30 Teams and 29 broken hearts every year. 29 out of 30 teams have their season end short of The Ring ("the precious?")

Those odds are cruel. But we love this game and we love this team. More lettered men have described this better than me. I draw upon them here.  

1)
"Baseball breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." - A. Bartlett Giamatti, ex-commisioner, in The Green Fields of the Mind (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1565121929/mariosmajorleagu/)

And to paraphrase Roger Angell:

2)
"These last 7 seasons, The A's have been woven into the tapestry of East Bay autumns like fine green and gold threads of tragedy"

To sum it up for me I just want to say win or lose today it has been a great year. 1 of 4 left standing is a fine thing after 168 baseball games.

Do not despair. Leave that to the fans of the Brewers, Royals, Pirates, Rangers, Orioles, Philly, Tampa Bay etc. for whom year upon year October just means it's time for pumpkins to show up in the produce aisle.