FREE KRAUT! https://freekraut.net We supply the kraut, you supply the links. A blog for fans of the Oakland Athletics, Adam West, unicorns, fermented cabbage, otter pops, and trough urinals. Not necessarily in that order. Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:55:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.9 Spring training 2024, wherein Fisher and Kaval sit on a cactus https://freekraut.net/?p=20014 https://freekraut.net/?p=20014#comments Fri, 23 Feb 2024 21:36:56 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=20014 read more]]> The A’s open a 33-game preseason schedule on Saturday in Mesa when they take on the Colorado Rockies. That’s the first of 29 in Arizona; there are also pairs at Las Vegas Ballpark against the Brewers on March 8-9 and the usual home-and-home with the Giants on March 25-26, before Stephen Vogt brings the Guardians to an empty ballpark surrounded by a full parking lot on the evening of March 28.

I’m wondering if the A’s will have any beat reporter following them this season outside of MLB.com’s coverage. John Shea has filed a few stories from Arizona but he’s a senior columnist, would only rarely do game coverage as a fill-in. Matt Kawahara, on the Chronicle’s A’s coverage after Slusser, is covering the Astros now. The East Bay Times has carried just a few stories filed by Haley Smilow, who appears to be a Phoenix local. The Athletic hasn’t had anything A’s-specific since Melissa Lockard contributed to their Jenny Cavnar story. MLB.com and wire service reports might be about it this year.

Coinciding with that first Cactus League game, Fans Fest proceeds at Jack London Square tomorrow, with plenty of beer though without the ability to Denogginize.

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2024: Once more unto the breach, dear friends https://freekraut.net/?p=20001 https://freekraut.net/?p=20001#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2024 01:45:27 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=20001 read more]]> Or close up the wall with our East Bay dead. In case FK croaks for good I thought it was important that future scholars can search internet archives and note that the Kraut kept going at least into the last year of the A’s time in Oakland, and/or the functional existence of the United States.

Which is not to discard the real chance that Fisher still screws up and they play in the Coliseum for another decade or so. Or that AI screws up and American democracy limps through another election cycle. Frankly I don’t like the odds of either. But hope doesn’t cost me as much as a cache of bullets and canned goods.

In any event: if one or more of Free Kraut, the Oakland A’s, and American democracy crashes beyond redemption I say we meet at the top of the Campanile on Opening Day 2025. I’ll ring the bells, unless it’ll draw the zombies too close.

"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."]]>
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Irritable Bowl Syndrome https://freekraut.net/?p=19994 https://freekraut.net/?p=19994#comments Fri, 15 Dec 2023 20:52:08 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19994 read more]]> Another new thread to keep FK seasonably appropriate on the eve of Bowl Season. It starts tomorrow with seven games, the last of which features our local heroes Cal in Shreveport LA, a town named after an Army Corps of Engineers captain named Shreve. Cal will battle traditional rivals Texas Tech, with whom they are destined to be mates in a future “Every Team in America Except the Good Ones” conference. Go Bears! You betcha!

And if you’re not watching the new season of Fargo yet you’re missing out.

"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."]]>
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Grilling some lame duck for a holiday feast https://freekraut.net/?p=19988 https://freekraut.net/?p=19988#comments Sun, 19 Nov 2023 23:32:05 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19988 read more]]> It’s about time to take the World Series off the top headline. I don’t know how much more baseball talk there will be on FK. College football is just about over for this season so those who aren’t interested won’t have to read many more of my complaints about Justin Wilcox and Cal. There’s the usual interest in the NFL and the Warriors; probably not the Sharks because oof it looks like they’re terrible. And we have the 2024 political season starting to heat up. Whatever you celebrate, happy holidays!

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2023 World Series: The Battle Along the Southern Border https://freekraut.net/?p=19981 https://freekraut.net/?p=19981#comments Fri, 27 Oct 2023 16:46:35 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19981 read more]]> It’s the Ted Cruzes vs. the Kyrsten Sinemas fighting it out for the right to raise that nice trophy. The Diamondbacks would be the classic example of “do what we have to do to get into the postseason and see if we can do something special once we get there”. I’ve been down on baseball turning its playoffs into something like an October version of the WBC, but if it were the 84-win A’s who had reached this point I would be pretty fired up about it.

MLB has arranged the World Series schedule to avoid direct conflicts with the NFL. One unavoidable head-to-head remains, on Monday night. The NFL has graciously given baseball a chance by scheduling the Las Vegas Raiders for their game. It will be interesting to see how the American public votes with their remotes that night.

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Post Season https://freekraut.net/?p=19975 https://freekraut.net/?p=19975#comments Mon, 02 Oct 2023 21:57:40 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19975 read more]]> Post, from the Latin Post, meaning behind or after. See also the Greek root Apo, meaning from or descent from.

cf. The Oakland A’s season mercifully ended, a true Posterior of a season.

The advance decay to the corpse of the Oakland A’s season prevented an insightful post-mortem.

A relentless assault by A’s ownership upon fan interest caused a precipitous decline in Posts.

In our post-factual reality none of the 12 MLB teams left seem capable of winning a World Series at the call to the post. Is it the post-posting season? There are no unread comments, only unwritten ones.

"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."]]>
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Trip #12, to the end of the road https://freekraut.net/?p=19973 https://freekraut.net/?p=19973#comments Tue, 26 Sep 2023 19:08:55 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19973 read more]]>

The A’s get a trip to Minneapolis before closing out the season in Anaheim. The Twins have clinched the AL Central and are 5 games behind the Rangers for the #2 AL Division Champions slot (with its first-round bye) so realistically they don’t have anything to play for in this series. The Angels would probably prefer to avoid 90 losses; they need to win 3 of their final 5 to do that, so it would be kind of nice if the A’s could deliver that final bit of humiliation.

I suppose the A’s would like to win at least 2 to get to 50, and going into these final 6 their run differential is -326, currently 23 better than the 1932 Red Sox’ -349.

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Home’s last stand https://freekraut.net/?p=19965 https://freekraut.net/?p=19965#comments Sat, 16 Sep 2023 01:52:25 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19965 Ten more games for the home fans to see what Mister Fisher’s penury hath wrought.

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Road trip #11, Southeast of Disorder https://freekraut.net/?p=19954 https://freekraut.net/?p=19954#comments Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:21:39 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19954 read more]]> Three in Arlington vs. the sagging Rangers, then a trip down I-45 for three against the Astros. Those two opponents just played three against each other at Globe Life Field, with the Astros pummeling the Rangers by a total score of 39-10.

The A’s would need to win four games of the six to stave off the 100th loss until they return home. It would be fun to spoil the Rangers’ postseason aspirations; they still have a 49.1% chance to make the postseason per B-R, partly because after the three against the A’s, 11 of their final 20 are head-to-head against the two teams in front of them in the AL Wild Card race, the Blue Jays (four games in Toronto) and the Mariners (three games in Arlington and four in Seattle). However, it doesn’t help the Rangers that Adolis Garcia is headed to the IL with a knee injury.

As to the A’s and the adversity they and their fans have faced in this awful season:

If a hurricane doesn’t kill you dead
It will make you strong
Don’t try to explain it, just nod your head
Breathe in, breathe out, move on.

And if that doesn’t work, well, it’s five o’clock somewhere. FINS UP!!

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Sooner or LAA-TOR (Home 11) https://freekraut.net/?p=19949 https://freekraut.net/?p=19949#comments Sat, 02 Sep 2023 00:10:34 +0000 https://freekraut.net/?p=19949 A. Love is gonna getcha?

B. A change is gonna come?

C. They’re just going to deceive you?

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