Every year since 2004, I have had the A’s wall calendar to hang on my wall either at work or in my home office. The first one came as a Christmas present. I haven’t gotten it as a Christmas present again since, but have always bought it for myself from Calendars.com after Christmas.

I’m one of those people that is really anal about displaying only current A’s. The Big Three bobbleheads? Stowed away in a box. The only non-current A I have on display is a Catfish Hunter figurine, and he is only OK because his number is retired by the A’s.

So this is bad news for the 2008 calendar. I’m always cutting pages that display non-current A’s out of the calendar so that a current A is shown. Usually what I can do is, when I turn to a month with a non-A, I cut that page off and use the A from the previous month for a second month. For example, in last year’s calendar, Frank Thomas was Mr. April. So I cut his page out and used Dan Johnson, who was Mr. March, for another month. (Of course, Barry Zito was Mr. May, so I had to cut his page out. But I didn’t want Dan Johnson for three months, so I cut him out too and used Rich Harden, who was Mr. February.)

But this year, I had to get even more creative. Dan Haren is Mr. January in the 2008 calendar. If I cut his page out, there’d be no one to display. So I had to go back to the 2007 calendar, and cut a page out. I chose Mark Kotsay, because he is a) still on the team, and b) not featured at all in the 2008 calendar.

The calendar will be quite the cut-and-paste project, as Mark Kotsay will probably be used through February as well, as Jason Kendall is Mr. February. Here’s how the rest of the calendar shakes out, with the pages I will need to cut in italics:

Mr. March: Mark Ellis
Mr. April: Rich Harden
Mr. May: Marco Scutaro
Mr. June: Bobby Crosby
Mr. July: Eric Chavez
Mr. August: Travis Buck
Mr. September: Huston Street
Mr. October: Joe Blanton
Mr. November: Shannon Stewart
Mr. December: Nick Swisher

As you can see, the summer months look pretty solid, but I get nervous after August. I will already be cutting November and December out, but I have no confidence in September or October. Could I be using Travis Buck for the final five months of the year? Could Billy just wipe out my whole calendar by the time 2008 is done? Will I even care by the time 2008 is done?

I better keep my scissors and tape handy.