This week on AN, there's been a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. And it's understandable. Even though it's an old, old story, when you're an A's fan, seeing your best talents go to richer teams hurts each time. Reggie and Catfish, Rickey, McGwire, Giambi, Tejada, the Big Three, and now Haren. When it comes to wounds that don't heal, Oakland has it all over say, the Cubs and their Billy Goat Curse (much less the spoiled ilk in Boston). Unlike them, when we say, "Wait 'til next year!" we usually have reason to believe.

Now the cries on AN are "Wait til 2010, or maybe 11. Or maybe even longer."

3 years is a long time to wait. Especially in a division with smug fans to the south, fans of a team that actually signs free agents to the southeast, and those...those...okay, I don't have anything against Mariner fans.

However, there are reasons to be optimistic about being a fan of the green and gold. Ten of em, actually. In no particular order, they are...

10. No Bonds moral dilemma and the accompanying in-fighting. Sure, any honest Oakland fan will admit that we have no claim to moral superiority based on the history of our players, but we don't have to keep on digging ourselves into that hole. Watch the accompanying (and inevitable) defenses of Bonds from his fans across the bay to see my point. "Sure he's an unapproachable, unfriendly, self-absorbed clubhouse cancer who may or may not have injected himself with roids, but..." After a certain point, the rationalizing gets old, and with Bonds that point fossilized a long time ago. Which segues into...

9. Our clubhouse has a high cuddliness/likability factor. Okay, it helps when they win, but seriously, guys. When your favorite team has likable players who play well, treat their fans well, and have major charisma, it becomes a lot easier to hook significant others into the game. My wife was raised bleeding Cubby blue and grew up watching Michael Jordan sky from the free throw line on a regular basis. Now she cheers for green and gold and has joined the We Believe crowd for that team at Oracle Arena. I credit Nick Swisher and Baron Davis, respectively. And while I've never met one of my favorite players, it's easier to root for them when I don't have to get past a bunch of strikes on their part.

8. Our GM knows that rebuilding is supposed to end at some point. When you rebuild, you need to have a plan as to how to get out of rebuilding into kicking divisional ass. Not just some, "Oh...we'll put a little spackle on this part, hope that that part magically hits a career year at age 36, hope that those veterans don't start to decline, and we'll be in the World Series before you know it!" Rebuilding involves taking hard, unvarnished looks at your own team, and realizing that maybe those magic beans are really just Crayola stubs. Now that I've mixed a ton of metaphors, let me point out...

7. Our GM knows how to rebuild. Yeah, he's made mistakes, and no, he ain't God. But that run of winning seasons from 1999 to 2006? That was pretty impressive. 8 seasons isn't a fluke; it's a consistent track record. And he's made over a far worse club than this. Don't believe me? Well, let me point you to...

6. 1997, his first year as GM. Think Kotsay's a bad option in center? Want Crosby given away to the Mexican League? Remember who manned those positions back then? Damon Mashore and Rafael Bournigal. Other luminaries in that lineup included Brent Mayne and some dude named Scott Brosius who, beloved as he may be among certain east coast fans, posted a .576 OPS in 479 ABs that year! Five. Seven. Six. Oh, and let's not speak of the pitching.

5. Actually, let's speak of it after all. Not thrilled with Harden/Blanton/Gaudin/whatever's left of Duke's arm, and the rest? The two leaders in innings pitched that season were Steve Karsay and Ariel Prieto. Karsay went on to have a decent career out of the pen for other teams, while Prieto continued on to take his place in the Great Drafting Busts list. They logged 132 and 125 innings pitched, respectively, for a combined record of 9-20. Okay, you say, but if King Richard logs even 100 inning this season it will be a miracle, and the odds of Blanton even being on the spring training roster look slimmer than anything on his diet by a long shot. However...

4. The line between rebuilding and reloading is a lot slimmer than one might think. See, for teams with bad management, "rebuilding" is a code word for "excuse." Being a fan of the aforementioned Warriors, I will demonstrate. "The reason we drafted Adonal Foyle over Tracy McGrady was because our intent was to contend immediately rather than prolong the rebuilding process." In other words, your ass made a mistake, but oops, you're still rebuilding, so please stand by while we work on some technical difficulties. However, a skilled general manager will minimize that downtime while maximizing the contention time. And, despite what certain teams might have you believe, it doesn't have to take six years. If you're good and lucky, like the Braves, you can keep the contention period up almost indefinitely. If you're good with average or even poor luck (and by luck, I'm referring to the draft, which as far as I can see is 5% science, 25% art, and 70% hindsight), you go through a down period of a year or three, and then you're back challenging for the AL Central title.

3. Watching younger players develop into something is one of the joys of the game. It's like spring training, where everybody starts off in first place. You don't know what the future holds, but you can't wait to see how it's going to unfold. Will Daric Barton be the second coming of Wade Boggs? Or is he more like Doug Jennings? Yes, there's a lot of uncertainty to it, disappointment, whether it be from failed expectations, or the pain of watching yet another young star depart for richer pastures. But I maintain that seeing young players develop is a lot more interesting than watching hired guns attempt to live up to their free agent salaries.

2. Our blog base is still untouchable. When you've lived in several different time zones, you get a better feel for what to appreciate. East Coast media bias? Definitely real. You think they don't care about West Coast sports? Duh. I'm currently in snow-drenched Illinois, and what does the news headline on Yahoo tell me? "Storm wallops Northeast." They don't even care that the snowfront covered an area that dwarfs New England, but let a few flakes dot the field before the Patriots game and they're all, "The Northeast is a disaster zone!" Babies.

Where was I? Oh yeah. Regionalism. And where Oakland fans are concerned, I mean this in a good way. Try looking up the blogs and game threads for a lot of other teams, and you'll find this to be one of the most active, diverse, and articulate blogs out there. Bar none. Great mods, intelligent posters, and a usually very friendly fan community makes this place a pleasure to browse. Kudos to each of you. Pat yourself on the back, because you guys rock.

1. We're not Giants fans. Yeah, an easy target. But see reasons 10 through 2 above. It's kinda obvious.