The Found Weekend: Sunday Night

[Writing these entries after the weekend, so everything I want to remember won't be here, but not gonna let that hold me back. I'll post them around the day and times they happened so it's easier on my brain and the character maximum on Blogger is not at risk. You'll want to read these from the bottom up.]

BASEBALL!

Elaine and Mike took me to my first A’s game a couple of years ago when the team was playing the Texas Rangers. A-Rod was still with them and the ink on his ridiculous $252 million contract was barely dry at the time. We sat behind some tattooed gangbangers and we all gave Alex a bunch of crap the entire game. It was a great day.

Tonight's game promised to be more fun because it was the Rangers, again, and the A's were fighting for their postseason lives. Our seats were perfect: right behind the visitors' dugout, close enough for me to spit in Buck Showalter's left eye. One of my baseball heroes, Orel Hershiser, is the pitching coach for the Rangers, and Kenny Rogers of mini-cam infamy pretty much stayed involved in the entire game, despite pitching the previous night. I sat down and didn't get up until the seventh inning stretch.

And I wish I could say good things, but here's the bottom line:

The A's choked away their postseason in that game.

Here's the Chronicle's article about the game and this paragraph is the final nail in the coffin:

"[Eric] Chavez and [Nick] Swisher were a combined 0-for-8, and there was nothing pretty about it. Both made crucial outs in two-on, no-out situations. Chavez popped out in the eighth after Kendall and Kotsay opened with singles, and Swisher struck out in the ninth after Jay Payton doubled and Johnson walked."

There is the age-old rationalization that everyone uses in this situation: "We wouldn't even had been in that situation if (Player X) hadn't got us there." And there's a grain of truth to it, especially for the A's. They were sucking this season and 3B Eric Chavez got tired of it. In a moment that will live in A's history, he stood up in the team bus one day and let everyone know his thoughts on the quality (or lack thereof) of their play. From that moment, the A's played better, especially after some key teammates came back from the DL.

On the other hand, what Chronicle didn't say that Chavez swung and flied out on the first pitch in a key situation and killed the rally and probably the A's season. I've said this a dozen times and have taken the heat for it: Pitching Wins and Good Pitching Will Always Beat Good Hitting. The A's had ten hits the entire game, and men on third base with no outs twice, but suffered when they kept swinging at first pitches.

The math is easy. Ten hits + two runs = bad hitting + good opposing pitching.

All that aside, the call that changed the game was when Rangers catcher Rod Barajas successfully argued a strikeout and got the call changed to a foul ball. Two pitches later, Barajas hit a three-run homer. I was impressed by the home plate umpire who discussed the pitch with his colleagues, and they all agreed it was a foul ball. In the old days, there would have been no discussion and the call would have stood. A kinder, gentler baseball.

Even though the A's lost, it was still a great day to be at the park. The company was perfect, the weather was outstanding, and everything was just fun. A bad day at the park almost always beats a good day at anything else.

23 days until the USN