parking lot, and it would be indoors. Would the A's have to rent out Oracle Arena. The Warriors won't be playing that early, and as cold as it can be at 3 am in Oakland, the indoor Warrior Jumbotron would work better.

if I weren't going to be on Hawai'i. I'll get to see it starting at midnight, if I did the math right.

But by the way, is anyone else rankled by these both being designated as A's Home games? That is utter bullshit. I see this as a potentially significant disadvantage to the A's, as far as them competing for a division title or wild card berth. The only fair way to handle this would be for the teams to split the Home games. It seems to me this is an admission by MLB that making ever larger piles of money is more important than leveling the playing field.

Mostly I don't see much of a Boston fan turnout...the "sit in the dark and watch a big TV" thing seems more a hardcore home fan experience, not a frontrunning loudmouth assholish visiting fan experience. That and the pre-dawn workweek timing drop the potential crowd drastically, and thus there's no money in concessions, staffing, etc etc. So it's hard to see it being even break-even unless the price is high, and it's hard to see people turning out at all unless the price is low. And call me a cynic, but I'm having trouble seeing Lew opening the gates in a gesture of profitless goodwill to a few thousand hardcore Oakland fans.

However, if it's free I'd go, and if the staffing level at the search tables is light (ahem) I wouldn't sweat the lack of concessions either. I'd also be up for a hell of a pre-game tailgate in the BART lot starting at 1:00 AM, if we had a critical mass, or if alox and some of his "legally armed as a consequence of employment" buddies were there.

I'll be at the Tokyo Dome. And, despite the high likelihood that I'll be outnumbered by Massholes, I'll do my best to make our boys feel like it's a home game.

I mean they'll see everything! They'll see the big board!

I have some advice for Lew. Quit screwing with the Oakland fanbase and do right by us and build a stadium in Oakland. There's land available on the old army base. It'll be cheap right now. Either that or put some money into refurbishing the coliseum. Or if not just leave well enough alone and let the A's play in the coliseum.

Maybe it's because I'm essentially a nocturnal being already (save for this past week...damn the flu that's currently sweeping through the office), but I think this is a great idea. It'd definitely build some cool fan momentum for the season and lend the Japan games a nice shot of energy. If it's between this and huddling by my radio so as not to wake my roommate, I'd definitely take this.

but then you could all click on my user name and check how I voted. And, well.

I don't see this happening at 3am during the week, but I love the idea of it.
Dayumm, though, it will be *cold*.

if I didn't have school that same morning.

I'd go, if I didn't have school early in the morning and also my bro and sister's birthdays are the 25th and 27th so I couldn't do it. I will be awake and listening to the radio from start to finish, however.

The problem is I doubt that the staff would be willing to work at 3AM. They'd have to hire one day staff becuase most regulars would prefer not to work at that hour. Most Boston fans wouldn't want to go that early to see their favorite player, the great and powerful, Manny Ortiz!

against it merely because I think it'd be a logistical nightmare. If i wasn't at 3 a.m., then yeah, I'd love the idea. But how much overtime do the concessions folks earn for working in the middle of the night? How about extra police for the folks who stay at bars for closing time and decide to head to the Coliseum?

I don't know, I just think there's too much involved to get it to happen.

Semi-warm, smaller seating area and bigger, closer jumbotron possible?

Or were we planing a softball game against The Massholes concurrent with the opener?

If all else fails, is there a sports bar we can convince to stay open for us?

If it's a smallish crowd the WSC would be perfect. Light food and non-alc beverages. Indoors, Minimal staff needed, actaully in the stadium, plenty of TVs. It would be a great place to gather. Not to mention that I think the neighbors would have a problem with the noise if we were to try an run Diamond Vision in the middle of the night. I know Raiders Boosters meet there. Why not open it up for the game?

the westside club? That would be a cool place to have such an event.