Elephant Rumblings: Shin-Soo Choo, Daniel Murphy donate to minor league players

A’s Coverage:

• Slusser: Why getting back to business could be extra complicated for MLB ($)
• Hickey: A’s Get Good News on Webster Garrison
• Hickey: An A’s Link From the 1918-19 Flu to the COVID-19 Pandemic of Today (Korach alert!)
• Hickey: A’s Stars Among Those Missing Out on Prime Time of Their Playing Careers
• Hickey: A Decade of A’s Trades: 2000-09
• Brazil: Chad Pinder recalls what he’ll never forget about Manaea’s no-hitter

Best of AN:

• Hall: Today (Wednesday 4/1) in Oakland A’s history: A’s open 1996 season in Las Vegas
• FanPost: The Autograph Hunter, Part 1

MLB News:

• Grant: Shin-Soo Choo donates $1,000 to each Rangers minor leaguer during MLB shutdown (~$190,000 total)
• Newman: Rockies’ Daniel Murphy donates $100,000 to help minor league players
• Rosenthal and Lin: Four of five California MLB teams take procedural step toward possible job cuts ($$$) (Note: The A’s are NOT one of the four teams)
• Merkin: White Sox announcer Ed Farmer, 70, dies
• ESPN: AJ Hinch, Jeff Luhnow suspensions fulfilled in 2020 even if MLB season canceled
• Botte: Evan Gattis’ Astros sign-stealing mea culpa: ‘We f–ked up’
• GATTIS LINK ABOVE is a writeup of this podcast from The Athletic ($$$)
• Callis: Here are the 2020 Draft pools and bonus values

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Sarris: That freaking guy — the surprising hitters who have terrorized each AL team ($$$)
• FanGraphs: In-Progress Farm System Rankings Are Now On The Board
• Britton: How Sidd Finch became the ultimate April Fools’ joke ($$$)
• Brown: (Stir) Krazy George: How the Bay Area’s sports madman is dealing with isolation ($$$)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1901 - Connie Mack accuses Christy Mathewson of reneging on a Philadelphia Athletics contract signed in January. Mathewson had accepted advance money from Mack, but jumped back to the New York Giants in March. Mack considers going to court, but eventually accepts the loss of the young pitcher.
• 1919 - One of the most bizarre off-the-field incidents in history takes place in Jacksonville, Florida. New York Yankees outfielder Ping Bodie competes against an ostrich named “Percy” in a spaghetti-eating contest! Bodie wins the competition when Percy passes out after its 11th plate of pasta.
• 1961 - It is announced that Connie Mack Stadium (formerly known as “Shibe Park”) has been sold and will be torn down after the 1963 season to make room for bowling alleys. In fact, the venerable Philadelphia ballpark will be kept in use until the end of the 1970 season.
• 1987 - The Chicago Cubs trade starting pitcher Dennis Eckersley to the Oakland Athletics for three minor leaguers. Eckersley will emerge as the game’s dominant closer, saving 291 games over the next eight seasons.
• 1989 - Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Seattle Mariners makes his major league debut. The rookie outfielder hits a double in his first at-bat against Dave Stewart of the Oakland Athletics.
• 2002 - At McAfee Coliseum, the Texas Rangers defeat the Oakland Athletics, 9 - 6. The loss snaps the Athletics’ string of 20 straight wins at home, stretching back to August 24th of last year. Oakland moves past the 1974-1975 Cincinnati Reds for most consecutive home wins over two seasons. The Reds’ mark was 17.
• 2005 - Alex Sanchez becomes the first major leaguer to be publicly identified under baseball’s new steroid policy. The Tampa Bay outfielder will be suspended for 10 days for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

Best of Twitter:

Update on A’s minor league manager Webster Garrison:

However, Thursday wasn’t free of sad news.

Here’s something heartwarming to re-uplift you.

Happy birthday, Stompy!

Another bracket to play with.