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.

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.

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… 

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.   

This is the sixteenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. If you missed my previous entires, you can find them all - beginning with 1988 - in the Nostalgia section.  

I went into 2003 with as much optimism as I had the previous three seasons, but I was still feeling the blows of not one, not two, but three first-round losses in a row. Still, our team was great on paper, and I had hope that they could finally get over the hump.

Before spring training was over, however, A’s ownership announced they weren’t going to re-sign the reigning MVP, Miguel Tejada. To even make him an offer with the team’s meager budget would have been insulting, they said. So we knew, right from the get-go, that this was Miguel’s farewell year.

It was a different kind of year for me as an A’s fan, as in the winter of ‘02-’03, I left northern California and moved to Colorado. Lucky for me, 2003 was the year MLB.com’s MLB.tv was launched, so I was able to watch games just as much as I did when I was a local fan.

It was another great race in the AL West with the Mariners (the defending world champion Angels reverted to mediocrity for a year) and Billy made another deadline deal (Jose Guillen from the Reds for Aaron Harang) to solidify the A’s position as the division champs again. And this time - our fourth postseason trip in a row - we were going to face th e Red Sox.

I was definitely nervous, as I knew how much the first three years hurt. I remember saying to my brother, “If we’re going to lose, I just hope we get swept.” But then there was that fantastic Game 1 that went to extra innings and ended on Ramon Hernandez’s walk-off bunt. We flailed and cheered silently (it was after midnight and we were in a house where people were sleeping) and I remember hopping and skipping with glee as I made the short trip on foot back to my house.

I also remember Miguel Tejada pumping his fist as he recorded the final out of Game 2. So here we were, up 2-0. I was thrilled to be in a commanding position, but I was in no way comfortable. We had been there before.

Then there was the awful display of baserunning in Game 3. If only Tejada had kept running, or if Eric Byrnes had touched the plate. 2-1.

And then there was Tim Hudson leaving the game after one inning and Kieth Foulke’s sorry attempt at a two-inning save. We’re tied up, 2-2.

So here we were, another Game 5. And for the second year in a row, Game 5 was going to be played on October 6 - my birthday.

One word of advice - never try to hold a birthday party for a die-hard fan of a sports team while said sports team is playing a playoff game that could potentially end their season in heartwrenching fashion.

One sucked, two was depressing, and three was heartbreaking. But four? I don’t think I’ve ever hated this team as much as I hated them the night of my 26th birthday.  But that didn’t stop me from coming back for more…

Coming next Friday, February 8: 2004 - Is not making the playoffs better than making the playoffs and losing? 

This is the fifteenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. If you missed my previous entries and want to read more, check out the Nostalgia section.

After a disappointing end to 2001, 2002 didn’t exactly begin with a lot of hope. Sure, we still had the Big Three, but this was the offseason Jason Giambi bolted for the Yankees. I think we all remember how we felt when we first saw our frat house leader all cleaned up and Yankee-fied. It was nauseating.

Jason Isringhausen and Johnny Damon departed as well, leaving holes in the bullpen and outfield. Billy plugged those holes with some players that we, at the time, didn’t know what to expect from: Billy Koch and David Justice. We also brought in the combo of Carlos Pena and Scott Hatteberg to try and fill Giambi’s shoes.

And it wasn’t a good start to 2002 either. Pena started off good the first week and then took a nose dive. The team was 20-25 and nine games out of first place on May 22 when Beane decided to trade Jeremy Giambi to the Phillies and demote Carlos Pena and someone else (relying on memory - Jeff Tam?) to the minors. It was a much-needed wake-up call to the underachieving team.

Then came the trading deadline, and the A’s were very active. There was the three-way deal with the Yankees and Tigers that brought Ted Lilly to the A’s and sent Jeremy Bonderman and Carlos Pena to the Tigers. I’ve talked about that before. And we also picked up Ray Durham to bring some more spark to second base and DH.

Winning records in June and July surged the A’s back over the .500 mark, but on August 13, they were still 4.5 games out of first place. Coming off a one-run loss to the Blue Jays the night before, the A’s needed a little late-season magic. They needed a winning streak - and boy, did they get one.

When Barry Zito beat Chris Carpenter on August 13, it felt like just another A’s win. And I didn’t realize the magic that was beginning when I went to the game the next day, and watched the A’s take the series from the Blue Jays with a 4-2 win.

Then the A’s steamrolled through the White Sox and the Indians, and we had ourselves a real winning streak. I remember watching the game against Detroit on TV on August 25, and the A’s had a 10-game winning streak, trying for 11. I was really pissed when the Tigers went up 7-2 in the fourth inning, and I remember my dad saying something like, “It’s OK, we still took two out of three.” And I yelled, “But the streak is on the line!!!!” Little did I know I was referring to something known as The Streak - something that would have much greater significance in the coming days.

The A’s won that game, with John Mabry getting the big pinch-hit double in the eighth inning. They went on to win a few more after that, including a couple of thrillers won by Miguel Tejada walkoff hits. And then there was, of course, the 12-11 victory over the Royals that ended on a Hatteberg pinch-hit, walkoff homer for the big #20.

It couldn’t last forever, as the A’s then went to Minnesota and lost while going for win #21. The damage to the AL West had been done, however, as they went into that Minnesota game up by two and never relinquished the lead again, finishing one game better than they had the previous year and taking the division by four games.

And, for one in the playoffs, the A’s were actually the favorites! This time, they’d be facing the Twins, and with Art Howe going with a three man rotation (gee, I wonder which three?), the A’s looked to finish the Twinkies off in four at the most.

I decided to purchase a ticket to a playoff game that year, and I went with Game 5, hoping I wouldn’t need it. Game 5, if neccessary, was to fall on my 25th birthday, and I wanted to be there for the big celebration if there was to be one.

The A’s lost Game 1, but after they won Games 2 and 3, I figured it was in the bag. Surely, I would not be going to a game on my birthday. But the Twins clobbered them in Game 4, sealing my fate. I was going to Game 5 on my birthday, and Mark Mulder was going on three days rest.

I won’t rehash the game because I’ve rehashed it before. I’ll also lead you here to read about the touching A’s moment I shared with a fan post-loss. I bought myself a T-shirt that says “There is an A in StreAk” to cheer myself up a bit, but it was still three in a row and a disappointing end to a heck of a year.

Coming next Friday, February 1 - 2003: It’ s a good thing things come in threes and not fours… or do they?

This is the fourteenth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. If you missed my previous entries, you can click on the Nostalgia section and read about 188 through 2000. 

After getting my first taste of the current crop of A’s being the playoffs, I was in it to win it in 2001. Billy Beane was too, as he pulled off the first true “F*&#ing A trade” that I remember - acquiring Johnny Damon (and side note Mark Ellis) in a three-way trade with the Royals and Devils Rays.

I remember emailing my brother about it and being really excited. Here we were, fresh of our first playoff appearance in eight years, and we’re trading for a premium leadoff hitter to set the table for our big guns. Sure, it cost us Ben Grieve, but he had really fallen out of favor in the previous year, despite being seen as the savior of the A’s offense just a few years before.

So we knew the A’s would be good. One thing we didn’t count on, however, was how insanely good the Mariners would be. Ichiro arrived stateside and ignited the team to a 116-46 record. The A’s managed to keep up,  however, and improved on their previous season by 11 games, going 106-60 to easily win the Wild Card.

Billy’s second big trade of the year definitely helped, as he acquired Jermaine Dye from the same Kansas City Royals that sent Damon to the A’s six months earlier.

2001 was the first year in which the A’s went up 2-0 in the division series heading home. Oh surely, they would be able to win it. What crazy mind-blowing, series-turning play could possibly turn the series around in Game 3?

We all remember too well that pitcher’s duel between Barry Zito and Mike Mussina, in which Jeremy Giambi failed to slide and Derek Jeter came out of freaking nowhere with a flip to the catcher. And that catcher, Jorge Posada, accounted for the only run of the game, a solo shot off Zito. I didn’t even have to look that up on Baseball Reference; it’s painfully etched into my brain.

And then in Game 4, Dye broke his leg. I think at that point, we all knew what was going to happen. At least the Arizona Diamondbacks got the last laugh against the Yankees that year.

This team went from very good in 2000 to very,very good in 2001, and despite a second straight playoff disappointment - and the inevitable offseason loss of Jason Giambi - I had high hopes for 2002.

Coming next Friday, January 25 - 2002: 20 in a row in a August - why not October?  

This is the thirteeth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan. Want to read my previous entries? Here are the links: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999.

New Millenium (at least that’s what some people were calling it), New A’s. The Sucky Years were officially over as we welcomed the year 2000.

We had a 20-game winner in youngster Tim Hudson, in his first full season in the majors. We had the AL MVP, Jason Giambi, with his .333 average and 43 home runs. Giambi got some offensive support from our young left side of the infield, Miguel Tejada and Erica Chavez. Rookie Terrence Long was promising, and Olmedo Saenz was an awesome pinch hitter/part time DH.

You can see how excited I was that the A’s were finally good again. (See picture at left - though that was this game, and the A’s lost.)

The 2000 season to me, however, is all about one game. The AL West came down to the final game of the season. If I recall correctly, the scenario was this: The Mariners and Indians were tied for the Wild Card. The A’s had a 1 1/2-game lead on the Mariners. If the A’s won their game, they won the division. If the the A’s lost and the M’s won, the A’s would have to go to Tampa to play a hurricained-out game from earlier in the year. If they lost that, they’d have a tie for the AL West lead.

I didn’t look this up; I’m going on pure memory here. But all that’s important is that the A’s needed to win the final game against the Rangers to clinch the AL West.

I vividly remember watching the game with my dad. Tim Hudson was on the hill, going for win #20, and he was dealing. But the A’s didn’t put anything on the board for the first six innings either, and it was a nail-biter.

Ramon Hernandez finally broke through with an RBI single in the 7th. Then Randy Velarde homered in the 8th, and I remember looking at my dad and pumping my fist - we knew the A’s were going to win at that point. I remember Olmedo Saenz smiling and pointing at teammates as he rounded the bases after his 8th-inning solo shot, because he knew too.

I remember watching the celebration, and my dad tearing up as we watched Ron Washinton, doused in champagne, saying, “This is for the kids! This is for the kids!” It was one of the happiest days in my A’s fan life.

Of course, the playoffs were a different story. It might have been different had Tim Hudson been able to pitch twice. But they were the Yankees, and we were just the little A’s. I didn’t really think the A’s were going to win the series at any point, especially once Terrence Long lost the ball in the sun in Game 5. So it wasn’t really a huge disappointment. Little did I know what lied ahead in the coming years…

Coming next Friday, January 18 - 2001: Some big trades, a crazy Mariners team, and a flip from shortstop to catcher…

This is the twelfth in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. If you want to read my previous entries (1988-1998), click on the Nostalgia link - they’re all there.

Going into 1999, did I realize the Sucky Years were over? I don’t remember for sure. I mean, I know I was excited about Ben Grieve, and Jason Giambi was becoming a superstar. Miguel Tejada was an up-and-comer, and surely that young kid Eric Chavez would do well. But did I differentiate those guys from Scott Spezio, Lance Blankenship, and Troy Neel? I’m not really sure.

But once 1999 got underway, I began to notice things. Things like the A’s winning games on a regular basis. After the usual slow April, they played good ball in May and were over .500 when June came around. And by mid-July, they were actually within striking distance of the Wild Card.

I remember the deadlines trades that year, as it was the first time in a long time the A’s made some mid-season deals that I actually wanted to pay attention to. Gone were Kenny Rogers and Billy Taylor. In were Jason Isringhausen and Terrence Long. They also acquired Randy Velarde and Omar Oliveras from the Angels and Kevin Appier from the Royals.

And then there was that amazing rookie that was called up in early June - Tim Hudson. That guy sure was good in ‘99. I remember thinking he deserved the ROY that year with his 11-2 record and 3.23 ERA. Some schumck named Carlos Beltran won it instead, and Huddy unjustly finished fifth! (Needless to say, I wasn’t paying much attention to the rest of the league.)

Anyway, it was odd caring about the standings in the second half of the season, as I hadn’t done so for seven years. Did I truly believe? Not really. But I was interested to see just how close they could get.

But on September 22 was the day I lost hope for the 1999 season. The A’s went into that day at 83-68, five games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card. My brother and I went to the game that day, and on the way we had discussed that it was a must-win, and the A’s had to play impeccable baseball over the next week to even have a shot.

They were playing the Twins that Wednesday afternoon, and it was drizzly and gloomy in Oakland. We were sitting in the front row on the left field line. Hudson started that game, and he pitched excellent for six innings, and the A’s had a 4-0 lead going into the seventh inning.

Corey Koskie singled, Terry Steinbach walked, and then David Ortiz grounded into a double play. But then, it started to unravel. Jaque Jones singled in a run, and then Hudson made an error on a Christian Guzman ball. Art Howe had seen enough, and gave Huddy the hook and brought in Tim Kubinski.

Kubinski promptly plunked Todd Walker, so Howe brought Tim Worrell in. The Marty Cordova walked, Matt Lawton singled, and Ron Coomer walked. I remember hanging my head as the tying run crossed the plate.

Buddy Groom came and and made sure the game didn’t stay tied, as he walked former A Brent Gates to make it 5-4. And that’s the way the game- and the A’s 1999 Wild Card hopes - ended.

The A’s showed a lot of promise that year, however, and I was excited for 2000. I just hoped they could keep up with those pesky Mariners…

Coming next Friday, January 11 - 2000: The hunt for a green October…

This is the eleventh in a 20-part series chronicling my 20 years as an A’s fan, year by year. Want to read my previous entries? Click on the Nostalgia section to read about 1988 through 1997. 

Already five years into The Sucky Years, 1998 came and none of us were expecting all that much, except maybe a Rookie of the Year award from one of our young’uns and some interesting new faces in green and gold.

Billy Beane made a big move in the offseason, acquiring Kenny “I Don’t Lose in the Coliseum” Rogers for young third baseman Scott Brosious. Brosious, of course, was well on his way to becoming the True Yankee that A-Rod will never be, as he was set for a run at third during the Yankees’ dynasty. Rogers became the first A starter to win 16 games since the A’s were actually a playoff team.

Rickey was also back, though at age 39, it was probably more for butts in the seats than anything. But really, what were you going to do? Give those at-bats to Jason McDonald?

This was the year of random journeymen filling the gaps where rookies didn’t. Guys like Tom Candiotti, Mike Blowers, Ed Sprague, Bip Roberts, and Kevin Mitchell were on this A’s team. I honestly can’t remember Kevin Mitchell being an A, but Baseball Reference says he had 127 at-bats as one in his final season in the majors. Huh.

And then there were those rookies. A.J. Hinch got the starting catching job, and 1998 was the first year Miguel Tejada was the starter at short. And of course, sweet-swinging Ben Grieve - as my brother had correctly predicted the year before, he was the 1998 AL Rookie of the Year. Sure, he covered the outfield like he was running in quicksand, but boy, could he hit.

The pitching, aside from Rogers, still left much to be desired. However, the pipeline was two-thirds full of the Big Three, as Hudson and Mulder were on the farm by 1998.

As for me in 1998, I was much more interested in my fake Oakland A’s as I discovered Baseball Mogul that year. Would the real A’s be able to reclaim my interest?

Coming next Friday, January 4 - 1999: Sniffing the playoffs?