It does seem like yesterday. 20 games out of first place and sporting a humdrum 41-43 record, the 2001 Oakland A's travelled to the Arizona desert to face a DIamondback team led by two of the greatest pitchers of this era, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. We would miss the Unit in that weekend series, and little did anyone know that this team was destined to stop the Yankee streak of 3 straight WS titles, sending them on a journey to postseason oblivion that has yet to end.

But don't you remember??

Mulder flirting with a no-hitter on Friday night and the A's winning 3-0.

Hudson throwing another gem as the A's won 5-1 on Saturday.

Zito besting Schilling 2-1 (and remember this was the Zito who had a horrendous first half that year) on Sunday afternoon, completing the sweep and propelling the A's to what i believe is the best 2nd half of baseball in the post WWII era-- including that Arizona series they would go 61-17 in their last 78 games, an incredible winning percentage of .782.

Haren and Webb ain't Johnson and Schilling.

Blanton-Duke and Smith ain't the Big Three.

But neither are we 20 games behind the Angels as we were the Mariners then. In our heyday in the Beane era it was always the interleague stretch that set up the great runs-- could we be in the middle of another one??