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 →]

Some of the people today that talk about the
use of “illegal substances”must have
just dropped from the sky from
another world.
Who said baseball was a pure game ?

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Solid pitching propelled the A’s to the top of the wild card race in the American league.

Solid hitting will keep them there.

One through nine in the batting order the A’s are tough outs at the plate. Game after game the A’s work the opposition pitchers into deep hitting counts, then deliver key hits.

The A’s are putting crooked numbers on the board, a sure way to win games.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Oakland Tribune sports writer Monte Poole got my attention this morning when he wrote that Billy Beane is gearing up to make a serious offer to the Marlins for right hander AJ Burnett.

I love the trade.

Who would the A’s give up and what are the benefits of such a move?

Number one it keeps Burnett from joining the Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, or the White Sox, teams that will be either in the playoffs or in the mix right down to the end of the season.

Click below for more on the possiblity of adding Burnett to the A’s! [Read more →]

by Glenn Dickey

EVEN BILLY BEANE didn’t expect the torrid 37-13 run the A’s are on.

“I thought we had a good group of players,” said the A’s general manager in a telephone conversation. “We just got killed by injuries early. We had no bodies. But the team stayed together and then they started playing well, but no, I certainly couldn’t have anticipated this. But, I’ll tell you what, I’m really enjoying it.’’

Click below for more. [Read more →]

Marty; Despite being in the worst division in baseball, the Giants are kidding themselves and others if they insist they are in contention for a playoff spot this year. This is a team with weaknesses up and down the lineup but one need go no further than the pitching rotation to highlight their problems.

Click below for more of Ed’s analysis.
[Read more →]

The American League Central will play a big part in determining the A’s fate in their quest for a 2005 playoff spot.

Thanks to the quirks of the schedule, the A’s will play 22 games against the Indians, Tigers, Royals and Twins through the end of August. In recent years the A’s have walloped the Central during their midsummer meetings.

This year may be different. [Read more →]

My favorite team is the Baltimore Orioles. Since I
arrived from Cuba as a teenager at 17 to live
with my aunt in Miami I adopted the Orioles.
One of my first jobs was as a ball boy at the old
Miami Stadium in NW 23rd St in Miami where the
Orioles used to have their Spring Training home.
Last week I saw my favorite team and a compatriot
carving his name in history. I was ‘up close and
personal with guys like John (Boog) Powell,
Jim Gentile, Brooks Robinson, Chuck Estrada,
Gus Triandos and others.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

The A’s are back in the playoff picture.

What’s most encouraging about the team’s return to respectability is that A’s are doing it their way. Strong pitching, clutch hitting, and solid defense.

For the past five seasons, as June turned into July, Oakland made its move on the leaders.

As the weather gets warmer A’s fans sit back and watch the team run off four and five game winning streaks in a routine fashion.

Why does it happen like clockwork each year?

Click below for more! [Read more →]