Category: Oakland Athletics

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Roberto Clemente A man for all ages

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Today is the 42nd anniversary of the great Roberto Clemente. On Dec. 31, 1972, Major League baseball player Roberto Clemente, 38, was killed when a plane he’d chartered and was traveling onto bringing relief supplies to earthquake stricken Nicaraguan’s disappeared north of the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Clemente chartered a DC-3 with some friends and was taking all kinds of medicines to the many suffering in Managua, Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. Clemente’s body was never found, buried at sea with the plane he chartered.

Clemente was inducted posthumously to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming the first Latin American to be enshrined. His death established the precedent that as an alternate to the five year retirement period, a player deceased for at least 6 months is eligible for entry into the Hall of Fame.

Clemente is the first Latino player to win a World Series as a starter (1960), to receive a National League MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971). He also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was honored by the United States Postal Service with a first class stamp.

Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico(also called El Cometa de Carolina/The Carolina Comet)originally signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as amateur Free Agent in 1954. Made his debut at the age of 20 on April 17, 1955 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and played 18 years, until 1972. His last game was on October 3, 1972, In 18 seasons with the Pirates Clemente played in 2,433 games, hit 240 home runs, drove in 1,305 runs and ended with a .317 batting average. Won the most(tied with Willie Mays) Gold Gloves by an outfielder with 12.

He is a member of the “3,000 Club”. Thought he had hit #3,000 on September 29, 1972, as he safely beat out a ball that never left the infield at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. But the official scorer rules that Mets second baseman Ken Boswell erred on the play and Clemente went hit-less the rest of the game. Clemente’s, historic hit was the next day as the was the key in a fourth inning Pirate rally with a double against the left field wall off Met pitcher Jon Matlack.

As history will have it, that double, his 3,000 hits was his final at bat of the season, and tragically, the last of his career. His defensive prowess in right field was well documented, his style of play was always 100 percent. The language barrier did him no favors, as he was often miss-quoted, and also suffered discrimination. I was writing for El Mundo News of Oakland during his last year in the Major Leagues,(1972) and as I covered a game at Candlestick Park between the Giants and the Pirates after Clemente struck out, a Pittsburgh writer in loud voice said “send him back in a banana boat!”. I would always remember that. To this day Major League Baseball Roberto Clemente’s Humanitarian Award is given to a player.

Roberto Clemente was a very talented baseball player, maybe the best “bad pitch hitter” ever, with the best arm ever seen from right field, a quiet, proud, and very disciplined gentleman, he was A Man for All Ages.

Roberto Clemente’s 3,000th Hit
Date: September 30, 1972 Location: Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh
Club: Pittsburgh (NL) Opponent: New York (NL)
Pitcher: John Matlack Hit: Double
Total career hits: 3,000

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers podcast: Niners ready to move on without Harbaugh; sources say assistant coach Shanahan could be in the mix

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by Morris Phillips

SANTA CLARA–Jim Harbaugh who completed coaching his final game as head coach with the San Francisco 49ers defeating the Arizona Cardinals to close out a four year run and is headed to Michigan to coach there next season and will be the highest paid college coach in the NCAA at $49 million for six years worth of work. Harbaugh lands on his feet and he did not get along with the 49ers brass and thus one of the biggest reasons why he’s out as coach.

In a unusual way to say goodbye to someone that bickered with the head coach on and off during Harbaugh’s tenor the 49ers CEO Jed York and General Manger Trent Baalke came on the sidelines after the game to give Harbaugh a huge goodbye hug. Not bad for someone whose bosses’ felt didn’t deserve a contract extension. The 49ers have a front office of stars with Baalke, Jed York, owners John York and Denise DeBartolo, and team president Paraag Marathe.

The 49ers brass feels justly that they’ve been a big part of what the 49ers have enjoyed in the last four years under Harbaugh and they are going to challenge themselves to get a better football coach or just as good as one as Harbaugh. Kyle Shanahan the Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator whose in his first year with the Browns has been name dropped according to sources as a candidate. The choice won’t be easy but that’s what the 49ers are challenging themselves to do.

As far as the biggest distractions are concerned you just can’t get away from former 49er Ray McDonald who was arrested this season for domestic violence and eventually released by the team for allegations of sexual assault and Aldon Smith was suspended by the team for nine games for illegal weapons charges and DUI. If your trying to win a championship and if your trying to be a great football team professionalism is first and McDonald and Smith really let the team down.

The 49ers really need to do some soul searching in terms of where their heads really are at in terms of getting the job done on the field based on what their doing off the field. Distractions are huge, it’s a distraction for the team and greater than the distraction you just wonder how you play championship football when you have all this other stuff going on. The real simple observation in terms of distraction maybe what outweighed them is just that this football team is fast. The 49ers are fast based on the way that they played which was physical and just like what Harbaugh wanted them to do by injuries and it all added up. Injuries had a real cumulative effect of what the team did on the field with it’s physical play to get to where they are now.

Stanford Cardinal in the Foster Farms Bowl at Levis Stadium: With Stanford University you just feel like great things are coming head coach David Shaw has made it very clear that he’s staying on board and he’s not going anywhere. He’s coming back and his first three years as head coach have been dynamite. He got the Rose Bowl championship in 2013 and won and then a second trip to the Rose Bowl in 2014 and lost that one. The NFL are looking at the Cardinal and to see if they can retain some of those guys.

The Cardinal are going to make a run at the championship and the Pac 12 Championship next season again in 2015, this is a really solid college football program their having the game at Levis Stadium and for hosting the Foster Farms Bowl and the future is looking very bright. The size of the crowds when comparing venues for the Foster Farms Bowl hasn’t changed between AT&T Park and Levis Stadium. So with the venue change (this being the first year at Levis Stadium) your going to have a partially empty football stadium on Tuesday night.

An empty stadium doesn’t necessarily look good with the local team involved and they might draw around 40,000 fans for that game and maybe they’ll get 50,000. Once again Levis Stadium in Santa Clara is not a hotbed for college football and Maryland who faces Stanford doesn’t draw the local sports crowd. So it’s a match up on Tuesday between the Stanford Cardinals and the Maryland Terrapins at Levis Stadium for the Foster Farms Bowl.

Click below as Morris Phillips continues his podcast and covers the San Francisco 49ers and Cal Bears for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball in Havana? Not so fast

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–Cuba is the only country outside the United States that had a professional baseball team in the United States.The Havana Sugar Kings were a Cuban-based minor league baseball team that played in the Class AAA International League from 1954 to 1960 .

They were affiliated with Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and their home stadium was El Gran Estadio del Cerro(sometimes called Gran Stadium) in Havana, Cuba. The Sugar Kings began life in 1946 as the Havana Cubans, founded by the Washington Senators scout Joe Cambria. They played in the old Class C (later Class B) Florida International League In 1954, Roberto “Bobby” Maduro bought the team, moved it to the International League, and renamed it the Sugar Kings.

Several talented Cuban players and other Latinos who eventually made it to the Major Leagues donned the Sugar Kings uniform, including Luis Arroyo Pompeyo Davalillo, Tony Gonzalez, Cookie Rojas, Elio Chacon, Daniel Morejon, Preston Gómez, Leo Cárdenas, and Mike Cuellar. The Sugar Kings — led by future major league manager Preston Gómez 1960 was the last year the Cuban team played in theInternational League. That year the teams finished: 1-Toronto Maple Leafs(Clev), 2-Richmond Virginians(New Yankees), 3-Rochester Red Wings(St.Louis), 4- Buffalo Bisons(Phila), 5-Havana Sugar Kings(Cinci), 6-Columbus Jets(Pitts),7-Miami Marlins(Balt), 8-Montreal Royals(LAD).

Preston Gómez who worked for the Los Angeles Angels towards the end of his life, told me that Cuba was the perfect place for expansion if Major League Baseball decided to have a club outside the continental United States; geographical location, easy travel for most teams, just a hop from Miami. Gómez was sent by the baseball commissioner to Cuba to arrange the 1998 exhibition series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban National team.

Preston also told me, that the United States will never have a team back in Cuba (at any level) unless Cuba had a totally different type of government.Just days after President Barack Obama made his announcement of the US intentions of re-establishing relations with Cuba President Raúl Castro declared victory for the Cuban Revolution,in a wide-ranging speech, thanking President Obama for “a new chapter” while also reaffirming that restored relations with the United States did not mean the end of Communist rule in Cuba.

In Cuba the 1% is the government. The leaders of the communist nation eat well, they can travel freely in and out of the island, they have all the privileges that they themselves negate the regular Cuban people. So it remains to be seen what really is going to happen between the US and Cuba. Words are just words, unless they translate to action.The fact is that in 1960 Cuba was one of the most advanced countries in Latin America.

A lot of people here in the US still do not understand, that under the current communist dictatorship of over half century in the island of Cuba, President Barack Obama is considered another capitalist pig by thecurrent Cuban government. That is the rhetoric that Cuba has been spilling, even after they lost their biggest friend, the old Soviet Union, who sponsored Cuba for billions of dollars each year, and after 1989 when that country’s system of communism went down the drain, Cuba was left alone with little support. Cuba had a lot to do in Venezuela, especially when Hugo Chávez was alive and became very cozy with Fidel Castro, who Chávez himself considered like a father to him, because of the same communist philosophy their shared.

The decline in world oil prices, today Venezuela is going through a very difficult economic crisis. There is a lot of misunderstanding about Cuba, since there has been non diplomatic relations with that country and no travel really allowed from the US to Cuba since the early 1960’s. Cuba always benefited for its geographic location, just 90 milesfrom US shores. However, the US never colonized Cuba,as a matter of historical fact, America actually liberated Cuba from Spanish colonialism, and though the U.S.influenced the island heavily for decades afterward, the U.S. President recently attempted the moral equivalence between “colonization” and communist tyranny, and that, at the least’is very disingenuous.

Cuba gained its independence from Spain in 1902. Havana had a lot of American influence until 1960, and yes the mafia had a foothold in the entertainment business in Havana, but the same was the case then in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and many other cities in the United States.Havana was Las Vegas, before there was Las Vegas, but most of the Cuban people had absolutely nothing to do with the mob. It is a chapter that Hollywood loves to recreate, but most of those big time movie moguls never visited Cuba and had no idea of the real Cuba before Fidel Castro and his gang.

In 2005 Cuban-American born actor Andy García, Produced and Directed “The Lost City”, a story of his family caught in the middle of a violent revolution,they had to leave and lost everything, but there are far and few movies of that sort. One of the reasons this movie was made is because García’s family lived it in his native Cuba, and obvioulsy he has the means and the name and the respect of Hollywood, to make the movie.

US citizen Alan Gross was arrested in Cuba in 2009 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for importing banned technology and trying to establish clandestine Internet service for Cuban Jews. After serving 5 years he was recently released and is now back in the United States.

As of today, at the very end of 2014, US. citizens arebarred from traveling to Cuba without government permission under a U.S. trade embargo imposed half a century ago that can only be lifted by Congress. The composition(balance of power) of the US Congress is changing next month, so this story still developing. Through out the years many people asked me why I have not visited Cuba. There is nothing for me to do there, I know what happened, I know the truth, my family left and I still have the deed of the illegaly confiscated property that was taken by the Castro government.

For me to visit Cuba today will bring me more bad than good memories. I know US citizens that go to Cuba, but I have yet met one that stayed in Cuba, some do not like corporations or capitalism, but they rather live here in the US, which is very interesting, because if they were honest to their core, they would stay in Cuba. If you do not want to see Walmarts and McDonalds, I would recommend moving to Cuba and be happy.

Will professional baseball be back in Cuba? Time will tell, the root of the problem in Cuba is not the Cuban people, but their government, they are the ones that have to change, The US has been a democracy for 239 years, Cuba has been a totalitarian communist dictatorship for some 55 years. You can be a communist in the US, we can see the signs in many demostrations on the street here, but you cannot be for democracy in Cuba, and if you are, and the Cuban government finds out, your next home is a prison.

Wishing you and yours a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Sharks roll to fifth straight win; A’s not done dealing yet

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN JOSE–The San Jose Sharks who struggled in November are putting together now with their fifth straight win at SAP Center on Saturday night against the St.Louis Blues one of the most successful teams in the NHL. The Sharks have a challenge they will play their next three games on the road all in the Southland against either the Kings or the Ducks. The Sharks who played the Kings in the playoffs last season it would seem that the Sharks have to go through the Blues to get to the next round in post season there a real testing ground going on here.

These two teams are good rivalry and they showed it playing tight hockey on Saturday night to an overtime win 3-2. The Sharks will play almost every Saturday in January at home and by then there will be no football as the regular season there is almost finished. Then more fans will be focused on the Sharks at that time and this is a time for hockey. This is the end of December and this is what people rally to see and what it’s all about.

Oakland A’s continue to make more moves: The A’s who traded catcher Derrick Norris last week to the San Diego Padres but right now it’s difficult to tell who’s going to be the catcher on opening day. At first base the A’s traded Brandon Moss, second base former Athletic Alberto Callaspo will no longer be there now with the Braves, Brett Lawrie will be at third, the only thing I can tell you Lawrie will be the sure thing at third base as A’s general manager continues to deal players.

The A’s traded Josh Donaldson last month to Toronto, A’s veteran Coco Crisp remains with the team and the other veteran is Josh Reddick but after that it’s hard to tell who Beane might keep or trade away. The pitching staff is a bunch of young kids A.J. Griffin, Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray is the number one pitcher and they traded away Jeff Samardzija, and Jason Hammel. This is almost a completely different team.

Basically in the Bay Area during this Christmas time there’s two sales going Macy’s and the Oakland A’s and I’ve never seen Beane go this active in wheeling and dealing he’s unloaded most of his All-Stars. You always makes some trades but this is almost like a new team and come to think of it it is a new team. Beane is a smart guy who always puts the team in a competitive mode, however this year is going to be very tough.

The Texas Rangers are going to be very healthy, the Angels are loaded, the Mariners have improved a lot now, they have Nelson Cruz behind Robinson Cano in that line up. The M’s have got great pitching with Felix Hernandez and company. The A’s might run out of stream this year but you could never second guess what Beane has up his executive sleeve he has a couple of trades left in him.

With Crisp and Reddick around in the lineup there are some veterans left on this team, you got to have a sense of presence who stays with the team. At least you can sell some jerseys of players that fans know about anyway. There has to be some continuation of the past, Crisp is at the end of his career but is still a good player, when Crisp is healthy he gets hurt a lot. Reddick is a gold glove and he’s a good player too.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Normalization of Cuba with baseball

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The United States of America has announced the re-establishing of relations with the country of Cuba, and the US will have an embassy in Havana, the capital of Cuba, and Cuba will have and embassy in Washington, D.C.
Many of you know I was born in Cuba. My family sent me to the United States in 1961, when I was 17 years old to live with my aunt in Miami. The Cuban system of government has been a communist dictatorship for over half a century under the Castro brothers.

True, the US embargo has not worked, but it is also true that during this past half century Cuba continues to be a big Human Rights abuser in the island, as documented by the neutral and non-profit organization Amnesty International. Cuba also trades with many other countries during the US blockade and still is a country “stuck in the 50’s”. That is a failure of their system of government, not of the United States, since (Cuba the closest island in the Caribbean to our coast) has never been a State of the U.S.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 under communism, Cuba lost its main avenue of financial support. The Soviets were supporting Cuba to the tune of billions of dollars. The repression in Cuba has continued for decades. My family had to leave the country soon after they sent me to the U.S. (in 1961) and my late my brother Jay (in 1964) to the U.S. My father used to own a mid-size plumbing company in Havana. The Castro government illegally confiscated the property, as the government there nationalized many companies owned by foreign nationals as well as Cubans.

My way of life was totally and radically changed by the communist system on the island. My dream was never to leave Cuba, but to study to become a architect. But that dream was taken away from me from a totalitarian system of government.
I was glad my parents sent me to the U.S. I could have never lived in Cuba for the past 50 years. The people there have been brainwashed to the communist lifestyle. The government tells the people what to do, or what not to do, the word Liberty=Freedom, has not existed in the Cuban dictionary for a bunch of generations now.

All of the communications/media in the island is totally controlled and centralized by the Cuban government.Whatever the U.S. does, would not work unless Cuba also changes its policy against the U.S. Is Cuba going to change to a democracy? Are they going to have open and free elections? Are they going to become a Democracy? Those are questions that the President of the United States cannot address, for it is Cuba that would have to make those moves.

For business it offers a great opportunity. American capital could invest in Cuba, and Havana would have hundreds of McDonald’s and KFC’s. And a lot of other business interest from the U.S. could return to Cuba, where to the day, no corporation from the U.S. can go there and build a Walmart,for example.As far as baseball is concerned, this is the best news for Cuban players. For decades they have been defecting from the island. When they travel outside of Cuba, asking for political exile, or many escaping the island in man-made crafts and sailing north through the treacherous Florida Straits.

Kendy Morales, now with the Kansas City Royals, tried to escape Cuba 9 different times, and wasdss apprehended, until finally he succeeded. Many of these Cuban players when they escaped, they left their families behind, and as it is well documented, these families where harassed by the Cuban government. I was a kid in Cuba when my dad used to take me to the Cuban Winter Professional League. That league was abolished in 1961 when Fidel Castro eradicated all pro-sports and declared the country a Marxist-Leninist government, I remember guys like Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso who played for the Marianao Tigers in Cuba, and then here he played with the Chicago White Sox.

Before Castro, Cuban baseball players had the freedom of coming to the U.S. to play professional baseball and then returned to Cuba in the off season, obviously that has not been the case under the Castro brothers.One of my heroes, is Minnie Miñoso, he is 90 years young and lives and still works in the community for the Chicago White Sox in the Windy City.

Do not mention Castro to Miñoso, he never supported Castro, and like over 1 million Cubans living here in the US, we all share basically the same experience. Or Rafael Felo Ramirez (about the same age as Miñoso) the Spanish Voice of the Miami Marlins and my mentor, he can tell you stories about the repression he suffered in Cuba, this is nothing new.

Will this “experiment ” work? I have no idea. I honestly believe Cuba would really change when Fidel Castro dies as well as his brother Raúl. They both share the same communist philosophy, although Raúl seems to be more pragmatic. Fidel is still living in the world of Lenin-Marx-Stalin and Mao, he might even be senile, and that would explain why nobody still believes in a bankrupt philosophy like communism.

Whatever happens, relations or no relations, baseball will continue as the #1 sport in Cuba. It is the constant of the largest islands of the Caribbean. The first Latin American country to ever send a player to the United States, when Esteban Bellán played in 1868 after attending Fordham University in New York City.

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

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Lacob maybe sorry about Jackson remarks but Kerr is taking dubs to the bank

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN JOSE–So far Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has that team winning as they’ve won 15 in a row and their 20-2. They’re playing great basketball, the Warriors are the best team in the NBA. Owner Joe Lacob who recently criticized former Warrior coach Mark Jackson about his performance and later apologized for it. Jackson was instrumental in building this current Warriors team.

It wasn’t for Jackson’s coaching that he was fired from the Warriors but there were many personality issues involved. He had issues with Warrior executive Jerry West last season who tried to give coaching tips to the players during practice and Jackson ended up asking West to leave a practice. He also had an assistant coach fired from the team and one of the top reasons that bothered Lacob and that Jackson was in full control of the team.Jackson had a house in L.A. and moonlighted he was a preacher when he wasn’t working traveled to the Southland to preach during last season another issue the Warriors had a problem with.

It was more personality than anything else because Jackson took the team to the playoffs last season he did a good job as head coach and the players liked him too. It would be interesting to know what he’s thinking now with the current success of the team, he’s probably thinking “wow that’s the same team that I had last year that’s now 20-2.”

Jackson now is doing analysis for ESPN for NBA games and it’s a different job doing TV you can criticize anybody when you are coaching your team, your the face of the franchise and good for him I hope that Jackson is successful in broadcasting.

Oakland A’s transition updates: What A’s general manager Billy Beane is doing is incredible, he does a lot of trading in the winter meetings but basically going into spring training 2015 he has a new team, except for Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick, and Derrick Norris. You basically have a new infield. The A’s are going to use Brett Lawrie at third base and the best pitcher the A’s currently have at least as of today Sonny Gray.

The A’s recently let go of Jeff Samardzija who went to the White Sox he was a very good pitcher, it never ceases to amaze me what Beane does and he has a couple of trades left. Were going to have to wait as spring training is still a couple of months away Beane. Is Beane going to trade away some more players. Reddick on the same day when Beane traded former A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson to Toronto for Lawrie was wondering too and the A’s are rebuilding, You think?

Even the players wouldn’t be surprised if they traded Reddick and the players are questioning who their going to have, will they have enough to compete? You have to feel sorry for the A’s fans the people who the spend money to go and see these guys and now their gone. Right now they can’t identify with any player who has played at the A’s for more than three years and it’s very tough to have a following when you have so much changes of personnel every year.

San Jose Sharks update: The Sharks (17-11-4) third in the Pacific and who have won six of their last seven games and who won their third in a row on Saturday night against the Nashville Predators (19-8-2). Despite their recent success they have not been selling out their games at SAP Center but none the less are winning in streaks. The Sharks are a solid team after struggling for stretch earlier this season when they won only two in seven games back in November.

The Sharks have improved so much this month their getting great support to protect their goalie that they got great goaltending from Antti Niemi who stopped all 29 shots for San Jose for the 2-0 shutout Saturday. The Sharks improved to 17-11 are tied with Vancouver with 38 points and are 11 points behind first place Anaheim. The Sharks got goals from Tomas Hertl (7) at 5:01 in the first period and Joe Thornton (8) at 18:26 of the third period.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s and Giants at the Winter meetings

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The 2014 Winter Meetings concluded in San Diego, the Oakland Athletics were one of the busiest teams as far as trading players; but that is no big surprise when you have Billy Beane as your General Manager.
The Media and fans will have time to digest basically a new team that the A’s will have this next season, and of course, things will start to take shape come Spring Training next February. Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Brandon Moss, Luke Gregerson are some of the most notable that were traded.

New Athletics in 2015 are: Billy Butler talented power hitter from the American League Champion Kansas City Royals, who got a 3-year $30 million contract from the A’s, also third baseman Matt Lawrie(came from Toronto for Josh Donalson),and first baseman Ike Davis, who came from the Pirates in exchange for international signing bonus money.
The Pirates also received the A’s first bonus slot, No. 27 overall, with $501,900 and the Pirates also sent their third bonus slot, No.86 overall at $232,000 to the Athletics.

While the A’s were ‘wheeling and dealing’ the San Francisco Giants who make a huge bid to get Jon Lester, were really one of the most silent teams during the meetings. One General Manager said, “one of the best trades I ever made, was the one I never made”. So maybe for the champion Giants it was a good thing. On the other hand there is a little secret that they need help in the starting rotation, also at third base, sans Pablo Sandoval, and another right handed hitter would not be a bad idea.

Their number one starter is Madison Bumgarner, inked for Opening Day 2015. Then Matt Cain, who should be ready for Spring Training after elbow surgery in early August, to remove bone chips from his right arm. He only started 15 games this past season won 2 lost 7 with a 4.18 earned run average pitching just 90 innings. Ryan Vogelsong who is today a Free Agent, and 37 years old, finished with 8-13 and 4.00 in 32 games he started.

Tim Hudson who will be 40 years old next season, finished 9-13 with 3.57 earned run average starting 31 games. Tim Lincecum won 12 lost 9 with a 4.74 in a total of 26 games he started plus 7 in relief. Nobody really knows what Lincecum is going to do, maybe a guy like Nostradamus, the reputed French seer might have an answer, but he died in 1566.

Venezuelan-born Yusmerio Petit continued his good work for Bruce Bochy, with a 5-5 record and 3.69, he started 12 games and came out of the bullpen in another 27 games. Petit pitched 117 innings. Petit is steady, he gets the ball (when given to him)and usually knows what to do with it. Also veteran righthander Jake Peavy who is a free agent, he has been courted by the Chicago Cubs and other teams, but he still can sign with Giants.

Free Agent starters like Mike(I want a $200 million contract)Scherzer is available, also lefty Cole Hammels and righty James Shields. I do not believe Giants will go after Scherzer, not because what he is asking(they can afford it)but because he wants to be a #1 in a rotation wherever he goes, and the only place he could be a #2 would be behind Felix Hernández in Seattle or Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers.

So Hamels might still be a possibility for the Giants, he is one of the best left handed pitchers in the game, but the Phillies are looking for a lot of young talent in return, and Giants might not have what the Phillies need.

So that leaves James Shields, and I believe he is the best shot for the Giants. The Giants still need somebody at third base, as of today(if season opened today)Joaquin Arias is their third baseman, unless Buster Posey takes over at the hot corner by April, and that is a long shot today.

Chase Headley is the third baseman still available, he who played most of his career with the Padres played 2014 for the Yankees and made $10 million dollars in salary this season, but will be a Free Agent in 2015.As I write this article, the Yankees are still talking to him in negotiations to keep him. I do not think Alex Rodríguez is coming back to the Yankees, although Yankee manager Joe Girardi recently said the reports are A-Rod is looking good an training in the off season.

Although the Winter Meetings concluded this week in San Diego, teams still will be making trades, and it will be interesting to know what the Bay Area teams still be able to do. I do not know what more the Oakland Athletics will do, but never be surprised by Billy Beane. As far as for the Giants…

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

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Lester is a Cub; Money isn’t everything

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Jon Lester was the biggest prize in the 2014 Baseball Winter Meetings, which concludes tomorrow in San Diego. The lefty considered one of the best pitchers in baseball pitched for two teams this season. The Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics and combined for a record of 16-11 with a 2.46 earned run average in a total of 32 games he started.

In the little time that he spent with the Athletics he was the consummate professional, one guy that has the ability to inspire others to win, a guy with tremendous pride and tremendous humility at the same time. The Cubs,Red Sox,Giants, Dodgers and maybe another mystery team were bidding for Lester. On Wednesday morning he chose the Chicago Cubs, even though the San Francisco Giants were willing to give him another year on the contract and about $13 million more.

Lester got a six year deal worth $155 million, to work for his old boss an friend Theo Epstein, now the General Manager of the Cubs, previously with the Boston Red Sox, were Lester won two rings in 2007 and 2013. The San Francisco Giants were offering Lester seven years and $168 million.

So as we can see, not everything comes down to money in life. Lester said about the deal and about the Cubs, “The thing I liked about ’em is it wasn’t forced and it wasn’t a sales pitch,” Lester said after his meeting with the Cubs. “It was like, ‘This is what we can do.’ I don’t want BS. I don’t want show. I don’t want glitz and glamour. I don’t want to walk out to the field with your name and number on the JumboTron. I’m not 18 anymore. I want you to tell me what you can do for me and my family.”

Jon Lester who was born in Tacoma, Washington, and is a cancer survivor, lives with his family in Atlanta, Georgia and although among the three teams most serious to hire him, Cubs,Giants and Red Sox, the Giants offered the better “pitching park”,there is no doubt AT&T Park is much better of a pitching park than Fenway or Wrigley, he chose to work for a team that hasn’t won a World Series since 1908, instead of one that has won 3 World Series the last 5 years.

The Cubs have a new look, with general Joe Maddon as manager and they have one of the youngest and most talented groups of stars in the game: Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro, Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler among others eager to report in a couple of months to the spectacular Spring Training facility, anybody who visited there knows what I am talking about. The Cubs have the best and most modern Spring Training facility.

The Cubs are the oldest currently active U.S. professional sports club, continuously existing in the same city for their entire history. They are one of the two remaining charter members of the National League (the other being the Atlanta Braves). Since Chicago did not have a fully operating White Stockings team for two seasons due to the Great Chicago Fire, differences continue to be voiced when considering the elder status of this ball club: Although the Braves have played for more consecutive seasons, the Cubs hold the distinction of having been founded a full season earlier (Cubs in 1870 and Braves in 1871).

Whatever you believe about the Chicago Cubs, there is little doubt of their fans commitment to this club. The very first time I visited Wrigley Field, Chicago, there was a souvenir store right across the street from the park with awning that read: “being a Cubs fans is a lifelong commitment”, that store is still there and the Cubs fans generation after generation are still there supporting their team, which has played in Chicago only. Jon Lester is part of the new look with manager Joe Maddon that will try to change that loosing mentality in the Windy City.

Back when I was broadcasting Seattle Mariners games, I remember the first time a young Jon Lester visited Safeco Field with his Red Sox uniform, he gave a private press conference to the Seattle media and he was as popular in Seattle as he was in Boston at that time, well known in the Seattle-Tacoma area for all his conections with the local community of Puget Sound. This week,when he made the decision that he didn’t want to take the Giants offer, he personally called the Giants to thank them, as he told them. He didn’t have to do that, but that is the type of man that Jon Lester is.

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

Brandon Moss goes to Cleveland

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The last few days at the A’s headquarters in Oakland have been a beehive of activity as “Trader” Billy Beane had decided to break up A’s and rebuild the team once more. The Trades that he made this summer starting with Cespedes for Jon Lester and Jason Hammel and Jeff Samardizija appeared not to have been the recipe for getting the A’s into the World Series. Lester was a two monthe rental and is ,right,now, in line fro a huge payday from either the Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers or Giants. Jason Hammel

went back to the Cubs and Jeff Samardizija is on his way to the White Sox. The A’s also sent pitcher Muchael Ynoa to the White Sox and got four players with little or no majr league experience. They received Pitcher, Chris Bassitt,cather Josh Phlegley, first baseman Angel Raveda and infielder Marcus Semien.In the Meantime, the A’s lost their number one prospect, shortstop Addison Russell, to the Cubs in the trade for Samardizija and Hammell.

After the one game loss in the playoffs to the Royals, the conventional thinking was that the A’s would strengthen their core by addition rather than subtraction. Beane shocked the baseball world be sending their best player Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays for Brent Lawrie and three prospects. Not only was the baseball world shocked, the A’s fans were in a state of disbelief as the team lost its best player for a third baseman who was ok defensively but not in Donaldson’s league as a hitter.

Then to compound matters, Beane sent Brandon Moss to Cleveland for a double-A second baseman who was about number nine on Cleveland’s list of prospects. Moss, who was really sad to leave Oakland, said that the A’s gave hime a chance to play and he came through big time for them. He played first base, right field and left field for the A’s. Unfortunately, Moss had a hip injury that slowed him down in the second half of 2014 but he had surgery and was looking to rebound in 2015.

The A’s have traded their number 3,4 and 5 hitters and have gotten back some prospects and a lot of question marks.

The starting pitching looks solid with Sonny Gray,Scott Kashmir, Jarrod Parker and A.J. Griffin returning. The last two , Parker and Griffin, are coming off Tommy John surgery and it remains to be seen how effective they will be. The bullpen lost Luke Regression but still has Dan Rooter, Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle.

The team has holes that may or may not be fixed by these trades. The A’s have three catchers, John Jaso, Derek Norris and Stephen Vogt. That gives them some flexibility as Vogt can DH or play first base. The A’s signed the former Royal Billy Butler as a right handed DH and first baseman,too. They still do not know who will be at shortstop or second base. Eric Sogar is a possibility at second but is he an everyday player? The A’s outfield will have Josh Reddick in right field. Reddick played well his first year but was slowed by injuries the last two years but did come to life late in the season. Coco Crisp is getting up in age and seems to have more injuries every year and left field duties will be split by Sam Fuld and Craig Gentry.

This scenario does not look a team that is going to contend for the western division crown in 2015, The Mariners have gotten better with the addition of Nelson Cruz. The Angels won the division by 10 games behind MVP Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Howie Kendrick. The A’s can’t match the Angels or Mariners firepower now.

So for Cespedes, Donaldson and Moss, I wish you all well in your new baseball homes. It was great fun watching the three of you play here in Oakland. Brandon, I will miss you the most as you let me go home at 20 minutes of two one morning in a nineteen inning game against the Angels when you hit the winning home run. Would love to have all three of you back in the green and gold but because of the way you produced, it looked like the A’s were not willing to let you to have any more green or gold. That would have to come from your new employers.

A’s report: Does Donaldson-Beane clash show that Beane will trade players for speaking out?

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by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–A’s General Manager Billy Beane’s real reasoning for trading former A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson to Toronto was that he and Donaldson got into a jawing match after Donaldson had ask for a few days off during the season. Beane told Donaldson that if he needed a few days off he would put him on the disabled list. Donaldson had requested the days off but wasn’t injured and didn’t need to go on the D.L.

A’s manager Bob Melvin approved the day off that Donaldson requested keep in mind for most of the season Donaldson was the A’s top hitter with former A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes who was also sent packing to Boston. Word has it the reason for Cespedes getting dealt was he didn’t want to play in either center field or right field which Beane requested and Cespedes only wanted to play in left field which didn’t please Beane.

When Beane arrived at the ball park on the day in question to find out that Donaldson was not in the lineup he asked Melvin what happen to Donaldson being a scratch? Melvin told Beane that Donaldson said he needed time off, that didn’t sit too well with Beane who was now hot and bothered by Donaldson requesting the time off. Donaldson and Beane went into the coaches office to talk about it and Beane reportedly really let into Donaldson about asking for time off.

The discussion went something like “this is what you get paid for and well” to “your not hurt so there’s no reason you need time off” in or around those words from Beane. Donaldson told Beane he was beat and needed the rest he had been carrying a good part of the team with the great work with hitting and defensive success that he was having with the glove. The argument than got personal when Beane insisted that Donaldson either go on the D.L. or get back in the line up and Donaldson ended up calling Beane “Billy Boy.”

With that that wrote Donaldson’s ticket and Beane had it in his mind that after the season he would deal Donaldson which he did last week trading him to the Blue Jays for pitchers Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman, Sean Nolin, and shortstop Franklin Barreto. In fact after the argument between Beane and Donaldson over the day off issue it was a known fact by some reporters that Donaldson was going to be traded in the off season by Beane.

It’s pretty well known fact in dealing with Beane if you cross him bad things will happen and the “Billy Boy” comment by Donaldson didn’t sit well with him. Beane will start shopping any player who he feels he can’t work with or won’t work everyday for him unless it’s an injury issue. There have been questions about how team morale will be without Donaldson and Cespedes the two best players the A’s had last season.

Beane will have to rebuild and make the A’s post season competitive again he will have to rely on the core of pitchers that he brought in from Toronto and he might look for more including hitters that can at least swing up to snuff like Cespedes and Donaldson did. There has not been much criticism of Beane since Donaldson left but questions come up like what Beane plans to do to rebuild the team. Right now some reporters have picked the A’s to finish in third place with what they have now.

Jerry Feitelberg covers Oakland A’s baseball for http://www.sportsradioservice.com