about the "area of particular long-time concern" to GNGG.  It could be:  a) sock height b) the purging of her-who-must-not-be-named from the MLB.com website c) something to do with Travis Buck.

I'm sure I'm missing something.  Could you put up a poll?

i knew it looked a lot less than previous years but only 12,000+ people went?! jeez.

good for me because lines were short! :)

my pix to come later!

... I know wifethereof asked about Mark Ellis' pug and its newfound fame.
I also know somebody who asked Cust about how it felt to be in an organization that valued him and understood him, without concern of heading back to the minors.

We enjoyed 2 Q&A sessions, and took the clubhouse tour again. Somebody should call Marco and ask him to pick up his stuff!

hvn't watched em yet though

and I had a pretty good time. I got just about everyone there to sign my hat (except Street, Harden, Ellis and DiNardo) and I must have seen Bowen 10 different times today.

Somebody actually came up to Bowen and called him Kendall (he's wearing #18) and his response was "Yeah...he's a great...player..."

Good times all around.

Curt Young and Rollie Fingers:

Q--who was your favorite major leaguer when you were a kid?

Street (without missing a beat): Oh, Alan Embree.

Q--what batter are you most looking forward to pitching against this year?

Street: Nick Swisher.  I can't wait.

(The ChiSox come to town August 15-17.)

haha! david forst said "i know he is a fan favorite and  an internet star!"

AN! :)

But they're $160 (although there was a 25% FanFest discount on everything -- I think Unca Lewie made them do it).  

OTOH, they were selling game-used jerseys, hats, bats, etc. in the shop near the southside lot, proceeds to charity.  Some were ridiculous, but I got a "Thompson" green jersey for a friend of that name and a "Thomas" away-gray jersey for $100 total(*).

(*) it should be added that the "Thomas" jersey was of the two-buck-chuck, #26, Little Scratch persuasion, but still.  They weren't over-proud of the scrubly unis, and it's for the Community Fund, after all.  Don't know if they'll do it again, as there was plenty of inventory.  

And note for next year:  the Field Pub was open.        

Fosse, Fingers, Embree, Matinee Idol, Young

Kuiper being quiet, Forst being earnest, Billy being grumpy (sleep-deprivation) and Geren being optimistic

I haven't been to FanFest that often (this was only my second, after coming down from my then college town of Chico back in 2004), but I nevertheless had a lot of fun today.  It's true that turnout seemed incredibly light, but the people who there was an energized feel to those who were.  And hey, coming from someone who only moved to Oakland last July, as much as I wish that the coliseum was perpetually overflowing, I was also rather pleased that I could still get great tickets for Opening Night without any difficulty.

In particular, I'll echo Cowman's comments and say that I thought it was nice to see the players throughout the coliseum.  I'm not one for autographs, but it made me smile all the same to see everyone from Harden to Cust being approached by kids in the 200-level concourses to sign.  (It made me smile all the wider to see the players oblige without batting an eye.)  This was also the first time that I was able to take a clubhouse tour and while I do wish it had been a bit more in-depth (I was disappointed that I couldn't poke my head around the weight room), it was still nice to get a look inside.  The kids behind me in the tour gasped when they saw that Haren's locker was still up and they made sure to ask the clubhouse attendant why that was.  I definitely got a chuckle out of that as well.

I didn't get a chance to hear much of any of the Q&A sessions (and will definitely look forward to reading Englishmajor's transcripts), but I did get a question of my own in (I was the guy who asked Huston what ribbing, if any, he gave Kurt over the fact that CSU Fullerton beat Texas in the College World Series back in '04) and I enjoyed seeing what I did.  I do think GNGG might want to lay off the green eye shadow a tad, but that's me.  As long as Travis is okay with it, that's really all that matters. ;-)

All told, I had a great time today.  Part of me definitely missed seeing Swish there, but at the same time, I couldn't help but feel optimistic about the team's future.  We'll see what happens, but the fact is, as sappy as it undeniably is, today reminded me why I'm glad I'm an A's fan.  Here's hoping everyone else who was there had a good time in their own right.

Because I don't think just writing "godawful red arygle sleeves" quite captures the ghastliness.

Oakland A's Fanfest 2008 Brings Baseball to January
http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/0...

are a few pics of his day.

I really hope someone remembered to ask Dan Johnson "How many fingers am I holding up?"

take a shot every time someone says (mainly Fosse) "Playing the game the right way"

These are obviously the most detailed notes of the four.  And I haven't checked them against the video, so they may not be entirely correct.  But here you go.  

Glen Kuiper introduced the session by saying that we like to start strong.....I'm not sure what team he's been watching the past several springs.
There were mock boos for Billy -- at least, I think they were mock boos, and fortunately Billy took them that way.
And the questions jumped right in to the Haren and Swisher trades: if the other teams or their fans think they got ripped off, did we get a great deal?
Billy:  We got nine guys, some are very young.  Let me ask you back, how many games did you think we were going to win the way we were?  We want to make the team good, not just for one season but for a very long time.   Ideally, these guys will come up to Oakland when they're ready and stay, not get sent back and forth.
Q2:  Tell us more about the players in the Swisher deal.  Billy: enthuses about Cio, and de los Santos.  Two good starting pitchers, the hardest slot to fill.
Q3: Longtime Oakland fan concerned that the "youth movement" team will be lousy for the remainder of time in Oakland.  Billy:  We were going to reach this rebuilding point whether we were moving to Fremont or not.  And it is not so much a youth movement, we traded two young players for a whole bunch of young players.
Q4:  Why did the farm system stop producing young talent?  Billy: In these great last years we've had, because we had so much success we were concentrating more on what happened at the major league level, and now we have to refocus a bit more on the minors.   And part of same question: Bob, why did you change your uniform number?  Bob: When I got here, Melhuse had #17 which I had when I played.  It was no big deal but my wife pointed out that I was the 17th manager of the Athletics, I was hired on the 17th -- so then I decided to change when I had the opportunity.  But hey, I wear a jacket most of the time so it really doesn't matter.
Q5: Another longtime fan concerned about rebuilding.  Billy: Hey, I would rather not have had to do this -- I'm not a young buck, I don't have the energy for this any more.  But it was time.
Q6: to Geren about Dallas Braden.  Bob:  He did really well in the PCL, he was good up here, just got victimized a few times, and now he looks healthy and strong so I'm very positive.
Q7:  Sacramento fan asked David Forst about Fremont and specifically if there was progress on getting an Amtrak stop there.  David said it wasn't his area of expertise but he knew that Wolff and others were working hard on it.
Q8:  From someone wearing an AN sweatshirt:  How do you expect the rotation to look coming out of spring training?  Billy:  It's always an open question, should you rush a kid who has a lot of raw talent, or keep them down for a while and favor guys with more experience and emotional maturity.  
Q9:  Carlos Gonzalez doesn't walk very much.  Are you just going to trade him, or are you going to teach him plate discipline?  Billy:  You can teach it.  Chavy was like that in the minors, actually, and only got discipline when he came up.  Give Gonzalez time, he's only 22.
Q10:  Bob, with this young team is it going to be hard for you to get your contract renewed, when the climate is so competitive for managers?  Geren: No, being a good manager is not just wins and losses.   (Billy did not jump in and reassure Geren on this point, but I'm sure his job is not in danger.
Q11:  To David Forst -- what is your job exactly?  David:  At this time of year, finishing up the contracts, arbitration, spring training roster, then we move on to the draft, then the trading deadline...Billy: Yes, David does things like trade Haren and Swisher.
Q12: Billy, it seemed getting to the point where rebuilding is needed took a long time, but then once you reached that point the decisions got made quickly?  Billy:  We knew it was coming at the end of last year.  We were worried about all the injuries and then we got reports on Harden and Gaudin that concerned us, and Chavy had 3 surgeries.  We're still behind the injury curve.  I didn't want to keep the status quo and then be in this situation in June where we had a lot of injuries again.
Q13:  When do you think the new players will be ready -- do you need to watch carefully to avoid starting the clock?  Billy:  Ideally, you bring them up and never send them down again, as with Chavy and Miggy.
Q14: So who are our starting pitchers?  Bob:  Blanton and Harden will open the season in Japan.  Duchscherer we'll try in the starting rotation, and Gaudin is #4, and then we'll have quite a competition for #5: Eveland, Braden, Meyer, and other guys.
Q15:  Marco was so versatile....Billy:  Yeah, we had to get rid of him because he couldn't play 1B or catcher.  But seriously, I love Marco, I traded him to one of my best friends, and I think it's time for us to develop a new Marco which is Donnie Murphy.
Q16:  Billy, congratulations on the twins, and is it harder for you now that other teams have started using your methods?  Billy:  Well, other guys are getting better, but just as good lawyers like working against other good lawyers, it's more fun to work with competition who are smart.
Q17:  Bob, who of the 3 Chicago players do you like best?  Bob:  They're all great, but Sweeney is probably who you'll see first.
Q18:  Will there be competition for positions in spring training, such as for shortstop?  Bob:  Lots of competition -- #5 starter, bullpen, CF.  As for shortstop, I'll defend Bobby to the extent that if you're injured and don't play for a long stretch of time, you don't develop the consistency.  But I'm a positive guy and so is Bobby, I know he's going to work hard.
Q19:  Longtime fan expresses love for Haas family and their willingness to put money into the team, vs Schott and Hoffman who were cheap, and wonders if Wolff will also invest enough.  Billy:  Well, let me stick up for Schott and Hoffman because if they hadn't bought the team none of us would be sitting here.  And yes, Wolff is not being cheap, I sometimes have to put the brakes on him because he's so willing to spend.  
Q20:  touched on Moneyball somehow.  David:  Yes, Billy wrote that book, right?  At least that's what Joe Morgan thinks....
Q21:  How is Brad Ziegler doing with his fractured skull?  And can you talk about changes in player development?   Billy:  We have real continuity in player development staff, the same guys who found Hudson and Mulder and Zito and put them on the road are still here, so that's a strong point.  But we do need to focus on the minor leagues, we need to become bottom-heavy.  David:  Ziggy is a big fan favorite, an Internet favorite we know.  He's doing fine, we expect he'll be at spring training right on schedule.  And also we just signed two new players in the Dominican this week; we've beefed up the scouting.  
Q22:  Billy, are we going to sign Bonds?  (Crowd says No, no!)   Billy:  We don't comment on free agents.  But let me say this, we have defined our direction for this year: that's what I can say, okay?
Q23:  We talked about the new guys, how are the vets doing?  Bob:  Chavy is doing well in his recovery, Crosby looks good, he just got a batting cage for his house.  And Ellis, looks like Ellis.
Q24:  Japan?  Bob:  I just got back from there and we're all looking forward to the trip, everyone was really nice, and it's such a great baseball culture.
Q25: Billy, what did you think about Adam Piatt and the other revelations in the Mitchell Report?  Billy:  Lots of noise on the whole thing; I support the commissioner's office and the Mitchell inquiry, and let's concentrate on the future.
Q26:  Billy, should we expect any more trades?  Billy:  The most exciting day for me with the A's was the day in 2000 when we beat the Rangers and won the division.  It was a great moment and I knew that the next five teams would only get better.  So I want to make sure we're always making incremental improvements when we can, every day trying to get the team a little bit better.
Q27:  I can't read my own handwriting on this one, it was something to do with next year and Billy answered more along the lines of the previous question.
Q28:  From someone in a Bill King jersey:  Billy answered by saying since we ended a game out of last place last year, I expected with the same team to end up in the same place this year.  And I didn't think that was what you guys wanted, it wasn't what I wanted.  
Q29:  So is anyone expendable?  Billy:  I love Nick Swisher, that was the hardest phone call I had to make.  And my wife hit me over the head with the paper when I traded Huddy and Mulder.
Q30:  Bob, you changed coaches in the off-season, was it just that you wanted your own people?  Bob:  Yes, that's something that often is given to a new coach to choose his own staff, but my first year, because of the timing, it happened that I was hired after everyone else, so I couldn't do that.  They were all good coaches, which you can tell because they all got good jobs with other organizations, and you'll like the new guys.
Kuiper:  Okay, that's all the time we have, so hang in there everyone, it's going to be a good year.