Consider this to be my entry form for the pair of tickets for Wednesday’s game.

As for why you should choose me to be the winner, well, that’s a solid question. I suppose I could remind you that I claimed one of your free tickets earlier this season and as such, you know who I am away from the computer screen. I suppose I could also go into my credentials as a die-hard fan. In the end, though, both of the above options seem half-baked. They might say something about me, hopefully something positive, but they don’t speak to the uniqueness of this opportunity.

Which is why I will instead provide you with a story. A story that I believe speaks volumes about what the tickets to Wednesday’s game would mean to me.

For two summers of my life, 2005 and 2006, I worked at Lake Owego Camp in Greeley, Pennsylvania. (Which is also why I was forced to miss AN Day II as well as AN Day III. But I digress.) The camp, located roughly three hours north of Philadelphia, was home to a sizeable contingent of Phillie fans. To them, I was an oddity. Not only was I from Northern California, but my own baseball allegiances rested with the A’s and not with Barry and the boys across the bay. Naturally, this opened me up to a good amount of razzing from my fellow counselors. Whether it was due to the fact that (at that point) the A’s had still failed to win a postseason series or Oakland’s reputation as a city, my co-workers missed no chance to tease me and my affection for the team that I loved.

Three years later, I’m still good friends with quite a few of the guys that I worked with over the course of those two summers. And it would give me no greater pleasure to walk across the BART bridge on Wednesday night, basking in the glow of an A’s win, and give several of those guys a call. To remind them of the A’s-Phillies rivalry we established. And to reconnect with the enjoyable memories of summers gone by.

My reason? Well, first off, I haven’t been able to go to an A’s game at the Coliseum this year at all, being an NRAF till just a bit ago. I did manage to represent the A’s down in Chicago when they played the WhiteSox, surviving the scorn.

This would also be the fist A’s game I’d see with my own two unaided eyes since I was a child, as the game my father and I were originally going to go to on Friday I was not able to make (much less see) due to 15mg of Valium while recovering from eye surgery, which as everyone on AN knows, I won at the A’s game. My vision should flux for the next month, but s far it looks good.

I say Wednesday because by then I should be off the antiseptic and steroid drops.

simply because I am very poor at the moment and a couple of free tickets to see A’s vs. Phillies would be extremely cool. No big story here just the facts. Thanks for sharing with us!

Sincerely-M-Rod

and I want them to hear it

because I am going to be in Washington State nursing my Mother who is recovering from hip replacement surgery. But I wanted to say:
Skwid is AWESOME and GENEROUS! :-)

My son, 4 years old, has been hitting wiffle balls of a tee for over a year, but as a spectator and A’s fan, his baseball consciousness has just recently started to emerge. He now sits with me to watch games on television, and the other day even asked me to put the game on the radio in the car. It’s enough to bring a tear to a proud pop’s eye.

Twice this year I’ve taken him to games, both times sitting in the $2 seats, and sadly, he just didn’t really get what was going on. He loved the hot dogs, but seemed minimally aware that there was baseball being played.

However, at the second game I took him to, later in the game we moved down to the first deck, and suddenly he got it. From the lower angle and the closer proximity, he could identify the pitcher, follow the ball to the plate, and follow it off the bat as well. Perhaps the warmest moment for me was on a 2-run double, as the crowd cheered, he stood up and cheered also.

Sadly, being a graduate student, I simply can’t afford to buy field level seats, and for the most part have to limit my baseball experiences to $2 days. Don’t get me wrong, I love being at the game no matter where I’m sitting, but after seeing my son’s excitement when we were able to sit down low for a few innings, I know that for him, the difference is huge.

For me and my son, tickets to Wednesday’s game would mean more than a great night out, they would represent a pivotal moment in the development of a baseball fan.

Thanks for your consideration and generosity.

I’m an NRAF in town to move my mom into assisted living and clean out the house she’s lived in for 34 years. It’s been hard work and I’d love to see the A’s, but I’m broke and too busy. In addition, my dad loved the Phillies and the Athletics and regaled me with stories of listening to them on the radio when he was a boy in the 1930s and ‘40s. My 3 and 1/2 year old daughter is getting good at the “Let’s go, Oakland” (clap clap clap clap clap) thing, and she would love to be able to put it into action.

That and I’ll write an ode (poetic or musical) to your generosity that will earn at least 3 recommendations and will not disappoint. You will also have the option of selecting a song or poem for me to parody.

You rule!

... in your honor.

because it would mean I was in California and close to Berkeley and Pt. Reyes and Bodega and wasn’t in this God-forsaken state.