Category: Oakland Athletics

by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–What are the realistic chances of the Oakland A’s leaving town if the Oakland City Council votes against the ten year lease to keep the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum? Two cities have been proposed that the A’s would consider moving to if the council votes down the ten year lease and the A’s could leave as soon as this season to next season to two cities, Montreal or San Antonio.

City Councilman Larry Reid said that if the team does not get the lease and there is still a good chance the council can vote down the lease they would leave Oakland, “They have options, (Montreal) have already demonstrated their support of a professional team.” In Montreal in late March they have held a three exhibition games at Olympic Stadium and each game was sold out just before kicking off the regular season featuring the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays.

According to reports from A’s team spokesman Ken Pries he would not confirm or deny the A’s consideration of moving to either Texas or Canada but would only say the A’s are “sitting back and waiting to see what happens (with the Coliseum lease) and hoping for the best.”

Montreal had a Major League team the Montreal Expos from 1969-2004, low attendance, no new downtown stadium and old Olympic stadium were reasons why the team left and moved to Washington becoming the Nationals. A recent resurgence through the exhibition games have demonstrated peaked interest for Montreal having another shot at getting back into the show.

In 1994 the Expos were the winningest team in Major League Baseball and they were on their way to making post season and maybe having their best shot ever at winning a World Series, those dreams were dashed by the baseball strike that same season. If the team had gone all the way in 94 they would have had a new stadium built and would never have left Montreal as they did ten years later in 2004.

The only other place available in San Antonio for the A’s to play at is the Alamodome but in right field it’s only 280 feet down the line which is way too short of regulation which is at least 325 feet. So as far as stadium ready there seems like there is not a stadium ready in either Montreal or San Antonio that would be new and waiting for the A’s but A’s co-owner Lew Wolf may do what Councilman Reid says and bolt Oakland if the council rejects the lease agreement.

As far as the Oakland City Council is concerned in terms of the scheduled vote on July 29th it’s not too optimistic in terms of the chances of passing the Coliseum ten year lease. Amongst those of the council who object to the current lease they want to renegotiate the terms such as a share in advertising revenue from the new $10 million scoreboard the A’s have said they would put in above the outfield bleachers, and also council members are asking that the A’s give a four year notice before they can leave the Coliseum if the Raiders commit to building a football stadium at the Coliseum site.

The city has a wonderful opportunity here to keep the A’s in Oakland but after 14 months of negotiating the council wants to change the lease agreement that Wolff said he will no longer negotiate on and that the A’s are of the understanding that they have a lease agreement in place. The management of the city of Oakland is suspect right now I don’t have confidence that the council will do the right thing by keeping the A’s in Oakland and even Oakland Board of Supervisors president Nate Miley said he if the council does not pass the ten lease for the A’s to stay at the Coliseum the A’s will make good on their threat to leave “I’d put money on that” said Miley.

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

By Morris Phillips

When asked for his reaction to being selected to the All-Star game after spending much of April and May wondering if John Jaso would bypass him as the A’s starting catcher, Derek Norris kept coming back to one word.

“Surreal.”

Quite appropriate because that word describes the A’s weekend in which they beat the Blue Jays four straight, surprised all of major league baseball with a bold trade and then capped it off with the announcement that six (seven) A’s had been chosen as All-Stars.

And while the A’s may be a bit shocked by all their good fortune and shaking their collective heads, they haven’t lost their heads. Their brilliant performance on the field over the weekend speaks to that: the A’s allowed Toronto four runs in four games, and trailed for just two plus innings in the entire series.

On Sunday, Jeff Samardzija made his A’s debut and the pep in his step undoubtedly created by his transformation from being a last-place Cub to a first-place Athletic was noticeable from the start. The A’s prized acquisition showed off his classic fastball, slider mix in shutting down the Jays through seven innings. Samardzija allowed four hits and a run, striking out five and while looking nothing like a pitcher with a 2-7 record, which he had with the Cubs in his 17 starts there.

The A’s offense weighed in with a run in the second and two more in the fourth to back their new pitcher which at least to Samardzija must have felt surreal. The 29-year old right hander threw seven innings of shutout baseball for the Cubs on Opening Day only to see the lovable losers fall to the Pirates that day, 1-0 in 10 innings. And that was just the start of the challenging conclusion of Samardzija’s career in the Windy City: through 10 starts this season, his ERA sat at 1.46, the lowest in the history of the game for a pitcher with 10 starts under his belt without having at least one win.

Through all of that, Samardzija’s attitude never suffered. And his teammates, coaches and journalists covering the team couldn’t help but notice.

“He’s been grinding all season. That’s what the good ones do; they don’t get bothered by things they can’t control,” Cubs manager Rick Renteria said at that time.

“Not once has he been negative about the run support or not having a win,” Cubs’ teammate Nate Schierholtz said.

On Sunday, Samardzija received several ovations from the O.co Coliseum crowd for his initial performance. But he could have received those same cheers for his attitude and professionalism in the midst of all the upheaval.

“Like I said yesterday, they didn’t need me here. They were doing just fine without me. I don’t want to come in and change anything and change the atmosphere. I just want to come in and add and do my part,” Samardzjia said of his new situation in Oakland.

After the game, six A’s were chosen as starters and reserves for the July 15 All-Star game, the most nods the team has received since 1975. Josh Donaldson was voted in as the starter at third base, and he will be joined by Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Moss, Derek Norris and pitchers Scott Kazmir and Sean Doolittle.

In a bit of surprise, Samardzjia was chosen as well for the National League team despite the trade and his poor won-loss record. His selection came via the player ballot and means he will travel to Minneapolis and wear a NL uniform for introductions, then move over to the AL dugout for the game, where he’ll lead the cheers, but be unable to participate.

“Guys around the league are paying attention and know what you’re doing,” he said of his selection.

With all seven A’s All-Stars on the interview podium after the game, the group genuinely seemed humbled, despite their baseball-best 54-33 record and their statistical superiority of which hasn’t been seen since the 2001 Seattle Mariners put up eye-popping stats on their way to 116 regular season wins.

“We’ve all taken pretty interesting paths to get where we are and we’re appreciative for it,” Moss said.

Moss was released by the Pirates in 2010. He was hitting .154 at the time. Kazmir’s career got so far off the path he didn’t pitch at all in the majors in 2011 and 2012. Doolittle used to be an infielder, a career-threatening injury led him to reinvent himself as a pitcher. Norris entered this season just trying to establish himself as a full-time starter. Donaldson was a catcher in his big league debut in 2010, but his career has blossomed after a full-time move to third base. And Cespedes’ harrowing story of his escape from Cuba was thoughtfully recounted by the Chronicle’s Susan Slusser a year ago.

And the one thing that’s allowed the group to blossom in Oakland?

“They believe in you, and you believe in yourself,” Moss said.

The A’s open the home-and-home interleague series with the Giants on Monday when Jesse Chavez faces San Francisco’s Ryan Vogelsong at 7:05pm.

By Morris Phillips

Quite clearly the A’s are making news off the field, as well as on, this holiday weekend.

Having pulled the big trade to acquire a front-line starter in Jeff Samardzija as well as Jason Hammel, who will also step into the A’s rotation, the A’s have the attention of the baseball world with their MLB-best record and brash trade for a pair of pitchers that make them the favorites to capture the AL pennant.

And while all the pundits assess and dissect the trade, the A’s haven’t missed a beat on the diamond, beating the Blue Jays for the third straight day, 5-1 at the O.co Coliseum.

In beating the AL East leaders the A’s looked the part, getting a stellar start from Scott Kazmir, a critical home run off the Jays’ best starter, Mark Buehrle, and a pair of outstanding defensive plays to boot. After a few ragged outings over the last 10 days, this may have been the A’s best played game in recent memory.

With the Blue Jays leading 1-0 early, the tenor of the game changed when Toronto first basemen and prolific home run hitter Edwin Encarnacion was injured trying to beat a throw running to first base. Encarnacion ranks second in all of baseball with 26 home runs, and his quad injury will mean that total will sit for a while with a stint on the disabled list likely.

After that, the A’s began to solve the 10-game winner Buehrle, who nearly allowed a grand slam to Coco Crisp on what would instead become the final out of the second inning caught on the warning track. In the third, Josh Donaldson touched Buehrle with a prodigious shot over the center field wall to tie it. It was just Donaldson’s second home run in his previous 24 games.

The A’s took control with a pair of runs in the fourth and two more in the eighth. Kazmir and the bullpen did the rest with the veteran striking out eight batters and allowing just three hits. Luke Gregerson and Fernando Abad came out the bullpen to shut the door in the eighth and ninth.

The A’s improved to 54-33, tying their season-best 21 games over .500 and equaling the ’72 A’s for the fourth best 87-game start to a season in Oakland history. The Angels and Mariners also won on Saturday to remain 3 ½ and 6 games behind the A’s in the AL West.

The A’s turned in a pair of defensive gems with left fielder Craig Gentry and shortstop Jed Lowrie combining on a relay to the plate that chopped down Melky Cabrera trying to score on Joey Bautista’s double. Instant replay got involved in the bang-bang play but the video crew in New York upheld the ruling on the field saying the replay didn’t provide conclusive evidence to justify overturning home plate umpire Bill Miller’s call.

The Blue Jays, most notably Bautista, strong objected to ruling in support of Miller’s initial call, with the outfielder saying, “It’s pretty frustrating for you to battle as a team, keep the game close, for our pitchers to be doing what they’re doing, for us to keep grinding three games and facing tough pitching, and somehow be able to get an opportunity to tie the game in the eighth inning and it all goes down the drain because somebody first initially made a bad call to begin with, and then it gets upheld by God knows who in some room in New York.”

Earlier in the same inning, Josh Donaldson recorded the first out by running full speed into the rolled up tarp in foul ground and catching Munenori Kawasaki’s foul pop as he impacted the tarp.

Samardzija flew into the Bay Area on Saturday, immediately came to the ballpark and soon found out that his first appearance as an Athletic will come in Sunday’s series finale. The 29-year old who dabbled in football at Notre Dame as an All-American and NFL prospect says he shouldn’t be too nervous.

“This is what I do,” Samardzija said. “I haven’t changed teams, I haven’t played here, all those boxes are checked. But it’s the same distance to home plate, it’s the same 90 feet to all the bases. And the way I look at it is I’ve just added a sense of excitement into what I do every fifth day with where this team is at and how it’s been playing.”

Manager Bob Melvin spoke before the game, and praised GM Billy Beane for not only pulling off the big trade but doing it well in advance of the July 31 trade deadline. Melvin opined on what fans can expect from Samardzija.

“Not only is he a good arm, but from what I understand he’s quite the competitor, has that football mentality, takes that mentality out there on the mound,” Melvin said. “And anytime you have that presence on the mound on top of the stuff he brings, guys feel good about it.”

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – After a Derek Norris walk to lead off the top of the twelfth, Nick Punto smacked a double to left field that Melky Cabrera mishandled and scored Norris to give the A’s a 1-0 win to bring them to a 53-33 record on the year.

On his hit Punto said, ” (I was) Just hoping that D-No could get to third base there. Second and third with one out would have put us in a good position to win that game. Fortunately for us, it got by him (Cabrera).”

The game was pitch perfect the entire time until that error to end the game. Tommy Milone, who started the game for Oakland went six innings and struck out six and only walked one batter. The A’s then sent up a battery of relievers (six total) to secure the win for the A’s including Dan Otero who earned his seventh win of the year.

“I felt really good. Really from the beginning I was able to work the counts, go in and out, up and down when I needed to,” said Milone.

Head Coach Bob Melvin said, “All of the pitching today was fantastic. Once the starter comes out of the game, it’s a 0-0 game, you know you have to shut them down. They came in and did their job for the inning, passed the baton to the next guy.”

The attitude of the Coliseum and the players were the same – the knew they could win the game.

“I don’t know one guy that thinks we’re going to lose a game when we’re going to extra innings. We have that confidence, we have the track record, we’ve been able to get it done in the past, and I think that’s what helps us when we do get into extras,” said Milone.

The A’s continue to have the best record in the majors with 53 wins. The next best team in the league is the surprising Milwakee Brewers who have 51 wins. The A’s hope to extend their winning ways when they face the Jays again tomorrow when the A’s send up Scott Kazmir against Mark Buehrle.