From the MLB website by Mychael Urban:

"We had some determined guys out there today, and Chavvy was probably the most determined guy out there," Macha said. "He showed leadership by the way he went out there and played."

Macha also defended Chavez against the fairly common perception that he's too laid-back to be a team leader.

"Being quiet and not caring aren't the same thing," Macha said. "Eric cares very deeply. It eats at him when we're losing. He hates it. And leadership is one of those words that people like to throw out there, but it's a tough thing to define.

"I think Eric's a leader, absolutely. He's just not rah-rah about it."

A's lefty Barry Zito, who's been cited by a number of teammates as being a fairly vocal leader, called Chavez speech "perfect."

"I think it was really important," Zito said. "The thing about this team is that we don't have a strong veteran presence. There's basically Hatty [Scott Hatteberg], Chavvy, [Mark] Kotsay, [Jason] Kendall and me, and I don't even really consider myself that much of a veteran. So we need guys to step up and have a voice. The young guys need that."

"What Chavvy did was awesome. It fired me up. Never mind what he did in the game."

Zito, too, defended Chavez's passion.

"Chavvy's always been very intense about winning. People who think otherwise have no clue."

It's about time to see the team come to the defense of Chavez. According to the article, Chavvy basically asked the team not to go out partying at night while they were going through their struggles on the road.

Getting a bunch of twenty-something, mostly single males to stay in their hotel rooms at night (especially knowing how much they all LOVE to curl up with a good book) proves how much respect his team members have for him. And that kind of respect is indicative of his leadership of the team.

The article goes on to say that although they won tonight, he hoped they would not celebrate too early. It shows a lot of maturity for him to come out and say that when the team just ended an 11 game losing streak.

Chavvy may not be the only leader of the team, but tonight, he was the one who fired them up enough to break the streak. Lets give some props to our franchise player and admit quit talking like it was a mistake to keep him.