By Ernie Montella

Check out philadelphiaathletics.org for original story.

I suppose you could say that it was the scripted “A’ on the players uniform I noticed as I handed the dealer $6 for that packet of musty looking newspaper clippings tucked into an equally tattered plastic bag. It was May 1998 and I was out of town at a sports memorabilia convention just browsing around hoping something would catch my eye. For some reason out of thousands of collectibles in the room I was drawn to a bag of old newspaper clippings. [Read more →]

THE LOST ART OF KEEPING SCORE

BY ALAN GOLDFARB

As someone who covers baseball, I take a fat white-covered, spiral-bound book with me to every game. It’s a small book really, but when one peruses its pages, wonderful stories are revealed. The stories are told, however, not in words, but in symbols. The symbols are so cryptic, that in another time, they could very well be mistaken for hieroglyphs. [Read more →]

Mickey Vernon outpointed two of the all time best, Al Rosen in 1953 and Ted Williams in 1946, to win his two two American league batting titles. Vernon played in the major leagues from 1939 thru 1960, four decades, in a wonderful major league career. Mickey Vernon lives in Pennsylvania and is our guest live via telephone on Tuesday at 5:50 PM Pacific right here on LOTGP.com, the A’s website, or 610 KFRC AM, in Northern California. [Read more →]

The A’s and the Giants have played 43 games on their way to 162 in this 2002 season.

The Giants trail Arizona by one half game in the NL West, the A’s can barely see the Mariners, ten games in front of the AL West.

Are both these teams in trouble?

I’ll tell you what I think. [Read more →]

Toronto pitching coach Mark Connor had the distinction of working for George Steinbrenner as pitching coach of the Yankees in the 90’s, then moving on to be the head baseball coach at the University of Tennesse, before returning to the majors with the Diamondbacks and now the Blue Jays. An interesting odyssey for this very talented man. Connor is Sunday morning’s guest on ROTB heard at 8:50 AM Pacific right here on LOTGP.com, the A’s website, or 610 AM KFRC in Northern California. [Read more →]

I was privileged to meet Joe Black, former Negro League pitcher and NL Rookie of the Year in 1952 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, during one spring training in Arizona. Joe Black 78, passed away yesterday. Today on Right Off the Bat, I will play two interviews I had with Joe about Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, two very important men in baseball history.

The show airs at 8:50 AM Pacific here on LOTGP.com, or thru the A’s website, or 610 AM KFRC in Northern California.

I’ll miss Joe Black. He was a special man. [Read more →]

Seems like it’s, here’s the good news, here’s the bad news, coming from of the A’s each day.

Friday ws no exception.

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? [Read more →]

What’s wrong with the A’s?

It’s not the bull pen. Barry Zito proved that Thursday night against the Red Sox, combining on a 5-0 shut out with Billy Koch.

Mark Mulder makes a huge start for the Athletics Friday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Here’s why. [Read more →]

With the recent downward surge of the A’s into the cellar of the American League West, you can point blame at every aspect of the team. The struggling offense has yet to pull of a string of hits to get any sort of offensive rally, while the starting pitching has allowed opposing teams to get monstrous offensive innings and never look back. [Read more →]

I knew I was going to see two future Hall of Famers at Pac Bell Park Thursday night.

I knew both were capable of controlling the game.

I didn’t know who would come out on top as the mild mannered Greg Maddux squared off against Superman, Barry Bonds.

Here’s what happened. [Read more →]