ZITO’S DAY

There’s no crying in baseball. There are no curtain calls in Oakland. But those of us at the A’s-Blue Jays game last Saturday challenged tradition to show our affection for Barry Zito.

Mind you, the ovation was partly a last-ditch effort to remind Zito (and Billy Beane) how much he means to us. Let me count the ways he has won us over these past six years: cerebral interviews, wild clubhouse celebration dances, and of course, that jaw dropping, feat-of-physics curveball. We did not want to lose all of that come Monday at the trade deadline.

Click below for Alexa’s first article for Loveofthegame!And so we clapped—anxiously—but with zest. Chants of “Zito, Zito, Zito!” echoed off Mount Davis. And that’s when I realized why we have clutched this eccentric southpaw to our hearts ever since his arrival in 2000—he’s just as old-school and off-kilter as the Coliseum; just as kooky as Banjo Man; and just as unique and personable as those A’s of old (see: handlebar mustaches and outlandish uniforms).

Zito celebrates the tradition of unorthodoxy in baseball. In a sport where balls knuckle towards the plate and bizarre player superstitions could get them committed in the real world, we as fans respect and adore these intricacies of the game—it’s the icing, the flair.

And so it’s fitting that we fought off Oakland orthodoxy like a 2-strike fastball, demanding a rare A’s curtain call.

True to form, Zito said after the game that he didn’t even realize the fans were cheering for his hat-tip. Thankfully another player brought him out of his Zito-esque daze and he obliged us with a wild-haired nod. The curtain could finally come down, for now.