FanPost

My Trip to HoHoKam

Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports


A lot has happened since that trip to the tenth circle of hell that is watching a team blow multiple leads to lose an elimination game. Thankfully. I turned my back on baseball until after someone won the world series and focused on other things. Less painful things. Root canal. The bulging disc in my back. Legislative lobbying. (Just joking about that last one. There is nothing more painful than interacting with legislators.) OH, and college football. From my username, you can imagine how well that last went for me. Pretty damn great.


But then Billy did as Billy does, and was drastic enough to demand attention. The trades of July had reminded me that no single player is considered untouchable. And November reinforced that. In the span of 21 days, four All-Star players left Oakland. In the past, it would take 4 years to accumulate that many All-Stars. And it would have been 4 relievers.


As bad as it was to watch all those guys leave, in my mind, I was also reminded that Billy had them to use as trade chips in the first place. In Billy I Trust. As the beginning of February arrived, I started to get nervous/excited about what Billy got us for Christmas. Is Joey Wendle really worth a Brandon Moss? Did we get enough for Donaldson? Will I regret losing Seth Streich, Robertson and Ynoa? Who will be our #3? Surprisingly, me obsessing about these things and mentioning them to people over coffee after meetings (to people who think a #2 is a poop), has not managed to elucidate any concrete conclusions. Only one thing can....F-ING BASEBALL GAMES! WHICH START TODAY! CLOSE TO MY HOUSE! AAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH! Ahem, so without further ado, here's what I saw on the first day of baseball.


First of all, I have been to this park before. It's a second-hand park. Which kind of sucks. Locally, it's a little embarrassing. Whatever. That's a different story. The over-arching theme of being an A's fan and not being allowed to have nice things will surely resonate with everyone here. But....it looks great. And it looks like it has always been ours. Great sight lines, great PA, moderately well staffed.


The game itself was as wonderful as pureed unicorn. To borrow Peter Russo's campaign slogan "A fresh start". All new team, really. 6 of 9 starters were playing their first game in green. And there was a lot to like. It's early, and not much can be taken from performance at this point, but here goes.


Semien looked great, both in the field and at the plate. His 1st dinger off Madison was good, but his second was absolutely crushed. No doubt. Zobrist looked exactly like you would expect. Terrific. Canha seemed totally overmatched. Mediocre LF, and not even close at the plate. Olson is going to be a stud. As good looking a swing as is possible to have while swinging and missing. Overall it really looks like a strong team in the field and at the plate. On the rubber, Alvarez and Rodriguez were almost dominant, and will be useful this year. Very useful. Watching Venditte warm up is trippy. He's facing you for a few pitches, then turns his back to you and continues throwing. All the infielders gathered to watch, which I have never seen.


All in all, a great game. Better for smacking around the Giants (who did not seem very impressive at all). Early days, but a great start.