Elephant Rumblings: A’s Fan Fest this Saturday

A’s Coverage:

• Kleinschmidt: A’s Stephen Piscotty to honor father Mike for ‘Coaching Corps’ Awards...
• Bobino: Oakland A’s Shortstop Marcus Semien Reflects on MLK Day...
• Poindexter: Can The Oakland A’s Khris Davis Bounce Back?
• Official: Oakland A’s Hire Steve Fanelli as Vice President, Ticket Sales and Analytics...

MLB News:

• Lin: Padres and Red Sox have discussed potential Mookie Betts trade... ($$$)
• Brock: Mariners OF Mitch Haniger to miss 6-8 weeks after core surgery...
• Gomez: Marlins and Rangers seen as finalists for RHP Pedro Strop...
• Heyman: Four teams showing interest in former A’s righty Fernando Rodney...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Rosenthal: Why Scott Boras says the Astros players don’t need to apologize... ($$$)
• Corcoran: The new 3-batter-minimum rule won’t speed up games — but will have negative, unintended consequences... ($$$)
• Clemens: Let’s Have Fun With Non-Neutral Games Contexts...
• Calcaterra: Ranking the names of major league ballparks...
• Mailhot: How Much Did the Red Sox Benefit from Their Sign-Stealing Scheme?
• Carig: In Hall of Fame voting, full transparency is more important than ever... ($$$)
• Johnson: Unsung Video Games MLB.com Forgot...
• Posnanski: The Baseball 100 - No. 64, Johnny Mize... ($$$)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1913 — In a story in the New York Times, Detroit Tigers President Frank Navin blames the length of the games on the coaches’ boxes. Navin, reacting to American League President Ban Johnson’s complaint that too many games the previous season had taken two hours to play, says the boxes should be moved back so that the catcher can give the pitcher his signals more quickly. From where they are now, he said, the coaching players can detect the catcher’s signals unless he takes a lot of time to hide them. Navin said this slow signalling is the reason for the longer games.
• 1922 — The Brooklyn Robins obtain shortstop Sam Crane from the Cincinnati Reds. Crane will play in three games and later be convicted of murder. He will be visited in prison by Connie Mack, who works for his parole and gives him a job.

Best of Twitter:

• The least surprising news of the offseason...

• Baseball finds a way...

• Click the link for all the info you’ll need for tomorrow’s Fan Fest...