At least the A's have a history, any history, of playing on your birthday.  Unless Major League Baseball opts for a major restructuring of the schedule in the years ahead, I don't think I'll ever be able to see a game on my birthday. (February 21st if you were curious.)  Don't feel too bad for me, though.  I've noticed in years past that pitchers and catchers have a tendency to report on my birthday.  As you can imagine, such a fact usually makes me enjoy my birthday all the more.  (Especially last year when assorted family members pooled their resources and sent me to Spring Training as a belated birthday present.  I wasn't too upset about it being belated.  Not.  At all.)

As for this year's playoffs, although a substantial part of me misses seeing the A's have a shot at a title, there's another side to that coin.  I have become so emotionally attached to the A's in recent years than even losses in Wednesday afternoon games in the middle of April feel crushing and disspiriting to me.  I want the team to win, often desperately so, and if they don't, I often find the rest of my day to be tinged by my second-guessing managerial decisions and wondering whether our offense (or pitching...but in all honesty, I usually worry about the state of our offense more) will pick up its act in the days ahead.  It's far from a healthy process, but it's part of being a fan and when it comes down to it, I wouldn't trade it for the world.

This October, however, has been a blissful reminder of why I am a fan of baseball and not just the A's.  Oh sure, I'm rooting for certain stories (my goodness are the Rockies a fun team to follow, wow that was an impressive top of the 11th from the Indians on Saturday night) but I do so more out of a visceral energy than a truly emotional one.  Thus, when Willy Taveras races into the right-center gap to take a double away from Tony Clark, my jaw falls to the floor.  When Manny slammed that three-run jack off of K-Rod last Friday, my instinctive reaction was simply to yelp in delight.  Baseball is a beautiful game to me, a game of equal parts poetry and rhythm, but on a more fundamental level, it's just a heck of a lot of fun.  This October has reminded me of that.  Regardless of what happens from here on out, I've had an absolute blast with these playoffs.  I miss the A's presence to be sure, but at the same, it's nice to not have to worry about my heart being broken.

I still hope the Rockies win it all, though.

And Paul does bring up a good point.  I went to Saturday's Cal game with a girl I know (she's a Cal alum, it was my first time in Memorial Stadium) and it was a pretty deflating experience.  I was pretty jacked up beforehand (as much due to my desire to trash-talk a good buddy of mine who went to Oregon State as anything else), but the game started off poorly and then slowly, if unbelieveably, managed to get even worse.  It certainly wasn't as painful as the aforementioned rhetorical Wednesday afternoon A's loss (if only because while I may ogle football as she walks down the sidewalk, I married baseball 17 years ago and have no desire to get divorced) but it still wasn't fun.

AND that's just about the longest comment I've ever written.  Woot, go me.  But more importantly than that, happy birthday, Christy!  I hope your day is a wonderful one and that your next year is full of enchantment and inspiration.  My best to you!

HB2U.
HB, Dear BBG...
HB2U!

(you do not, in fact, smell like monkeyball)

And I think you've managed to put enough bad juju out there that something horrible will happen to Byrnes tonight in Denver.

the Yankees LOVE your birthday:

1976, ALCS Game 5: beat KC 3-2
(on Chambliss' walk-off to advance to Series)
1977, World Series Game 3: beat LA 5-3
1978, World Series Game 4: beat LA 4-3
1981, Division Series, Game 2: beat A's 13-3
1999, ALCS Game 2: Beat Boston 3-2
2000, ALCS Game 4: Beat Seattle 5-0
2001, ALDS Game 4: Beat Oakland 9-2
2003, ALCS Game 5: Beat  Boston 4-2

That's 8-0 on your birthday. Yuck.

(Yeah, I really know how to cheer up a girl)

So how's this instead:

1972. First ever World Series game for Oakland, and it's our first win, too (beat Cincinnati 3-2)

OR THIS:

1989, World Series Game 1: Dave Stewart shuts out the Giants 5-0, A's go on to sweep.

Two pretty cool milestones that you can add to your list (even if you weren't a fan yet, no one needs to know ;)

Happy Birthday- and for good measure, no one you hate is playing baseball today!

"I think we would have won this game if I put up a zero," Schilling said.

The next inning, Sizemore also went deep, putting a 1-0 pitch from Schilling into the Red Sox bullpen for a 5-3 Cleveland advantage. Sizemore also had doubled to left to lead off the game and scored on a two-out double by Martinez. Schilling went 42/3 innings, the second shortest postseason outing of his career.

"There's no one in our clubhouse who should feel bad besides me," Schilling said. "You're asking your bullpen to come in in the fifth inning and throw up zeroes. ... This is all about me coming up small in a big game."

link

Don't worry - something horrible will happen tonight, because it's your birthday. I'm thinking one of these possibilities:

1. Helton and Holliday crash into each other chasing a really high pop-up (high enough for the 1Bman and LFer to collide).
   

2. Manny Corpas tries to snap off a slider and snaps off his right elbow instead.
   

3. Troy Tulowitski fires a throw to first, airmails it, and hits a baby who is holding a sick puppy, killing both instantly.
   

4. Josh Fogg gets the start.
   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Yes, you may.  

If you'd been born in Spain, in 1582, you might never have existed.

Lilius originally proposed that the 10-day correction should be implemented by deleting the Julian leap day on each of its ten occurrences during a period of 40 years, thereby providing for a gradual return of the equinox to 21 March. However, Clavius's opinion was that the correction should take place in one move and it was this advice which prevailed with Gregory. Accordingly, when the new calendar was put in use, the error accumulated in the 13 centuries since the Council of Nicaea was corrected by a deletion of ten days. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday October 4, 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday October 15, 1582 (the cycle of weekdays was not affected).

Of course, neither would Dwight Eisenhower, E.E. Cummings, Ryan Church, and assorted Olympic athletes, memory champions, adult film celebrities, famous whistleblowers, and last name-less Mexican soap stars.

Luckily for avante-garde poetry, connoisseurs of bawdiness, Slovenian swimming fans, AN readers, and, indeed, the whole of Western Civilization, all of you managed to escape the Gregorian chasm.

I'm watching the Raiders losing, 7-0 1st.

They hate mine.

Happy birthday to me.

Too.

I know what it's like. Sort of. My birthday is the trade deadline. Every year someone that I love is traded from a team I like (or at least it seems that way)... but hey at least I sometimes get someone good for my birthday too hahaha

Hopefully today will be a good one for ya!

What are you, like, 42? (I really don't know, it's just a guess.)

-Cindi

Just think.....one less day until spring training begins! :)

Oz and Christy.

Next year the A's are going to make it a good one. <fingers crossed> Hey! It's the law of averages!

Happy Birthday

Hope you have lots of fun. Wait till next year..maybe we'll be celebrating your birthday with playoff games. One can always hope!

Byrnes nearly hit into a triple play..

or if I'm not paying too much attention, every single DBack looks like Eric Byrnes? I could have sworn that bomb was a Byrnes shot, only to see it wasn't him.

Happy birthday to the birthday ANers.  The only thing I think about on my birthday is how frigging old I keep getting.

But then I see how my favorite 40-something QB is doing and I know that we old folks can be just as exciting as any twenty-something.

Congrats to Vinny Testaverde for breaking his own record of consecutive seasons with a TD (21) and for being the oldest QB to win a game.  I was soooo stoked about him starting today and seeing him do as well as he did, was just awesome.  Time to switch from the Jets to the Panthers. (well, I'll still secretly love the J-e-t-s)

Apologies to Ohtobe for this, but I would have gagged to death of Cowboys talk this week if they had beat the Pats.  Last week was sickening enough.

It looks freezing there.

My BD is July 4, so the A's usually play every year that day (exception was 2005 - there's something 'ewwww' about a baseball team that does not play on July 4). Anyway, the A's are 20-23 since 1963 (2-3 in KC, including a double-header split in 1967). Some milestone birthday games:
18 (1981) - no game, strike :(
21 (1984) - Loss 13-9 to Boston
30 (1993) - Win 7-6 over Yankees
40 (2003) - Loss 1-0 to Orange County

still morose over a college game (no mention) yesterday...maybe this will pick me up...yeah a little rockies, and maybe a little brynsie antics....yeah, yeah, thats the ticket.

Second coming of Don Denkinger?

I swear that's Eric Byrnes.

Who knew?

how many games into next season before they finally lose one???

If the game is rained out before the inning ends, Baker's going to wish he had intentionally struck out!

Did you know that there's onlY oNE OCTOBER!

oooh! aahhh!

of breastmilk with the date, and I accidentally wrote "Act 14th".

Better not put it where anyone is going to slide (ouchie!).

I'm trying to decide what to be for Halloween. One idea I have is to wear a Mets shirt and be a choking victim, but I'm not sure exactly how to do the makeup for it. Anyone have any easy ideas for something?

I'm exactly 4 days older than you.  So I think that makes us both 22, right?

if AZ cares about run differential now?

So excited!!

and Happy 1st anniversary to me!!

on my birthday, and that was Game 3 of the 2001 World Series.