The Replacements
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 26, 2006 11:04 PM PST
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PrintThis is a redundant theme every year for the A's in which we have to get to know new players and say goodbye to past stars every season.
So I found it hilarious as my brother gave me a 2007 Oakland Athletics calendar for Christmas that featured Barry Zito on the cover. My brother, who is a big Red Sox fan, had put a big black "X" through Zito's face.
Every year I've bought the Turner calendar, the thing often becomes irrelevant quickly. The 2006 calendar had Scott Hatteberg on it. I made due by often using a razor to cut off the no longer white shoe-wearing player.
On this year's calendar is Frank Thomas and Barry Zito. Both of which will no longer be with the team when the season starts.
I still have a Miguel Tejada poster hanging in my garage, which is kind of my respite of manly decor (a contradiction in terms) and I also have a poster of Zito, Hudson and Mulder in their "Flamethrowers" pose. Therefore I ultimately take a few moments this time of year to wonder if this could possibly be the reason that the A's fanbase hasn't been gigantic. I look at my upcoming year calendar, look at my posters in the garage and I just ask myself, could this be the reason that one of the winningest franchises in baseball still has to fight to gain respect?
The truth is that I never seem to have a good answer. Yes, I loved Barry Zito in green and gold, but I loved him because he wore green and gold. I naturally formed a connection with him over the years, but it was born out of my passion for the A's. Is it because I'm too hardcore that I can't understand why a team that is always in the playoff hunt doesn't have a more rabid following? Maybe it's because I have to use a razor to make the calendars revelant?
Maybe I just need a smart ANer to explain it to me...because it seems to fall out of my realm of understanding.
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People dont like what they cant understand
by Amnesiac727 on Dec 26, 2006 11:33 PM PST reply actions
Like a Mac?
A bit off topic
by Amnesiac727 on Dec 26, 2006 11:49 PM PST up reply actions
Funny
As for complaining, I'm not complaining as not having an outlet for my rabid love for the team helped lead to AN's existence. I just get a little melancholy when I go to a game and there are only 18,000 people there and the Giants continue to sell out. I wouldn't trade being an A's fan for a Giants fan ever...but the A's have only played something like seven or eight meaningless games since 2000. That deserves a huge following. Although I guess the very robust audience that frequents AN would argue that's exactly what this is.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 8:46 AM PST up reply actions
Re: Mac switch
If you need Mac tech support, we're just a call or e-mail away.
I'm most definitely going to need help
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 9:31 AM PST up reply actions
Get a 2-button USB mouse
Right-click
I've had Macs at home since forever (more by accident than by design), but I use mostly PCs at work. I agree that right-click is wonderful. I was so glad when Mac finally got on board with it. (Now I wish they'd better implement keystrokes for menu items and dialog boxes...)
Actually it's a laptop
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 11:10 AM PST up reply actions
I had a laptop with only one button,
youll get used to holding down the control button
by digsthelongball on Dec 27, 2006 2:18 PM PST up reply actions
Mine is a laptop, too
Sometimes I make do with the control-click, like if I'm lounging on the couch playing a game. But when it's at my desk or any other table in the house, I'll plug in the external mouse.
Same idea for the external keyboard. I like having a numberpad. The laptop alone has a work-around but it's a nuisance. The external keyboard usually stays at my desk.
If I'm on the road, I always bring the external mouse. Sometimes I bring the keyboard, too, depending on what sort of work I expect to do.
I'm switching too
It's Marketing vs. Managing
The process of Moneyball, in selecting the best price/performance players, rather than the most beloved and marketable players, no matter the cost, means that often the most exciting ones leave. We've lost everbody from Foulke to Giambi to Damon and Tejada, Hudson, Mulder, Zito and more.
Meanwhile, the Yankees, with a seemingly bottomless till of cash, from TV packages and a storied history, has the ability to pay premium dollar. This ability to seduce the biggest names to play on the biggest stage with the most watts and seemingly having ESPN in their back pocket... is unapproachable. Others have tried (see the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets, and even the Braves) to varying levels of success. The A's don't have that option.
Retaining players and avoiding turnover - challenging for the pennant every year and playing in big games on TV every year fosters a fan base that can be kept year after year. The A's instead have a challenge to show both the ability to contend and to grow, with potential, using unknowns and hope.
The A's do have "a rabid following". Just check out a little site known as Athletics Nation. But we don't have 26 pennants. We have 4. We don't have $100+ million payrolls. We don't have a fanbase in the tens of millions as other larger markets do. We also suffered through a period in the mid-1990s where the team didn't exactly compete every year.
The venue also plays some part. Rather than a Wrigley Field, a Fenway, Camden Yards, Phone Booth Park or Yankee Stadium, we have a concrete multipurpose coliseum adulterated by Al Davis. It doesn't exactly scream out the purest of love to the fans. We love it for what it represents, but it's not exactly the best tool for conversion.
(Boy have I wandered...)
Losing Hudson and Mulder together was a big blow to me, but I was already converted. Others left the fold to be sure. Tejada and Giambi took other fans with them. Turnover sucks, especially when the replacements aren't always known entities. We couldn't have guaranteed Frank Thomas would do what he did, or that Piazza will follow. It's a mystery.
In exchange for keeping the big names who could cost big money, the premise of Moneyball demands that the A's get the best from the tools available, whether they are the biggest brand or not. And as the most ardent fans, we have to buy into this brand of philosophy, and believe it will work. And we don't have a national network ready to tell the world we are right. Instead, we have AN. Thank God for that.
I have that calendar every year...
Being in the A's marketing department must feel a hell of a lot like being Sisyphus.
I too have that Flamethrowers poster hanging proudly on my wall. I've got a Big Three tapestry blanket on my bed, and far too much merch and too many shirts for players no longer wearing the green and gold. But I think that's something that baseball can accomodate for, a little more than any other sport -- it's so aware of its own history, that it feels okay to remember when so-and-so had that hit back in the day for the A's, regardless of his current colors. I love my boys and I follow 'em, even when they're long gone (except for those goddamn Yankee traitors, of course!).
But yeah, I do think it hurts the creation of larger fanbase (along with about a hundred other factors, admittedly). When Eric Chavez is the only guy your franchise has committed to, it's not a 'woo-ha' kind of experience. Having a guy around like a Frank Thomas or a Bagwell or a Smoltz in a franchise, a couple guys who sported one color for a decade... That's the kind of thing that demands love. Beats the crap out of fans until they weep team colors because you can grow up knowing a player, you can watch your kids grow up knowing a player. That's a powerful, powerful thing.
Sure, the ballpark and the campaign of negativity by the ownership and the payroll and the Bay Area's tepidness towards sports and so many other things have major influence. But this is a strange sport, a sport of history and fanaticism and superstition. So it's not strange to think the lack of long-term franchise faces has its place.
I mean, a fan-life under Billy Beane can be a hell of a lot like looking up every day to see the guillotine above you.
"No. It's Oakland."
Rooting for the laundry
Still the team has a spirit. Those Athletic's uniforms go a ways back and have never quit: appreciated or not.
I realize that most I identify now with the person who has worn green and gold the longest since the Haas era: Ron Washington. He's my favorite A, and as much as I want to believe that's because he's awesome, more likely it's because I've just seen him wearing my laundry for longer than anyone.
What? He's gone too... man... That's alright, it's the natural order of things. Still, without my emotional attachment spring training will be a little more difficult to justify. That's money out of the organizations pocket, and that will just feed this cycle.
Baseball needs a better financial structure, but that doesn't excuse the A's who were rudderless from the Haas sale until BB was given executive control. Lew wants to quadruple the value of the franchise over the next ten years, so lets hope that those calendars become more relevant as we're able to hold more "A" free agents.
Until then enjoy the Rivercat/Chavez Castoff A's... they play baseball like men, but can be hired by us because they are/act like kids. I know that I am addicted to the wild, consistently good ride.
So pop that pill to chase away the winter seasonal disorder, the days are already getting longer and the spring is right around the corner. Complaining about success is courting failure, yada yada yada. Just remember how exciting it was to John Jaha finish his career with the A's. All these guys get to go out on a high note.
All this makes the A's a tough team to love, but it brings fans who love more deeply. As Blez is a great case in point.
I'm rambling and it's past my bedtime. Take care all.
- d
by dmcewan on Dec 27, 2006 12:21 AM PST reply actions
John Jaha...
We're rooting for laundry?
Go-o-o-o...briefs and socks!!!!
Whatever gets you through the winter...
by FormerHuntsvilleStar on Dec 27, 2006 5:03 PM PST up reply actions
I suppose in large part
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 8:53 AM PST up reply actions
More like the Oakland, er Fremont, Beanes.
P.S. I knew I opened the pandora's box as soon as I submitted my first post about Mac. Aaaah! I hate Macs, and I even hate their new stupid and smug commercials with Hodgeman and that other stupid guy. PC can do whatever Mac does and cost half as much! I like my directory in tree format and know exactly where my folders are.
Mac vs. Sanity
by dmcewan on Dec 27, 2006 8:39 PM PST up reply actions
The A's
I'm glad we have the organization we do, that does the best with the tools available to it.
Still every year I can't help feeling like the Schick, not the Gillete razor or the Pepsi and not the Coke. It could be worse, we could be Cubs fans.
That just must be my nature
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 8:55 AM PST up reply actions
i think
You love the A's, so you naturally form a bond with the players on the team
Since this bond is formed with the player and not the team itself, the player may change teams, but this bond remains.
When miggy comes to town in an Orioles uniform, you view him in a similar way you did when he was an A, simply because of the bond you have developed in the past.
I love to see all old A's players come to town. I may feel jealous to watch huddy pitch in a Braves uni, but I still love the guy like I always have. I find myself clapping for almost every ex A, because of the memories they have given me.
Or the NL West, so we can be guaranteed
"No. It's Oakland."
I got that Flame Thrower calander too!
The 6 year cycle
When the team decided to make Lansford its franchise player to build around in the mid 80's I felt a deeper comittment by the owners to finally turn things around and bring a championship back. In 1989 I felt justified in seeing this "master plan" come to fruition. As we know Carney didn't do it all by himself but he was symbolic of that endeavor.
Our latest version of that franchise player is Eric Chavez. Fair or not he will be that one player that most kids under age 10 will associate as the face of this franchise as they get older. I commend Beane and his ability to be competitive every year, but dare I say are we turning into the perpetual bridesmaides that we make fun of when thinking about Red Sox fans? Good but not quite good enough to win it all.
I think A's fans have learned to develop delayed gratification as an art form. Last year how many of us were smug and felt justified seeing the A's make the ALCS? A week later we were embarrassed with the anemic performance put forth. At least we know that from an economic standpoint this franchise is committed to retaining it's "franchise players"...after Barry Zito leaves, of course.
I think that's part of the reason
Of course, many of the players I wanted the A's to keep have floundered in their new homes, so maybe this has been for the best and we're going to regret the new direction. I still think Zito is going to be waaaaaay overpaid and while I love the guy I wouldn't want to see the A's pony up that kind of money to keep him.
by Tyler Bleszinski on Dec 27, 2006 8:59 AM PST up reply actions
I appreciate your thoughts
Moving to Fremont is about deepening the A's financial resources and keeping them competitive the way the Giants can compete for players. IT IS GOOD for this team but also telling of what this franchise in its history has always had to do to thrive.
Retaining pitchers, as we have seen is very very risky, but the fielders present a different story. I can't fault Beane for his makeup of the pitching staff. At what cost to retain such excvellence remains one of his perpetual challenges. Let's hope the formula(s) he adheres to, continue to be successful.
detach blez
Agreed.
by A'sfansince1970 on Dec 27, 2006 10:41 AM PST reply actions
Same advice goes to wives--
Why am I always alone on Saturday night?
I'm with you, Blez
im with ya Blez..
why? who the f%$ knows.
by digsthelongball on Dec 27, 2006 2:13 PM PST reply actions
The answer is the same for two questions
So every off season we need to come up with a new reason to support the team. The marketing department has failed to recognize this aspect of the team. Thus far it has marketed the team the same as other teams. It cannot work when your calendar cover player is always leaving. There are reasons to support this team. But the marketing department never tells the general public why. It is almost like trying to introduce a new team every year. Instead marketing should talk to some of the people regularly on this site and market what we already know.
Another interesting question is whether this constant player movement will always prevent us from regularly doing better in the playoffs. I guess if you truly believe the playoffs are a crap shoot it should not matter. However, the dynasties, (A's, Yankee's) had teams that had a core of players play together for a number of years. Not just one or two but a core that learned to play together, cover for each other's bad days and learned their individual roles on the team. They "communicated" on the field, learned their jobs and practiced them everyday.
If we had both, they could not build enough seats for the demand. The public around here wants to support this team. It just has been very difficult for ourselves to come up with new reasons to do so each and every year.
The A's marketing department
In other words, commercials showing Swisher hitting mammoth HRs and Chavy making incredible plays at third might be more useful than commercials, at the pace of a Southern drawl, making inside jokes about a given player's personality or quirk. Cute, maybe, but highly unlikely to bring more actual fans out to see an actual game.
You wonder how a major league marketing department can't figure stuff like this out.
I totally agree
You are right the ads were cute for people in the "know" but worthless on the general public.
I think they finally got the message upstairs. There have been some changes. The organization is run so well in so many areas that I do not understand why they tolerated a marketing department that repeatedly disappoints.
by Thomas Walker on Dec 27, 2006 3:26 PM PST up reply actions
Markee Players and Deadlines
Did Finley just get lucky or is MLB, the way it is currently set up, structured to prevent dynasties from developing? Our A's of the 70's came up together and were grizzled veterans by the time they won 3 WS titles. Under the current set-up, those players wouldn't have been in Oakland for all of 72 through 74. More likely, after the playoff loss to Baltimore in 70 some migration would have taken place. Some but not all of the pieces would have been there in 74.
I would argue that had our current team retained some of the players that have moved on to NY, Baltimore and Boston among others, we may have won a championship here over the last 5 years. But timing is also a huge factor, the Big3 are a good example. Alas, I acknowlege my digression. But I remain hopeful our future remains far far brighter than our already (pretty darn good) recent past.
And you figured this without a marketing degree
Sure the rules have changed. That is why Finley left the business. He saw the writing on the wall. I do not think it was luck with him. He identified talent and then sold the players on the team. They all liked him when he signed them. Only later did they dislike the penny pinching.
My thought is that we have to figure a way to keep a core group together for a bit longer. This may mean that we will suffer through a couple of years of rebuilding due to bigger financial commitments that will eventually have to be dealt with.
Would you trade a championship next year if you knew that the next two years would be rebuilding years. Or would you prefer to instead just make the playoffs for the next three years and try to get lucky ion the "crap shoot". It is a hard question. But I think a veteran team that has played together has a better chance in that crap shoot.
I think our plans will be set once the timing on this stadium get more firm.
by Thomas Walker on Dec 27, 2006 4:08 PM PST up reply actions
I can spell S-a-r-c-a-s-m
I just think that Beane views the marketing department like he does ballplayers in general. That is, it is not one particular player that is going to put fans rears in the seats,rather a successful organization which competes at a high level every year. Look, the Giants TV commercials are just plain stupid at times, but that has no bearing on their TV ratings which blow away anything A's fans could hope for. While marketing could be nice icing on a cake, it will, as you know, never be the driving force behind our team's success.
Like you, I would love to see the A's keep their core players here longer than through their arby years, it's just that Beane has used that as his tool to predict his budget save 20% or so one way or the other. While that formula has been successful in many respects it does leave at times feeling as if we were 1-2 players away from a title. How could one argue against what the Marlins have done? Granted they are feast or famine and play in baseball's worst (configured for football) stadium. I frankly would give a 2 years of mediocrity for a championship. Even so, nothing in MLB is guaranteed, just ask King George up there in the Bronx.
Lastly, Finley did have an exceptional eye for talent. He was far more good than lucky and if he had better resources would have continued to dominate. But that's for another discussion.
Only at the marketing department
Obviously this current team management also has "Finley type" eye for talent. People think they focus on numbers. But it is character and "heart" that is the most common atribute of the players we collect.
We still have a lot of bargaining pieces. I am anxious to see how this season works itself out.
by Thomas Walker on Dec 29, 2006 11:57 AM PST up reply actions
Calendars Equal Strategy
After that, the A's got smart and put all the "keeper" players like Crosby, Swisher and Chavez, after the July trading deadline. For 2006, Macha was April (they figured he would last at least a month) and none of the free agents were in the calendar (and none will be back as an A in 2007. So get your 2007 calendar and get a peek into Hot Stove 2008.
Not the only thing about 2005
My theory about the popularity
The A's perennially field one of the most competitive teams in baseball, yet have attendance problems. Why?
My theory in several parts:
1. Mind Share
Most people tend to root for whoever their mom/dad/bro/sis root for. The Giants had first mover advantage by 6 years. When you see a true Giants fan, and I'm not talking about the 15,000 jack asses who know nothing about baseball except liking to watch Barry, what is typical? I'd say they tend to be middle age, having starting following baseball when the Giants first arrived. The Giants gained brand loyalty early.
2. Money
The Giants fan base tends to be in areas of greater household income (all things relative this being the Bay Area). They have the peninsula and due to their minor league presence the South Bay as well.
3. DH / Pitcher hitting debate
I know people that hate the DH so much that they refuse to root for American League baseball. I don't know if it is a large number, but those people tend to be true baseball fans (even if it is a stupid debate).
4. Stadium
There is no question that watching a game at the Phone Company of Record Ballpark is a much more appealing experience than the concrete bowl. This is especially true of the casual fan and corporate clientele.
5. The Casual Barry fan
They are numerous and their only interest in baseball is watching Barry Bonds do his thing.
6. The Import Factor
Due to the economy of the Bay Area, there is a great import of people from all over the US and worldwide. These people tend to root for their childhood team. Anyone who goes to a Boston or Yankee game at the Coliseum knows how sizeable a number those fans can be.
7. Losing Your Guy
A lot of people get very attached to players, which as A's fans we know you just can't do. I've known people that switch allegiances because their favorite guy went to another team.
8. Oakland is a football town
Anyway you slice it, Oakland is a football town, and a lot of football fans are only casual baseball fans (all in all not a bad thing judging from how a decent segment of Raiders fans are. If there were more of them at A's games I'd stay home permanently rather than having to dodge fights every trip to the stadium)
All that said, I don't believe that the core Giants fanbase is much bigger than that of the A's. Were they drawing more than the A's at Candlestick? Maybe, but not by much. I think the new stadium and Bonds inevitable retirement could swing the balance. There is a large enough population of fair weather fans out there, and those are the fans that the two teams will wage war over in the future.
by titaniumaardvark on Dec 27, 2006 4:32 PM PST reply actions
I didn't get the calendar this year
- I was fearful of the "curse" placed on the men who hold May, June, July, and August. They all seem to fall into some sort of unfortunate injury or illness.
- I still have the promotional calendar from last year that lasts until March of this year.
- I <3 George!!
- Zito is on the Calendar and that just bothered me. I really don't think I could handle looking at that picture of Zito throwing his curve for an entire month if he is not in the Green and Gold!!
- I didn't really like most of the pictures. I was very disappointed in them, no faces, the action shots were not very good, and frankly, the FREE calendar has just a hell of a lot better pictures!!
by BobbyCrosbysGirl on Dec 27, 2006 6:58 PM PST reply actions
And the free calendar is sponsored by
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