Athletics Nation

Its about time,

don’t you think?

Reposting: What Gio did to the last two hitters shows how he can be effective:

He threw ALL his pitches (fastball, curve, changeup) to both sides of the plate. His fastball in on the hands to a righty is very effective, as long as the changeup is keeping them honest and the curve is in the back of their mind.

I think this is a guy with some talent and it's way too early to give up on him

RE: Reposting.

is this some sort of “green” way to do blogging?

Renewable blogging.

is it sustainable, though?

Doubtful.

Unless its TWSS.

That's more like a virus.

Why is Normar the DH

as in,
Fire Geren now?

maybe ther's something on the Slusser tweet

Huh?

she’s a bird, yes, but never heard her chirp.

http://twitter.com/susanslusser

Twitter

Yikes

the outman cycle is silly
Goes from feeling great to out for long time.

She's as baffled as everyone else

that's almost good enough a for a new sig

yeah

I didn’t break her heart for another woman, by the way, I just fucked up my life.

It amazes me that the A's Offense is this bad...

When they have 3 DHs in the lineup in Giambi, Garciaparra, and Cust. Really all 3 of them were signed purely for their hitting. Just release 2 of them already!

So my daughter dropped a glass and cut her toe....

…and I missed the last 2 1/2 innings working with my wife on picking up the mess, talking to nurses, and dressing the wound. Bottom line: no stitches, so I get to spend the next hour or so watching this mess rather than sitting in the ER.

I assume what I missed was teh suXXor?

You missed Gio Gonzalez being...

Gio Gonzalez.

And apparently Galarraga no hitting us...

…not to jinx him or anything.

He's got a NO-HITTER going?

Well, I sure hope NOTHING happens to ruin that NO-HITTER. It would be a shame for him to lose that NO-HITTER.

NO-HITTER?

What’s this about a NO-HITTER?

it worked!

It’s just like destroying zombies!

exactly, my brother. Exactly.

I'm sorry about your daughter

Can she play 3B?

…what?

YOUR DAUGHTER. CAN SHE PLAY THIRD BASE.

I HAVE NO DAUGHTER.

reply fail

Oh no!

Not to worry.

It’s all ok now. And by the time we determined that we didn’t have to take her to the doctor, that was really enough for her, too. She had managed to get very, very upset about the idea of stitches. And once that was off the table, the idea of a cut toe seemed less awful.

It wasn't her brother who brought up the idea of stitches, was it...?

No...

…that was us explaining why we had to talk to the nurse on the phone.

Funny thing is that she’s had stitches (in her chin no less) and she was very brave and they weren’t that bad.

Well, I'm glad everyone is okay

I'm not entirely convinced that...

Gio is!

HOW ABOUT A FREAKING HIT.

i just got home

do we not even have a hit yet?

there ya go!

Hey, it worked!

MAYBE WE JUST NEED TO POST IN ALL CAPS FROM NOW ON!

Yelling does help.

WHAT?!

will a triple do?

Thanks, Swoons.

oh man, almost got home on that - alas he will be stranded

Ryan Sweeney, why are you not higher up in the lineup with this absurd hot streak you're on...

Cuz that would make sense....so clearly it cant happen

Good Sweeney.

WTF????

Not only a hit, but a 3-bagger…

LET"S GO!!!!

I'VE GOT MY "FUCK YOU, NOMAH!" COMMENT ALL READY!

load the cust one

SEE!?!

guess you have to save it for the next AB

or you can use it on cust

Save it for another inning.

He’s still capable of not swinging at a series of lousy pitches.

they must be very sensitive and afraid of your anger

4th walk for Gags.....

Cust: 3 for 6 lifetime v. Gallaraga

4 for 7??

I'VE GOT ONE FOR YOU, TOO, JACK! JUST TRY ME!!!

This is a winning formula we've got going on.

woot!

nice

cows the size of schnauzers!

Wow!

A run!!

CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR AWESOME. LET'S GO PEOPLE!

my num lock is su4t6ck n4o too

help

YEAH IT IS

I TALKED IN CAPS ALL DAY ON SUNDAY IN HONOR OF BILLY MAYS

muffinpryde - June 30, 2009 reply

cherry

The A's are on the board!

The A’s are on the board!

IT'S BECAUSE WE'RE ALL YELLING.

YAY!

WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER ALL THIS YELLING.

WHAT?!?!?!

YES......

RUNZ!!IIII

ALL CAPS ARE WORKING!

I HATE YOU ELLIS!!

I'M SORRY, I CAN'T TELL MaEl TO FUCK HIMSELF! THE UNICORN POWER IS TOO STRONG!!

(fight it. you must)

NEXT TIME I'LL GET HELP

From the iron nipple?

FROM HELEN MIRREN!

I think she's on fire...

She's having a little moment with the World Serpent, IIRC

she's providing the fog that Arthur needs to defeat her and their ill-gotten son.

Merlin tricked her.

Excalibur?

yuppers

Yup.

Rally Helen Mirren was brought on to replace Rally Salma Hayek a couple of games ago.

Okay, everyone, repeat after me: Annal nathrach, uvthas bethud, dochal tienveh!

that's what I was trying to remember!

Good job, Nick!

Not to get all linguistic on you, but isn't it "uthvas"?

I don't know

That’s how I remember it, but I don’t know any Gaelic (much less whatever the hell they thought they were using for those spells in that movie) so I could be way off on that one.

How about this: try saying it my way, and if a dense fog surrounds you and kings start riding across it on horseback and shapechanging and stuff, then I’m right.

If not, try it your way!

Gaelic bás = death

and beatha = life
according to this vocabulary page

I think the “vas bethud” part is “life and death”

allowing for ancient vs modern Irish, phonetic transcription from the film, and real words vs fictional mumbo jumbo, of course.

remind me again.

are you a linguist? And no, not a cunning one.

Just an amateur

though I did do a few translations in my opera days.

Alright, here's what imdb.com has to say about it, FWIW

The Charm of Making spoken by Merlin & Morgana is an attempt at Old Irish that translates to: “Serpent’s breath, charm of death and life, thy omen of making.” The phonetic rendering, as spoken in the movie, is: /ana:l nathrakh, u:rth va:s bethud, dokhje:l djenve:/. In Irish, the phrase is: ‘An?il nathrach, ortha bh?is bheatha, do thuar dhéanamh’, which is pronounced similarly but not exactly as in the movie.

So you got the “life and death” part right. Excellent job!

(Did the fog show up?)

No, but it smells like snake breath here.

Hold on...writing it down....

The serpent Ouroubouros

doesn’t need to find a date on Saturday night.

Not to be confused with that other baseball Morganna...

there's what we need.

well, there’s what I need.

Screw the rest of you.

{bows out}

well, I don't think we have to take this to extremes now...

Oh, okay.

You did say screw the rest of you.

I wasn't talking to you.

or Don.

But screw the rest of you.

'Bout G'Dam time!!!!

Aw, Nick.

What about that foam finger?

two out rally!

SIR, WHERE ARE YOUR CAPS?

i'm a rebel

YELLY RALLY

JELLY RALLY

SMELLY RALLY?

ew

HAHAHA!

isn't all caps always lame?

YES

BUT IF IT MAKES THIS GAME WATCHABLE, ILL USE THEM

+1

NO, THAT'S THE A'S OFFENSE YOU'RE THINKING OF

Unless it's Billy Mays talking.

THIS IS BILLY MAYS,

HERE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE AFTERLIFE!!!!

And we can pretty much eliminate that possibility...

….from here on out.

Most of the time.

But we’ll do anything for run(z).

come on mark never mind

Dammit MaEl

THE UNICORN HAS BEEN SHOT.

(black dressed faceless dancer whirling and whirling)

Mr Unicorn...i am so disappointed

meester unicron

i am disappoint

a run is a run

right?

True that.

a rose is a rose is a rose

not so sure about a run

Gio's Glove.

With that green stitching I’m pretty sure that is one of the sweetest gloves I’ve ever seen.

So, someone remind me...

Why is Ryan Sweeney, in his second major league season, beyond redemption?

ptbarnum - June 30, 2009 reply

mmm?

um, he was born bad?

Just look at the logo on the cap.

Ain’t that enough for you?

He’s doomed.

GnGS's logic makes sense.

"Could be a bullpen game tonight" - Ken Korach

Yeah, w/ Gio, that’s pretty much assured…

I feel like there was a stat on MLB.tv last night.

There was some obscene number of games the A’s have played without a complete game, and they also have the league lead for most games without a pitcher going 8 innings. At this point, they are all bullpen games.

This team could really use...

….Zombie Billy Martin as its manager.

We'd have to keep him chained to the bench or he's try

to eat Landon’s brain.

And Landon almost certainly couldn't outrun him.

oh most def.

No eating Landons brain!

He’s too cute!

well, if it was between

zombie Billy Martin and Landon Powell, I do think I’m going with Zombie Billy Martin.

Someone mentioned that stat in one of the game threads

144?

SwisherThresher - June 30, 2009 reply

Sounds about right.

Has Gio had the first batter on in every inning but one?

yes

long fokkin' night

DP!

The Unicorn plays some great D.

Wow, Great inning for Gonzalez' D!

Nice D!

COME ON, OFFENSE, DON’T MAKE ME TAUNT YOU A SECOND TIME!

Now playing only in theaters...

…um…where ELSE would a movie be playing?

so Boston was leading Baltimore 10-1 mid-7th and now trails 11-10

giving hope to lousy teams everywhere

We have hope?

whoops there goes another rubber tree

RALLY

Mountains of majesty!

My last name in Polish means "Beautiful Mountains"

Clearly God wasn’t looking at Salma.

If you want a rally hunk, Deb,

you’d better speak up. Any particular favorites?

how about rally jake?

Yummy!!

Eh.

i don't suppose we have any half nekkid pics of travis, eh?

hear hear!

nancy travis, maybe

She's going to have such a backache by the time she's forty

you know, I thought the same thing.

she over 40

ya shes 42

67HAYEK?

I knew there was a reason I liked you

It's my hair, isn't it?

Hmmm......

I do love how it's always the worst case scenario with A's players.

“Oh you feel a little twinge in your elbow, well it’s probably nothing, but we’ll send you to Dr Death for an MRI anyway……..wow who’d have thought it eh, you require the most invasive, career threatening surgery possible.”

Everytime. We might as well just ‘Tommy John’ all the pitchers we aquire.

Let me just say, “¡Me gusta Ryan Sweeney!”

Damn, great hit too :-(

That looked like a VERY hittable pitch.

Well he DID hit a weak grounder.

What are you complaining about?

“The Tigers have really tried to give the A’s this game.” — Ken Korach

But the A's and the umps are trying to fix that...they're doing a pretty good job so far.

Ken needs to stay out of my recap.

it's where he gets most of his stuff.

How can he see it?

he sees everything.

He gained omnipotence when Bill died.

heh

Clearly everone does.

{snark}

Sorry. You know I love you.

Clearly. Ha!

I've lost the game to SpongeBob & crabby patties

I’m not kidding, it’s summer vacation and the kids are demanding the big tv. Oh well.

A guy could be on his own. Sometimes you lose a game, I don’t run the world

Peace to all, go A’s!

sometimes...

I think I’d rather watch Spongebob.

Squidworth's kind of a douche, though.

not much testosterone in the character, no

it's not really a lack of testoterone.

I’d say Patrick really doesn’t have much testosterone, either. Or Spongebob for that matter. Squidworth’s just really a jerk.

Squidward

I stand corrected.

Squidward’s a douche.

i thought you wrote crabby 'panties'

ew

you need a special shampoo for those

Spongebob square-panties?

well kuip, giambi did make it hurt (for us)

So this Giambi fella, pretty poor at professional baseball wouldn't you say?

What’s he getting paid again?

More than everyone on this site combined.

wait a minute.

one of us has to be rich, no?

Working on it!

We're routing his paycheck through the state

So probably he’s just getting an IOU from now on.

That would be hilar!

anybody want this chump?

there has to be some sucker team we can unload giambi on

Jpwest76 - June 30, 2009 reply

Sheesh, I'd like to see a starter be able to be allowed to go over 85 pitches.

I think it's pretty ridiculous, frankly, if Gio is pulled after 84 pitches.

He’s out after five innings!

Tomorrow I'll make a fanpost looking at all the teams

that are still in the race and who need more guys who can hit weak ground balls.

It's the new undervalued ability!

buck

ok, so i even consciously checked the entire thread to see if people commented on the predictably geren-lineup so that i don’t repeat it and saw that it’s been commented at least twice.

but…i just can’t restrain myself from venting: by GOD, please billy screw your head on straight and fire this joke of a caricature already! i apologize for this redundancy.

on a lighter note, i’m rather enjoying urban’s subtle snipes at geren lately. yesterday it was mentioning his persistent questioning of gio’s status clearly agitating geren; today it’s geren’s butchering of the word olecranon and instead uttering “electronon.”

but how do we know it's not Beane telling him to bench Buck?

we know Beane has dictated the lineup in the past, why do we assume now that he’s not doing it?

as noted above

i guess we’re assuming that since it’s billy who presumably made the decision to move buck back to the big club, so his intention was to let him play. if not, then it’d be basically screwing with the poor guy and that would be unprofessional. i know we’ve questioned billy this year more than ever, but still haven’t gotten to the point of questioning his professionalism, have we?

have we?

Where have you been, we're way past that.

That assumption comes from me.

Based on:

(1) Although Billy never quite admitted to telling Howe and Macha what to do, he never convincingly denied it either; on the other hand, with Geren he makes a point of saying he lets Bob have his way a lot more.

(2) I think Billy is smart. The pre-Geren moves were generally pretty smart. The Geren moves are generally pretty dumb.

Not conclusive proof, of course, but that’s my logic.

Buck

buck buck buck buck.

And yes, my neighbors have chickens.

Hey hey HEY!

[BOOM!]

esploding chickens?

Buck-buck

Bill Cosby routine involving Fat Albert.

a piece of paper.

someone threw a piece of paper on me.

know the routine, wasn't getting it from what you wrote.

Yeah, I tried to google up a picture

but didn’t find anything that looked like Fat Albert playing buck-buck.

is it me or does it seem like the world of available pictures is getting smaller?

The whole world is growing smaller every day.

In the beginning it was so big that I was afraid.
I kept running and running.

‘I see a ring,’ said Bernard, ‘hanging above me. It quivers and hangs in a loop of light.’

casilla usually means , click, I'll see yah.

yeah

AK at 3B is working for me.

I was going to say the same thing.

He's doing ok.

Yes he can definetly pick it.

still has to get used to that long throw but he’s a professional ballplayer, so…

See, the thing is, Ryan Raburn isn’t even that good.

Who the hell is Rayburn and why is he 3-3?

That was a terrible 0-2 pitch

Great play by Holliday though

Didn't Holliday screw a play up the other day trying to barehand a ball like that?

Yes

Damn, almost had him

Nice play by Holliday, but the ball bounced just a little too high and wide for Ellis to apply the tag in time

SwisherThresher - June 30, 2009 reply

casillia is trying to manufacture some runs for them

lol

what the...

would someone please explain why geren would pull gio after only 84 pitches?

No one can explain anything Geren does.

Buck buck buck

who knows

maybe its too hot

No, its perfect.

And I’m pissed! Gio should have been left in.

outman

cause he’s feeling guilty about outman’s elbow.

Jpwest76 - June 30, 2009 reply

He saw the future

and it showed Casilla on the mound.

It showed Casilla giving up a run, too, huh?

the future is vague

but Casilla was definitely on the mound

It's important for him to rest so he can continue to be mediocre in the future

wee.

we’re good.

Kind of off topic, but...

Anyone noticed Beane and Wolff’s soccer team is in last place too.

Tottenham Hotspur?

San Jose Earthquakes.

Oh, that just seemed too easy of a guess, you know?

Spurs aren't playing any games at the moment and if they

were at the bottom of the league right now there’d be much rejoicing – so much so that you’d have heard about it.

Are Wolff's real estate investments outperforming the market...

…or does he just suck?

He sucks

they are too busy concentrating on baseball

Do they struggle to score?

haha

actually they do!

of course, it's soccer!

but...

The Earthquakes often score more than the A’s

The Earthquakes tend to blow a lot of games, I think.

Are the Earthquakes a small market soccer team?

They average as many goals as the a's do hits

Did you actually confirm that?

It’s probably actually true.

no it was just a guess. but it very well might be.

Not the A's way though

of course

That banner is pretty funny

It was, but I still liked the "Carlos Go-Long-Zalez" one the most in recent memory.

did I make it?

You've made plenty, love.

that's true, I have!

banner?

I didn’t see a banner on the radio.

hello

this thread might have the most appropriate title yet

Hello.

are you a-scaired of the first six innings of any A's game?

a-scaired?

scared

no just usually doing other stuff but listening

The best thing about watching the A's on TV...

is the new Carl’s Jr. commercial

Im sure she eats those burgers all the time...

I'm sure she went and threw up that burger after she finished that commercial too.

Ewwwww

I know, I just have to ruin it for everyone.

Thats ok,

you are probably right.

Instead of Bikini Burger

Bulemia Burger

i sure am hungry for a burger right now

except i won’t look as sexy eating it

not a drop of sauce on her either

Well, that's no fun.

i am sure there was a "wipe off crew"

Sadly

I doubt she swallowed.

the hamburger, the hamburger…

That is better than the Jack in the Box commercials and I love Jack in the Box commercials.

check out youtube for some fun looks at Jack in the 70's and 80's, and for you....90's...

I don't do any of those draft beer things.

DAMMIT, ZOOK, DON'T MAKE ME KICK YOU IN THE NUTS!!

LOL!

NOT SO FUNNY NOW FOR MRS. ZOOK...

YOU STARTED IT!

And think of the little baby Zooks!

Or...

lack thereof

That was a perfect pitch to pull

I still like Ryan Sweeney.

me too.

OK, NOMAR, GO AHEAD AND MAKE ME KICK YOU IN THE NUTS!

Around MLB...

It’s Official. Sox blew a BIG one. Baltimore scored 5 in the 7th and 5 in the 8th to win 11-10. The announcers mentioned that if it was an A’s comeback, they would have scored 4 in each inning to lose by one…

more like we would have caught up

and springer would have come in and given up a homerun to the first batter he faces

which anonuncers said that?

I'm out... got field level tix to the game tomorrow and I"ll have to start drinking early!!!

Plus, KK just said that the lights have taken full effect…That’s my que!!!!!!!!!

Give me an "S"!!!!

S!

"S"

okay,

but you still owe me a “T” from last week…

Hopefully Nomar strained his calf trying to beat out that

groundball so we can DL him already.

Give me a "U"

U!

Give me a "C"!

C!

Give me a "K"!

Who are you, Jack Cust all of a sudden?

Give me an "S"

S!

Gimme a 3Bman!!!!

KLUTTS!

I think that spells "B-O-B G-E-R-E-N", right?

"S"

Ok, where is this going?

Our Designated Hacker isn't too good, eh?

which one?

We have three. 2 of them are disguised as fielders on occasion

dont miss your daily dose - sheesh

the worst thing about that vitamin commercial

is the sentence “Geren’s right”

oh yeah, "oh my goodness, the managerial sage bob geren MUST be right"

I'm turning in too

Apparently the Legislature is going to be at it all night and I have to be at work even earlier than usual. I’m thinking the chances that the A’s come back and win are better than the chances that the state is solvent tomorrow.