Ugh.

Being Worse than the Giants is horrible. Seriously, I woke up in the middle of the night last night wondering what would have to go right for the A's to sweep the Giants and not lose a season series to the Orange and Black for the first time since 2001. In my mind it was a Rubik's cube with too many colors to actually be solved.

Sleepless nights over the A's in June are not a good thing. How to salvage a season that isn't half done? New Stadium? No way that is sorted out before the end of the season. Stab at a Division Crown? Preposterous! Wild Card run? Ha! So what do I, as a fan, have to look forward too?

As I stared at the ceiling, after I walked down the hall to check on my three princesses, my mind wandered to my impending trip to see Rickey (linked is a great article by Monte Poole with some criticism I agree with) inducted into the Hall of Fame... July 23rd through the 28th. The A's and Yankees on Friday night at the Monolith, Saturday night to watch my cousin Joey (named for my father and grandfather) play for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Sunday an early morning drive to watch the greatest A's player ever inducted into the Hall and Monday night in Boston to catch the A's at Fenway.

I kept thinking about Rickey's "I Am the Greatest" speech and I realized something is missing from this trip.

There was this guy, who made unbelievable calls of many of Rickey's best moments. He also had unbelievable calls of many of the A's franchise historic moments (even that damn Kirk Gibson lucky swing qualifies as a great call in my mind).

Salvaging this season for me, as a fan, means seeing Rickey inducted into the Hall while campaigning for Bill King to be where he so rightly deserves to be.

What I need from you, my AN brothers and sisters, is some ideas for the most effective way to campaign for Bill. My first idea is to hand out a boatload of T Shirts at the actual Hall of Fame induction ceremony that say "Put Bill King in the Hall Now!" I am hopeful that if I had 30, I could find 30 A's fans at the ceremony to wear them.

What else guys? How do we turn my brotherly journey (my younger brother is also on the trip) to pay tribute to one of our boyhood heroes into a campaign for another of our heroes? Ideas? I am listening :)

Let's make the season about something as cool as a playoff berth, let's make it about Bill King.