Marty; In the most recent article here about the Giants as a team in transition, omitted from consideration was the team’s most urgent need, to put together a farm system that will produce players capable of winning at the major league level. This is not a one year effort nor is it designed to immediately come up with results which will guarantee success in the immediate future. It must be a long term commitment.

The place to look, if one is contemplating a change in the way this franchise has operated in the past and the radical new look demanded is Atlanta. Rather than using the Giants as the example of how not to operate let’s take a look at the Mets, by way of comparison. The Giants’ problems this year are too easy a target with which to make a comparison.

Click below more.
[Read more →]

Only three games under his belt the 19 year old
native of Valencia,Venezuela has won his first
two starts at Safeco Field and in 16 innings
he has pitched at home has allowed only 1 run and
fanned 17.
There is a buzz in Seattle when this kid pitches
and that is good and for the Venezuelan teen
is “muy divertido” -a lot of fun-.
This kid doesn’t pitch like he is 19, he
throws a 98 mph fastball then he comes
in with an 80-something change up and
“adios hitter” gone !
This is important here. The Mariners finished
last in 2004 but they still had the record
setting season of Ichiro Susuki who finished
with 262 hits a new MLB record. So this season
the Felix Hernandez story brings some excitement
to another lost season and this is good for the
team, the front office, the fans in Seattle.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Seattle [Read more →]

The 2005 playoffs promise to be better than ever.

Just imagine this.

The A’s win the West. The Angels are the wild card team. Boston and Chicago claim the final two October spots.

Red Sox – A’s open in Oakland. What a match up. The big booming Boston bats against the dynamic duo of Rich Harden and Barry Zito.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

The Athletics have put together one of the best 60 game stretches of winning baseball in the history of the sport.

With all due respect to the New York Giants and their fabled 39-8 late season run that caught the Brooklyn Dodgers at the end the 1951 season, Oakland’s 2005 streak might be better.

Click below for the reasons why the A’s are the hottest team in baseball. [Read more →]

I agree with Felipe Alou,manager of the
San Francisco Giants in turning down
Larry Krueger’s apology after what he
said about Caribbean Giants players
and talking about Felipe Alou
and in the same sentence Cream Of Wheat.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez [Read more →]

Marty; No one will contend that this has been an enjoyable year for the fans, management, or the players. Very early on, this page offered the opinion that the team was going nowhere this season. Clearly, looking at 13 games under five hundred, that opinion was justified. However, at the end of the day, August 6th, there is reason to continue watching this team, with interesting speculation concerning the future.

Click below for more on the Giants and their renewed optimism.

[Read more →]

Putting A Wrap on Hall of Fame Weekend

This year’s induction festivities in Cooperstown, NY, delivered a much-needed boost to the local economy, as large groups of Cubs and Red Sox fans spent gobs of money along the village’s Main Street. According to most estimates, about 25,000 to 28,000 fans visited Cooperstown on induction weekend—the highest figure in the last five years. In recent years, more modest crowds have generally ranged from 15,000 to 20,000 fans…

Click below for more about the Hall of Fame’s marquee weekend. [Read more →]

Here is one way of solving the Athletics
attendance problem.
Just get Barry Bonds to play for the
A’s and make him the Designated Hitter,
he will be playing at 42 years old
in the Bay Area and drawing many
fans from all corners of the Bay.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

This is my first article for Love of the game productions and it is an honor to be a part of Marty’s website. My basic premise is this club, the 2005 Oakland A’s reminds me more of the A’s clubs of the 70’s than any A’s club since
1975, the last of those great A’s seventies clubs to appear in the playoffs.
Why do you ask?
Click below for the answer! [Read more →]

By GEORGE ESTRADA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SEATTLE — When Amaury Pi-Gonzalez was a boy in Cuba, he would stand a broom upside down on his porch and pretend to call baseball games. Now he’s living his dream in the radio announcer’s booth in two different major-league ballparks.

Pi-Gonzalez, 60, does Spanish-language play-by-play for the Seattle Mariners and the San Francisco Giants, which leads to lots of frequent flier miles. [Read more →]