I've got a variety of different things to talk about today, so I'm going all Larry King again today and bullet pointing this.

•  First and foremost, in case you missed OaklandA23's post yesterday, Bill King is up for the online voting in the Ford C. Frick Award.  I'm beginning to get a bit irrational about this whole situation because AN has been integral in making sure that King has been one of the top vote-getter amongst the nominees the last two years.  I'm frustrated that baseball is failing to acknowledge one of the greatest talents the sport has ever had.  King is a legend and every year that they slight Bill, they slight the rich legacy of baseball in the San Francisco Bay Area.  All we can do is continue to put King up there with the most votes.  So please, go and vote every day between now and December 5, 2007.  I'll be adding a link to the front page.  I plead with you to take a moment out of your day every day to acknowledge Bill and all the special moments he gave us throughout his remarkable life.  I'm also voting for Ken Korach because I think he's the best in the game right now.  Maybe they'll finally make things right and put Bill in the Hall of Fame, where he belongs.
•  Next, apparently Shannon Stewart could be coming back. I like it as an insurance policy, but the A's will likely be in trouble if Stewart winds up with the majority of starts in the outfield in 2008.  I would like to see the majority of the year consist of a starting outfield of Denorfia, Swisher and Buck.  I think that's the outfield that will give the A's the most offense and it's a good defensive outfield as well.  Kotsay and Stewart would be nice backups at this point, but I know that the A's are high on Denorfia.  I hope to see him out there quite a bit.  Oh, also mentioned in the story, Piazza could likely be done as a player and, to no one's surprise, the A's won't see DaVanon in green and gold next year.
•  Another thing mentioned in the Slusser story is that the A's haven't decided what direction they are going in next year yet and that a lot of it depends on health issues.  Well, yeah.  I can't blame the A's for being confused as to what to do about next season because if the team is 95/100 percent healthy, it can be a pretty damn good team.  But there is pretty much nothing that would make the team believe that they can be 100 percent healthy.
•  Finally, I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  My daughter Maya was hysterical because it was the first time that she understood what Halloween was all about.  I had to follow her around and basically beg her to say Trick or Treat and thank you.  And one house was actually giving out Play Doh.  The woman asked Maya, "What color Play Doh would you like?"  Maya looked at her and said with all the sincerity and confusion she could muster, "Candy."  A lot of people around here also left candy in bowls on their front porch.  It's the first time I've ever seen something like that.  If that happened in my neighborhood growing up, that candy would've been gone in the first five minutes.  But Maya got used to grabbing candy out of bowls.  So she goes up to this one house and looks in an empty planter next to the door.  She leans over and sees there is nothing in there and turns around and says, "Oh my God, it's all gone."  I was cracking up.  Maya is a big fan of the Backyardigans and dressed up as Uniqua.  I also carved her a pumpkin that looked like Pablo.

Photo courtesy of Mrs. Blez

Also courtesy of Mrs. Blez

Hope you had a great Halloween!  If you'd like to share some photos or fun below, please feel free to do so!