Pics: Root Beer Float Day, Game Action and 'Unspeakables'

A random assortment of game play, HIGH SOCKS CREW, Mug's Root Beer Float day and autograph pictures from the Cleveland series!

I went down to the bullpen on Monday to get pictures of Zito. Then he started fixing his socks... Could this man be any more breathtaking?

Oh wait, the answer is... Yes.

I was riding BART on Tuesday when I got a phone call from almost reggie. Turns out he had first row tickets right in front of the bullpen! So I went down to visit him before the game. Once again, I had brought along both Joe Kennedy's authentic game used cap and my own Rockies cap. I was wearing my Rockies jersey in the hopes that I could get Kennedy and Witasick to sign my stuff. Well anyway, I talked to the usher for 128 a bit, begged him to let me stay until the game started, and then sat down next to almost reggie anyway when he didn't really tell me no.

Street came out first though. He had with him fruit punch Gatorade, even though I usually see him with lemon-lime Gatorade.

Finally, I saw Kennedy and Witasick come out of the clubhouse together! When they were almost in front of the bullpen, I stood up and waved to them, and asked, "Joe and Jay, may I please get your autographs?" And Kennedy shrugged and said sure, so I gave him his cap and questioned, "This really was a cap you wore before, right?" And he kind of shrugged again and said, "Yeah." I can see why Urban would say he didn't really fit in at Oakland... He wasn't mean or rude or anything, but he was just kind of quiet and almost abrupt. [Meanwhile, one of the security guys came by and scolded, "You're not supposed to ask for autographs at this time!" But he didn't make us stop.] After Kennedy finished signing, I thanked him and he nodded and sat down.

Witasick on the other hand was REALLY nice and really approachable. He stopped in the middle of signing and was like, "Oh wow... What number was I in Colorado? It's only been how long, and I've forgotten? 41? Yeah that's right, I was number 41." A few kids who saw Witasick signing quickly ran up with their stuff and he signed for them too, and he even asked if he could borrow my marker again since some of those people didn't have pens.

For some reason, I only seem to be able to get autographs when almost reggie is around. Maybe he's good luck. But then again, the A's can't seem to win the games we both go to.

Just a picture of their autographs...

Boone ripped a hole in his pants during the game.

Moving on to Wednesday. I met up with jlaff before the game started, and we all went to the Mug's Root Beer Float Day event. Too bad for us, we didn't get in until 11:45 or so, and all the players had left by then. At least we got to meet the player wives though.

Table 1:
Meredith Kielty
Michelle Duchscherer
Kristen Saarloos
Bitsy Hatteberg

Table 1.5 [Not really a table, there were only three 'official' wives tables.]
Marines Scutaro
Mrs. Calero

Table 2
Annette Ginter
Kelly Blanton
Briana T. [Otherwise known as Ms. Nick Swisher]
Holly Johnson

Table 3
Chantel Kendall
Alex Chavez
Sarah Ellis
[Jamie Kotsay's name was crossed out]

Here is the beautiful Marines Scutaro fixing Justin and his brother Tyler a nice root beer float!

Justin left pretty quickly so he could take pictures of Haren in the bullpen, but I hung around. [I was with my friend Andrew, but he doesn't matter since he still won't join AN.] Anyway, it was a good thing we stuck around since we saw Carney Lansford!

Then we got to see some more pretty Lady A's!! Here is Bri [Swisher's girlfriend] and Holly Johnson, who is absolutely adorable. Anyway I stood off to the side a bit and tried to take pictures of them, but it was hard since I didn't want to stick a camera in their face, but then people kept walking in front of table. After awhile of seeing me struggle with the camera, this convo happened.

Briana: HEY!! Stop that ;) Pictures are a dollar each!
Me: Are you serious?
Briana: It's for a good cause! If you don't help is out, we're going to turn away so you can't get any pictures!
Holly: *Laughing really really hard*
Me: Oh all right...

So I tipped them five dollars just to have them all sign my cup. Holly and Briana looked like they were just having a total blast, and thought my metallic silver sharpie pen was really cool. Bri complimented my handbag, and I told them they did a great job during the softball game since they won and all.

Here's another picture of Holly Johnson, she's soooooo cute!

Anyway I went around and collected all of the avalible wives' autographs. The rest of them were not so chatty as Briana, but they all were really nice about signing. [Once I tipped them, of course!]

Here is Chantel Kendall, Alex Chavez and Sarah Ellis. I overheard this convo that a fan had with Alex.

Fan: May I ask when you're due?
Alex: Oh I'm due in August!
Fan: Are you expecting a boy or a girl?
Alex: [I think] A boy.
Fan: Is he going to play baseball?
Alex: NO!! He's going to play GOLF!

Anyway here's a picture of one side of my autographed cup. [Did you notice that Briana signed her name as B. Swisher? ;)] If anyone cares enough to know what all the other wives' autographs look like, let me know and I'll take a picture of the other side.

So... Onto the game.

This was in the second inning, with one out and runners at first and third. Then Sizemore pretty much got picked off. But as they were trying to tag him out, the runner at third base broke for home, and the throw went to the plate instead and the runner was out at home. [Here, Sizemore watches home plate knowing that it was all his fault!]

Eric Chavez had these weird round band-aid like things taped to his arm.

In order to spit like all ballplayers do, Kendall had to lift his mask up first.

There's something I love about lefty pitchers.

No comment.

After hitting a solo homer, Kielty makes his way across home plate with the A's still down 2-4.

I'm getting tired of writing comments. This is the catch of Swisher's popup in the 7th.

STREET!

We're done, we're done!! I'm done, yay!

Edit: Thank you all so much for the nice comments! I don't want to be too excessive in driving up the comment counts, but please know that I?m really happy you guys enjoyed the pictures :)