Certainly, as they wobbled through their inaugural performance this year, Danny Haren and Joe Blanton were hardly nervous. Each Oakland Athletic is just getting his work in right now--getting loose, airing it out a bit, and getting back into the flow at his own pace.

Except for one Oakland Athletic, who can be forgiven if his debut today is accompanied by a few butterflies. His name is Vince Cotroneo. Today, what has been abstract for 3.5 months becomes cold, hard reality: Bill King is gone and he's not coming back. A new voice will join Ken Korach in conveying the magic of A's baseball, and you can bet he will want to be in midseason form today. Game 3 of the Cactus League "season" is just one exceptionally meaningless game, but it is also the dawn of a new era--no one will ever replace Bill King, but today we start getting to know the man who will follow Bill King...