It's not okay

I'm not okay with the green and gold going out like this. I don't feel good, as a fan, saying, "Well, we made it this far." This is funny, too, because just a few days ago, reading Blez's struggles about trying to be okay with the A's getting this far and everything else being gravy, I thought, yeah, maybe it is gravy.

Not anymore.

Today, watching the masterful performance by Kenny Rogers -- and much as I hate to give it up to him, the Gambler was dealing -- I felt an ugly reminder of 16 years ago when the then-balleyhooed A's took on the Reds and just got dismantled in the World Series. It was beyond nauseating -- and not just because I drank myself into a stupor. It felt alien, detatched -- almost like, "who is this team I'm watching out there? This can't be my guys" -- the swaggering, cool, confident-no-matter-what kids from Oaktown were reduced to almost a non-factor. The Reds didn't make them look bad so much as they made them look like they were insignificant. Just like these guys -- they Tigers just seem to have "IT" while the A's are quickly and, without much comment, fading away.

Now this year's squad has nowhere near the cool the club of 1990 did. They were rockstars. These guys are the undercard -- scrappy, fun to watch, some serious talent, but nothing glamorous. And yet, somehow, they've gotten it done. Not only did they get it done against the Twins -- they dismantled them. Maybe that's it. Maybe that's why I'm where I am today. There was a huge leap from contentment to expectation with that sweep.

And now, in the hangover haze of game three -- thankfully sans the alcohol this time -- I feel miserable again. 16 years older -- and at least a few years wiser, I hope -- I do believe the A's can take the rest of this series game by game and...well, if they do that there's no need to even worry about winning or losing. Just play game four the way your supposed to. So you've lost three in a row. You won three in a row before this in what were considerably tougher conditions when taken at face value. Will the A's take game four at face value? I hope so.

Because "there's always next year "or "they played well this year and got the first-round monkey off their back" be damned.  I'm really not okay with them going out in four. This is a special opportunity. Lay it all out in game four. No need for special lineup changes or anything else. We know who our guys are. Here's to hoping they remember who they are and play like it in game four.