A group weblog for Oakland A's fans
Friday, December 29, 2006
The Morning After
In the Posideon Adventure, which scared the crap out of me as a 7 year old when I watched it, the people on this huge ship are trying to stay alive after it flipped. People are dying all over the place, but eventually a few make it out alive. Then they sing "the Morning After." There's got to be a morning after. Somehow things can get better.
Today is the morning after my favorite player on my favorite team signed with a new team. My buddy, Blez, wants to get rid of his Zito jersey and forget all about him. I find I can't blame anyone, and I don't even feel like going through the stages of grief. We all knew Zito was going somewhere. This isn't really shocking. There is quite a bit of Giants bashing amongst A's fans, but although I have written many times how in so many ways the A's are better, I can't really hate the Giants. Their park is nice. In principle, I agree with the NL rules that the pitcher must bat. The A's are an infinitely more likeable team, but the Giants are trying to be a team too. Somehow their announcers seem to like them.
My feeling is the Giants, by making this move, are showing an homage to the A's. They are saying, "We aren't really smart enough to build a team your way, but since you are letting your high priced guy go, we'd like to take him and see if some of that A's magic will rub off on us." If any other team has had a ringside seat seeing how the A's consistently kick ass on a budget it is the Giants. I guess the Giants forgot about the budget part, but are still hoping Zito's magic will rub off on their team. It might.
So now what? In the past few years if the A's and the Giants were on, I would watch the A's and flip over to the Giants for the Bonds ABs. You can hate Bonds all you want, but his ABs are almost always exciting. I figure this summer I will flip over to the Giants when Zito pitches. I expect a year or 2 of very good numbers for Zito. I remember last summer in one interleague game, some team from the NL was flailing away against Zito. Plenty of those NL teams have bottoms of the order that can't really hit. Zito will dominate for a while. The silver lining on this deal is that the Giants are on TV all the time locally. Zito will still be around. It won't be the same, but it wasn't going to be the same anyway. There's got to be a morning after. I'm ok with it.
In the Posideon Adventure, which scared the crap out of me as a 7 year old when I watched it, the people on this huge ship are trying to stay alive after it flipped. People are dying all over the place, but eventually a few make it out alive. Then they sing "the Morning After." There's got to be a morning after. Somehow things can get better.
Today is the morning after my favorite player on my favorite team signed with a new team. My buddy, Blez, wants to get rid of his Zito jersey and forget all about him. I find I can't blame anyone, and I don't even feel like going through the stages of grief. We all knew Zito was going somewhere. This isn't really shocking. There is quite a bit of Giants bashing amongst A's fans, but although I have written many times how in so many ways the A's are better, I can't really hate the Giants. Their park is nice. In principle, I agree with the NL rules that the pitcher must bat. The A's are an infinitely more likeable team, but the Giants are trying to be a team too. Somehow their announcers seem to like them.
My feeling is the Giants, by making this move, are showing an homage to the A's. They are saying, "We aren't really smart enough to build a team your way, but since you are letting your high priced guy go, we'd like to take him and see if some of that A's magic will rub off on us." If any other team has had a ringside seat seeing how the A's consistently kick ass on a budget it is the Giants. I guess the Giants forgot about the budget part, but are still hoping Zito's magic will rub off on their team. It might.
So now what? In the past few years if the A's and the Giants were on, I would watch the A's and flip over to the Giants for the Bonds ABs. You can hate Bonds all you want, but his ABs are almost always exciting. I figure this summer I will flip over to the Giants when Zito pitches. I expect a year or 2 of very good numbers for Zito. I remember last summer in one interleague game, some team from the NL was flailing away against Zito. Plenty of those NL teams have bottoms of the order that can't really hit. Zito will dominate for a while. The silver lining on this deal is that the Giants are on TV all the time locally. Zito will still be around. It won't be the same, but it wasn't going to be the same anyway. There's got to be a morning after. I'm ok with it.
