My season tickets arrived today, but unlike past seasons, I got no thrill from opening them. I have no emotional link to the 2008 A’s yet. I’ve been pretty silent about spring training, mostly because I can’t think of anything intelligent to say about a bunch of players I’ve never seen play. Take the players from today’s boxscore, for example:
Guys I’ve Seen In Oakland before:
J Hannahan 3b
D Murphy ss
R Bowen c
D Johnson 1b
J Cust lf
A Embree p
Not exactly a group to summon the muses down from Mount Olympus, are they?
Guys I’ve Seen Play On Other Teams
T Linden pr-lf
M Sweeney dh
Offensive rejects from the Giants and Royals. Oh, boy!
Guys I’ve Never Even Heard Of
A Brown rf
C Rogowski ph
B Conrad ss-3b
C Gissell p
Huh? Andrew Brown playing right field?
Guys I’ve Heard Of But Never Seen Play
C Denorfia cf
C Gonzalez rf
J Fiorentino pr-cf
W Bankston 1b
J Knoedler c
R Sweeney ph
G Petit 2b
D Eveland p
F Hernandez p
I’d like to see them, but then again, that doesn’t mean they mean that much to me.
Thus my silence. Communication is the problem to the answer. I’m not in love, so don’t forget it. It’s just a silly phase I’m going through. You lay your bets and then you pay the price. Ah, the things we do for love.
1. "Guys I've Never Even Heard Of
A Brown rf
C Rogowski ph"
Maybe "C Rogowski" is the direct descendent of Coker Roguski of the New York Mammoths. Now all you need is H Wiggen, P Simpson, the Carucci brothers (Bay Area natives), and Oakland-born R Traphagen.
2. Helikon. The Muses live on Helikon.
3. A Brown is actually Emil Brown incase you really didn't know. MLB and gameday had it as a typo. Andrew Brown actually did pitch today in the game with Seattle.
4. I took my little brother to a San Jose Giants game when Knoedler was on the team. Knoedler was sitting outside the dugout with a bubble gum bubble stuck on top of his hat. I told my brother I'd give him all the money in my wallet if he went up behind him and said "Hey buddy, nice hat!"
He eagerly agreed to this transaction, and then came back after doing the deed to see that I had exactly zero dollars in my wallet.
It was sweet.
5. I love the 10CC references.
I agree, there is no emotional attachment built up yet, and the guys who we should be attached to haven't really given us reason to jump up and down yet (Chavez and Crosby).
I'm going to try and make it to some Sacramento and Modesto games, and maybe even one in Stockton. Might as well see what my two favorite players brought in when being traded away. They're all fighting to be my future favorites anyway, right?
6. Rogoswki made me think of Stan Rogalski from W.P. Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. I was very pleased to see that he had finally made the major leagues.
7. Brooks Conrad has some nice minor league power numbers for a middle infielder. He had an off season last year, but he's raking this spring, and could surprise some if given some major league PA's.
8. 10cc gets a rave from me any day of the week. Not too many songs I really remember, but they had some great ones to call their own.