I'm angry is dropping two straight to the Royals of all teams. Even there, though: The guys who blew it in the 8th inning today were the very guys we got as swag for fan favorite Eric Byrnes. For maximizing on-field performance trading Byrnes was probably the right thing to do, but again it's such a callous thing to do to particular fans that if you're going to be that way, you'd better get the results on the field. And if you don't... call me a sourpuss or worse-yet a fair weather fan, but if I'm not getting my money's worth then I'm not throwing any more money down that particular hole.
