I think a lot of it has to do with the combination of the occurances and the timing. I mean, you can deal with an injury or two if the offense isn't slumping. You can deal with strange decisions by management if the bull pen does it's job. I don't want to call this a rebuilding year because I think they are doing a wonderful job now, why worry about next year.

I think Injuries have been our biggest problem, so I voted for 8, but I think it is more because of their timing and the sheer quantity of the injuried! So to say, oh it is all Kendall's fault, or Macha's Fault, or Chavey's fault is not only wrong and inacurate, but it isn't fair to the blamed. This team is all about picking eachother up when someone goes down, and for the most part they have done that, but sometimes it just isn't enough.

I think they will be fine and will get back on track very soon. We just all have to resist the temptaion to point finger, because the way this team works, the exact person you place blame on, will be the hero of the day once they get going again!

Let historians not record that when AN was the most powerful Nation in the world we passed on the other side of the road and allowed the last hopes for the pennant race of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of Steinbrennerarianism.

And so tonight -- to you, the great silent plurality of my fellow Anians -- I ask for your support.

I pledged in my campaign for the GMidency to end the season in a way that we could win the postseason. I have initiated a plan of action which will enable me to keep that pledge.

The more support I can have from the AN people, the sooner that pledge can be redeemed; for the more divided we are at home, the less likely the enemy is to negotiate at Anaheim.

Let us be united for the playoffs. Let us also be united against defeat. Because let us understand: Southern California cannot defeat or humiliate the Athletics Nation. Only ANians can do that.

Fifty years ago, in this site and at this very page, GM Cornelius McGillicuddy spoke words which caught the imagination of a war-weary world. He said: "This is the game to end games." His dream for playoffs after selling off his players was shattered on the hard realities of great power hitters and Cornelius McGillicuddy died a broken man.

Tonight I do not tell you that the games against Anaheim are the games to end games. But I do say this: I have initiated a plan which will end this season in a way that will bring us closer to that great goal to which Cornelius McGillicuddy and every Athletics GM in our history has been dedicated -- the goal of a just and lasting postseason.

As GM I hold the responsibility for choosing the best path to that goal and then leading the Nation along it.

I pledge to you tonight that I shall meet this responsibility with all of the strength and wisdom I can command in accordance with your hopes, mindful of your concerns, sustained by your prayers.

Thank you and goodnight.