Remembering the 2006 A's

Before tonight's series between the A's and the Yankees, I thought back to 2006, when the A's won the season series (6-3) against them, including a three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium (June 9-June11).

The 2006 season didn't start well for the A's, as they were clobbered by the Yankees on Opening Day, 15-2. A friend of mine, who was a Yankees fan, wrote, "I hope your A's play a little better than that". That's when I really started rooting for the A's. They showed a lot of pride and resilience bouncing back in the next two games and winning the series.

The 2006 A's excelled in pitching and defense (ranked 4th and 2nd in the league , respectively), but their offense was abysmal, especially hitting with RISP (last in the AL). It's indeed mind-boggling how they won the division.

I remember feeling hopeless for the A's in late May, when they lost 10 of 11 games (including a sweep by Chi Sox), and dropped to 6 games under .500. Their starting pitchers pitched well, but the injury-depleted bullpen couldn't hold the lead, and it seemed that they just couldn't get any breaks. The manager Ken Macha, however, expressed confidence in his team, "We played the World Series champs and I think we played nose-to-nose with them. There's nobody out there we can't play with, regardless of how many games we are under .500." Macha knew his team well. The A's turned it on in June, won 10 games straight, took first place and never looked back.

There were many of my favorite baseball moments in 2006, including Marco Scutaro's walk-off hits against the Yankees(04/04) and the Angels(09/22), Mark Ellis' diving catch(05/14), Eric Chavez's amazing DP(08/07), and Mark Kotsay's inside-the-park home run (10/04). But if there was one moment that defined the 2006 season for me, it was the Milton Bradley walk-off home run, after Mark Kotsay's 12-pitch walk, against the Blue Jays on July 30. That's when I knew for sure, and Nick Swisher said it best, "it is our time".