Steve's Blog (for Jobseekers & those hiring)

…..before someone stops you from hitting the wall?

As some of you know, my wife and I are Oakland Athletics fans.  To be honest, it is especially hard to admit that to myself, much less others.  I understand that in the series opener against the Angels, the A’s lost 10-1.  Ouch!  What do you do for an encore?  How about half of the seasoned, (supposedly) skilled, and tireless(?) players go out on the DL?  How about thinly veiled innuendo from the Baseball Commissar putting the kibosh on your move into the South Bay?  How about letting go a bunch of once-great players, for prospects that we will sell later for PTBNL?  Who knows?  All I know is once upon a time, I was a firm believer in Beane We Trust.  Now I don’t know.

How do you put together such (allegedly) great offense, and wind up dead last in the division by the All-Star Break?  How does your team’s only All-Star representative need to hitch a ride on a charted plane with the opposing team from Florida to the the Game?  How does your cross-town rival’s great strength be phenomenal pitching (which the A’s used to have in abundance), with their only sorepoint a former Athletic with a salary sucking the life out of their team?

Somehow, some way, the A’s found a way to replace enthusiasm with doubt, bravado and swagger with fear, excellence with mediocrity. And it hurts.  The toughest thing to do is listen to the radio or see a game or stats on TV, and be genuinely shocked if the A’s win.  This was not as it was meant to be.

Do something Athletics!  Make me a believer again!  Work at playing good baseball, not at personal glory.  No skin off my nose.  No rain off this duck’s back.  Just a cry of frustration, and the hope for some good days in the sun.  But it’s all up to you.  Fans can buy tickets, food, soda, beer, merchandise, and access to pay-per-view games.  We can cheer, root you on, chew out umps, rag on the other team, and boo the holy hell out of an awful call.  But we can’t play this game for you and we can’t win it from the stands.  You got to want it bad enough that you will bite, claw, scratch and devastate the other guy until you stand there high-fiveing your teammates on the way out of the stadium.  Get hungry! Get mad! Play ball!