Batter Up April 3rd, 2005

The American League West has become the premier division in the league.

Every team in the West has a chance to win the division this season. Every team in the West has a manager that makes an impact on the game. Every team in the West has a general manager that understands how to build a winning ball club.

So, who’s the frontrunner to win the division as the season opens up? [Read more →]

Play Ball
A history of Oakland A’s home openers

By A.J. Hayes

Overall Record: Since moving west in 1968 the A’s have gone 20-16 in games played on opening day in Oakland.

First Opener: On April 17, 1968 the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum was over following with excitement as 50,164 fans filed into the park for the first official major league game played in Oakland. Veteran right-hander Lew Krausse started for the A’s against Baltimore’s Dave McNally. Krausse opened the game by walking Baltimore lead off man Curt Blefary, but he escaped the frame unscathed. He wasn’t so lucky in the second when Baltimore’s Boog Powell produced the first hit and run in the history of the Coliseum with one swing as he slugged a one-out, solo home run.

Baltimore spoiled the A’s west coast debut 4-1 with Krausse taking the loss.

Click below for more of a tremendous look at A’s baseball history, Marty [Read more →]

When Juan Marichal got the news
about being the second Latinamerican
player to have a statue,
he was honored, thrilled, but not
well informed.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

When baseball fans hear names such as Johnny Sain, Walt Hriniak, Charlie Lau, and Leo Mazzone they immediately recognize some of the most successful major league coaches in baseball history, men who have shaped the careers of numerous hall of famers.

Add A’s infield coach Ron Washington to the above list.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Marty; There isn’t much left to say about the unfortunate Bonds interview the other day. The man is clearly in trouble and his troubles don’t reside solely in damaged knees. As said here recently, the courtroom is a different venue from a press conference. Bonds will not be able to exclude people he doesn’t approve of from the courtroom. The beat reporter from the Chronicle will remain in the courtroom whether Bonds approves of him or not.

Bonds has a narrow and incorrect view of what constitutes the media. The Chronicle, the focus of his disdain, is a San Francisco, Northern California, provincial paper. I daresay that Bonds didn’t read the national press, such as the New York Times. the day after his latest press conference. Under the Nixonian heading, “Won’t Be a Surly Superstar To Kick Around Anymore”, sportswriter Selena Roberts expressed her contempt for Bonds, as a person, in no uncertain terms, describing what she characterized as his “aversion to accountability”.

Fans Ed Stern is the most qualified person I know to comment on what lies ahead for Barry Bonds.

Marty
[Read more →]

The National League might have
to wait until the All Star break
to see its biggest star take a
swing in pursuit of the record.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Marty; Two comments, one by you and one by Amaury, are provocative. Amaury says, in his article analyzing the American League, “leave the steroids to the clinical experts”. You point out that the Giants, without Bonds, “are a very old team without a leader”. There is a relationship between these observations.

Click below for more from Ed…..thanks Marty

[Read more →]

A good major league bench is made up of players who understand their role.

Examples of players who have successfully filled that role recently on winning teams are: John Mabry, Olmedo Saenz, Ruben Sierra and Gabe Kapler.

The 2005 projected A’s bench players don’t fit that mold.

Here’s what I mean.

The projected bench players who will leave Phoenix want to play every day, not sit by waiting for a chance to contribute late in a game. [Read more →]

Let’s leave the steroids with the “clinical experts”
in the talk shows and let’s talk baseball with the
start of the 2005 Major League Season.
With that in mind these are my predictions.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Scottsdale,Arizona [Read more →]

Marty; The season is a bare two weeks from opening day. The free agent frenzy has quieted down. Teams have made their moves, huge sums of money, when available, have been committed. Whether the money has been wisely spent remains to be seen. The Giants have been among the free spenders. Predicting the wisdom of their moves is a hazardous venture. Nevertheless, one might get some small credit for making the attempt.

The Giants have provided an on-going drama for the past five or six years. They have won division titles, been to the playoffs consistently, and, in 2002, came hearbreakenly close to winning it all. This was done while fielding a team of average talent, playing alongside the incomparable Barry Bonds, arguably the greatest hitter the game has known.

Click below for more!
[Read more →]