Gotta get up mighty early in the morning…
Crisp CF, Drew SS, Reddick RF, Cespedes DH, Smith LF, Moss 1B, Donaldson 3B, Kottaras C, Pennington 2B, and Parker Posey.
Gotta get up mighty early in the morning…
Crisp CF, Drew SS, Reddick RF, Cespedes DH, Smith LF, Moss 1B, Donaldson 3B, Kottaras C, Pennington 2B, and Parker Posey.
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Wow. Not sure using the phrase “the corpse of a dog” is a good idea with regard to the Eagles.
I know, huh! I wonder if he thought it through all the way.
It’s Magary. Of course he did.
Example from a little lower down:
That one was more obvious and not so stream-of-consciousness
all the excitement of 2012 oakland A’s baseball!
woo! (what’s the other word?) hoo!
so, umm, since it’s not on TV and my computer is ancient, I’mma just gonna make up my own outcomes, m’kay?
Let’s see… A’s score 1 in the top half on a Reddick solo shot. That’s what I want, and it;s within reason too.
A Coco Pop and and DrewFly set it up nicely, but instead Reddick hit a routine fly ball to Choo.
oh well. Thanks for the update.
Let’s see… Indians get a runner on from a single or walk. Parker throws 16 pitches and gives up no runs. I hope that’s within reason.
If not, I’ll just shut up.
I think you can stop. ;-)
Today is NOT opposite day!
unless it is!
Actually, today for me is Vicodin day. I got my wisdom teeth removed on Monday afternoon, and the oral surgeon said Thursday would likely be the shit day, swelling/pain-wise and boy was he right. I pulled a back muscle last night, to boot, so today is limpy gimpy and hazy all rolled into one!
Yuck. Hope you feel better soon – take it easy today!
i’ve slept like crap all week trying to get a lot of work done. today, on 4.5 hours sleep, i have to read a 400 page manuscript (i’m going to skip a lot!) and design a cover for it before 4pm, because that’s when mrs AV is picking me up to go camping. tomorrow i get older. i won’t say how old, but i’m honored that every MLB park has decided to celebrate me by painting my age on their walls.
You made it all the way to 375? Not that I’ve ever seen you in person, but I’m sure you don’t look a day over 264.
coco!
but what i was going to say is, men’s–>
264?
The Polo Grounds?
i thought the polo grounds was deep. a “bathtub” i’ve heard.
oh, 258 to right field, 483 center, 279 left.
crazy, huh?
making the catch all the more impressive.
Just looked it up – officially 258 to right. Wow – those are some crazy dimensions.
It also had a slope downward in center.
It’s too bad they don’t have good records for inside-the-park home runs.
It’s too bad we can’t recreate the stadium with a more neo-retro flair.
Yeah, I forgot about that!
The catcher couldn’t even SEE the center fielder!
So when Mays made his famous catch, he was running downhill?
I think so, yeah.
wait though. there seems to be an exaggeration in that center field dimension.
They had a center field cut-out for the clubhouse. All in play. Including the bullpens in the corners of both outfields. Those dimensions are off, it was closer to 483 to dead center.
the catch was right in front of that lower 17. still a ways back.
They don’t really say how far down the slope went but:
The bullpens were in play! That’s nuts.
Polo Grounds and Bakers Bowl with the Fenwayesque right field are my old time favorite ol’timey stadiums.
The swimming holes in the Kaweah River are outstanding. When we were there last week my favorite was the one just behind the Ash Mountain Visitor’s Center.
yeah… we’re not sure we’re going there anymore. leave at 4pm, get there around 9 if we’re lucky, and find a space in the dark? this one might shave a little time off. but i think we’re going to the yuba. advice welcomed.
We’ve camped along the Yuba – I think it’s really pretty country and there are some great swimming holes. I’ve often detoured off of 80 on the way back from Tahoe just to go swim in the Yuba. If you’re looking for hiking, we didn’t find any great ones. Not that there aren’t some, but the ones we did were meh. And buggy. The area around Sierra City is supposedly mountain biking mecca, and it’s a cool old mining town much smaller than Nevada City or Grass Valley. The SC mining museum houses a replica of giant nugget that was mined there – IIRC they used to have the real one there and used to drive it to the State Fair in the back of a pickup truck every year until there was an attempted theft and they decided to stash it somewhere safer. Bring a pie pan and see if you find something shiny.
great tips! we’re mild hikers at best, and swimming holes + old stuff to see is what we’re looking for.
decisions and revisions that a minute will reverse…
on advice of chico/paradise resident mother-in-law, go south young couple, smoky and unpleasant air up north, thanks to ponderosa fire. so kaweah is back in the picture.
Last week there was tons of space open in all the Kings Canyon campgrounds, and a little space open in most of the Sequoia Natl Forest ones. Now that school’s back in session last-minute availability should be OK.
The normal background air quality in Sequoia is believed to be the worst of any national park, though.
Drive to Sequoia is simple to do even at night. I recommend rejecting the Google maps suggestion of CA-99, and instead taking I-5 all the way to CA 198, then 198 up to the park.
aiming at ten mile and your swimming hole up the road tomorrow. and we’re leaving at 2pm, me with my computer on my lap, to upload work from a fresno starbucks or something.
i. am. stoked!
Have a great trip!
thank you! i’ll be thinking of you whenever we’re not eating our food raw.
Nice. SO pretty there. That last stretch of road is going to be a challenge at night, though
good to know.
Hurray Nevada County! My power spot!
i totally get it.
and now, the traditional game 130, 2nd inning, jet flyover.
as sacred as Opening Day!
Rick Manning mentioned Eck’s no hitter in his pregame interview with Fosse. Are he and Eck cool now?
Also: Fosse calls Manning “Archie,” just FYI.
I dunno about now, but supposedly Eck got over it. It’s all in the Spaceman’s book, which I haven’t read in a long time because it’s in Bloomie’s storage. I think I’m gonna buy a few used copies of it on Amazon just to have around.
Isn’t Masterson supposed to be an extreme ground ball pitcher? The A’s are hitting a lot of balls in the air, it sounds like.
Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of A’s fans saying that we were wrong about Coco and are glad he’s still with the team.
Guilty.
Thanks, and go As.
I was thinking about this while shaving this morning. If I ever run into Coco, I’ll feel compelled to apologize to him for the things he doesn’t know I said.
If I ever run into Coco, I’ll feel compelled to ask him the best and most efficient ways to take care of surface piercing infections.
Yeah, I don’t think I’d be able to not stare at that pachinko ball in his neck.
I wish the human body was more receptive to surface piercings, but it’s good that we’re used to safely rejecting things like that in nature.
Is that for sure what’s on his neck? I’ve always assumed that was the case, but it looks awfully pristine.
It’s a surface piercing over the top of a tattoo of a marksman’s sights/bullseye thing. I think the bottom of the piercing is a flat implant, and the top is the ball that shows when he doesn’t have a band-aid over it.
I’m in this group too.
Someone else had said it and I think it is true. Most of us when we wanted him gone weren’t thinking of him in a Bobby Crosby way. It was more that he was a luxury that a team that was going to win 65 games shouldn’t have and he would block time for others. Now on a 92 win juggernaut he is a perfect piece.
That being said yeah if I ever meet him I will feel awkward for at least a minute or two.
guilty
Add me to the list.
Sorry, Coco.
Well look at Kottaras coming through!
…and Pennington! This is certainly an interesting inning.
nicely done kat.
yay.
Thanks, and go As.
CLIFTON T. PENNINGTON?
Thanks, and go As.
Kottaras and Pennington for MVP!
And CLIFF FUCKING PENNINGTON takes over.
When was the last time the A’s swept a four-game series? 2006?
2012. Yankees.
yeah, NM. even i knew that one.
OK, but what about on the road?
2012. Indians.
no idea. part my point is that i usually can’t rattle that stuff off the TOMH.
Highlight of the season so far, for me.
i may have peaked during the glee of that first home run in the first game of that series. probably because that’s the one game of the series i made it to. the rest was oh please oh please oh please… sweeeeet! but there was something about that first one that made it seem like NY went, oh lord, what did we get ourselves into this time?
The great thing about this season is that there are so many moments to choose from.
That was definitely the point where my skepticism started to veer towards belief.
I started having doubts when they hit that 4 game losing streak not too long ago, but they’ve bounced back nicely. I have a lot of faith in this team. They seem to have a lot of confidence.
I still have moments when stare at the standings in disbelief, waiting for the A’s to crash like Black Tuesday.
I’m kind of the opposite. I have moments of mad cackling laughter and random tears roll down my face.
Every once in a while when Carter or Donaldson is up, I grab the ball and trance out a bit, and something good usually happens.
I reserve my mad cackling laughter and random tears for family matters.
That makes sense.
I cry almost every day, at least a little. I’m such a softy! Yet, I also own guns and know how to kill with my bare hands if I have to.
It’s all about range, you see!
Yeah, it’s pretty shocking. I figured them for a 70-75 win team, and they’re already there. With 33 games (counting today) to go.
There were only a couple of us who figured the club would finish .500 or better.
Prescient bastards.
I thought atheists didn’t believe in prescience?
I certainly don’t – I was just being wildly optimistic.
Right on!
I never said I was an athiest. Did I?
YOU NEVER SAID YOU WEREN’T!!!!one!!
Thanks, and go As.
Are you now, or have you ever been, an athiest?!?
I never said you predicted the A’s would finish over .500 this year.
Oh. Right. Of course.
This season is crazy.
And I’m crazy about it!
So here’s its number?
LOL
God damn, I love this FKing team.
God I love being a turtle… man.
oh no.
I fear that bringing TM here may be a b**nable action.
It should be. But you can all picture me with a turtle shell on my back.
I really think we need photographic evidence of this.
No. You really don’t.
Pretty please?
No. You really don’t.
Ok, just send me a pic of your face so I can ‘shop it into the TM pic.
Yeah… no.
Well make up your mind!
I wonder if that losing streak will mean the difference between a WC spot and a divisional championship.
Without the losing streak, maybe Carter and Moss and others don’t make it Oakland until much later, if at all. It was all part of the process.
I suppose that’s true.
Is that step two in the big book?
um.
#BLOOMBAIT
serious question. A friend of mine had to do meetings. At one (a small one, he didn’t want to go back after seeing the size and commitment level of the participants) a guy gave him a copy of the big book that seemed like it was a “library” copy.
What is the etiquette of the book? Is it a loaner? is it a gift? Should he go back?
Well, Moss was only here when he was because he had an out clause in his MILB contract.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that.
Turns out to not have been the worst thing to give him a shot up here, in the end.
totally ruined the clubhouse chemistry when Kila was D’dFA.
shut your fool mouth.
Technically, I never said a word.
shut your fool fingers.
My fingers’ lips are sealed.
Without tv, I’m not entirely convinced those last two things happened.
I’m watching on mlb.tv, and I’m still not entirely convinced those last two things (or any of this season, really) happened.
Seriously, why would you ever bother with throwing anything other than a fastball to H2N3?
Remember the A’s caps with the white “A’s” and the green bills? What year did they wear those?
You mean like the current road caps, but with a white instead of gold logo? Mid-90s.
Yeah. Turns out I have one of them, but I can’t remember buying it. I just came across it a couple of days ago.
They only wore them for a year or two. I think until around 1994ish, they wore the two-tone caps at all times. Then they introduced the caps you’re talking about around 1995. A year or so later, they made the A gold. I preferred the white A at the time.
1993. Also, 1968-9 was similar, but without the ‘s.
So did I. I just forgot that I had that hat. I have 3 (I think) with the gold A. And I think 2 with the green hat, white logo, gold bill.
unstoppable. (please don’t stop!)
Yay! It would be wonderful if Reddick could heat up again.
I like that Acta is leaving Masterson in and saving his bullpen for Texas.
Noooo. Don’t do it, Manny.
What’s going on right now?
huh?
Also I like that Cleveland is trying to use jets to spare everyone any sounds of the Indians playing baseball.
That was strange.
Thanks to mlb.tv’s field mic, I could hear most of what the home plate umpire was telling Melvin and Smith. He said he told Smith that the count was 2-1, when it was really 1-2? Or something. (I wasn’t really paying attention when the dispute happened.) But it was strike 3, so he has to go with it.
Pretty cool.
That doesn’t sound fair at all.
Seriously. If you tell the batter the wrong count, that’s what the count has to become.
At very least he should get the pitch again, especially in a potential strike-out count (though he did go down swinging).
Hitters should know the count on their own.
Probably so, but the ultimate authority lies with the ump. If the ump tells you something different, you have to act like it’s the count the ump says it is.
Man, we are a couple runs away from firing up Tyson Ross’ music.
He’s in Sacramento, no?
In Sacramento?
stay crispy!
Effin O’s. I guess it will make for a much better series when they come to Oakland, but I would love to be concerned with overtaking TX at that point.
I’d rather be concerned with Texas overtaking us at that point.
Dammit you’re right. I have to remember to reject this idea of the wildcard. Need to get back to “Should I wait so that the next jersey I get has the world champions patch on it?”.
Too bold.
Way too bold.
Savor each day’s battle for what it is and send the right energy at inflection points in case it helps.
And to be honest I had never thought that until the moment I typed it. But there is something to be said for rejecting the worries of the next month and telling the universe you claim what you want.
End of day K has it-live for today and put the right thoughts out to be used however they may.
I don’t see any need to worry at all. Worrying about baseball results is less than useless, because what’s the point of using worry to plan for worst case scenarios when in reality, the worst case scenario is that you watch some baseball games and don’t like the results?
However, being positive and projective and mystical about possible baseball outcomes is at bare minimum, slightly less than useless, because it at least gets my body to pump out a teensy bit of endorphin and oxytocin, which fees good and elevate my mood. Other effects are subjective and unproveable. The basic idea is that if the majority of the information and structure of consciousness and the multiverse is unknowable, I might as well try playing with it as a machine/consciousness construct and see if anything weird or interesting happens. As long as I’m a monkey with a typewriter, the works of Shakespeare exist in Schrodinger’s Box.
The more losses they can put into Chicago is all to the good, for me. Let’s stay ahead of the Central contenders, and then let the Yankees take care of Baltimore.
I’d also rather face the O’s in a one game playoff than the Central teams, Tampa, or LAA
Oh god yes.
yup
Lou Marson stole John Jaha’s walkup music.
{{{wakes up, turns on radio}}}
wow, strivin’ for the 6-1 roadie, I see
this inning needs to end, tho
chickens, please hatch. (i want to make sure i got the count right.)
sounds like somebody hijacked the scoreboard to make a point.
Is that a Super Mario Bros. grabbing coins sound effect the Clevelands play when they score? That’s awesome.
I am kinda jealous of that, ngl.
Hmm. If this is how we build the Indian’s confidence after sweeping them, I’m okay with it. But letting them come all the way back is not acceptable.
Agreed.
Evan Scribner basically sucks, right?
Thanks, and go As.
Except for that one pitch to A-Rod, yes.
Yes.
He probably shouldn’t have been pitching to Choo with Blevins warmed up.
If he shows up on the A’s post-season roster (assuming, of course, they have one), I’ll be seriously disturbed.
Also, BOOBIES.
According to Gameday, the plate umpire is terrible.
“all over the place” —KK
Apparently, Cleveland’s pitching coach agrees.
In the top of the first the A’s went three up, three down. Neither team has done that in any half-inning since.
Though that last one was close!
That must be why this game feels like it’s been going on for days.
(Not that I’m complaining. I wouldn’t mind a 24/7 game in which the A’s were always winning.)
This is zenlike and peaceful.
I personally would prefer a 24/7 game in which the A’s are always within striking distance, and sometimes have a nice little lead, but the game is tied 50% to 50% in the long run.
The Iowa Baseball Confederacy.
… aaaand the bookend.
Incredible nugget from this Posnanski piece (using bWAR):
I hate sites that don’t supply author-targeted RSS feeds.
First time in a long time Joe hasn’t been in my Reader window.
Same here. It’s a brand new site, so maybe they’ll correct that. Or maybe they realize that people like us will just read Joe in Google Reader and never visit their site if they offer the option.
Pitching must be decent or I’d expect a much worse record.
I’m here. Yay!
[crickets]
Yay! As long as it’s just you, and no crickets. A very large cricket was wandering around my kitchen last night. Freaked me out. Then I smashed it with my shoe.
I had a large bug in my kitchen last night. I just let the cat continue to play with it. Odds are she ate it.
I’m starting to think Donaldson might be better than we thought he was.
Granted, it’s the first time he’s really shown any consistent ability at this level.
Skool asked me to speak at career day. Woo!
That’s great! Knock ’em dead (and then resuscitate ’em .. it’ll be so cool)
Yes!
Right the FK on!
I’m new to road trips, is 6-1 good?
Highway 61 is always good.
We’ll just put some bleachers out in the sun…
Well Vucinich the `quip said to Bill the King
I got forty green white and gold shoe strings
And a thousand bullpen phones that don’t ring
Do you know where I can get rid of these things
FKing brilliant!
I bow to you, ptbnl
Terrific!
It’s a good thing, cuz after 6 years of dead-in-the-water play and stadium-related sociopathy by the Jive Ants, I was in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues over this franchise.
It’s like 69ing with someone with a bad back.
Hello?
a 61 is a 69 with someone with a bad back who can’t bend over.
Bad joke, I know.
what if both have bad backs, is that a 57 or something?
I think it’s got something to do with ampersands.
That is an awful thing to visualize.
If you’re talking about bad backs, I agree.
16!
Nice win, bitches.
Gertie come lately… shows up for the last 20 minutes of a 4 hour grinder.
TWSD
I fixed that for you. Also, I had skool. I was saving a simulator’s life
And *I* fixed that for *you*.
I’ll let that stand.
16 games over .500 and the second best record in the AL? Pinch me!
Third best, but I’ll pinch you anyway.
FK. How about we agree that the yankees don’t count? They are just a bunch if robots sent from the future to crush the human spirit ad pave the way for global robot domination.
Lets see. Get back to the office. Pour some coffee. Fire up the computer. open browser.
I cannot wait for get away day baseball at work.
ok, what inning is it?
eddy come too late-ly…
of the 9 featured stories on MLB.com, 2 are for games (seattle and Cubs) one is for Felix Perfecto, one is for SNOOKI, and 0 for the A’s
Well, in their defense, earlier in the day the site had “a’s go for sweep in Cleveland” as the first of the rotating stories.
if it’s any consolation, espn online is leading with a video story about how jeter is probably doping.
Carmelita Jeter, I presume.
/breaks into song” “…’cuz she’s all strung-out on anabols, on the ow-ow-out-skirts of town.”
no. as-if-espn-would-ever-talk-bad-about-god’s-puppy-jeter jeter.
the minute that story comes out, espn is gonna do serious mind acrobatics of cognitive dissonance at levels not seen since someone C-14 dated the shroud of turin… GOD PURPOSEFULLY MIRACLED THE CARBON TO TEST THE UNBELIEVERS!!!
I tried to read it but the subhead made be barf too much:
Michael Jeter.
I love the smell of sweeping in the morning. It smells like…Victory!
gasoline smelly, some day this season will be over-y, victory.
Hopefully the A’s don’t perish in a freak gasoline fight accident
Is this too morbid for a tagline?
Zoolander references are never too morbid
<3
Gasoline pie!
?
Considering the tough schedule ahead, the A’s really did what was necessary with this road trip.
I had my tentacles crossed for this series.
yay!
Heyman is idiotic, but this stuff drives me up the wall.
The government lawyers made a Trial Advocacy 101 mistake in the first trial, but Rusty Hardin is an idiot and let clemens talk too much.
he got super lucky that the gov’t main witness (not the trainer, but Andy Petite) didn’t say what people thought he said. I never bothered to find out and thought it was a loser for the defense until the trial. Petite didn’t say what we were lead to believe.
Juries, in my experience, do not get hoodwinked by slick lawyering as much as the public likes to think.
Apparently, this is the way they do business in Cleveland.
Well, good hosts makes sure their guests leave happy.
In case anybody is curious, the A’s flight home is en-route, with ETA 6:44 pm.
Unlike us commonersAs is befitting the 1% elite, the A’s get to fly out of Burke Lakefront Airport, which is just a couple of Carter home runs away fromThe JakeProgressive Field.That’s where KK said the Blue Angels were taking off from as they were drowning out his call of today’s game buzzing overhead at Mach 2.
Who else would like to see The Spaceman become Red Sox manager after they fire Bobby V this weekend when we sweep them?
Holy shit,dude, that would be fun.
The Spaceman would be a terrible big league manager, tho. He could manage a team of Bodhissatvas, but not one of men. Regular men need patriarchal authoritative regulation and charts and graphs and sheets.
I think he could do it. He’d have the players on his side, which is more than one might say for Valentine.
His is an anarchic structure, and most players are not anarchists.
Give him 25 freaks though, and he’ll give you back a World Champion!
24, because surely he’d insist on being player/manager.
Spaceman could get the Astros out, I am convinced.
me too.
Shit, if he was ON the Astros, he’d be their third starter right now.
Let’s Go Jays, Eh.
Rays-Jays is on MLB Network, for those who get it. Jeff Mathis (Jeff Mathis!) just threw out a would-be basestealer on an offspeed pitch, from his knees, to end the top of the first.
Desmond Jennings is one fast dude.
Desmond Tutu is one cool dude.
I met him once, briefly.
IT’S A FINAL!!
(Rays lose)
And KC take the lead.
And now go for the single-inning team-cycle.
Detroit just intentionally walked Francouer to get to Hosmer. What is happening?
And it worked.
You have to really intend to walk Jeff Francouer.
IT’S A FINAL!!
(Tigers lose)
justlikeamaid?
The hashtags are related. ;-)
With XM this game got me all the way from Reno to Weed today. Yay sweep! Yay Eugene! Yay Oregon microbrews at happy hour! I shall now haul my slightly buzzed ass across the river (yes, there is a footbridge) for some Eugene Emeralds action this evening.
…where it’s “Animal House Night”. Turns out I could get in free if I’m wearing a toga, but I forgot to pack one out of my extensive collection.
Surely your hotel room includes bedsheets.
We’ve been talking about a Toga Tailgate forever…. Maybe this postseason!
Ten/Five Toga Tailgate!
That’s so absurd it might work!
I HAVE A DREAM.
(invite braden)
Hatteberg in a toga and tie.
(eat your heart out, JL)
Cut the crap. Get me a drink. And hit me a walk-off HR.
Have a good time!
All right, PK Park, where the Deltas held a 2-0 lead into the 9th, gave up 3 runs to the Omegas in the top of the 9th, then came back with 2 of their own for a 4-3 pie-eating victory.
Don’t like: aside from the FieldTurf, the 30′ screen from beyond 1B to beyond 3B. I think you should have the option to get maimed by a foul ball.
Other than that it’s a beautiful short-season Class A ballpark. I think back to places like Medford where I saw these games 30 years ago, and what a huge upgrade. They have at least 3 Ninkasi brews on tap. Awesomely, when the Beer Batter strikes out, it’s the Ninkasi that goes on sale for 15 minutes at $3/pint (sadly this did not happen in our game).
For Animal House Night the ballpark was beautifully decorated with toilet paper “streamers”. Also, as the place is pretty much literally in the shadow of one of my ancestral GD venues, Autzen Stadium, I appreciated the organist’s selection of “China Cat Sunflower”.
sounds like a fun game!