It was only appropriate that the Oakland Athletics
would clinch the Division title againt the Seattle
Mariners. After all,they have owned the Mariners
since April.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Seattle,WashingtonIt wasn’t even close, A’s 12 Mariners 3 in
front of only 19,604 fans at Safeco Field
on the second game of a 3-game set between
the first and last place teams. When the last out was made there were maybe 3,000 A’S
fans chanting Let’s Go A’S behind the A’S dogout
and then the celebration started.

“It is always hard to see someone celebrate
against you” said Raul Ibanez,who is having
the best season of his career and leads the
Mariners in home runs and runs batted in,
“But of course, it hurts to see them celebrate
on your field, specially when the team is in
your division”.

Local TV stations interviewed A’s winning pitcher Rich Harden, who was born just 2 hours North on highway 5 from Seattle. He is from Victoria,
British Columbia,Canada. Prior to the game I
visited the A’S dressing room, it was quiet
but 4 hours later the inevitable happened, the A’S won the division. They deserve to win it, they are the best team in the West this year. By the time the
A’S took the field in the bottom of the ninth they
had the score from Anaheim right in front in
the left-center field electronic scoreboard,
Texas 5 Los Angeles Angels 2. So minutes
before they clinch their Numero Magico was
reduced to one.

“There is no way to explain it” Said Mariners
manager Mike Hardgrove on the domination
of the A’S over the M’S this season.
The A’S lost the first game in April here at
Safeco and won all the games(15) in between until Monday the 25th of September the Mariners
tied the game with 3 runs in the ninth and won it
10-9 with a run in the bottom of the tenth.
As I write this column I am getting ready for
the last game of the season for the Mariners against the A’S “Thank God”said one Mariners
broadcaster here…(not me) I just call it.
By late tonight these two teams would have
finished their series for the 2006 season,
the A’S would finish either 17-2 or
16-3 against Seattle, take your pick.

Congratulations to the whole Oakland organization,like Tony LaRussa used to tell me
“the toughest thing is to win your division”. And the
A’S did it. Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher are
the co-MVP of this 2006 Oakland team in my
opinion. Ken Macha should get lots of votes for
American League Manager of the Year, although
Jim Leyland of the Tigers is going to win it
‘going away’.

Will the A’s open de ALDS in Detroit or Minnesota ?
we will have to wait probably until Sunday,
the 1st of October, game 162 to find out.
I didn’t like the Wild Card at the beginning, but
today I love it, it is one of the best thing this
current Commissioner has done for the game.

Finally talking about Wild Card, I think the real
Wild Card in the A’s Postseason hopes on how far they advance is Rich Harden.

The Fremont A’s (sorry could not helped it as
a Fremont resident since the late 70’s) could be on their way to their first World Series since 1990,which I remember very well as the Reds
did the A’s in. As a matter of fact I remember
very well the last 3 World Series for the A’s
88,89,90,those were fun years.