the end. (dld 9.22.08)

I would like to personally extend my thanks to the Mariners for crawling to the Coliseum this weekend (yes, that is a shameless link to AN's millionth comment, which, in case you missed it, just happened to be made by me!) and allowing us to SWEEEEEP the series. Three wins in three days? Who knew it was possible?

And even though this is a lost season, full of frustration and pain (especially for all the guys who got injured), I always have a great time at the Coliseum, and I always, always want the A's to win. Draft picks, Stephen Strasburg, we could've had SmOaK!!!11, blah blah blah--I cannot root for my team to lose. If they happen to lose, which was a far too common occurrence this season, so be it, but I will keep rooting for them to win, as hard as I can and as long as I can.

Thankfully I didn't have to deal with any losing this weekend. Instead, I saw lots of winning and lots of celebration, and I took LOTS of pictures. No, really, this post is huge. You have been warned.

So, Friday night, we saw a lot of good pitching and just enough offense to get by.

Felix pitches to Travis to start the game.

Ryan watches a pitch go by.

Ryan fails for the third out, so Travis has to bring out his cap and glove. This becomes a recurring theme over the weekend.

Later, after Trav's home run (which I didn't get on camera because I was eating an apple at the time), Ryan comes up again--and this time he doubles!

So, for a brief moment, Ry was hitting .300. I'm pretty sure he didn't have another hit for the rest of the series, so I made sure to catch the high point.

And after the game, the A's were kind enough to have a fireworks show in honor of my millionth comment (are you sick of me mentioning that yet?).  After the fireworks, I considered rolling myself up in my green blanket and hiding under the bullpen bench so I could camp out on the field overnight. I just love it out there.

On to Saturday, which featured very little good pitching and a lot of wacky defensive changes. Before the game, there were drummers on the field for Japanese Heritage Day.

Travis had bring out RyRy's stuff again.

Captain Kirk, before he gave up all those runs and got the hook.

Deja vu all over again. I think Ryan's just lazy.

Aaaand it's Blevins time...

Hi Trav!

Then Grandpa Embree came in. 10 pitches later...

But hope was not lost. Bobby the Hairless Warrior stands triumphantly on second, watching the conference on the mound.

Carlos sighting!

Thanks, Corcoran.

Ryan gets someone else to do his work for him, as the outfield shuffle begins and he heads out to right (yay!).

And here's Dale getting ready to do the splits, if necessary (or even if not necessary).

Later: heywaitwhathappenedtotheinfield?

Victory!

After the game, the team chaplain, Donnie Moore, and some of the guys came out to talk a bit about their faith (apparently it was church community day). First, some big bodybuilders (and the chaplain) performed "feats of strength," such as ripping phone books in half, smashing stacks of bricks, and crushing cans of soda until they exploded.

Here, this guy is blowing up a hot water bottle until it explodes. That wouldn't be easy to do.

Our guys were sitting right in front of him, in the first couple rows, but they got scared of exploding things, like the hot water bottle, and especially the full soda cans (in the pic above, you can see Ziggy plugging one of his ears and Carlos shielding his face), and most of them moved over to the sides during those things. 

That's Rajai, Gio, Outman, Carlos, and Smith (and some random kid). When I saw Smith, I thought, "Oooh, Greggles!" and then I wondered where in the world "Greggles" came from... I know I must've read it on AN somewhere...

Gio was a little scaredy cat during the soda can bit--I guess he didn't want to get his nice street clothes full of soda--because he practically ran all the way to the side and then over the caution tape, up the aisle five or so rows, till he was standing like right next to me in the aisle. I almost turned around to take a picture of him, but I figure that would've scared him more than the exploding soda, so I just waited till he was a bit further away.

So here are all the guys sitting on the dugout: Ziggy, Travis, Cliff, Huston, Outman, Carlos, Greg, Rajai, Gio (and Tye Waller next to Gio).

This was the part of the day when my camera battery decided to die, so I'd turn it on and quick take one picture before it shut off, and then repeat the process a few minutes later.

Rajai mentioned that his name means "victorious king." He is also the resident barber, and cut both Carlos' and Gio's hair (they were both very proud of their styles). Some of the guys pointed to Travis, saying he should be next, to which I say, Nooo, not the honey and sunshine!

Ooookay, I've made it to Sunday: the first half of the game wasn't all that spectacular, but it got much, much better as the afternoon went on.

Oh, and Sean: WHY must you pick the black tops?! Our last sight of the team, and they're wearing the worst uniforms. Not. Nice.

Pre-game stretching.

Ry tries not to be jealous as Dale fraternizes with the enemy.

After the 40th Anniversary Team ceremony, the current team finally takes the field.

Gio doing some stretching down by the bullpen during the game.

It was great to have drummers out in left field. Here, Travis joins them in signaling the number of outs.

Finally, we have a hit! Thanks, Carlos!

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture of the entire weekend.

News flash: Dale wants to take care of sick puppies!

Also, I would like to say thank you to Raul Ibanez, for taking such pride in his defense. Really, Raul, we couldn't have done it without you.

Ziggy came in in the 8th, which was slightly surprising, but I was okay with it. Oh, and Donnie Murphy was back! I didn't know he had been called up until Roy Steele announced he was playing third. Too bad, I was kind of looking forward to seeing our would-be vet back at the hot corner...

Cust rounds third after his 30th homer! Earlier in the game, I had a Cust basher sitting behind me. He was so proud when Jack popped out with runners on. By the time the 8th came around, he had moved. Too bad. I would've liked to hear his reaction to what Cust did in this at-bat.

9th inning! The final three outs at the Coliseum this year.

Victory! I think Ry's a little jealous of Carlos and Travis's jumping skillz.

Goodbye, boys. Thanks for a great weekend. I'll miss you. Come back soon.