by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The New York Yankees who had trouble with the Oakland A’s in the last few years they won the first game of the three game series over the weekend 7-0 but the A’s came right back with wins on Saturday and Sunday at the Coliseum. It was a great weekend, Derek Jeter one of the greatest players that I’ve ever seen, 20 years imagine that with the same team with the Yankees.

When you talk about some of the great Yankees like in the circle of Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, superstars like that and he’s the only Yankee with 3,000 or more hits. That is incredible. As everybody knows every American League team is giving Jeter a tribute when he visits their park the A’s gave Jeter some fancy wines from the Napa Valley and a check for his foundation for $10,002.

The two dollar part was in honor of his number two which will be retired and he was very happy and it was a very simple ceromony and Jeter is a humble man, he’s a simple man and the A’s did the right thing with him and he’s just a terrific person and forget his hits career he’s one of the best shortstops of all time.

For Jeter to play in New York for 20 years and never to have anything negative reported about him it’s incredible and he’s just a tremendous citizen of the United States and New York and I hate to say it the Pride of the Yankees like the movie that was dedicated to the late Lou Gerhig but he’s really the pride of the Yankees in this era.

A’s and Rangers three game series: The Texas Rangers are amazing as they came into the Coliseum 34-35 with eight games out of first place and there are three teams on top of them the A’s, Angels, and Mariners. Rangers manager Ron Washington as I always tell people you can have the best jockey in the world but if the horse is limping your not going to win the race.

With all respect to former A’s manager and the Arizona Diamondbacks Chief Baseball Officer Tony LaRussa he had some great teams in Oakland. You need the talent, talent is what wins in baseball it’s not the great manager. The manager could put in all the signals he wants and do all the strategy he wants and you still need to execute. This is a sport of execution of opportunity and the Rangers just lost Prince Fielder for the rest of the year .

Tribute to the late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn 54: The Oakland A’s paid a tribute to former Padres slugger Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn at the Coliseum before Monday night’s game versus the Rangers with a moment of silence after the announcement of his passing on Monday morning. Gwynn was very dedicated to the game and with 3,141 all time hits. Gwynn left way too early at the age of 54.

His death was led by the cancer that spread after years and years of chewing smokeless tabacco and he took a leave of absence from San Diego State where he was head coach for a time and then stepped down to be assistant batting coach. He was Mr.Padre, he was the guy in San Diego and former Red Sox all time hitting great Ted Williams wanted to talk to him years ago.

There is a lot of good stuff about this man and he left us too early and it’s been a rough year so far with the passing of A’s former pitcher Bob Welch who supposed to be at the Coliseum on July 19th for the A’s 1989 reunion who won the earthquake World Series when they swept the Giants that season. Some of the great ones who have passed away this year, former Padre broadcaster Jerry Coleman, former Yankee coach Don Zimmer, former disc jockey Casey Kasem and former Sacramento TV sportscaster Ken Gimblin.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com