Is it a "coincidence" or are we a product of design?

It’s not just a river in Egypt anymore

the management is just putting up with and staying satisfied with mediocrity, without considering the fans at all. And they have been doing this for many years.
i also had no idea that the ownership is the 4th richest in the mlb, how does that not translate at all out to the field?

…it’s the same spin ANY manager would put on a slumping and/or declining player.

Clearly I have no way of proving this, but IMO, yeah, they do.

…back in the late 80s & early 90s that we simply dominated the Giants pretty much every time we saw them (i.e. spring traing, World Series, etc.). Even Giant manager Roger Craig said, “…you hate to get your butt kicked by the same team every time you play them.”. (paraphrasing, but that’s pretty close)

To a (very) small degree I believe this sucky run against the Yankees is coincidence, or bad luck, or whatever you want to call it, simply because as a general rule even the worst teams beat the best teams on occasion. But, that does not disguise the fact that ours is a seriously flawed team, and other better teams can take advantage of that… and do.

First: Fire Bob Geren – This team needs a lift. Even if it’s an artificial lift (in Management/Owner’s eyes) It’s very apparent that the clubhouse needs it. This can unite the core of this group to make a run at things this year. The core being: Willingham, DeJesus, Crisp, Matsui, Ellis – Let it be known: You guys are playing for JOBS next year. Maybe not in Oakland, but somewhere else too.

Trade: Gio for David Wright: This would have to be a larger package based around these 2 guys. They throw in Fernando Martinez+ and we throw them Ian Krol + Connor Hoehn

Bring Up The Youth: Bring up Cardenas, Weeks, Recker, and Jai Miller…. DFA: Kouz. Send down LaRoche, Pennington and Powell.

1B: Recker/Barton
2B: Weeks/Ellis
SS: Sogard
3B: Cardenas/Conor Jackson
LF: Willingham/Sweeney
CF: Crisp/Miller
RF: DeJesus
DH: Matsui/Willingham

 “Oakland’s best young players have to get over the emotional hurdle of playing the Yankees.”

I think this is very, very true. Guys like Ellis, Willingham, Crisp can say, “They put their pants on one leg at time like us…blah, blah, blah”, but who is the leader of this clubhouse? The pitchers lead by example. The veterans lead by ???.

while the teams themselves are being run like businesses rather than emotional vessels of hopes and dreams.

I think that in an environment where the clubs are all about business, the fans should be all about value for their entertainment dollar. To some people, the ballpark and fan experience in general is their value. To other people, winning is their entertainment value. If they can’t get it from the home team, though, it doesn’t mean they can’t get it here at home.

In an environment in which a fan can see/hear most any game they want if they’re willing to pay for it, and in a 2 team environment in which each of the 28 other teams pass through between one to four times a year, the Bay Area is a GREAT PLACE in which to be a fan of a non-local team.

“expAts,” the free agent fans will be called, as they spread their wings through the diaspora of worthy and honorable teams to root for, like the Rays, Rangers, and (insert team you don’t hate here).

Losing to the Yankees ten games in a row is not like rolling snake eyes ten times in a row. The chance of rolling snake eyes is only 1/36. If two teams are evenly matched it should be a 50% chance each time. Even if the Yankees have an 80% chance of winning any given game against the A’s — which I think is a very high assumption — that still translates into only 10% chance of winning all ten of them. The losing streak is indeed a coincidence.

Where Bob said “We don’t necessarily play differently”, I don’t think he means the A’s don’t play differently from how the Yankees play. I think he means the A’s don’t play differently against the Yankees from how they play against anyone else.

On your general point, we’ve known since day one that Geren gives nothing but bland meaningless cliches in post-game interviews. Bob Geren may or may not be a bad manager or a stupid man, but the stupid things he says after the game are not demonstrative of either.

Just gettting back to this since last night, glad to see the discussion ensued. I guess why I reacted so strongly to Geren’s comments is because from my perspective as a manager of a company, at some point I’d like to see some personal responsibility for the play on the field. Blaming a 10 game losing streak on luck or lack thereof does not cut it for me. In my company, were I to produce 10 months of negative numbers, I would be out on my ass. Were I to tell the owner it was just bad luck would not go over well. I am well aware that luck factors into baseball; where a ball lands or doesn’t,etc. It’s a game of fractions of inches, of outcomes that our outside of our control. But there is a lot in our control as well. You can play better defense. You can lead with confidence and with passion, kick guys in the butt when they don’t do well. The other day when Kouz ran into an out that should have been a double because he lollygagged between home and first then turned on the gas, whent he camera showed him in the dugout afterwards he was smiling and laughing. If I were his boss I would have chewed his ass! He would have been benched, pulled out immediately. It’s the approach embodied, the intent behind what he said that rubbed me the wrong way. To blame fate instead of himself or performance. It was crap.