With about 100 games left in the 2006 baseball season things are no clearer now than they were when the first pitch was thrown on April 2nd.

The AL West is still a mystery.

The Angels are not playing good baseball. Perhaps the most disturbing sign for Angel fans is the lack of hustle exhibited by super utility player Chone Figgins this week.

The Angels are a team built on hustle. They play the game correctly. Not so this year.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND – Roger Maris, Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter. World Series champions. Yankee gods.

And former A’s.

Few in New York even remember that Maris was an K.C. Athletic first. Or that the “invincible” Yankees of 1927-28 were utterly destroyed by the mighty Philadelphia A’s of 1929.

Our Reggie wears a Yankee cap in Cooperstown. That hurts. At least Catfish stuck with us.

And there was the Berkeley Brawler, Billy Martin. Wanting to be a Yankee for life, he was demoted to the A’s (the Kansas City version). For a New York loyalist, it was the equivalent of a degrading banishment to baseball Siberia.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Many years ago, in fact it was the 1987 Major League Baseball All Star Game in Oakland,California, Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso told me that “20 years from today, Hispanics will just about domintate in baseball”.
As a kid growing up in Cuba, Miñoso was my favorite player. He played for the Marianao Tigers of the old Cuban Professional Winter League.
What he told me almost 20 years ago in Oakland
is true, it is happening. Miñoso is in his 80s today and lives in Chicago, the city he loves and for the
team he played with the White Sox for most of his career.

By Amaury Pi-González [Read more →]

Marty–Here’s something I wrote about a long-time friend of mine who died yesterday. Bob Giron worked as our equipment manager at USF for over 36 years, and his career in the Army I think went back to when Ike suited up for West Point. But he’s one of those characters you meet around sports who brought a timeless quality to every conversation and delivered genuine warmth with every handshake!

George Devine, Jr.

George thanks for the thoughtful article about a good man in the world, not just the world of sports.

Marty [Read more →]

Marty; The series with the Mets last week was encouraging in many respects, discouraging in others. The Mets are concededly one of the strongest teams in the league. The Giants more than held their own with them. They took two out of three, with a little luck could have swept them. On the other hand, Benitez almost blew two of the winning games.

Before the season began, it was the informed opinion that the West Division was the weakest division in the league. Almost sixty games have been played and the two leading teams are Arizona and LA, with the Giants tied for third, four games behind Arizona. Arizona and LA are improved clubs. If Gagne shortly comes back healthy, LA will be the club to contend with. This division has four teams over the .500 mark; the Central and East divisions have two. Arizona, last week, swept a four game series with Atlanta, on the road. The West has shown it can compete successfully.

Click below for more!

[Read more →]

Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (June 6) – Oakland is 9-14 in one-run games (games decided by one run) in 2006.

The A’s have had difficulty scoring thus far, and in holding leads when they do.

Knowing this, Frank Thomas, of all people, “manufactured” the Oakland Athletics’ first run on Sunday against the Minnesota Twins.

Leading off the bottom of the second, Thomas lined a ball into the left field corner. Hustling out of the box, even if in slow motion, the Big Hurt surprised everyone at the Oakland Coliseum, including Twins’ leftfielder Lew Ford, when he set off on a gingerly jog to second base, arriving a hair before the ball.

Then, in a relative burst of speed, Thomas scored from second without as much as a throw from right field on Bobby Crosby’s line single.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Torii Hunter Interview June 1, 2006

Talks about last year’s setback with his injury, the All-star catch vs. Bonds, hitting walls….literally, and Trade rumors.

Inside Baseball with Marty Lurie – Week in Review: Top Team – Yanks or the Red Sox, These one-run games: Can the A’s Keep up?, A’s offensive struggles: Managing tough games, Is the A.L. Central the toughest division?

Segment one : Marty, Bruce Magowan and A’s Manager: Ken Macha
Segment two : Marty and Bruce Magowan.
Segment three: Marty and Bruce Magowan.
Segment four : Marty and Bruce Magowan.
Segment five : Marty and Bruce Magowan.

[Read more →]

With the baseball season passing the one-third mark this week the strengths and weaknesses of the teams are coming into focus.

Texas still needs pitching. But this time the need is not in the pen. The biggest concern right now is team ace Kevin Millwood. The 65 million dollar man can’t pitch effectively in Arlington. Not good when you are the team’s number one starter and you aren’t getting past the sixth inning in your home ballpark.

Click below for more! [Read more →]

Rick Kaplan
Staff Writer

OAKLAND (June 3) – It was the 1950’s. We worshipped our baseball heroes.

We wanted to be just like them.

But to my grandfather, a tireless curmudgeon who hunted up prospects as a birddog for the Yankees and the Giants in his day, my stars were all unworthy, lazy bums.

I quietly suffered while he complained about Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron.

Click below for more! [Read more →]