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i know why the upper deck is closed

it's been obvious from the beginning...when big frank thomas lifted a deep fly out of the park in his first at-bat of spring training.  when he "dropped a souvenir" on randy johnson in his first at bat of the season; homered in his first at bat against chicago; went deep in his last at bat of the season; did it again in his first at bat of the playoffs.

it was clear when marco scutaro's line drive in the rain, in the ninth, in game two, carried to the wall to win it against new york.

you could have known what was happening when kotsay's pink bat caught life for the new york sweep.

you might have figured it out when street fanned bonds...or when milton bradley's lazy fly off of bj ryan stepped up on a shelf two hundred feet in the air and rolled out of the park to win it and take three of four from toronto.

when barry beat johan and his fifty-five thousand screaming, dedicated fans, hostile to our number one; you sensed it.  when chavez found perfection in the clinching game of the alds you sensed it.

you can see it in jason kendall's throws to second, in elly's glove, in payton's line drives, swisher's swagger, kielty's bounce, haren's split-finger fastball, e-lo's fire, blanton's curve, duchscherer's dominance, the clutch outings of gaudin, kennedy and saarloos...

the evidence is overwhelming:  we're not the only ones at these games.  up in the third deck, row 1 seat 1, section 317, the late, great, bill king's taking a break from calling the games; he's following marty, ken, ray and vince on the radio with the rest of us.  he's being a fan and eating good food.

and in seat 10, row 17, section 314 my grandfather, who's radio was stuck on the oakland a's station until his death in 1990, is watching too.  your dad's up there.  your aunt, your sister.  the old philadelphia fans that never let go.  the kansas city fans that never had a chance to hold on.

it's a sellout crowd every night at that mac.  we do honor to the fans of the past to tarp off seats for 'em.  this is a team that's blessed, a team that takes the field with much, much more than the starting nine every time.  this is a team for the ages, a team that will build a bridge between the white elephants of the past and the green and gold of the future.  this is your 2006 oakland a's.

-ben

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Awesome!
And a recommend.
"...sometimes I can't tell the difference between baseball and magic."- salb918 "Ellie plowed into him like an evil, pink unicorn."-ArakSOT

by McFood on Oct 9, 2006 1:46 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

My grandmother is up there!!!
She is the one who made sure that I made it to atleast one game a year since I can remember.

Before she passed she gave my son the walkman that she used to listen to every game. That is when I knew it was the end.

Her life revolved around her family. And for 8 months out of the year the A's were at the center of her attention.

My drum for next year is going to have her picture, front and center.

Man, Ben...You weren't kidding when you said that you had something brewing that you wanted to write about.

Great job.

"I think we just feel that now is our time." - Nick Swisher

by saint on Oct 9, 2006 1:53 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

So is my Dad.
First it was my dad, as I early as I can remember, in the backyard in East Oakland (High Street) doing gardening and listening to Bud Foster broadcast the Oaks games, then on the A's in the late 60's listening to every A's game, carrying his portable radio wherever he died.  He moved to Grass Valley in 1980 as East Oakland became a little difficult to live in, but still spent every summer day and night listening to the A's.  He died in 1997, but I now know where to find him.

by robertmelvin on Oct 9, 2006 9:08 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Beautiful
I couldn't have said it better myself

by twinkle toes on Oct 9, 2006 2:04 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Wow!
Just...wow! Amazing diary Ben. Well done

by Amnesiac727 on Oct 9, 2006 2:26 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

::sniff::
I'm declaring this a snark-free diary.  DO YOU HEAR ME?

Very nicely done.

Stat Wonk Futurist

by salb918 on Oct 9, 2006 2:31 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Does this mean Catfish is up there too?
Oh crap, he's got the cheap seats on Mt. Davis.

No. wait! He's watching from the outfield wall!

"...sometimes I can't tell the difference between baseball and magic."- salb918 "Ellie plowed into him like an evil, pink unicorn."-ArakSOT

by McFood on Oct 9, 2006 3:03 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Nicely written.
Quality, quality work.
"It's time to blow this team up." - Oaktoon, July 2006

by Ozzz on Oct 9, 2006 2:33 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Hmm.
Did Bill King even believe in ghosts?

Besides, I'm sure they gave him a better seat.

by MobiusKlein on Oct 9, 2006 2:36 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Wow..
I thought this was going to be another tarp/3rd deck diary......Great stuff Ben, awesome read.
Bring back Hammer.

by OaktownPower on Oct 9, 2006 2:38 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Excellent, Ben
My best A's friend, the one who I could always call up an hour or two before a game and persuade her to drop what she was doing and go, who if she only had a hundred dollars in the bank (and she often did) would spend ten of them on a ticket, who taught me the best places to park for free around the Coliseum and other bits of lore, died rather unexpectedly just before the season opened.  It's been strange all this year to go to games without her, not to have her call after a loss and say "Well, don't worry about it, they're a young, streaky team!".  She was in the press box the last time the A's were in the World Series.  Now I can think of her in the third deck.
"I had to turn my weaknesses into my strengths." -- Milton Bradley, October 6, 2006

by Englishmajor on Oct 9, 2006 3:01 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

It's nice to picture your loved
one's sitting up above us all and watching our A's.  I can still remember my Grandpa taking me to games when I was 5 years old and how he got me hooked on baseball.  It brings a smile to my face to think of him sitting up there watching this magical season unfold.
We can be considered David, David knocks out Goliath. -Eric Chavez PT-42

by norcaldevilasu on Oct 9, 2006 3:01 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

<tear>
Wow, what a diary.
"I have an owie; can I go to first?" ~louismg on Vlad

by baseballgirl on Oct 9, 2006 4:55 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

You should meet Ben:
I met him at a friend's wedding and he is a great guy.

This morning my ESP, was saying, "BASEBALLGIRL needs to meet BEN!!!"

Funny huh?

"I think we just feel that now is our time." - Nick Swisher

by saint on Oct 9, 2006 5:01 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

This morning my ESPN was saying...
"BASEBALLGIRL needs to meet DEREK JETER!!!

Or was it "DEREK JETER needs to meet BEN!!!" ?

Whatever, everybody knows that the only person good enough for Derek Jeter is Derek Jeter.

"...sometimes I can't tell the difference between baseball and magic."- salb918 "Ellie plowed into him like an evil, pink unicorn."-ArakSOT

by McFood on Oct 9, 2006 6:29 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Bravo, man
Powerful and well-written.

by anomaly_kat on Oct 9, 2006 6:39 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

That explains why the tarp
disappeared for interleague games. And had food all over it. And a single sign that read "Bud Selig is a buffoon."
I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Oct 9, 2006 7:23 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Ahhh, yes.....
My grandad is up there for sure.  He and my dad took me to my first A's game.  He bought be an A's cap, A's bat...I even have a picture of me with those items trying to swing and hit a whiffle ball at age 4.

I've never stopped being an A's fan since.

Thanks Grandad....miss you.

"hunting for fresh meat"

by Masaryk on Oct 9, 2006 7:24 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Great read
If I can throw one in, my grandpa is up there...actually he's sitting out in the old outfield bleachers. He has his same 4 seats he sat in for game 4 of the 1990 World Series. I was invited, but as I caught a flu that morning, and was only 9 years old, my parents thought I shouldn't go.

I've been waiting 16 years to go back to a World Series game....

by Eggman on Oct 9, 2006 9:01 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

well written BEN
Why don't they just lick their fingers? --

by novaoakland on Oct 9, 2006 9:33 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

right, right ...
i seen my grandpa up there with his oakland tribune sports section.  i remember in the days before the internet (gasp), my pops was too cheap to get the newspaper delivered, so we'd always go over to my gramps house and read his sports section back to front looking for any news about the a's.  they had a little cartoon of a donkey that was either kickin' some butt if they won or getting pummelled if they lost.  

he had this beat up a's cap that he wore all the time, and i was never really sure if george yee understood the game or not, but now i know he lived and died with every pitch just like me.  yeah, i seen my grandpa up there ...

LET'S GO OAK-LAND!

i come from east oakland where the youngstas get hyphy ...

by mookyee on Oct 9, 2006 9:40 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

the true Field of Dreams
can there be a better take on the tarp than this?
I am no drunkard, I'm a hard-working man.

by Cutthemullet on Oct 9, 2006 9:44 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Beautiful thought.
It feels like there needs to be a link to this post immortalized on the front page somewhere, because this is perhaps the most wonderful thing I've seen on this site.

No wonder "Marco! Scutaro!" was so loud on Friday. It wasn't just 35,000 of us... It was the voice of every A's fan, the fans of all times and places.

"This must be heaven," he says.
"No. It's Oakland."

by Kyli on Oct 9, 2006 10:39 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

My best memories
are of sitting at games in the mid 70s with my Dad and Grandfather. I always thought those times would last forever as I got older I realized they wouldn't and as life happens they didn't. I know my Grandfather will be up there watching and cheering. I plan on carrying on the joy those two gave me as a young boy by taking my son (who is 5 months old) to marvel at his first A's game, and many others. Yes his grandfather, my Dad will be there with us.  

by afskycop on Oct 10, 2006 1:22 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

this is great
im crying as im typing this. the old kansas city athletic fans that didnt switch to being a royals fan are there too.

by smasfan on Oct 10, 2006 8:51 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Bill
It really does feel like Bill is watching... on Friday afternoon the vibe was so distinct you could almost hear his calls of the action in your mind's ear.

I think when someone lends their presence to a place for such a long and dedicated time-frame, as Bill did at the Coliseum starting in the 1970s with the Raiders, there's a buildup of residual energy deposited in the aura of that particular location.  

Something about all this that's been going on has Bill's calm intensity written all over it... there's an internal assurance implicit in it all.  Most times as a fan(atic) I get all loopy in the playoffs and ritualistically superstitious, my mind full of reasons why we can lose and all the strange, obsessive things I have to do to avoid that outcome.  Looking for external assurances, trying to somehow calm myself with signs from the outside that we will prevail.

This time there's been a settled quality, a kind of serenity about it all, inside myself.  I feel it tremendously inside the stadium, like I wrote about before the weekend Friday was so serious in this regard, that energy was so prevalent throughout the event, so strong and palpable.

I have a distinct feeling Instantben is on the right track, especially about Bill and his presence watching over us and our boys.

1972...1973...1974...1989...2006

by emperor nobody on Oct 10, 2006 9:21 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Great diary!
I will be thinking about my grandma sitting up there tonight.
Chicks dig Moneyball.

by Kelly on Oct 10, 2006 10:32 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Incredible
It's 10:30 on day 1 of the ALCS and I'm already crying happy tears.

Very well done!

"Don't be an ass!" --Bill King

by batgirl on Oct 10, 2006 10:33 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

truer words i havn't seen in a while
A's fans from always.  great post.

by MichaelM on Oct 10, 2006 10:47 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Damn...
This is some absolutely amazing writing. If we win it all and someone decides to write a book about this season, that should be the foreword.
...for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!

by Lanway13 on Oct 10, 2006 1:28 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Grandpop
I know my grandfather is up there as well. He is the one who got me started by bringing me to the A's games when i was a 5 year old until the day he died... I hope we win this thing for all the fans past and present!!!

by Nickathleticsfan on Oct 10, 2006 3:39 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

Awesome Post
That brought tears to my eyes right there!

Let's go OAK-LAND!

by theswinginas on Oct 10, 2006 5:28 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

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