Writing about actual dreams, as opposed to inspirational visions of the MLK variety, is not the most masculine activity to undertake, but I'm going to fearlessly proceed.

Rarely do I remember a dream after waking up.  If I consumed any significant amount of the, um, "drugs" I consume on a semi-regular/regular basis (caffeine, nicotine, alcohol; with my tolerance level, basically a milligram of any of those is significant...6 foot 1 and a buck fifty, I guess you can call me a lightweight), then there's a much greater chance that I'll remember a dream.  If I don't indulge in any sleep-altering substances soon before sleep, though, the chances of remembering a dream are slim to none.  And if I have one, it's probably going to involve people that I'm close to, or wish I was close to, heh.

But today, December 12th 2006, I had a dream about the Oakland A's.  This has never happened before.  I don't claim to be any expert in the area of the subconscious, but still, I'm wondering why, of all times, I dreamt about the A's now.  Sure, I was on AN last night, made a few posts, but that's kind of a regular occurrence.  I did sleep excessively (over 12 hours...I don't have responsibilities), so that's more REM sleep, more potential dreams...

Anyway.  All I really wanted to do was share the absurd nature of the dream (more absurd than having the dream itself).  What I first remember is seeing Swisher drive in a couple runs, adding to a huge A's lead.  As always as an NRAF, i was watching Memorex-style, not live.  I don't know who the opponents were; it's a dream, so we'll say that it was the both the Angels and the Yankees, combining forces to try to keep their mutual pesky, low-payroll nemesis out of the playoffs.  Yes, it was definitely a cross between those two teams.  And it was the 163rd game of the year, playoff berth on the line...  

Ok, so the circumstances weren't clear, but I only got a brief glimpse of the game action anyway.  Then I was transported to a large, seemingly living box score (this should be listed as a side effect of reading the book "The Game of Numbers" by Alan Schwarz, which I'm in the process of doing right now), which had the familiar (for me) Yahoo format.  I saw the score was A's Lots, Opponents Few, and I was happy.  I excitedly scrolled down the box score, which apparently by now had been deprived of its life and shrunk to its conventional size on my computer monitor, to see who had done the damage during the part of the game I missed.  First, I checked the heart of the order, only to be surprised that there was no production there...nothing out of Chavez and Crosby (yes, the latter was in the heart of the order in my dream).  Wow, lots of runs scored for there to have been hitless games by the key guys.  Then I saw a couple names who had ridiculous numbers in the RBI column, I think like 7 for the first guy: Scott Spiezio and Bobby Kielty.  Even subconsciously I knew this was strange: Spiezio?!  He's on the 2007 A's?  Beane must have been desperate to fill out the roster.  Kielty had a huge game, finally?  Fuck yeah.  Basically the box score was overflowing with crooked numbers around the abyss of Chavez and Crosby; the 7 other guys had had huge games.  I didn't find out who most of the names were; but that's only right, isn't it?  There's a lot of time before the season starts, and the status quo never lasts long in Oakland.