ED NOTE: CHECK OUT THE NEWS ON THE JUST COMPLETED TRADE.

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	OAKLAND			SAN FRANCISCO
2B	ELLIS		LF	WINN
C	KENDALL		SS	VIZQUEL
SS	THOMAS		CF	FINLEY
3B	CHAVEZ		RF	ALOU
CF	PAYTON		1B	NIEKRO
RF	KIELTY		C	GREENE
1B	JOHNSON		2B	FRANDSEN
LF	SWISHER		3B	CHAVEZ
SP	HAREN		SP	LOWRY

Ken Macha pulls a Tony LaRussa by getting Frank Thomas a 1st inning AB, then will shuffle in Bobby Crosby to play the field. Doesn't say much for the A's health when Mark Kotsay is not starting and Thomas will only get 1 AB for the night.

So much for that.

According to Jamey Newburg and the Fort Worth Star - Telegram the A's, Cubs and Rangers just completed a Deal.

Oakland sent John Rheincecker to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Juan Dominguez. Oakland sent Freddie Bynum to the Chicgao Cubs and the Cubs sent John Koronka to Texas to complete the deal.

First glance: Billy Beane just got hosed. Beane has lost his touch when it comes to trades.

SQUADRON LEADER: Something up with my banter, chaps?


(A siren goes off. The door bursts open and an out-of-breath pilot rushes in wearing flying gear.)


PILOT: Bunch of monkeys on the ceiling, sir! Grab your egg and fours and let's get the bacon delivered!


(General incomprehension. They all look at each other.)


WINGCO: Do you understand that?


SQUADRON LEADER: No, didn't get a word of it.


WINGCO: Sorry old man, we don't understand your banter.


PILOT: You know...bally ten-penny ones dropping in the custard...(searching for words) un...Charlie Choppers chucking a handful...

RAF Banter, Monty Python's Flying Circus: Episode 42

As we begin to enter our 162 game benign sense of reality and cover all faults with the finely stitched blanket of denial, it's time to take a peak at what is going to affect the 2006 baseball season, that remotely will have something to do with the A's.

Essentially it comes down to baseball's furtherance of neglect on the performance enhancement and drug abuse in the sport.

Before you roll out your internal logic, this has to be stressed, again, as most do not understand the context of the discussion.

• Major League Baseball's JOINT DRUG TESTING AND PREVENTION POLICY has only been around for one season. Anything that happened before 2005 doesn't make a bit of difference. Minor League Baseball has had a testing policy in place since 2002, but MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association does not collectively bargain with the minor league system.


If you want to get all high and mighty and suggest that steroids are against the law, get in line with the Heaven's Gate folks for your trip on the tail of the comet.


• Most substances used for performance enhancement are legal. Many serve important uses in the healthcare field. Obtaining substances used for performance enhancement via doctor shopping or smuggling them into the country might be illegal. Possessing substances used for performance enhancement might be illegal. But swallowing, injecting or rubbing substances used for performance enhancement on your person, for the most part is not illegal.


And only since last season was it even against the rules of baseball. Barry Bonds wasn't cheating unless he tested positive for something on the banned substance list. And even if he took a banned substance, some of the banned substances do not have effective tests to validate that claim.

Sounds odd coming from an A's fan, but people need to get off Barry Bonds' back for the 'BALCO' issue and all of the superfluous 'steroid' squabbling. People need to return to getting on Bonds' back for simply being an asshole. Which may or may not require any listed banned or illegal substance.


• Drinking alcohol on the job is illegal, right? Go to any clubhouse in baseball and there is more beer there than in most convenience stores. It's not uncommon for players to grab a beer during the game. Keith Hernandez almost missed Ray Knight scoring the winning run in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, because after he fly out in the bottom of the 10th he went back to the clubhouse, grabbed a beer and put his feet up.



• Scott Hatteberg was over the limit of allowed caffeine when he hit the game winning homerun to secure the A's 20th consecutive win in 2002.



• What about tobacco? Synonymous with baseball is chaw and with Jim Leyland back in the bigs as a manager, smoking cigarettes will be shown on nationally broadcast games. Disgusting? Ron Washington is an avid cigarette smoker.


Tobacco and baseball. But Kaiser Selig wants to rid the sport of 'steroids'. How about trying to do something you are capable of and then trot out your dog and pony show?

Rob Neyer has it down at ESPN.com.

WE CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH

Rob Neyer
31 March 2006

Just gimme some truth, man. Shoot, at this point we'd even settle for some truthiness.


On Thursday, when announcing MLB's official inquiry into the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Barry Bonds and (presumably) others, commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig said, "Nothing is more important to me than the integrity of the game of baseball."


Well, that's just not true. If the most important thing to the commissioner was the game's integrity, he wouldn't sanction crazy-quilt interleague scheduling, or disseminate disinformation about the public benefits of $500 million ballparks, or broker shady transactions that transfer franchises from one crony to another. Or secretly borrow money from a franchise owner.


So no, integrity is not the most important thing to Commissioner Selig. But I do believe the integrity of the game of baseball is somewhat important to the commish, particularly as it relates to a famous record currently held by one of the commish's favorite players. And while I believe that this current effort is targeted toward public relations more than anything else, I also believe there's something to be said for almost any progress toward discovering the truth. When the commissioner told The New York Times, a decade ago, that he desperately wanted to know the truth about steroids, he wasn't telling the truth. But that doesn't mean his efforts at finding some truths now aren't worthwhile.


This week, in response to my is-Jeff-Bagwell-a-Hall-of-Famer column, I received a number of e-letters like this one:



Rob,
I know he is a nice player and a good role model. But why does this guy get a pass on the steroids discussion? He is following the same timeline as Sosa, Bonds, Pudge, etc. by blowing up physically, putting up huge numbers, and then "shrinking" away from the game (figuratively or literally) when the 'roids conversations takes front and center. He, along with Luis Gonzalez and Pudge Rodriguez and all the other questionable performers, need to be thrown in the bucket of potential cheaters and have their names thoroughly cleared before we have HOF conversations. I am not about to give anyone the benefit of the doubt during this era. If you were small, got bigger, had huge numbers in the '90s, then ended your career much smaller or injury prone, you are guilty until proven innocent.


The only one who gets a pass is, surprisingly, Bonds. He was likely a Hall of Famer before he started using.


Sorry for this. I am just sick of the nice guys getting a pass. Bagwell's situation seems obvious to me.


Thanks,
Jason



Ten years ago, I wrote a fawning column about Bagwell in which I described him as "the ideal, genuine ballplayer." I wouldn't write that sort of column any more, about any professional athlete. Even then, there was something in the back of my mind, warning me that perhaps Bagwell was getting a bit of help from an illicit source. This would not make him a bad guy … but it would throw his accomplishments into a somewhat different light, particularly in comparison with peers not getting the same sort of help (Fred McGriff, anyone?).


The question's been asked: Where does this investigation end? Once you pull that first thread from the sweater, where does the unraveling end?


The answer is that it doesn't. Yes, George Mitchell's investigation will end. But in a larger sense, the investigation will never end. It's been 140 years since Abraham Lincoln has written a letter or issued a proclamation. Nevertheless, historians continue to find new material about Lincoln, or devise new ways to look at old material. And so the new books about Lincoln continue to land on already groaning bookshelves.


And that's going to happen, albeit to a lesser degree, with baseball and steroids, too. There is no end point. Mitchell's investigation essentially will wind up being an MLB-sanctioned whitewash. But a few new facts will arrive on our shelves. Next year, some other reporter will write a book, with a few more facts. In a decade or so, some player will write a book and admit that he, too, benefited from the use of performance-enhancing drugs. We'll never know everything. But with each passing year we'll know a little more than we knew the year before. That's the way history -- or rather, the study of history -- works.


Yes, there will be hand-wringing. Yes, players will be elected to the Hall of Fame, and later we'll regret it. Well, I've got some news for you: There are already a couple of dozen Hall of Famers who we should regret. Mistakes have been made, mostly due to ignorance and cronyism, and mistakes will continue to be made. Those are just details. Interesting details, for sure. But details nonetheless. What's really important is the truth. When you've got it, give it to us. We can handle it.


Senior writer Rob Neyer writes for Insider two or three times per week. To offer criticism, praise or anything in between, send an e-mail to rob.neyer@dig.com.

Something that Kaiser Selig and his subservient lackey Bob DuPuy are very capable of is putting out onionskin thin public relations efforts. The following is an Associated Press 'article'. In reality, it's a press release MLB written my MLB, ABC and ESPN execs (and the White House?) sent directly to the Associated Press:

IN GEORGE MITCHELL, BASEBALL GETS GLOBAL TROUBLESHOOTER
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer
March 30, 2006


LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In turning to former Senate leader George Mitchell to unravel its steroid scandal, Major League Baseball enlisted a global troubleshooter with an insider's knowledge of the game.


Plainspoken, even bland, with skills honed in courtrooms, boardrooms, Washington and on the international stage, Mitchell brings a rare range of experience and a reputation for something at risk in baseball -- fair play.


Colleagues in the Senate, where the Maine Democrat served as majority leader, called Mitchell "the judge," a reference to his days in the federal judiciary as well as his reserved, owlish manner.


President Clinton once offered the former U.S. attorney a spot on the Supreme Court. His stewardship of the Northern Ireland peace talks made him a celebrity on another continent. He was the architect of a Middle East peace plan that won international support in 2001, and he led an investigation into alleged bribes in Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Olympics. Mitchell also went corporate, helping to calm disarray at Disney.


Baseball's investigation will test those sterling credentials.


Mitchell, 72, is part of the baseball establishment -- a director with the Boston Red Sox who has dreamed of becoming the league's commissioner. Already there are questions about his partiality from critics who say the league needs to clean house, not redecorate.


"Of course he has some ties to baseball, but we know what they are. Everybody will be watching to make sure he plays things absolutely straight," said former league Commissioner Fay Vincent.


"There is enormous pressure on Mitchell and (Commissioner Bud) Selig," Vincent added. "There is an enormous downside for baseball if it doesn't go well."


Mitchell's task: Find out everything he can about the use of performance-enhancing drugs since the sport banned them in September 2002.


Mitchell's reputation is anchored to his days in the Senate, where he combined a scholarly demeanor with aggressive, savvy political skills. In 1986, as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, he led the party to stunning gains and majority control during the Reagan administration.


Perhaps his highlight performance was during the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987, when he squared off with Lt. Col. Oliver North. "Recognize that it is possible for an American to disagree with you on aid to the Contras and still love God and still love this country just as much as you do," Mitchell told North in one famous exchange.


Mitchell can display a playful sense of humor. In a budget debate, a Republican senator used a postal scale to weigh a copy of a Democratic budget while criticizing its spending levels. Mitchell borrowed the scale and plunked it on his desk. After eyeing it from all angles, he announced the Republican budget didn't weigh anything -- because one didn't exist.


An Army veteran, Mitchell comes from working-class roots in Maine. His father was a janitor; his mother, a Lebanese immigrant, worked in mills. After serving as a federal prosecutor and U.S. District Court judge in Maine he was appointed to the Senate in 1980 when his former boss, Sen. Edmund Muskie, accepted a job as President Carter's Secretary of State. Mitchell capped a meteoric ascendancy through the Senate leadership by becoming majority leader in November 1988.


After leaving Capitol Hill in 1995, Mitchell became the special envoy who oversaw negotiations that produced the 1998 Good Friday accord in Northern Ireland.


He and his wife, Heather, a sports promoter, have two children and residences in Maine and New York.


"It would be hard for them to duplicate his combination of baseball knowledge and interests, and his experience with criminal investigations and prosecutions," said Harold Pachios, a Maine attorney who has known Mitchell for nearly half a century.


Mitchell has worked from the inside before.


Joining the board of The Walt Disney Co. soon after leaving the Senate, Mitchell was named presiding director in 2002 when the board was being criticized for being too cozy with then-chairman and CEO Michael Eisner.


Although Mitchell was close friends with Eisner, his appointment was seen as a step toward making the board more independent. In 2004, after a shareholder revolt, Eisner was stripped of his chairmanship and the board handed Mitchell the job.


Once the target of company dissidents who questioned his loyalties, Mitchell presided over Eisner's departure and the search for his successor -- Robert Iger. Mitchell had said he would retire this year, but agreed to stay an extra year while the board searches for a new chairman.


"The guy has investigated and prosecuted dozens and dozens of crimes," Pachios said. "I never met a bigger straight arrow."


Associated Press Writers Gary Gentile in Los Angeles and Donna Cassata in Washington contributed to this report

Remember back in 2004 when the State of the Union included these statements:

"To help children make right choices, they need good examples. Athletics play such an important role in our society, but, unfortunately, some in professional sports are not setting much of an example. The use of performance-enhancing drugs like steroids in baseball, football, and other sports is dangerous, and it sends the wrong message -- that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character."

- 2004 State of the Union Address

Yes, there's epic irony, symbolism and other there to get going on, but let's keep this in frame. George Mitchell is part of the old boy establishment in politics AND baseball. Very few are capable of that. Conspiracy theorists can check and see if Mitchell is part of the Trilateral Commission, Illuminati or if he's a Freemason, Stonecutter or part of the Fraternal Order of No Homers.

QUERY: What would ABC have to gain from appointing George Mitchell?

A few billions dollars they have invested through ESPN for the broadcast rights of baseball.

QUERY: What would the Boston Red Sox have to gain from George Mitchell playing O'Dowd?

Inside information and notice of where and how to hide the bodies.

QUERY: What would MLB have to gain from appointing a man who was in line to become MLB Commissioner himself at one time?

An excuse to have MLB go NSA on itself with 'steroids' being the cover. Congress has bandied about pulling baseball's ant-trust exemption before. George Mitchell might just be the 'plumber' to go around and shore up baseball's backside for the next commissioner.

QUERY: Why Mitchell? He's rather old and so is Selig. Why have these aged and frail men so close to death in charge of a super secret 'investigation' that could really cause an embarrassment if either are ever called to testify in court?

Because Selig and Mitchell will be dead before they ever have to testify about Mitchell's 'investigation' (is it being called a Blue-Panel investigation, yet?). Dead men tell no tales.

Mitchell is going to be compensated in some way and you know that is more than likely going to be headed to a charity. I'm all for charitable donations, but when they are a mere tax dodge (ahem, Barry Bonds).

That's it. I'm done. It's the last I want to bring up the issue, but only to remind people that we now have to realign our expectations of players. Over the past 15-20 years the average Major League Baseball player is anything but average.

When we project player performances for 2007 and 2008, how much do we have to adjust for a player N O T being part of the 40, 50, 60 or 70% of players rumored to be using some form of unsanctioned performance enhancing substance?

That player we think might hit 25 homeruns might not even hit 20. Not because he failed to live up to expectations, but because didn't live up to the expectation of bending the rules of chemical engineering.

'Cause when the blood begins to flow
When it shoots up the dropper's neck
When I'm closing in on death
And you can't help me now, you guys

- The Velvet Underground

If you have time, you might want to try to connect to the WI-FI source for the RiverCats. You might be able to watch the game via this link. Let me know. I'm close enough that I can get access without having to be in the stadium...if I were not in a classrom. But, if you are at a RaleyCats game, and have a laptop, you can pick up the internal feed of the game at about a 5 -15 second delay. Great for replays.

I'll check back around 8:00 PM to see if it works.

This just in; The Keebler Elf thinks he can move the team to Fremont. The Wayan brothers are going to try and build a film studio in Oakland. How can the A's not find space? Probably because Lewis Wolff wants to own the land, the stadium the rights to every ant on the ground and he wants the City, County and MLB to pay for it.



Tonight's exhibition between the Flyin' RiverCats and the Fightin' A's might be more than a bit of a downer and might not be played at all. It's been raining fairly steadily. Weird California-style rain. It rains for 60-75 minutes. The sun comes out. It gets misty. The wind kicks up and it starts to rain again.

Tomorrow night's forecast calls for wind, 70% chance of rain and temperatures in the mid 40's. Hell, you can get that in Oakland for less than the price of RaleyCatField tickets.

I can't attend. I have class and just happen to have an exam for that class. Blue Book and Scantrons. You'd never thought I already have three college degrees and working on a 4th and 5th and still have to have a number 2 pencil handy.

Still, it's better than nothing. I prefer taking a few classes every semester, keeping the Student Loan folks at bay and making huge chunk payments when it suits my budget, and earning a degree in the process.

If you take at least six credits you are considered a part-time student and can get a deferment. It's a hell of a lot easier than having to make payments every months and scraping to get by. Then an emergency kicks in and you have no capital to work with.

Credit card you say? Ditched those with the last century. They are a nuisance and further the debating of the United States. Think about your monthly minimum payment on your credit card, if you have one. Do you know how that number is factored? Roughly, if you continue to make that same payment amount each month, without using the card for anything else, it would take 240 months (20 years) to pay off the balance of the account. Interest is great, if you are reaping the harvest as opposed to burning the crops.

Some of the big surprises starting Sunday include a new home page for Elephants in Oakland. Also, in April I'll be working on another pet project: STUDENT LOAN SHARKS. Essentially tips, tricks and ways to manage money and pay off your student loans without losing all of your dignity in the process.

BACK TO BASEBALL

BASEBALL PROSPECTUS has their staff predictions out. Highly informative list of possibilities and probabilities. Rich Harden and Dan Haren are listed as possible Cy Young candidates. Bobby Crosby on a few MVP ballots. As well as Harden.

In today's UNDER the KNIFE, Will Carroll mentions this in passing:

"The A's are hinting that Bobby Kielty won't start the year on the DL, despite missing significant time with a recurrent oblique strain."


- Will Carroll, Baseball Prospectus

Also over at The JUICE Will touched on a similar subject I mentioned yesterday and extrapolated it for debate. The media is in a shifting mode and sportswriters are, for the most part, sniveling little meaningless hacks who can't incorporate change for fear of not straddling that line of effort and integrity.



ESPN.com has their MLB Preview, a little late in the Spring, but they are kicking into high gear.

Here's the basic preview for the A's, fraught with errors:

Mark Ellis	2B	Some pull power and line-drive gap power.
Mark Kotsay	CF	Aggressive with controlled swing. Can hit to all fields.
Milton Bradley *	RF	Ball jumps from his bat. Chases out of the zone.
Eric Chavez	3B	Makes instant adjustments. Uses the whole field.
Frank Thomas *	DH	Chases breaking balls down and off the edge.
Dan Johnson	1B	Excellent eye. Patient yet aggressive.
Bobby Crosby	SS	Good high fastball hitter with pull/gap power. Disciplined.
Nick Swisher or Jay Payton	LF	Swisher: Quicker bat and better swing from the right side. Payton: Needs to improve strike zone knowledge.
Jason Kendall	C	Chokes up on the bat. Tough to strike out.

Eric Chavez put 26% percent of balls hit into play last season to the left side. That's not necessarily 'hitting to all fields'. Looking at the strike zone, Chavez can't turn on inside pitches and consistently goes out of the strike zone to chase pitches.

Bobby Crosby, disciplined? Still strikes out twice as much as he walks. 200 K's to 94 walks and chases pitches high and outside. Tries to pull pitches on the outer half.

Swisher is a basket case. Higher OBP from the right side, but lower batting average. Pathetic slugging percentage and OBP from the right side; .697. Only 3 career homeruns from the right side.

Payton chases pitches like dogs chase cars. Considering that, he doesn't strike out much. But that's like saying a serial killer who has only killed three people isn't that violent compared to other serial killers.

Kendall. Tough for him to get on base, too. 47% of balls Kendall hit into play in 2005 didn't leave the infield.

So what, jerk, what is the prognosis for the A's? Depends on with whom you speak. Most have the A's winning the AL West and those who don't have the A's taking the Wild Card. The playoffs are still a crapshoot, but even the nature of odds has the A's finally winning a playoff series. Some time soon.

The real issue for the A's is the status of Larry Davis and if he has any voodoo or more magic fairy dust to ward off and heal injuries. Sure, injuries are a part of all sports, staying healthy is a skill and having depth is a key to staying competitive into September. But. The A's up front rely on a lot of hampered players; Chavez, Crosby, Kotsay and Kendall is overdue for a leg to come off - despite any Black Knight impressions. This is a curiosity as many people point to how 'young' the A's are and use that as an excuse. Nope.

SEASON	AVERAGE AGE
2005	28.6 years
2004	29.6 years
2003	28.1 years
2002	28.4 years
2001	27.1 years
2000	27.1 years
1999	28.7 years
1998	28.8 years
1997	28.1 years
1996	28.2 years
1995	29.6 years

For some reason ESPN.com put Buster Olney on the A's preview story. Read if you like as I post ESPN Insider for all to peruse.

"Once upon a time, the A's ran the ultimate baseball frat house. Jason Giambi set the tone, and those Oakland teams were big and hairy and powerful. They clubbed homers, partied into legend and assaulted eardrums with their clubhouse music. Every September, they showed up fashionably late and banged on the door of the pennant race.

But every October, the baseball gods cruelly revealed their weaknesses -- pulled down their pants, in a sense, and exposed their shortcomings for everybody to see. Misplaced outfielders misplayed fly balls (sorry, Terrence Long), slow runners got tagged out (apologies, Jeremy Giambi), second-line pitchers got pounded (excuse us, Fill in the Blank). The A's have had nine chances this decade to clinch a playoff series, and every time, they've lost.

Eventually, GM Billy Beane had to break up the frat brothers because of budget limitations. But a funny thing happened: Now reconstituted, the A's are defensively superb -- perhaps better than any other team. Their rotation is excellent, with Barry Zito and Rich Harden in front of Dan Haren and Joe Blanton, who combined to go 25-12 after May 29. Their position players, almost without exception, run well. Their 22-year-old closer, Huston Street, thrives on pressure. The baseball gods might not have the A's to kick around anymore.

As the poster boy for the New School of Baseball Philosophy, Beane still maintains that there's a statistical randomness to the outcome of postseason play. "I've got the numbers to prove it," he says. But undoubtedly, the 2006 A's are deeper, more diverse, possessing more of the elements that the Old-School Thinkers believe are necessary to win in the playoffs: a deep bullpen, enough speed to make the offense multidimensional against good pitching, and a bunch of guys who catch the ball.

These A's are simply better. "A lot better," says veteran Eric Chavez. "When you talk about a team being suited to winning a championship, you go back and look at the White Sox, the Angels, the Yankees. They were all fundamentally sound, and that's the way we are now."

Beane freely admits to a shift in emphasis, if not philosophy. Even before "Moneyball" came out in 2003, teams increasingly had invested in on-base percentage; Giambi got $120 million from the Yankees after the 2001 season in large part because they thought he'd improve their OBP. As the pool of affordable on-base masters dried up, Beane started looking for other undervalued skills, forever seeking cheap but good stock.

"Our team, by and large, is always going to be what the marketplace is allowing us to pay for," he says.

So it was that in fall 2003, Beane found that Padres center fielder Mark Kotsay's defense was staggeringly good and that Kotsay was relatively affordable. Trading for him was the start of a new trend. While everyone else was obsessing over OBP, Beane was already on to D.

The GM snapped up Jay Payton from the Red Sox last summer, and in December, he swapped a minor-leaguer to the Dodgers for the volatile Milton Bradley. Now the A's effectively have three center fielders covering the outfield, along with Gold Glove candidates at third base (Chavez), shortstop (Bobby Crosby) and second base (Mark Ellis). It naturally followed that as the Athletics hoarded first-rate glove men, their team speed increased dramatically. These guys still won't steal a lot of bases -- Beane reasons, why risk the outs? -- but they can go first to third and first to home.

And now, when they've got the lead in the late innings, they ought to be able to keep it.

For Beane, the value of closers has long been a point of debate because of the dollars-to-outs ratio: He's more inclined to pay someone who can account for 600 outs a year rather than 225. But over the past few seasons, watching the Angels' dominant bullpen, with Scot Shields and Francisco Rodriguez blowing away hitters with fastballs and sliders, the statistical geek within Beane became attracted to their particular type of efficiency -- not to mention economy. Signing Billy Wagner is an option for the Mets but not for the A's. Oakland had four of the first 40 picks in the 2004 draft, and Beane's scouts kept telling him that they loved the closer at the U. of Texas, a kid named Huston Street. Beane was skeptical. He asked the scouts, "Would you bet your 401(k) on this guy?" The answer always came back: Yes.

Still, he waited through the first round. Supplemental picks began coming off the board in the Oakland war room, and scouting director Eric Kubota made the case for Street again. "If there's ever a sure thing to make the majors," he said, "this is the guy." Beane nodded. For pick No. 40, Kubota called Street's name into the phone.


"When you talk about a team being suited to winning a championship, you go back and look at the White Sox, the Angels, the Yankees. They were all fundamentally sound, and that's the way we are now. "

- Eric Chavez



On May 20, the day manager Ken Macha decided to make Street the closer, pitching coach Curt Young stopped by the kid's locker and said, "Be prepared to throw the ninth."

"Okay," Street said, then returned to his routine. As the A's have learned, it never changes. He begins stretching in the fifth, then a trainer rubs heat balm into his arm. Street makes his way to the bullpen for the start of the seventh, and when Oakland has a lead, he starts throwing in the eighth, a 25-pitch regimen: three fastballs to one side of the plate, three to the other side, then sliders and changeups. When he gets the call, he warms up with two pitches from the apron of the mound, "to calm the nerves." Then three fastballs, two sliders, one changeup and boom, he's ready.

The A's, however, were not. Going into their May 30 game against Tampa Bay, they were 17-32 and mired in an eight-game losing streak. Although Crosby was coming off the DL, there wasn't much hope for a turnaround. But Street pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings to get the win, and over the next two months, the A's went 58-24.

Street converted his last 18 chances. After each save, he takes a blue marker and writes on the game ball: date, opponent, final score, save number. He had 23 last year, and he plans on keeping this job for a long time -- long enough to fill up several shelves, and long enough to make real money. This season, he will earn $339,625, $12,625 over the minimum and $10,160,375 less than Wagner. That's moneyball.

The A's nearly made it back to the playoffs last year. They surged past the Angels into first place in the AL West after being as much as 12 1/2 out. They were the first team in AL history to climb from 15 games below .500 to at least 15 games above .500 in the same season, and they thought the rush would carry into October. "As hot as we got, you're not used to having that much momentum," says Chavez.

But no team could overcome the injuries that dogged them in the end. Crosby, the second-year shortstop with the powerful bat, came up limping after a collision with Orioles catcher Sal Fasano on Aug. 27. Crosby missed three games before going for an MRI, and went into the trainer's room in Anaheim looking for the results. "What do you guys got?" he asked.

Broken left ankle, he was told.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he replied, slumping into a chair. At the same time, Harden was struggling with a muscle strain, and Kotsay's back gave out. The A's went 11-17 in September; the Angels won the West. Six months later, Crosby is sitting on a table in Arizona, ankle good as new, thinking about what might have been. "I knew we had one of the best teams in the league," he says.

They did. They do. They just have to prove it.

* Do you think the A's have what it takes? E-mail Buster Olney at post@espnmag.com."

Here's a great example of why I despise sportswriters and the 'pusher', ESPN.

Mixed in a report that some MLB sponsors will not celebrate Barry Bonds' whatever due to the allegations hanging over his head was this little piece of beauty:

"We are longtime partners of baseball, and with their perception on drugs, I could stand on the roof and scream that this issue has to get resolved," Bessant told Bloomberg News. "Baseball has got to get the perception of drugs out of the spot. It matters. Cheating matters. It isn't OK to cork a bat. Cheaters shouldn't prosper."
- Cathy Bessant, Bank of America

Oh, how marvelous.

Bank of America's long standing partnership with Major League Baseball goes all the way back to 2004. Bank of America did have some advertising with individual teams.

'The spot'. Now, eitha she's frahm Bahstan oha the autha is a jackeze.

Now, if any of the business minded want, they can go search for all the wondrous items in the files of the Department of Justice where Bank of America, and any of the other financial institutions it has bought out over the years, has been cited, indicted, tried, convicted, litigated, gagged, and law suited up and out the ying-yang.

Chances are you'd be busy for the next few days. Creative financing is cheating.

Both the A's and Giants are outta AZ after today's game. The A's will be at Raley Field tomorrow and then the two teams will go at it for the Bay Bridge Series.

Today's lineup:

	GIANTS			A's
LF	Winn		2B	Ellis
SS	Vizquel		CF	Kotsay
CF	Finley		SS	Crosby
1B	Niekro		3B	Chavez
RF	Alou		DH	Thomas
DH	Feliz		LF	Swisher
C	Matheny		RF	Payton
2B	Vizcaino		1B	Johnson
3B	Chavez		C	Melhuse
SP	Schmidt		SP	ZITO

• Standing-room only tickets for Opening Night tickets against the Yankees will go on sale tomorrow at 10:00am according to the A's MLB site and Robert Baun's rusty nail on a chalkboard rambling during yesterday's game.
  
  
  
• The Juan Gonzalez mystery got a tweak last week when a few outlets reported that Gonzalez had agreed to terms with the A's. Then, later reports came out that Gonzalez was trying to catch on with the Rockies. I am assuming this is the MLB team and not an attempt to slam himself into a mountain range geographically located in North America.




• Erubiel Durazo was released by the Texas Rangers as they are content to go with Phil Nevin. The Rangers also went with Ian Kinsler over Mark DeRosa. Durazo is apparently getting a peak with the Angels. Tomorrow, I'll report that Durazo has signed with the Mariners. Just keeping it in the AL West. Why don't the A's just re-sign Durazo to a minor league deal at a moderate amount above the major league minimum - let him rehab in AAA Sacramento or AA Midland and trade him? The reason; capable major league players don't sign minor league deals. Still, it's hard to pass up a player with a career OPS of .868. The A's should make a gesture, at least.




• Has Frank Thomas done anything on the bases, yet? From what I have read and heard, he's struck out, homered and his a few flyballs. Nothing that requires the man to stay on the bases or beat out a throw. That's the kicker. If he can stand for an extended period of time and regain his balance in the batter's box; that's good. Until he can run the bases, go from 1st to third on a ball hit in the gap or score from 2nd on a ball in the gap we don't know what is what. If you can all put your physiology hats on for a sec - running is