This is the final entry in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. If you want to read the previous nineteen entries, you can find them in the Nostalgia section.

Coming off the best A’s season of my adult life, I was pretty optimistic for 2007. Of course, there were hurdles to overcome, as we lost both Barry Zito and Frank Thomas to free agency. But seeing the team get over the first round hump gave me a feeling that maybe this group led by Nick Swisher and Danny Haren could actually do something the Giambi-Tejada-Big 3 group couldn’t.

My hopes seemed confirmed as they kept pace in April and May. Haren and Chad Gaudin were stellar at the top of the rotation, and even though Rich Harden was lost again to injury, the A’s were right in it in the tight AL West race.

But then, players starting dropping like flies as the DL housed Harden, along with Huston Street, Mark Kotsay, Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, Travis Buck, Mike Piazza and others in the summer of ‘07. The A’s started making minor moves to bring in guys like Ryan Langerhans (briefly) and Jack Cust.

In early May of last year, I was in the process of moving from Colorado to Wisconsin, so getting A’s news was pretty difficult for me. I remember checking the official site every few days just to see what was going on, and I’d go, “Who??” because of what was written about some guy that I had no clue was an A.

So 2007 went from a decent start to an injury-plagued disappointment. We said goodbye to players in trades (Jason Kendall and Milton Bradley) and hello to rookies getting an early shot than expected (Kurt Suzuki, Dallas Braden, and Dan Myer).  Three stress-free second half of the season was nice change, but I still would have rather seen the A’s healthy and in the race.

A few days ago, Bob Geren said the A’s are emphasizing baserunning during spring training in an effort to get more aggressive on the basepaths this season. After all, if you listen to ESPN commentators, this is something the A’s really need to improve on. I mean, really - they NEVER bunt, they NEVER run, and all they do is walk and wait for the three-run homer. 

Apparently in their intrasquad game yesterday, however, they were really bad at it. (Though for the record, the example used in the article is Jeff Baisley, a dude who has no chance of making the team.) But I guess running aggressively and making outs is better than not running at all, right, Joe Morgan?

Today the A’s play their Cactus League opener against the Brewers. We may have an actual box score to look at soon!

Go A’s!!

This is the nineteenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. To read my previous entries, check out the Nostalgia section.

Missing the playoffs the last two years, my expectations for 2006 were not that high. I expected the A’s to compete, as they always did, but not like the earlier part of the decade. Still, the team was making moves to get better, this time brining in The Big Hurt, Frank Thomas, on a no-risk one-year deal to be the team’s DH and trading away super prospect Andre Ethier to bring long-time rumored trade acquisition Milton Bradley.

Then there was the signing that made me send an email to my brother with the subject line: “Who kidnapped Billy Beane and started making deals?” That was the signing of Esteban Loaiza to a three-year deal.

With Nick Swisher, Dan Haren, and Joe Blanton emerging though, it was a good 2006 for the A’s. Even Loaiza was good after starting out awful and spending a good chunk of the first half of the season on the DL. And Barry Zito was an adequate ace, in likely his final season in green and gold.

I worried about the team choking down the stretch, but they managed to clinch the AL West with several days to spare. As the regular season winded down, I turned my attention the AL Central and Wild Card races, as those would determine who the A’s would face in the ALDS.

I wanted the Tigers. The team that was leading the AL Central for most of the year was in the middle of a classic meltdown, and all they needed to do was win one game the final weekend against the Kansas City Royals to secure their division win and a date with the A’s in the first round of the playoffs. But, much to my agony, they couldn’t get it together and were swept by the Royals. The Minnesota Twins snuck in and grabbed the Central instead, and were ready to face off with the A’s.

Ugh, I couldn’t stand it. I felt absolutely hopeless. I remember telling Twins fans (including Jeff at Twin City Longball), “Congrats on making it to the ALCS before one ALDS pitch was thrown. That’s how absolutely not confident I was in the A’s versus the Twins.

Sports commentators agreed. I don’t remember who it was, but before Game 1, when Barry Zito was going to take on Johan Santana at the Metrodome, one guy doing a game preview scoffed and said, “Whatever, you ain’t beating Joahan.”

But then, something happened. Frank Thomas hit a home run. Barry Zito threw zeroes. And someway, somehow, the A’s beat Santana and had a 1-0 lead.

Then, something else happened. Esteban Loaiza pitched well. Torii Hunter dove and Mark Kotsay kept running. And the A’s had themselves a 2-0 lead going home.

Of course, we had been there before. 2001 anyone? And this game coming up - Game 3 - it was on October 6 yet again, my freakin’ birthday.

But we had Dan Haren and they had Brad Radke, whose arm was hanging by a thread. We had a Milton Bradley home run and a Marco Scutaro double. We had ourselves a sweep! Happy birthday to me, finally!

And then we got the Tigers, as I had hoped. But fresh off upsetting the Yankees, the Tigers weren’t the petering-out crew we watched down the stretch. I expected a good ALCS, but from the early moments of Game 1, I knew this wouldn’t be good for the A’s. The sweepers became the sweepees, and what was a magical ride came to an abrupt end.

The 2006 season, while disappointing, still stands as the greatest A’s season of my adult life. I’ll always remember fondly the year they finally got over the first round hump.

Coming next Friday, February 29 - 2007: The not-so-distant past as this series comes to a close.

I’ve got a couple A’s items to address as we begin our first full week of Spring Training:

1. Jeremy Brown retiring was surprising news. But, how surprising to me, really? It was only a few months ago when I created him in The Sims 2 to play out his post-baseball life. He was a school teacher, married a doctor, and had two daughters. Did I subconsciously expect that the end was near for our loveable “fat catcher”?

In response to Brown hanging it up, the A’s signed Matt LeCroy to a minor-league deal. LeCroy was another one of my Baseball Mogul favorites and he has often been an A in my imaginary A’s world. But this time he’s likely to be a Rivercat, baring some catastrophic event involving Kurt Suzuki or Rob Bowen.

2. Baseball Prospectus released their 2008 PECOTA projected standings, and guess what? The A’s didn’t finish in last place. They didn’t even finish third. They finished second, bee-yotches. (78-84, 11 games behind the obvious division winner, LAAoA.)

Sure, it’s fake baseball played with fake stats, but if I can get confirmation from a credible source that I’m not crazy in thinking this team isn’t that bad, I’ll take it.

3. My hubby and I cleared 8 inches of snow from our driveway this morning. We’ve been dumped on mercilessly by Mother Nature this winter, but just knowing there are men in green and gold playing baseball somewhere in the country right now makes me see a light at the end of this cold, dark tunnel.

Go A’s!!

We now have photographic evidence of actual Oakland Athletics partaking in baseball-related activities in Phoenix.

Looks like Duchscherer is preforming a magic trick for the skipper. Or maybe that’s a new pitch… if so, that’s pretty devastating. Go A’s!!

This is the eighteenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. My previous entries - 1988 through 2004 - can be found in the Nostalgia section.  

After not making the playoffs for the first time in five seasons in 2004, we were still optimistic that the team could get back on top in the AL West. Bobby Crosby had been Rookie of the Year in ‘04, and we had just dumped Mark Redman and Arthur Rhodes to the Pirates for All Star - yet overpaid - Jason Kendall. And we still had the Big Three. Or did we?

Tim Hudson was going to be a free agent after the ‘05 season, so A’s fans weren’t too optimistic he was going to stick around. I was all for a trade rather than the let-them-walk-and-take-a-draft-pick approach that was fine with our other former players, as this was Huddy, the heart and soul of the pitching staff.

Trade rumors swirled around Huddy and I remember Dan Patrick erroneously reporting that he was traded to the Dodgers at some point in December of 2004 - probably about a week before he actually was moved to the Braves for Juan Cruz, Charles Thomas, and Dan Meyer. I was certainly expecting it, so it wasn’t a surprise.

But nothing prepared me for what happened two days later, when the A’s traded Mark Mulder to the Cardinals for Kiki Calero, Danny Haren, and Daric Barton. I remember my brother calling me all freaked out: “What are they doing!?!?!?!?” Little did we know, this would be the trade we’d grow to love.

So before we even turned the calendars to 2005, we were down to the Big One in Barry Zito.  Still, I was confident we had a good team. And when I tuned in to ESPN to see some analysis, I was expecting something insightful. Instead, what I got was Linda Cohn shrugging her shoulders and saying, “I guess the A’s are now the Kansas City Royals West.” And that was it! I was fuming mad, and I’ll never forget it.

So the 2005 A’s, led by Barry Zito, were going to have to prove the league wrong. This was not the Kansas City Royals West, despite the need to rely on unproven players like Haren and rookies Joe Blanton and Nick Swisher.

All the nay-sayers must’ve thought they were right when the A’s fell into the AL West cellar and were 12.5 games out of first place by the end of May. But in typical A’s fashion, even the Mulder-less and Hudson-less team was 19-8 in June and 20-6 in July, and had a share of first place on August 6.

It was another dogfight to the end with the Angels, highlighted by one of my favorite A’s-Angels moment in the K-Rod sulk-off. But for the second year in a row, it ended with the Angels winning the AL West title on the A’s home field. But in year that began with predictions of last place, it was satisfying enough to give the Angels another run for their money.

Coming next Friday, February 22 - 2006: The best is yet to come… 

Today is the first voluntary reporting day for A’s pitchers and catchers to spring training in Phoenix. Here are the names we may see in green and gold in the coming days!

Active roster - pitchers:

Joe Blanton, Jerry Blevins, Dallas Braden, Andrew Brown, Kiko Calero, Santiago Casilla, Joey Devine, Lenny DiNardo, Justin Duchscherer, Alan Embree, Dana Eveland, Keith Foulke, Chad Gaudin, Jeff Gray, Rich Harden, Fernando Hernandez, Dan Meyer, Henry Rodriguez, Huston Street

Active roster - catchers:

Rob Bowen, Landon Powell, Kurt Suzuki

Non-roster invitees - pitchers:

Troy Cate, Angel Garcia, Gio Gonzalez, Arnold Leon, Jay Marshall, Kirk Saarloos, James Simmons, Greg Smith, Ryan Wing, Brad Zeigler

Non-roster invitees - catchers:

Jeremy Brown, Justin Knoedler, Anthony Rucker

The list includes four trade acquisitions, a Rule 5 guy, and three of the team’s top 10 prospects. For the first time in 2008, I’m saying it - Go A’s!!!

It’s Pitchers and Catchers Eve, so let’s getting to a few of the developing A’s items as our green and gold battery mates descend on Phoenix!

1. The A’s signed Mike Sweeney to a minor league deal. We love us some former Royals, don’t we?

I know it is is just a minor league deal, but I can’t imagine them signing him to be the Rivercats’ DH. This seems to spell the end of Dan Johnson’s green and gold days, as Daric Barton is definitely the full time first baseman and Sweeney and Cust could platoon at DH (Sweeney vs. LHP). There is really no place for Johnson anymore. He should be wearing a different uniform come Opening Day.

2. Joe Blanton is on the front burner of the hot stove again, now that Santana, Haren, and Bedard have all been moved. He’s the best available pitcher, and Beane is looking for a Swisher-like package for him, or even more. Sounds good to me, as with Haren, we don’t have to trade Blanton. Give us what we want though and we will.

MLBTradeRumors.com reports the Reds are pursuing him the most aggressively, and they definitely have an attractive group of prospects in their system. Jay Bruce ain’t happening (though I did trade him to the A’s in Baseball Mogul once), but guys like Homer Bailey, Joey Votto, Johnny Cueto, and Drew Stubbs are being discussed.

A lot of other teams have been mentioned, with varying sources saying they are and aren’t interested: Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Rockies, Indians, Devil Rays, Twins, Angels.

3. I’m going to squeal with delight the first time I see a green catcher’s mask this year. Woooooo! I can hardly stand it!!!

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that the A’s have signed Keith Foulke to a one-year, major league deal. This is baffling to say the least.

If you don’t recall, Foulke retired last year.  So we’re going young, but we’re signing retired guys. Is Goose Gossage next?

This is the seventeenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. Previous entries 1988 through 2003 can be found in the Nostalgia section.  

By 2004, my fellow A’s fans and I had grown pretty used to key players leaving for free agency each offseason.

The 2003 offseason leading into 2004 was no different, as we saw our former MVP Miguel Tejada depart for the Baltimore Orioles. Miguel’s exit was a bit extra sad as the last image we have of him as an A is his emotional ranting and raving after Game 5 and the Derek Lowe crotch shot.

But rookie Bobby Crosby was supposed the heir to the shortstop position and he’d be getting his shot as the starter in ‘04. The Big Three were still intact, and Rich Harden was up for his first full season. Jermaine Dye was hopefully going to be healthy. We said goodbye to Terrence Long and Ramon Hernandez in a trade for Mark Kotsay, who we expected would give us a more solid bat at the top of the order.

The Angels, however, had beefed up big time in the offseason. They added the biggest bat on the free agent market in Vladimir Guerrero, and they bolstered their rotation with free agents Bartolo Colon and Kelvim Escobar. After their post-championship season of mediocrity, they were ready to spend big and challenge the A’s for the AL West.

This was also the year a seemingly minor offseason move turned into a big one, as waiver-pickup Marco Scutaro got the full-time second base job after Mark Ellis separated his shoulder in spring training, ending his season.

The Arthur Rhodes experiment began this year, as Billy Beane thought the veteran setup man could certainly close for the A’s. It was disastrous to say the least,  and in May, Billy got in on the Carlos Beltran sweepstakes, trading for Houston’s Octavio Dotel in a three-way trade with the Astros and Royals.

The Angels proved a formidable foe throughout the season, as we battled with them in the standings all season long. The A’s were on top of the standings a lot, especially late in the season. But the collapse of 2004 was inevitable as the Big Three began unraveling.

For Tim Hudson, it was that oblique injury. He was having an All-Star season when the injury sidelined him for six weeks. Barry Zito continued to struggle to regain his Cy Young form. And Mark Mulder just simply imploded.

I don’t know if we ever heard what was wrong with Mulder (I’ve only read a few chapters of Aces - what a horrible A’s fan I am! - so I don’t know how this was explained in that book).  Maybe he was hurt, or maybe he just completely lost his confidence. But I remember as that final series with the Angels loomed, Mulder had lost his last three outings, and I was scared. The A’s were tied with Anaheim, and two out of three in the series would take the division. I was inspired to write a couple of my first ever diaries on Athletics Nation.

I remember that first game, and how doomed I felt after Alfredo Amazaga, of all people, hit a grand slam off Joe Blanton (who had come in to relieve the craptastic Mulder) to put the Angels up 8-0 in the sixth inning. And I remember in the second game how the A’s were up  4-2 going in to the eighth inning and the bullpen blew it, causing a Halo celebration on the A’s home field. For the first time since 1999, we were going to have an A’s-less postseason.

So this brings up the question I asked at the end of last week’s entry: is it better to not make the playoffs than to make the playoffs and lose?

My answer is a hesitant no. Sure, I didn’t experience as much pain as I did the years we lost in Game 5, but isn’t it great to be there anyway? It’s like a game of the Price is Right - isn’t it better to get to “come on down,” even if you don’t make it out of contestant’s row? I’d rather do that than just sit in the audience, wishing my name would be called.

But everyone knows the Showcase Showdown is still the best part of the show.

Coming next Friday, February 15: 2005 - The Big One and the Kansas City Royals West.