SB Nation - Login for mobile commenting

Athletics Nation

Open Thread: Game 141 - A's at Minnesota (cont)

We head to the fifth inning, all knotted up at 2!

0 recs  |  418 comments

Comments

woo hoo!!!

let’s score some runs!!

ok i made some turkey bacon, who wants some?
Turkey bacon?

sounds healthy….I’ll pass

I was thinking the same.
it is healthy

the real stuff is too fattening, gotta retain my girlish figure

that's why I hit the treadmill everyday

so I can eat whatever I want.

i work out 5-6 days a week but i still watch what i eat

however i have an indulgence like once a week, like last night i had duck, so good

Have you ever had duck bacon? It's really, really good.
CLIFFY MAKES IT 4-2

NOW

I had a feeling Patterson would steal.
I think that counts as profiling
then the pennington walk that went along with it is profiling too?
So, my brother's flight lands in three hours

He’s going to be a bit jetlagged, so my plan was to go to the park and then go have an early dinner, but last night’s fireworks have put paid to those plans.

Any indoor, low intensity San Francisco based suggestions of things to do that’ll help me keep him awake? Plan B is sitting in and drinking beer, so, yknow. He can do that at home

Slap him.
Hm. Unconventional, but it might just work
the indie erotic film festival?
Actually, that's a good plan. I forgot that was on.

I’m not sure I’d feel about watching erotica sat next to my brother, but, yknow. I can get over that.

Can we learn from our feeble first inning failure?
The A's haven't learned anything all year

why start now?

Anyone seen those Seahorses before?

I think they’re a tad bit overrated.

whoa, we have runners on with no outs
Hey, I like this thread!
Any Sharks fans?

Sharks just made a huge trade. I’m freaking out right now.

good or bad

My brother, who is a huge Sharks fan, informs me that “that’s the trade we wanted.”

We'll see,

Sharks get a big goal scorer but one of them is a young player 24 years old, but a little bit overpaid. The roster is a little bit incomplete though.

oh, not Cheechoo!
I've heard of the two players they're sending away, but not the one they're getting back

Is he good, or is this a cap move? Please enlighten us

He's very good.

Can score 50 goals.

Nice

So, what you’re saying is, they’re definitely going to win the cup this year? Excellent.

But they're depth is as strong anymore.

Plus Heatley has a huge cap hit. This trade has ups and downs.

Forgive me if I'm totally wrong about this

but wasn’t one of the knocks on Cheechoo that he was good in the regular season, but went quiet when things started to get more physical?

Like I said, total outsider on the NHL

somebody is named Cheechoo?
yep.
what?
http://www.nhl.com/ice/player.htm?id=8467357
Even though he was from a small place in Ontario (Canada, ahem) he grew up an A's fan

Cree kid from tiny Moose Factory, Ontario

Diehard A’s & Sharks fan

I’m going to miss that crazy skating wacky celebrating lil’ bugger

Cheechoo had one good season,

that kind of went down hill.

Would rather they sent Marleau instead of Cheechoo

But both Marleau and Cheechoo have been up and down in San Jose. Heatley could be a beast with Thornton.

Really?

Most people at FTF would disagree.

I would have rather sent Cheechoo.

looked him up, he's cute
I'm just not very big on Marleau overall

Seen too many playoff disappearances from him, especially for a captain.

Since 2002

Marleau is second in goals in the playoffs. Recently he had 2 game winning goals in the playoffs with a sprained MCL.

The media kind of exaggerates his disappearances.

Are we getting to Sharky here?

Overall Marleau has done well to put up points in the playoffs

However, he’s been incredibly hot and cold. He’ll dominate a series, then disappear the next. Pretty streaky.

That's what I've seen, mostly

One of the playoff games I went to against Edmonton a few years ago saw him get a hat trick. But he’s also gone through very dry spells that have hurt the team when they needed just decent play from him and a few others.

Granted, I’m not blaming playoff losses on him.

OMG

Oh wow. I have to go to work in a bit, and now this is going to be weighing heavy on my mind…FRICK

Time to skip on over to FTF.
(Noooo, not Cheechoo!)


Now my two favorite boys are gone
“I’m a sad seal”

It's 100% confirmed this time.
well, I figured after Bucci said a trade was made

that there had to be some truth to it

you can have sweeney if that will make you feel better
I'm feeling a triple here with runnin' Rajal. Or another walk.
We Be Up 3-2!

ARGGH.

ok, we got a run

GS would have been better, rajai, but this works

This is a Sac Fly game.

5 of the 6 runs via the SF. Right?

good job with 2 strikes, kurt
Nice job by Pennington to get into scoring position for Suzuki.
when't the last time Cust hit one out in back to back games?
Time for a moon shot.
It's one of THOSE games for Cust
big surprise there....
Yes! Anderson hanging tough.
Another nice inning By Anderson.
You Gotta Like These Kids!

heh

Hi all

I walk in from the car and the game goes from tied to we’re winning! I like that in a game!

Must be a long walk from your car.
Had to feed the cat in between and read the thread b4 I posted.
walk back to your car and see what happens!!!
Heeeey

What are you sayin’ exactly?? JK

That always happens to me,

 I went into Safeway the other day we scored 3 runs, walked from the car to the house scored another, but not when I was actually listening to or watching the game.

It's that Hey-that's-cool-moment

followed by the how-did-that-happen-moment!!

ray and glen are talking about the trade
Ellis on base, let's hit him in.
anyone going to the cal game?
My brother...
I was just wondering what the projection for that game is
cal will win

my bf and his friend are going, he said he will make sure cal wins

Can he come to some of our games too??

Why aren’t you going?

he isn't so much into baseball, i know, he's crazy

his friend got him a ticket…i don’t want to see football until baseball is over…omg only 3 weeks left of A’s baseball!

Ahhhhhh

just curious since you seem like a person that likes sports in general….Let’s not talk about no BB…..

i like sports in general but really only "get into" baseball and maybe tennis
Tennis.....me too

I’m switching back and forth to the Open – but Roddick’s not in so it’s more casual. Did you see any of the Nadal/Gonzales match?

just a bit, unforunately i didn't watch much of the open, so i wanted to today andit's rain delayed
Serena and Venus are on now.
It might be a replay of a classic match

We could play our backups and we’d still blow out Eastern Washington.

That's sort of what I had heard.....

I get that they play games to get some wins – but will it be competitive enough to get them playing at the higher levels they need to get ready for PAC 10 play?

This game won’t be competitive at all, but next week’s game at Minnesota could be.

It seems at times that an "easy" team leads to poor play b/c the expectations are so low

mikev said he was going to see it… i guess he meant in person.

I am definitely going to watch it on television.

I'm ready for more runs.
Me -too

We can DO it!! Go A’s

I'm ready for a walk.
but it didn't happen. The real Patterson showed up today.
I'm all for giving the kids a chance to play. Except Patterson.
how did he single and nobody scored?
Play too close to the runner?
AK the rally killer!!!!
not what I had in mind.
I like when they swing early in the count and make outs. I'm a simple guy.
Just as long as you're not a simpleton...

LOL

Lurch is up in the Twins' pen
Looks like Nick, you and me, Berry Jo.
I just got back from shopping

and I have to finish cleaning out the fridge and then put the food away. So I’m gonna be on and off the thread for a while.

You've got some discipline!!

Cleaning out the fridge – a task I love to avoid!

Yeah, I'm cleaning up my appartment, for the impending familiar visits
Oh yeah---brother incoming

where is he visiting from?

All the way from Europe

plus, my parents are coming out mid week from the East Cost.

My brother, he won’t mind so much a bit of mess. My mother? she’ll notice.

mothers always do
The worst is the passive-aggressive cleaning
It's not so much that, it's more the look of dissapointment and regret

that I’m a thirty year old adult, and I still leave half read books everywhere.

hey, you're a grownup and can live the way you please.

mom will have to deal with it and i say that as a mom.

You go Mom....

but I totally understand wanting a clean place for the visitors.

Oh, I know

I won’t bother me, especially, it’s more that I think it puts her mind at rest if she thinks I’m somehow a fully functioning adult. Which in turn makes my life easier in the long run

WOW - that'll be cool to see him since you probably don't much.

I got an idea…..keep him awake by getting him to clean for Mom!! He’d LOVE that!

LOL. they could do it together as a bonding exercise.
Ha, wouldn't be the first time we'd had to tidy up in anticaption of parents returning...
Oh REALLLLLLY?

spill – buddy

Oh, nothing exciting, more that when we were younger, and our parents went off for a few days

on holiday or wtvr, we’d just leave stuff lying around everywhere and clean up at the last minute.

Crack pipes, hard to hide.

mmmm-hmmmmmm

I left all that stuff for my older bro and sisters. By the time I got there – my parents were savvy or I was less rebellious.

Yeah, I'm the eldest, with all the responsibilities that go with
The Boss as it were...

you’ve had to be the recipient of parental mistakes and sibling mentorship

Yeah, I'd say my parents did a pretty good job, for the most part
Not that much discipline

I can’t even remember the last time I did it!

i'm still here. i'm too lazy to go run my errands.
A woman after my own ♥
That's a good crowd!!

I think others are here…..checking into their other sports….

I really like this new version of the A's

They play small ball pretty well…I am a huge fan of the SB too. so far 4 today. I think they had 5 yesterday?

I agree. It's a page from the Angels (and others) but I like it.
speed is fun and exciting
Although all the CS'es in the extra-inning game against the White Sox might have cost them the game
True enough. I like speed with wisdom.
Even with wisdom, though, it ends up costing you outs

People complain about the A’s’ recent low-risk baserunning, but there’s a legitimate reason to play that way.

so what happens with AN during the off season?

do you still have threads or does everything start up again for spring training?

There are playoff threads.

and after the world series?

I don’t think anything happens.

We spend more time in the DLDs

and have more analytical/hot stove league discussions.

We have lots of stuff

Postseason threads for everyone else’s games, Hot Stove talk, winter ball reports, discussions of baseball books/movies/games, rumors, rosterbation, retrospectives. Stick around.

it might be too analyical for me, but i'll pop in to see
There's that after BB thinking again......

hmmmm

sorry just mentally preparing myself for not having my daily dose of the A's : (
I know -

I’m just giving you a bad time….like I do (I tell my kid it’s my job!)

It gets quite exciting around the winter meeting / whenever Mr Beane decides to make his Big Splash
rajai hanging in

Now he’s going to get the hit.

Rajai's battling.

I didn’t say anything.

Your fault.

Gosh.

see what happens when you don't get our coffee and donuts?
i offered coffee
RRS was asked before you arrived and his excuse was that he didn't know how to make it.
he doesn't drink coffee, he's agrowing boy and caffeine might stunt his growth

when he goes to college he’ll learn of coffee’s vital importance to staying up late to write papers

He doesn't grow.

He blotches through osmosis.

I will never drink coffee.

just wait until college, you'll be doing many things you never thought of

I highly doubt it.

are you going to live in a dorm?
Just be sure you report back here.....

Life is a journey and college life is alllll about making your own decisions w/o mom and dad looking over your shoulder. Not getting permission just making the decisions.

But you said you like tea, right?

Yes.

You've got your stimulant beverages covered, then
My brother is bringing me some tea from England today

I am very excited. I’m nearly out of decent teabags

Loose-leaf

much better than teabags.

Tea is a very personal thing

As much as anything else, the way you grew up drinking it is the way you like it – for me, it’s got a very
 Proustian quality. So, I like it strong, from a teabag, with a spot of milk. That’s just how it is.

that's the good stuff

also from ireland like bewley’s and barry’s

I do like a good brew up
he should also obey his elders or pay the consequences
This
Let this be a lesson.
can Cust k for a 4th time this game?
He narrowly dodged the golden sombrero.
I think he gets another ab and k's in that one.
grounded out to first to prove that he won't do it this ab.
Anything is possible...
victory for cust...no K
Cust hits ground balls?
Sorry for bailing out on you guys...

my interest level in this current game kind of just dropped. You guys understand right? right!?

I love that Geren is letting Anderson pitch.
bob geren always a rivercat...never saw that commercial before

haha!

OK so I'm not paying super close attention, and I got here late....

no sweeney?? any reasons we know of?? my guess is LH pitching?

Probably that and giving other guys (ie Patterson) a chance to play.
About what I thought....just curious
The Twins' starter, Manship, is RH
it was also mentioned that he has tendonitis in his knee

that’s been bothering him on and off

can't blame me for that one
Daric is going to rip one here
A hamstring?
I heard he had a burrito for lunch
Hmm, Wuertz coming in for the save

Can we assume that Bailey’s knee is hurt then?

it's only bottom 8...
Whoops, my bad

I’ve been doing errands and stuff around the house and checking in on the game — thought it was the 9th.

Well - I'm paying more attention that you!!

at least…..can you come do my cleaning when you’re done with yours?

I don't think so...

since I’m on the East Coast.

How much do you pay?

NJ right??

we could negotiate….srsly…I wouldn’t do that to a friend…..it’s bad enough to do your own!

Yup -- near Philly
well a good thing about early baseball is you have the rest of the day to do stuff
I'm engaging in some shopping therapy
True that

And I did all my work this morning, so I’m free Free FREE!

stranegely enough what i really want to do is take a nap

even after 2 cups of coffee

it must be the weather and thunderstorm interrupted sleep
who knew it was going to rain? it was kind of muggy yesterday but the rain then that thunder was surprising
Yeah, it's really thrown me, the thunder. I was up at 7am today.

But the coffee is keeping me going.

And the sweeping.

Woke me up.....kinda strange
me too, plus my neighbors dog kept barking
I was hoping that there was enough rain to keep the red flag warning/fire danger down
according to yahoo there are several lightening caused wildfires burning.

it didn’t rain much at all

yup, very strange. i'm from the east coast. i miss thunderstorms.

i prefer that they don’t wake me up, however.

I stayed with my sister one summertime when she was living in CO

there were thunderstorms almost everynight. At least it seemed that way. I just loved watching out the window as the cell passed by. Fascinating.

Kind of like the firefly phenomenon in the east coast. Phenom to me who had never seen one!

It totally woke me up

Having spoken to a few friends, there’s an interesting division – those of us who were born in the seventies (and earlier) and grew up under the shadow of mutually assured annihilation all went through a brief moment of ‘is this it??’ style panic, whereas those younger just thought it was a truck, or at worst, an earthquake

I remember only a couple of thunderstorms from when I was growing up in the Bay Area

and in retrospect, I wonder if the topography there allows for the thunderheads to be much closer to the ground there than here on the East Coast. I remember the thunder being a lot louder in the Bay Area than it usually is here — though a few weeks ago we had some really booming, shake-the-windows thunder here near Philly.

I think part of it is, we very rarely have thunderstorms here

It’s the first one I’ve experienced in the five years here, and friends tell me it’s the first one in about ten..

we rarely get thunder
That's true, but with a lot of thunderstorms

you get a flash of lightning, then a pause of 7 or 8 seconds, then a distant, low rumble. Other times, it’s a flash and then almost immediately a BANG! That’s the scary kind, but even back here where t-storms are common it’s unusual to get the kind that sounds like a grenade going off down the block.

The time between the flash and the bang

depends on how far away the storm is – in reality, they happen instantaneously.

if you count in seconds, 4 seconds = approx a mile away

^four seconds difference between the flash and the bang
i thought you said "1 mississipi, 2 mississippi", etc. and each one of those was a mile
Well

assuming the light travels so quickly that the speed can be assumed to be infinite,

the speed of sound is approx 330 m/s, so three seconds is ~1 km, and four ~ 1 mile

or you can have a neat tool that shows

that the lightning is right on top of you.

Yeah, that's what I meant

when I wondered above whether the thunderheads sit lower to the ground in the Bay Area. I imagine that height matters as well as ground-distance.

Oh yeah, sorry, I misunderstood

You’re right, of course. I don’t know much about the microclimate here, but you could be right in that?

I had a similar occurance last fall of a massive amount of helicopter overflights

that lasted for about an hour – I thought what the heck?? There was some army night flight training exercise. Why no one knew about it is a mystery. It was really freaky.

It's true

It really brought back memories of just how scary it was to a child growing up in the early 80s. To me, at least.

And hell, I wasn’t even alive for the Cuban Missile Crisis

I was so young I never even knew it was happening!
that brings back memories

i was living about an hour from NYC. my sister was complaining about watching the news and my dad’s pissed, “you might not wake up tomorrow”. it was scary shit.

Yeah, in the list of books I'd like to get around to writing, eventually

I’d like to write something about people’s experience of the CMC – not the immediate experience, but more

how they reacted when they’d ‘survived’ it – did it change the way they approached life, how long did that last,

etc. It would interest me, is for sure.

Some of the folks - like my parents- are no longer with us.

They would have been in their 40’s at the time. Married with children- well established in their careers…..for my gen it would have been the effect of Vietnam

What I'm most interested in is

Whether people were like, ‘oh fuck, that was close, I’m going to live each day as it’s my last’,

or made some radical change upon being confronted in such a graphic way with their own mortality,

and things like that

What I think is interesting...is that we seem much more blase about thr risks

are we just more fatalistic or realistic about whether we can have any effect on the outcome.

good question

personally, i think we’re pawns in the hands of the big guys. that doesn’t mean i think we give up. we just have to fight harder and dirtier.

yeah, see, the CMC wasn't about us taking risks, it represented an

external existential threat – which, of course, exists in every day life, but getting through the
day involves ignoring that, to a certain extent. Like I said, haven’t even started the groundwork

i wonder if age has anything to do with it

when i was younger, i never thought about my or anyone’s mortality. now that i’m older, i know that the vagaries of life mean you can be here one minute and gone the next. so some things aren’t worth worrying about. if they happen, they happen and i probably had no control over it anyway.

I think, to an extent, everyone does this

We’re cursed and freed by the knowledge of our own mortality

i was around 10 at the time

i can’t say that it’s had any lasting effect on me but i sure remember the tension and fear at the time. the entire Cold War thing was so pronounced then.

Yeah - I haven't even begun thinking about how to go and research this yet

It’d be hard to find a control group. None of us who lived through the cold war think it had a profound
effect on us, for the most part, but then, we never knew anything different.

I guess I'm suggesting there is probably a generational effect

BUT- the one generation that may have felt it most intensely is slipping away.

Yeah, you're right. Maybe I'll ask my parents about it this week
I don't have memories of the crisis

I was four, but the adults apparently did a good job of not letting their concern show. But I do have memories from that era of my parents looking in the paper at breakfast for information about recent nuclear testing in Nevada — they did some calculation about how long the fallout took to drift over Minnesota and would avoid buying milk for a few days thereafter.
My mom told me years later that throughout the early 60s there were door-to-door salesmen offering to dig fallout shelters in your back yard or basement, and lots of our neighbors had them. Her plan in the event of an imminent attack was to stick us all in the car and drive TOWARD downtown because she figured it would be better to be killed in the first blast than to hang around in the basement for weeks eating canned tuna and then die of radiation sickness anyway.

Interesting.... I really should talk to my parents about this

though, that might border dangerously on having an emotional connection with them.

And that won’t do at all

My dad worked at the Nevada test site but we never knew at the time what he was doing.

I knew a family here that did dig a bomb shelter. They sunk a box car in their front yard. The neighbors thought they were CRAZY!!!

I remember drills in school – ominous – but I never connected it to the CMC

oh, the duck and cover drills

not that they would have helped anything, but they gave the illusion of having some control.

Yeah, by the time I was in school, they'd stopped bothering to pretend we'd survive
Or the realized the risk was really not as great or that our weapons capability was much greater

we had more deterrent(SP?) so not so much need to worry

Nick, I love your Jimmy Stewart icon.
Thanks!

I was originally going to pick a great closeup of Joseph Cotton from Shadow of a Doubt, but I decided it was a little too creepy.

The Vertigo shot is classic.
Those pancakes in the A's brunch ad look horrible
I was just thinking that

they look like they are made of cork

I can't stand that pan with all that grease.....
damn, it is a day game.
I have no respect for him so I misspell his name on purpose.
Good save...
Yeah, nobody's buying.
so i could've said to my teachers i have no respect for that word so i misspell on purpose
Absolutly (another word I don't respect).
if only i knew it then

I love the Cal commercial.

i think i want the A's to finish this game off now

by the time i get to the grocery store, there will be no more unripe bananas. that will make me sad.

Pennington!
Wastes no time at ALL

SB!

If he hasn't earned the starting SS job for next year

I don’t know what will.

Maybe his dad could call Beane out in his hometown newspaper

I’m sure that would make things a lot easier for Pennington.

LMAO
good advice mr. crosby

Rajai is due for a hit today.

is having a GREAT game
ADD ON ADD ON ADD ON
Wow. 5 HR's yesterday. 5 SB's today. Who are these guys?
they are your 2009 Oakland A's, 2nd half of the season
No wonder I'm loving the 2nd half.
The A'S of our future

or so we all hope

I keep mis-posting

argh

minus a smoking hot right fielder
I'm ready for this to be a Mark IV.
We can has Bailey throw?
that t-shirt isn't bad
Bailey will set an A"s record with this save!

Let’s go Oakland

Win!!!!

Ok, bit premature, but hey, look at my name

one of my favs here!!
Why do they keep saying "Orlando Cabrera"

formal, both names…very weird.

I think it's just a fun name to say

lots of Rs to roll

Ichiro would have swung at the 0-2 pitch

The ball would have landed in left field somewhere.

OH HELL YEAH!!!!

NICE! C’MON K THE SIDE!

That is some HEAT Mr. Bailey
said Mrs. Bailey
is andrew on your fantasy team?
no
but he has such cute dimples!
i know but he just doesn't do it for me
Nice game by Pennington

He has significantly outperformed Cabrera since the trade.

I likes me some A. Bailey
don't like count to Morneau
Just groove one to Morneau here
damn, walked Morneau
Oh .... crap...

C’mon, worst that could happen was a one-run game!

Yeah, just toss a bp fastball over the heart of the plate

If he launches it, you’re no worse off than you’d be with a BB.

That was a strike, but okay.

Wait, Scott Hairston was playing today??

Yes.

Ha, shows how much I've been concentrating
Whoo hoo!!!!!!! WIN!!!
i love you andrew bailey 'til the day i die!
Can we go to the Second Half World Series?
Who would we play??
Well done, A's. A solid game all around, beginning with Mr. Anderson.
Well my A's friends....

I would say with what we have in AAA and the play of the second half, we most certainly have something to look forward to next year!

Good thought!

I always look forward to next year whether it’s realistic or not — but grounded optimism is better!

That's very sensible
That will make the off season interesting.....

the looking forward. I am so gonna try to o to spring training in 2010. Gotta save my sick days so I can make it happen!

have a good day everyone

time to do the errands

HAve a GREAT day

hope you get the perfect banana!!

Alright, I'm off to the airport. Cmon, San Francisco, let's see the sun!
Have an awesome visit!!
Weird weather, but I doubt you'll see the sun

all that sub-trop coming up from the South.

I got up at 4:07AM to put away my drill, still live on the electric cord and outside. Nice lightning and thunder! (East Bay).

enjoy the visit and the tea
A's beat the Twins, 4-2

After a five-homer game, a lot of SFs.
Great pitching by Anderson, Bailey again unstoppable in the 9th. Twins sent up Morneau and Mauer to no effect.
Yaaaaaaaaah!

I see Tim Hudson is pitching his third game this year

He’s at 147 games won. Used to think he’d get to 300, but this surgery ruined those chances.

300 is so incredibly difficult

You have to average 15 wins for 20 seasons. Unless teams go back to 4-man rotations, it’s hard to imagine many guys having the talent, health, luck, and opportunity to get to 300.

I'm watching the game, it's on Fox (ch 2 Bay area)

Cards 2-0 and still batting…Pujols, Holliday and Rasmus all singled

Huddy just Homered!
You guys had a game without me?

how come nobody told me?

RECAP UP!

twiiter feed is down though

You must Login with your SB Nation account and be a member of Athletics Nation to post a comment.