Well folks, a family vacation to the Bay Area this past week (I'm still here until Tuesday actually) which means I finally got to see my first A's home games at the Coliseum.

Unfortunately, because it is a family vacation, I could only see two games, Thursday's extra inning loss to the Rays, and today's snoozer against the White Sox.

Still, it was a great experience. I got to talk to a few diehards who sat around me and kind of got to experience what it truly is to be a diehard A's fan myself, which is kind of hard sometimes living in Edmonton, Alberta and having to put in quite a bit of effort online to read up on the team and see highlights.

I came to a few conclusions including...

• It's too bad that professional sports need the "Giants-type" experience at the stadium, with the folks in their dress pants talking on their cell phones and eating $14 sushi in order to turn a good profit and keep the club afloat and field a quality team.
• There might only be 20,000 people in the park, but they seem to be to be among the best fans at games I've been to. I got to see the A's in Seattle last year, and the Coliseum crowd trumped the hell out of them. I saw the A's for a two game set at Fenway last year, and even they had quite a few fairweathers in the stadium, compared to what seemed to me, mostly A's fans there to be A's fans, and see the team put up more than 2 runs and strand less than 12 baserunners.
• The Coliseum was a great place to watch a game, and while there are a few spots that are less than desirable to watch the game, and I was surprised to see troughs in the men's washrooms, I felt very comfortable at McAfee. It was clean, unlike Fenway which was actually kind of grungy in the corridors, and I don't think the stadium is keeping any real fans from showing up at the ballpark.

On the drive back to the hotel, I had ideas for a bunch of other things I wanted to say, but right now, I can't remember anything else, so... here's the best of the photos, and the album links (hopefully they work).

Sorry guys... I jinxed it.

Flattering, Frank.

Knuckle scrapin' Chad.

Note the ball's location at Cust's belt buckle.

Myself in the Harden jersey... I figured having this taken would look cool. Maybe you saw me?

Swish!

I think this took talent... considering I was facing the flag in centerfield and not even looking in this direction when the photo was taken.

Jairo was bringing it today.

Ziggy! I wanted to tell him to give us 39 more but I don't want to bother guys with stuff like that.

Goodbye.

A's/Rays August 14th Album

A's/Sox August 16th Album

Enjoy... and thanks for making my experience a good one A's fans.