Bored

Well Arthur Rhodes couldn't get through the first week without blowing his first save although he breezed through his first three so I guess I won't panic yet. Chris Hammond then decides this game has gone on too long and gives up five in the 10th. A's about to hand the Fighting Bavasi's their first win. Pop the champagne Mr. Rant!

Just go with my two favorite in person moments. 1) October 1, 2000. A's beat the Rangers 3-0 on the final day of the season and on my birthday to win the A.L. West. The franchise seemed doomed just a couple of years earlier and now they were back in the playoffs. 2) September 4, 2002. A's beat the Royals 12-11 to win their A.L. record 20th straight game. Last second thing to go to the game since history was about to be made. Almost the worst moment ever as 56,000 people all have the air left out of them by the time the A's come up in the 9th after we watched them blow an 11-0 lead. Then Scott Hatteberg saves the day.

Absolutely. That team was loaded after they picked up Johnson and it could have been a great World Series against the Yankees but alas same ol' Astros in the playoffs. Of course I have to say the '01-'02 A's and '88 and '90 A's. All four won over 100 games but no World Titles to show for it. 1987 49ers. This team might have been better than the next two Super Bowl teams but they got burned in the Divisional Playoffs by Anthony Carter and the Vikings.

STOP THE PRESSES...Barry Bonds walks. I know my life wouldn't have been complete without seeing it. I'm sure we'll have a 15 minute anlaysis of the walk on SportsCenter.

Baseball Tonight: Your home of meaningless Barry Bonds at bats and analysis.

Less than a week into the season and I'm ready to suggest a OAO Yankee/Red Sox Bitchfest thread. This shit is going to get really old, really fast.

Currently have satlellite but I'm pretty sure in the S.F. Bay Area they still don't get WGN, even on digital cable. Always have had TBS though.

I was at that game last night too. A good sign was that Arthur Rhodes' fastball was coming in at 93 MPH when it'd been down to 91 last year. I hope Crosby starts hitting soon though because I'd hate to see some of the more fickle fans turn on him already.

Those A's teams lost one game in the ALCS during those three years but the World Series was a different story. Some would argue the '89 team was actually the weakest and they did win the fewest games of the three. Thing was though Canseco missed the majority of the season due to injury so he probably would have been worth a couple of extra wins if he'd been healthy. I think '89 was definently better than '88 because of one player, Rickey Henderson. Big difference having him at the top of the order instead of Luis Polonia or Stan Javier. The '90 team actually might have been the best. They were very Yankee like in that they added Harold Baines and Willie McGee late in the season when they didn't really even have a huge need for either player. Only thing about that team was the starting pitching depth was a bit lacking although Dave Stewart and Bob Welch had great years. Scott Sanderson and Mike Moore were both mediocre that year.

Rob Neyer picked the five greatest teams ever for each individual franchise (except the 90's expansion teams) in his book Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Line-Ups. Here is who he had for for the best for each franchise. Angels, 2002/1979/1982/1986/1962 Red Sox, 1912/1903/1915/1967/1916 Cubs, 1907/1906/1908/1935/1984 White Sox, 1906/1917/1959/2000/1983 Reds, 1975/1976/1940/1939/1919 Indians, 1920/1948/1954/1995/1997 Tigers, 1968/1935/1984/1945/1907 Astros, 1986/1980/1998/1999/2001 Royals, 1985/1980/1977/1976/1978 Brewers, 1982/1978/1981/1992/1979 Expos, 1981/1979/1994/1980/2002 Mets, 1969/1986/2000/1988/1973 Yankees, 1998/1927/1939/1923/1937 Phillies, 1980/1915/1950/1993/1983 Pirates, 1902/1909/1960/1903/1971 Cardinals, 1942/1926/1931/1967/1982 Padres, 1984/1998/1996/1978/1989 Mariners, 2001/1995/2000/1997/1991 Rangers, 1999/1996/1998/1974/1977 Blue Jays, 1992/1993/1985/1989/1991 A's, 1910/1929/1989/1972/1974 Braves, 1914/1957/1995/1991/1948 Orioles, 1970/1966/1983/1969/1944 (St. Louis Browns) Dodgers, 1955/1963/1988/1965/1981 Giants, 1905/1921/1954/1917/1922 Twins, 1987/1991/1965/2002/1969

It's called pitching for the Dodgers. Pitching in Dodger Stadium cures many ills.

"Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a bitch?" is one of the greatest lines EVER.

49ers 2003: Kwame Harris, T. Was a back-up most of last year and will get his chance to start this season. Good run blocker but needs to improve on pass blocking. Really almost everyone from 2003 so far should be considered an Incomplete. 2002: Mike Rumph, CB. Just terrible as a nickleback in his rookie season. Last year got to start due to Jason Webster being hurt and did much better. C 2001: Andre Carter, DE. Okay rookie season, excellent second year, and kinda fell back last year. B 2000: Julian Peterson, LB. Do I really need to go into him? Arguably the best all-around outside linebacker in the game. A Ahmed Plummer, CB. Probably not worth what he signed for but he's good enough. Really an excellent first round for the 49ers in 2000. B 1999: Reggie McGrew, DT. Who? 100% complete bust to cap a decade full of first round 49er busts. F

Ugh, A's get shut down by Colby Lewis although Jermaine Dye continues his hot start.

Two days in and I'm already sick of Barry Bonds leading Baseball Tonight. Jermaine Dye RBI watch: 4 rbi in 2 games; 20 RBI in 65 games last year.

With the 16th pick in 2004 TSM Mock NFL Draft, the San Francisco 49ers select... Reggie Williams, Wide Receiver, from the University of Washington. I was originally not going to pick a wideout in the first round with that position being so deep this year and also thinking Brandon Lloyd has a lot of potential. Then I remembered the other starter for the 49ers would be Cedrick Wilson. I had to go wide receiver.

Your math is off by an hour. Hudson didn't have it tonight although there was some brutal calls by the umpire. Two runs on six hits looks okay but not when you have to throw nearly 110 pitches in just five innings to do so. On the bright side Jermaine Dye is just 17 RBI from matching his total for all of last season.

Bleh, only two A's ones. First was an ultra cheesy Bobby Crosby joke and the second was a little shot at Moneyball. Speaking of predictions, the worst prediction EVER is in my sig courtesy of the 1987 SI Baseball Preview. "Believe it! Cleveland is the best team in the American League" The Indians would lose 101 games that season.

Since the offseason is over here is our first major in season trade if you will as the Dodgers win the Milton Bradley sweepstakes. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1775301 Now I wonder if they'll bench Dave Roberts or go back to having Shawn Green at first? Funny thing is some of you will remember Bradley had an infamous run in with his now new teammate Paul Lo Duca last year. That should be a nice awkward moment in the clubhouse. Edit: Damnit see I have a typo in the topic name.

Although not surprised they won't be showing it I was hoping ESPN Classic would show the great forgotten game of last year's postseason which was Game 1 of the A's/Red Sox ALDS. Ramon Hernandez's walk off bunt was so Tom Berenger in Major League. Of course the game was completely forgotten by the end of that series.

Okay first note this does not have to be a One and Only topic. When a major free agent signing or trade goes down it can of course have its own topic. This is just to condense discussion of where certain players might go and rumored trades to one topic. That being said still feel free to post free agent signings and trades that happen in this topic. Here is an almost complete list of free agents who can start signing with anyone on Monday: ANAHEIM Eric Owens of; Scott Spiezio 1b BALTIMORE Tony Batista, 3b; Albert Belle, of; Hector Carrasco, rhp; Deivi Cruz, ss; Scott Erickson, rhp; Brook Fordyce, c; Pat Hentgen, rhp; Kerry Ligtenberg, rhp; B.J. Surhoff, dh. BOSTON John Burkett, rhp; Bill Haselman, c; Todd Jones, rhp; Dave McCarty, of; Robert Person, rhp; Jeff Suppan, rhp; Mike Timlin, rhp; Todd Walker, 2b. CHICAGO (AL) Roberto Alomar, 2b; Sandy Alomar, c; Bartolo Colon, rhp; Carl Everett, of; Tom Gordon, rhp; Tony Graffanino, ss; Scott Sullivan, rhp. CLEVELAND Jason Bere, rhp; Ellis Burks, dh; Terry Mulholland, lhp; Mark Wohlers, rhp. DETROIT Shane Halter, 3b; Dean Palmer, dh; Matt Walbeck, c. KANSAS CITY Brian Anderson, lhp; Kevin Appier, rhp; Mike DiFelice, c; Jason Grimsley, rhp; Raul Ibanez, of; Curtis Leskanic, rhp; Alan Levine, rhp; Jose Lima, rhp; Graeme Lloyd, lhp; Brent Mayne, c; Thomas Prince, c; Joe Randa, 3b; Michael Tucker, of; Rondell White, of; Jamey Wright, rhp. MINNESOTA Mike Fetters, rhp; Chris Gomez, 2b; Eddie Guardado, lhp; LaTroy Hawkins, rhp; Denny Hocking, 2b; Jesse Orosco, rhp; Rick Reed, rhp; Kenny Rogers, lhp; Shannon Stewart, of. NEW YORK (AL) Roger Clemens, rhp; John Flaherty, c; Felix Heredia, rhp; Jeff Nelson, rhp; Antonio Osuna, rhp; Andy Pettitte, lhp; Ruben Sierra, dh; David Wells, lhp; Gabe White, rhp. OAKLAND Keith Foulke, rhp; Jose Guillen, of; Ricardo Rincon, lhp; Steve Sparks, rhp; Miguel Tejada, ss. SEATTLE Armando Benitez, rhp; Pat Borders, c; Mike Cameron, of; Shigetoshi Hasegawa, rhp; John Mabry, of; Mark McLemore, ss; Arthur Rhodes, rhp; Rey Sanchez, ss; Giovanni Carrera, rhp. TAMPA BAY Ben Grieve, dh; Travis Lee, 1b; Al Martin, dh; Rey Ordonez, ss; Carlos Reyes, rhp; Terry Shumpert, dh. TEXAS Juan Gonzalez, of; Rafael Palmeiro, dh; John Thomson, rhp; Ismael Valdes, rhp. TORONTO Mike Bordick, ss; Kelvim Escobar, rhp; Cory Lidle, rhp. ARIZONA Carlos Baerga, 1b; Miguel Batista, rhp; Mark Grace, 1b; Felix Jose, dh; Raul Mondesi, of; Mike Myers, lhp. ATLANTA Darren Bragg, of; Vinny Castilla, 3b; Julio Franco, 1b; Matt Franco, 1b; Roberto Hernandez, rhp; Darren Holmes, rhp; Javy Lopez, c; Greg Maddux, rhp; Kent Mercker, rhp; Shane Reynolds, rhp; Gary Sheffield, of. CHICAGO (NL) Antonio Alfonseca, rhp; Shawn Estes, lhp; Doug Glanville, of; Tom Goodwin, of; Mark Grudzielanek, 2b; Mark Guthrie, lhp; Eric Karros, 1b; Kenny Lofton, of; Troy O'Leary, of; Dave Veres, rhp; Tony Womack, ss. CINCINNATI Todd Van Poppel, rhp; Jimmy Haynes, rhp. COLORADO Greg Norton, 3b; Darren Oliver, lhp; Steve Reed, rhp; Chris Stynes, 3b; Mark Sweeney, of; Gregg Zaun, c. FLORIDA Luis Castillo, 2b; Andy Fox, 2b; Chad Fox, rhp; Lenny Harris, 3b; Rick Helling, rhp; Todd Hollandsworth, of; Mike Mordecai, 3b; Ivan Rodriguez, c; Ugueth Urbina, rhp; Gerald Williams, of. HOUSTON Brad Ausmus, c; Orlando Merced, of; Dan Miceli, rhp; Brian Moehler, rhp; Ron Villone, lhp; Jose Vizcaino, ss; Rick White, rhp. LOS ANGELES Wilson Alvarez, lhp; Andy Ashby, rhp; Jeromy Burnitz, of; Ron Coomer, 1b; Rickey Henderson, of; Brian Jordan, of; Tom Martin, lhp; Fred McGriff, 1b;Paul Quantrill, rhp; Robin Ventura, 3b. MILWAUKEE Dave Burba, rhp; Royce Clayton, ss; Keith Osik, c; Eduardo Perez, c; Todd Ritchie, rhp; Glendon Rusch, lhp; John Vander Wal, of. MONTREAL Wil Cordero, 1b; Vladimir Guerrero, of; Jose Mercedes, rhp; Fernando Tatis, 3b; Todd Zeile, 3b. NEW YORK (NL) Pedro Astacio, rhp; Jay Bell, 2b; Tony Clark, 1b; John Franco, lhp; Tsuyoshi Shinjo, of. PHILADELPHIA Terry Adams, rhp; Jose Mesa, rhp; Kevin Millwood, rhp; Dan Plesac, rhp; Todd Pratt, c; Kelly Stinnett, c; Turk Wendell, rhp;Mike Williams, rhp. PITTSBURGH Jose Hernandez, ss; Pat Meares, 2b; Jeff Reboulet, 2b; x-Pokey Reese Jr., 2b; Reggie Sanders, of; Matt Stairs, of; Julian Tavarez, rhp. ST. LOUIS Miguel Cairo, 2b; Chris Carpenter, rhp; Mike DeJean, rhp; Cal Eldred, rhp; Jeff Fassero, lhp; Joe Girardi, c; Sterling Hitchcock, rhp; Steve Kline, lhp; Lance Painter, rhp; Orlando Palmeiro, of; Eduardo Perez, of; Russ Springer, rhp; Garrett Stephenson, rhp; Brett Tomko, rhp; Fernando Vina, 2b; Chris Widger, c. SAN DIEGO Rod Beck, rhp. SAN FRANCISCO Rich Aurilia, ss; Marvin Benard, of; Jose Cruz Jr., of; Andres Galarraga, 1b; Jeffrey Hammonds, of; Dustin Hermanson, rhp; Sidney Ponson, rhp; Benito Santiago, c; J.T. Snow, 1b; Tim Worrell, rhp; Eric Young, 2b.

^Exactly. Ewing to the Knicks in the 80's was probably fixed as that was when the lottery was still "random" draw and not based on giving better odds to the team who had the worst record. There was a rumor about the NBA wanting Yao to play in New York or Golden State because of the large Asian populations in those areas but Houston got the #1 pick. Cleveland last year tied for the worst record in the league so they had as good of odds as anyone to get the #1 pick. Trust me if it had been fixed the NBA would have loved to have LeBron in New York or Chicago instead.

I soooooooo didn't want to see an All-ACC final and Vitale spewing his man juice all over his t.v. so glad UConn won.

Getting back on topic, I remember watching that game for the first time probably about 10 years ago. On SportsChannel (what would become Fox Sports Net) they had Baseball's Greatest Games hosted by Steve Garvey. The Camp homerun has to be one of the most bizarre moments in baseball history. A pitcher, and not even a good hitting one, hitting a homerun in that situation was just shocking.

I hate having God Bless America played during the seventh inning stretch. It just grinds the game to a screaching halt. I'm at a game to have fun, not to be reminded of 9/11. But players don't want to play it like every other game which is the main reason why the "This time it counts" crap was so incredibly stupid. I think roster size they have now is fine as long as they get rid of the one player per team rule. Only the host team should have a player no matter what as the fans are paying big money to go to the game and they deserve to have one of their own to cheer for. Yup or every year we will continue to have Ichiro and Matsui as starters regardless if they deserve it or not. You might as well pencil in Kaz Matsui as the the starting shortstop for the N.L. in this year's game because of the Japan vote. Don't they have that now? Unless you mean increase it to "loose" rather than almost non-exsistant. I should have mentioned this but I'd limit it to geographical rivals. I've been to the A's/Giants games over the years and that atmosphere is amazing and I think those match-ups are good for the game. Or better way to put it, get the game the fuck away from Fox. Every announce team they have is just brutal especially the Whoever that guy is with Steve Lyons. Also they need to have a half-hour pregame type of show for the national broadcasts to hype the game and other action for that day. Of course though get a real studio host, not Jeanie Whateverthefuckhernameis, and an analyst or two that isn't as big a moron as Kevin Kennedy.