Athletics Nation

Is the game thread late or are we early?

I have a ticket to tonight's game, but only just got home and still have a lot of work to do before I sleep....so I think I'll stay put and maybe go tomorrow. I hope a few ANers are at the park wishing Danny happy birthday.

yay, real tv again!

Well...

Kinda.

Street is a terrible actor

and I still say that commercial would be much more convincing if there was an actual game going on when he says "well, I gotta get back in the game"

Zonis - September 17, 2007 reply

I'm ready.

Leftover cold pizza and beer.

Did you have a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich?

It's what I understand is Iowa's claim to culinary excellence.

We have those in Missouri, too.

But we did have pulled pork at the reception.

Zachary's?

I wish.

I really should have higher pizza standards.

Did you make it to the Cats game on Friday night?

No, I went to the A's game instead

And had a great time. Oh God, I just saw a shot of the bleachers and there's only about 20 people there. I wonder if I'd get a decent WiFi signal there....though given how much we yell at people using their cell phones, I can only imagine the crap I'd take for bringing a laptop.

Hah.

I think crap-giving would be in order.

Lanesplitter?

Hopefully the As...

Can get Danny win #15 on his b'day. It would be nice to see him reach another personal milestone on what's already been a great season for him (becoming a legit ace, All-Star starter, etc.) Especially since his stepping up (along with the other guys) helped to ease the loss of Zito. Sometimes I think people focus too much on numbers (Win/loss, ERA, etc.) and not enough about clubhouse leadership, getting the job done with class and without ego, and teaching the other guys. Danny has been one of the bright spots this year and our ace for years to come.

Yay Danny!

Hopefully Haren doesn't get rocked again...

he's been gettin' hit hard lately

Good Start!!!

Yeah...

he had a real good top of the first the other day as well iirc.

Well...

Last game wasn't horrible by any means from Danny. Granted, it wasn't his personal best but he would have had #15.

Go A's!

Im really enjoying the end of the season. Here's to the phillies and tigers, may they take out the Mets and the Yankees!

SwisherSweet - September 17, 2007 reply

Hmmm

There may only be 20 people in the bleachers, but it sounds like Duke and Saint may be two of them -- the kids aren't quite that good yet.

Yay Barton!!

I like Barton

Who's with me?

Not pam5981.

Daric Barton sucks.

I mean, the kid hasn't even hit a triple yet.

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/commen...

LL update:

Let's get Felix and Adam Jones

ooo, keep showing that replay. Swish'll get 'im next time.

Tomorrow is salb's birthday!

You are in charge of all birthday DLDs.

Yeah, but someone

also usually gets hurt when I make a DLD.

Oh shit.

He doesn't really want to witness the birth

looks like

batista is afraid to pitch inside hahaha

Nick: So used to being HBP

he had to do it to himself.

Glutton for punishment.

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/commen...

I want to have Jeff's babies.

I'm so tired of all the K's from Cust....

learn how to foul the ball off

I'm still not sure he is a long-term answer at DH

considering he's not even HD'ing

Time to give this a chance and stop putting DJ in there.

HD...DH...DJ?

Whatever!!!!

Only 15 HR's since 2nd week of May

aw

we forgot to play the Jack Cust game!

Ellis is guaranteed to drive in these runs.

Damn.

luck

I hope so..

let's for once get some runs for Danny.

*

*guarantee does not apply if Ichiro Suzuki is within 3 miles of ball in question

F' F' F'

Haren looks pretty sharp.

Again, the TV guys stealing our lines!

"...every girl crazy bout a sharp dressed man."

Or pitching.

What happened to that half-inning?

Danny Haren has "perfect game stuff"

So far anyway!

Go Kurt!

No laps for Kurt!

It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's Jack Hannahan!

C'mon lets get some runs here

This was absolutely killing me the other night

Who does Dan Meyer look like?

John. C. Reilly:

brings back memories of dirk diggler

Memories?

of the movie, for crying out loud

I love your sigs.

Leads me to accept with equanimity your escapades with cartoonishly-dicked men.

you got any clue about that sig?

movie trivia wise?

What's strange is...

when you Google "monotonous languor", one of the first 10 hits is a previous alaska A post on AN.

nope

Not familiar, and google sends me to AN.

check further into the google listing

part of 19th century poem, used as cryptic message to french resistance signaling D-day invasion....and also feature in the classic movie of D-day, The Longes Day. and appropriate for playoff-less A's season this autumn.

yes

quite appropriate

Perhaps you should found the Alaskan Poetry Society.

Movie trivia?

I thought it was the signal for the invasion of Normandy that was broadcast on the BBC.

That explains how you got on Jeopardy.

And alas,

"History of Public Broadcasting Worldwide" was not one of the categories that night.

how bout this one...film trivia

broad sword calling danny boy.

You obviously enjoy your military movies.

I think

alaska A is old enough to have fought in WW2 (or WW1), more or less, based on today's age diary.

he's already asleep now

(this is Al West, his personal assistant, and I am going home shortly)

Are you allowed to give us the scoop on the

best bonus gifts on upcoming pledge days?

I can look tomorrow

But if there's anything special you want that's been offered this drive, you can usually just call in and ask for it instead of the thing of the day. We never hang up on anyone who wants to give us money.

They have an awesome looking

WWII series coming up that I want to see.

alaska A

didn't really kill 25 Germans with his bare hands. Sorry to ruin it.

it was really 75

I have been less enthusiastic about Murphy

since he returned from the injury. Both in the field and at the plate.

poo

aww

how about a DP haha

lol

wow it actually would've been. are we the only team ichiro hits into DPs against? haha

I'd like to introduce the official scorer

to an E-5. Since he obviously doesn't know one when he sees it. Hello-ooo.

Another hit for Barton here

Book it.

hmmmm

Scoreless after three?

Damn. We're totally going to lose.

"Cust" and "poise"

are synonyms, right?

I think you can just

bat the ball away with your glove and get credit for an out on a dp transfer.

Hi Everyone

Happy Birthday Danny!

Good job Danny

Now please let's get him some runs...

NRAFs just missed a very strange ad

Is it worse than the guy shaking the cow?

Yes.

Wow.

What was it?

It was a PSA from Oakland emergency preparedness

Suggesting that we should all have flashlights and whistles on our persons at all times, and that we should "Learn The Code" -- 1 = Yes, 2 = No, 3 = Help. Then it showed what appeared to be an old lady lying on the sidewalk, blowing her whistle three times and someone rushing up to help her. Well, even in Oakland, most of the time when old ladies are lying on the sidewalk, people would rush over to help them whether they blow whistles or not. It doesn't seem likely that you would be unable to yell for help, but would be able to take the whistle out of your pocket or purse and blow it. The likely circumstance in which the citizens of Oakland would need the flashlight and the whistle, of course, is when they're trapped underneath their houses and offices after a very large earthquake; but apparently the emergency preparedness people don't want to freak us out by being too explicit about that.

whoa

this RAF definitely missed that.

That's odd.

You also have an excellent sig.

AAAA!

Cmon MaEl, bring Cust home

Not used to that from MaEl.

C'mon Kurt.. bring em around.

Hannahan won't let us down.

damnit.

At least he didn't go down looking.

It's official: the As hitters hate Danny

Sigh, it's another one of THOSE games

Danny will pitch well enough to win and won't get any run support.

That's on Barton

So does Cust get an OF assist on that play?

F. Run scores.

But that was great D by Suzuki.

Lame defense by Hannahan/Barton, but

TEXTBOOK defense by Suzuki! That was awesome.

It was great.

Betancourt looked absolutely terrified of berserk Kurt running at him.

theblackpearl - September 17, 2007 reply

For a team trying to build on defense, we seem to

have a lot of DH's

Suzuki!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the way to properly execute a rundown play. Suzuki ran right at the runner, forced the runner to make a decision, then held on to the ball until the runner was fully committed. Fosse started to show some Suzuki love-well, at least some infatuation. The more Suzuki plays, the more comfortable I feel about the A's cather situation.

guapobob - September 17, 2007 reply

I hope you meant "catcher" there

and not "catheter" -- we don't need Kurt on the DL too.

Crap. I just realized I won't be able to go

to another game this season. I'm out of town the last weekend series vs. LAAAAAAA.

You need one of us to call your office tomorrow

about the emergency that requires you to leave by 5:30?

No good

She needs to be available 9/30. Instead of devising an excuse, I'm thinking we should just get her fired.

Or

you could try to sabotage the out-of-town wedding I'm supposed to go to 9/28-9/30.

That's a little less personally devastating.

I bet we can manage that

Nico, we're going to need to borrow your goat and the video camera, okay?

No prob.

Wait, I don't own a video camera.

Where's mrs. salb?

Have her run in...

"You're the father!"

Damn. 3000 miles too far.

But the basic idea is sound:

seduce whoever is getting married, so you can go to the A's game.

At least my priorities are in order.

I do.

Except I stil wouldn't be able to go. I've pretty much devoted every waking hour to my job this week (devoted: read - except for game times, which I am partially watching and partially working on other documents). I have my very large fundraiser on Sunday this week and I could work 24 hours a day and it probably wouldn't be enough!

Professionalism Sucks

For sure.

I want to retire already. Unfortunately, I also work for a nonprofit.

Does. Not. Compute.

The Early Retirement forum

is worth checking out (here). Sounds like you'd be a "Young Dreamer".

woo hoo Danny..

way to get out that... now hitters, please do your job.

C'mon Mark

I love Cust's walks

He's rarely out.

I will fight to the death

anyone who claims that Meyer and John C. Reilly are different people.

LOL

Whoa

FSN picked up a very annoying kid's cheer.

What are the cheerleaders saying?

What's that cheer going on for Johnson?

Also, umpire shouldn't be calling time like that, especially when it's in the middle of Batista's windup.

RenoTy - September 17, 2007 reply

Ha!

I'd like to think that the step off the mound that drew the boos was for the ump's sake.

RenoTy - September 17, 2007 reply

base hit base hit base hit base hit

lather rinse repeat

^^ yeah that ^^

Suzuki is the man here

hey guys, I just wrote an epic play

and went on a trip to the highest peaks of the Ande's...

has Buatista threw a pitch yet?

Zonis - September 17, 2007 reply

I hate the Redskins. Always have. And it's not

because I like the Cowboys, Eagles, or the Giants.

Just had to get that out there. Thank you.

How on earth is it

that Stanford saw fit to change its sports teams' names from "Indians" to "Cardinal" back in the early '70's...yet the "Redskins" are still around?

One word

California

Freaking liberals.

Cowboys are 2-0 and surprisingly so are the

"Redskins." How on earth did that happen?

Puke.

OH SHIT.

There goes Haren's ERA...

Bloop... Bloop... Homerun..

Zonis - September 17, 2007 reply

Haren

just didn't want to lose 1-0.

Lose big or...

I think it's bedtime now

The sad thing is...

(HR aside) Haren still pitched well enough that we should have had this win. :(

And if my aunt had balls

She would be your uncle.

Oh, you've met my aunt, then?

Yes. She/He goes by Pat.

And sat next to Red at a Mariners game recently

That "thing" is terrifying. "It" should join the

circus.

I want some chocolate chip cookies

Fed Exing Mrs Fields

I have beer

and espresso filled dark chocolates.

Go with both at once

I was offering them to Ms. Englishmajor

but in fact I will help myself to another beer.

(Try the Acme IPA from Trader Joe's if you can. It's good.)

Acme is very good

but the Steelhead Double IPA from Mad River Brewing is probably my favorite IPA.

Where is that available? I'll have to check

it out.

Well, my local liquor store has it

(Eddie's on College Ave.; aren't you in Oakland?) but I'm pretty sure you can find it at BevMo as well.

Yeah - I'll look for it, thanks!

Hey kids. What did you guys do to

Dan Haren? He looks like a Ranger lately.

Um...

Danny actually has done pretty good today. With some hitting help, he'd have the win.

He has really been prone to the ol' long ball

lately. I didn't see the game... only the results.

And the results of..

7 IP 4 R 3 ER 6 K are hardly Ranger material (they should be so lucky). The only mistake he made was the HR.

It's too bad that 4 runs is too many this season.

I didn't realize only 3 of them were earned. Thx

Yeah...

I agree. It's just too bad that Danny will have to hear another week about his so called "decline" when he pitched well enough to have wins #15 and #16.

I hooked him up to a dealer

with stronger weed. From Weed, CA.

A very important lesson- Never change dealers

during the season.

Was it Blevins?

He was dealing last week.

"Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!"

He had me at hello.

He "had" you? I welcomed him with open arms

when I realized that Kendall was gone.

Well, good point

I kinda had a soft spot for Kendall though. I mean, I know he made Kotsay look like an All Star, but I was a big fan of his back in his Pirates days, esp. before his injury.

As long as we're on the topic, you know how people talk so much about how hard it is for a pitcher to adapt to a new catcher? So if that's true, then how come you see pitchers come up from the minors and pitch well with catchers they've never met before?

Kendall gave it everything and I can respect that

but we just needed more production and, more importantly, needed to look towards next season.

It defies logic. Every good pitcher should turn to shit with a bad catcher :-)

C'mon hitters...

let's get Danny the win he deserves tonight.

He's determined to pitch until we win, dammit

In which case he'll be pitching the next 2 games.

With his pitch count..

that just might be possible. He's only at 93.

Pitch count less important

than the fact that we have no offense.

MaEl is Haren's hero!

RenoTy - September 17, 2007 reply

I wouldn't feel nearly so bad

if I thought there was the least chance that the Mariners could use a win tonight to revive their hopes of beating the Angels.

Gawd

let's at least put a freaking run on the board.

Or better yet 5.

You're one of those optimists, aren't you?

MikeA hooked him up

with Haren's dealer.

At this point

MikeA might need to hook me up with Haren's dealer.

If the dude has chocolate chip cookies

count me in for a group buy.

One stop shopping?

That's actually a good idea, though. Dealers selling snack foods. It's like putting gum at the checkout counters at the grocery store, or popcorn by the registers at Blockbuster.

And it's not so much an impulse buy

as a necessity.

He has really got to learn to foul those

pitches off.

If he had learned that

he never would have been available to us. And if he hasn't learned it by now, I don't see it happening.

A girl can dream.

Or, I could just bitch about it. Yes, that's what I'll do.

They should just let Danny pitch the 9th

Since the offense decided not to show up, at least give him the CG. He's only at 106.. he can do it.

Just checked on the Angels game....

it's only the 5th inning???

Tied at 6.

This is weirdly appropriate

After the second airing of the "Know The Code" PSA and another one, I went to the website for Oakland C. O. R. E. and found out that tonight is Emergency Preparedness Night at the A's. I wonder if everyone got whistles and flashlights.

C. O. R. E. , Citizens of Oakland Respond to Emergencies, looks like a good program for those of you who live or work in Oakland by the way. I keep meaning to sign up for the Albany equivalent whenever I drive by the fire station (i.e. twice a day).

Which reminds me...

...the A's should amend their fan Code of Conduct to prohibit the blowing of whistles during games. That is incredibly annoying.

It's unfortunate that the Rangers aren't here

tonight. That could have come in handy.

boo they should have let Danny pitch the 9th..

I mean Lewis couldn't possibly do any better.

Predictions? I think we'll make it interesting

but still lose the game.

you have to define interesting first

skutch - September 17, 2007 reply

More than one baserunner at the same time.

a risky prediction tonight

skutch - September 17, 2007 reply

Oh we're half way there.

how about "tying run comes to the plate"?

skutch - September 17, 2007 reply

Ellis with the walk-off

I said 5 last inning..

Minus well continue the trend and predict the same for the 9th. It continues the trend of making sure Danny doesn't get a deserved win, anyways.

It's over enough for me to say goodnite

And as for your Cowboys....

The games against the Redskins this year should be even more exciting than usual. I'll actually root for the Cowboys for those games.

You're starting to come around a bit. You have a

looooooong ways to go.

For those not listening to KFRC...

...the Hannahan soft single to left was the Grainger Play of the Game. Just so you know.

That is sad.

It was thrilling

Hawk - September 17, 2007 reply

Poor Mulder - more shoulder probs.

I feel bad for the guy. Yeah we screwed St. Louis in that deal but Mulder was a fav. of mine.

Hawk - September 17, 2007 reply

Feel bad for him..

but love that we got two As- Danny and Daric- that will be with us for years to come.

It's not like there weren't warning signs

in September 2004, culminating in that awful Friday night at the Coliseum against the Angels. I don't think "we screwed St. Louis"; they were on notice.

Retire Mikey

Hawk - September 17, 2007 reply

At least the pain is subsiding.

Well look on the bright side. Hilary is going

to deliver "universal" healthcare. I wonder how we are going to pay for the ENTIRE universe?

Ichiro is touching people AND talking to them

Oh well. It's time.