See American Innings: History through the eyesof Baseball - with Martin Lurie
May I have the envelope, please…

2004 regular season is
h i s t o r y.
Below are my picks
for the main awards.
Everybody here
follows the game
so the stats are
there to see.
Amaury Pi-González
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October 4, 2004 No Comments
The Trade That Ended the Season by Ed Stern

Marty, This is being written the morning after the ninth inning. It is still not known how today’s games play out. The likelihood is that the season is over for the Giants today but it matters litttle. No matter how today’s games end, the season is over. The Giants will not be successful in a playoff, if, by some unlikely scenario, they get that far. This season’s last column is not premature.
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October 3, 2004 No Comments
Sunday Morning

Within the space of 29 minutes both Bay Area teams suffered agonizing losses.
The Giants might live for another day, the A’s won’t.
The A’s lost when their starting pitcher, Barry Zito, didn’t want to return to the mound in the eighth inning because his legs were starting to feel funny and he thought he was losing his fluidity on the mound.
Huh?
Can you picture Juan Marichal, Jack Morris, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Tim Hudson, or Dave
Stewart saying such a thing?
No way. Unbelievable!
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October 3, 2004 No Comments
Batter Up October 2nd, 2004

With the playoffs scheduled to open up next Tuesday I can’t find a clear cut favorite to win the world series.
The Cardinals looked closest to a sure thing two weeks ago. Now over the past two weeks their starting pitching has come apart.
Matt Morris, the ace of the staff has an ERA over 4.70 after giving up 6 runs in 4 innings Thursday to the low flying Brewers. Chris Carpenter is out of the first round with forearm miseries. Jason Marquis has struggled noticeably in September, leaving Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan as Tony La Russa’s most reliable starters.
Teams win in October with strong starting pitching. It’s not a pretty sight right now in St. Louis.
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October 2, 2004 No Comments
A Giant Win
The Dodgers have to be talking to themselves tonight. The Giants beat then 4-2 to move within
2 games of 1st place. Is it possible that the Giants
could sweep the Dodgers? Why not. Stranger
things have happened. It’s quite possible that there
will a 4th game with the Dodgers to determine
the outcome. For all the Giant fans out there you
just have to love the desire that this group has shown all year. The get an A for effort and there
could just be another miracle waiting to happen.
Shades of 1951.
Jerry Feitelberg [Read more →]
October 2, 2004 No Comments
Backs against the wall
The A’s lost tonight by a score of 10 to zip. The
neat thing about baseball is that a team can lose a
laugher one day and then come back and win the
next game or 2 and take the set. Tha A’s must in Saturday. If they lose the season is done. Zito
must be in top form. One has to wonder if Mulder
is suffering from a tired arm. It happens a lot in baseball. That’s why pitch counts are important. But
arms get tired late in the season and while the mechanics look good, the velocity just isn’t there.
So, all the A’s fans let’s hope that Barry Zito can
pitch a great game saturday and prolong the season for 1 more day. The A’s still have a chance
to win the division. It won’t be easy but there is
no quit in this team. Give your best shot guys.
Jerry Feitelberg [Read more →]
October 2, 2004 No Comments
Three Games With the Season On the Line by Ed Stern

Marty, One hundred and fifty -nine games behind them; a long stretch which has seen the team go from despair, with a pitching staff, both starters and bullpen, in disrepair, to cautious optimism, wondering how a team with such obvious flaws remains in contention.
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October 1, 2004 No Comments
157 and Still No Resolution

You play 157 games and figure by that time you ought to know where you stand.
No such luck.
The A’s now have five games at home to right the ship. The Angels have five games on the road to win the West.
Baseball wisdom tells me that the home team will prevail, but the A’s pitching has been abysmal. If they don’t get it right over the next two days with Rich Harden, their best starter, and Mark Redman, their worst starter at home, then it will be a tough weekend at the Coliseum. You don’t want to go in to that series down a game or two.
To make matters more appealing for Oakland, the Angels are throwing their pitchers this week on three days rest. I love the throwback to the days of Spahn, Ford, Drysdale, and Marichal, but I haven’t seen that plan work in the last 20 years.
If the A’s don’t get this one right it will be a huge upset.
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September 29, 2004 No Comments
high stakes drama
The A’s are up by one game over the Angels with 6
game left on the schedule. Last night’s game with
Seattle was a nail-biter or if you are over 60 years
old it was time to take your blood pressure pills. The
A’s built a 5-2 lead then saw it dissipate and the game
was tied at 5 apiece until the bottom of the 9th. The Angels had won their game against Texas and if the A’s
lost the teams would be tied for 1st place. In the fateful
9th last night, Durazo’s pop-up to shallow left field
might have been caught but is was a long run for the shortstop and then Ibanez,the leftfielder, bumped into
him and the play could not be made allowing Durazo
to make it to second base safely. Jermaine Dye followed with a good piece of hitting by hitting to the right side of the infield allowing the runner to advance to 3rd base with one out. The Mariners
walked the next batter to set up a double play and young Bobby Crosby followed by hitting a sac fly to right field that ended the game.
The A’s are in a must win situation every day now
for the next 6 days.Hopefully, Texas will draw blood
down in Arlington and if the A’s can get a little
breathing room before the big showdown series
this weekend with the Angels. This is the only race left in the AL to be decided. The Twins,Yanks and
Red Sox are in the party. What a great race and great season .
Jerry Feitelberg [Read more →]
September 28, 2004 No Comments
Batter Up September 25th, 2004

Perhaps the most exciting phrase in sports is uttered at the Kentucky Derby each May.
Down the stretch they come!
Baseball got it right when they set the final week of the schedule matching the teams in the division races.
The A’s have the advantage on the Angels and Rangers with their final seven games in Oakland beginning Monday night.
The Rangers hit the ball. They knocked the A’s starting pitching around for two weeks. Who do they think they are the Red Sox? If the season had 14 games to go instead of ten, then the Rangers win going away.
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September 25, 2004 No Comments
