Everything I Know About Stealing I Learned in Oakland

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I've been lying low lately. I'm not so up on prospects, and my forte is not really predicting which ones will pan out and which ones won't. My forte is being a fan of the A's and hopefully writing something interesting, optimistic and/or funny. Maybe once in while I stumble upon something insightful about some player or stat. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. I have to admit last season was tough and this season it looks like it will be hard to compete in the AL West given that one team in the division came within an out of winning the world series, and another picked up the game’s best player in Albert Pujols....

But what the hell, I bleed green and gold. That ain’t gonna change. Wouldn’t want to, it’d be the end of the human race. Speaking of the end, I have a coworker talking about the end of the world in 2012. I think this poppycock should not be getting even a tiny bit of respectability. I have a nephew who is 2, what is the sense of ending the world this year for this little dude? I’m mostly scared of a zealous nitwit getting a hold of a bomb or a virus or something and causing a catastrophe.

So I’d like to take this opportunity to post a pic of myself. That’s me wearing the shirt that says "Everything I know about stealing I learned in Oakland." I don’t often advertise merch, but I bought it at the street fair in downtown Mountain View a few months ago. It really spoke to me. It is made in Oakland by a company called 5733. I know nothing about them except that a girl selling the shirts told me that at another street fair, Rickey himself came to the booth and wanted to trade an autograph for one of the shirts. Of course he did. Rickey did not walk up and say, "nice shirt I would like to buy one", nor did he say, "I am going to get my lawyer to stop you from making a profit from my likeness". No. What Rickey wanted was a free shirt. A free pass, if you will. After all he is 2nd all time in free passes. I remember once an announcer said "Rickey never met a called strike he liked." Rickey is quirky and wonderful and great, just like the Oakland A’s.