A’s get to laugh at all the judgmental ninnies

Bay Area Sports Guy October 02, 2012

The Oakland Athletics solidified a spot in the postseason on Monday night, something nobody imagined they’d do a few months ago. Since the A’s probably weren’t going to get a parade just for making it to the Wild Card elimination game, if they lost their next three games they wouldn’t get another chance to celebrate this year.

On Monday they eliminated the Angels, a team that spent over $300MM on Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson and later added Mike Trout (with all apologies to the Triple Crowners, the clear AL MVP) to their roster in April after their big-money plan went down in flames. But since they still had a chance to topple the mighty Texas Rangers, some questioned the A’s exuberant celebration. Over-exuberant, according to the frontrunning teetotalers.

Ray Fosse was in the clubhouse interviewing players. Well, half interviewing, half chastising. Even guys who had Tuesday night off got it from Fosse.

“Kuip, I got a guy who’s going to be pitching on WEDNESDAY. Right now you’d never think that. A.J. Griffin…”

Yes, that’s how he started his interview with Griffin, who looked like he was in the midst of the happiest moment of his life until Capt. Buzzkill grabbed his shoulder, gave him an accusatory stare and stuck a mic in his face. Now Griffin has a chance to propel the A’s to the most glorious, ridiculous, fantastic story of the 2012 regular season.

Why? Because even though they (gasp) poured alcohol on each other, smoked cigars and let loose on local cable television, they were still able to win a baseball game almost 24 hours later. If you ask the people who lost their s— this morning, the A’s winning 3-1 over Texas on Tuesday night had to be the most miraculous thing to occur during this storybook season.

Sure, the division was still in the balance. But why should the A’s do anything else than whatever the hell they want at this point? Their fans didn’t start filling up the park until the day after they clinched. The owner has no idea how he comes off in public and seems pretty happy with an underground marketing scheme that still hasn’t made its way to my apartment, at least. Even when they torched everyone in July, it was considered just a phase by most. They share a freaking stadium with the Raiders…

Still, radio hosts like Larry Krueger and Gary Radnich complained about the A’s excessive fun-having on Tuesday morning. Score a point for “The Game,” as no one from the Rise Guys, Chris Townsend or Matt Steinmetz (from the bits I heard, anyway) made a big deal out of the clubhouse party — almost as if the A’s are independent adults who owe us nothing!

If the A’s win on Wednesday afternoon to become the fifth team to come back from a 13-game deficit to win a division, they should show all the people who complained on Tuesday morning that Monday night’s celebration was nothing compared to Wednesday afternoon.

About the Author

Otherwise known as Steve Berman (no, not the guy from the Eminem skits), BASG started Bay Area Sports Guy in January of 2008 with the help of his then-girlfriend (now wife). Since then he's covered college football for CSN Bay Area, gained media access to the Giants, Warriors and 49ers, and built Bay Area Sports Guy into the No. 1 independent Bay Area sports blog. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

28 comments

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random fan

The best part of this is watching good ol' East Coast Bias himself Mitch Williwams eat so many of his words. Two weeks ago he said "The A's are a nice story but the Angels will pass them w/out a doubt." He went on to say "Ryan Braun is handsdown the MVP of the NL, it's not even close for Posey." And to top it off....he said Clemmons is innocent, but Bonds is a cheat and doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame." His entire basis for the Clemmons coment "I know Roger and he's a good guy that was treated wrongly by a former trainer." I have come to the point when Williams is on the air I turn it off. He knows -0- about any West Coast Baseball. It must be past his bedtime I guess.

John Sports

I heard him say those same things, Williams is a Blow-hard Dick.

devnull

It's truly disgusting. These are the same cronies who will tell you that Eli Manning is a stone-cold iron bar lock _today_ for the Hall of Fame, and is already a better QB than Montana ever was. I have no problem acknowledging talent, but c'mon really? Better than Joe? Let's wait and see what Eli's career looks like after he's retired, at least. Until then they're just talking smack, and their biases are showing. Badly. Rampant homerism and favoritism is gross, in any direction.

Stan

BANG-BANG...

John Sports

Unbelievable!!!...A's win the AL West, cannot believe this season...LETS GO OAKLAND!!!

Stan

Ohhh.that is soooo coooold-Comcast just showed a tape from April of a baseball writer telling people that the A's were decimated by trades and would have less then 72 wins. He must not be local..they are too friendly to do that to one of them. Coooold-Ice Cube cooold.

Stan

Ten-ah-chee. That sounds more like I was thinking

Stan

I'm pro-Ray. And I don't care if he is a repub-hee. Ray was there when the A's were bad..and so was I watching. Its great to hear excitement in his voice..well,more almost happy laughing. 40 + years and in the great catcher tradition of Gene Tenace .or Ten-a-chy as it's said in Italian. Go Ray!

erik

Kruger and Radnich opened with the A's then Captain "Nothing means anything to me without ratings" had to bring up the fact that the Giants post-game had a better rating than the A's game against the Rangers.

random fan

I was looking for the ratings, I was curious how the Monday A's game did against the Giants game. Last nights Giants game was pretty intense so I would imagine people were tuned in for it a bit more. Although, how many people change back and forth between both games.

Jeff

KNBR....butthurt much?

random fan

I get tired of the "us vs them" routine put out. Why can't we sit back and celebrate two local teams making the playoffs. Baseball is back in the Bay Area, we should be proud and enjoy it. It doesn't have to be the Giants vs the A's. The A's have always been an interesting team, the issue has been management that seems more interested in telling fans what is wrong with their park instead of celebrating their team and having fun. The A's miss someone like Dolich who knew how to market the team.

John Sports

Very well said random fan, just sit back and enjoy Baseball in the Bay Area...I bet MLB and ESPN is just praying for the demise of one or both teams to fail as soon as possible, the East coast bias is thicker than it ever has before.

random fan

Funny you bring up ESPN, I made an effort this AM to watch/listen to both ESPN and Dan Patrick. Both talked A LOT about the Yankess/O's and what may happen. DP mentioned the A's/Rangers but both failed to mention both the A's/Rangers have the same records. It is all about East Coast. I enjoy following both teams, knowing the players, the minor leaguers coming up. time to love BAY AREA BASEBALL AGAIN!

devnull

The east coast media hacks bite the big one. Their sometimes-told excuse of the 3hr timezone difference getting in the way is just that -- an excuse. And not a very good one at that. I don't expect ESPN to have e.g. Giants & A's stories at 10pm PST (though I'm sure they have the resources to manage it if they wanted to), but as many times as they repeat the same SportsCenter throughout a day (same east coast biased stories, different talking heads), they have plenty of time & opportunity to update their daytime segments with a little west coast sports footage. But often as not you won't even see west coast scores and updates, let alone an actual segment. ESPN are a buncha dbags. Terrell Suggs called it right, and not just about Skip Bayless.

John Sports

Have you seen the recent issue of Sports Illustrated? The headline on the cover says "Down to the wire" with a picture of the Orioles on it. I looked through the whole magazine and no mention of either team...Incredible not even a little paragraph. At-least we know what we got.

Stan

Listening to Andy Dolich on the radio. I think,at the very least,Diogenes would stop and think ,maybe...

Stan

How about the Warriors pregame dance routines.. followed by no effort losses?. At least the A's celebrate WINNING.

John Sports

Gary and Larry has become so Irrelevant it really doesn't matter what they say...As far as Fosse, Tru is correct he's just an old school Red-Ass that demands some time with the players...But that's cool he earned it...Lets hope for a win today.

What Krueger and Radnich brought up is a valid point. You have to remember just 2 weeks ago, Eric Chavez complained that the A's and their celebrations are "distasteful & unprofessional". So you have to wonder if opposing teams and players also feel the same way. Look at the Giants. You don't hear talk about them being distasteful or unprofessional.

You might call it Zero spontaneity. But the Giants know how to win and do it with professionalism.

John Sports

More like remote controlled Robots...but what ever...Bay area Baseball is back for now.

LoyalGreen&Gold

Think about it. When everyone is predicting that youre gonna be a 100 loss team, you have every right to do things your way. They re young and having fun. The Giants are suppose to be good, theyre use to winning. Happy for both bay area teams and would love to see a bay bridge series II. Of course the same result will happen...... LETS GO OAKLAND!!!!!!!!!!

devnull

[Giants] "More like remote controlled Robots" What nonsense. "Remote controlled" by who, exactly? If you can't see those guys are having a good time and enjoy taking the field together, you aren't paying attention. Or you're blinded by homer-ism for some other team. I've watched enough A's games to recognize that they're having fun, and the Giants look the same way. Don't let rooting for one team spoil your enjoyment of the others.

John Sports

T, Eric Chavez is just a bitter old man. As far as the Giants go, they won't celebrate until they are told to by management and handed a script. Zero spontaneity with them.

Tru

Fosse is an old school red ass. I can appreciate that and I like his commentary, but this team has been fighting great odds all season, let them have fun. As for Gary and Larry, well, if they were relevant it would be annoying. Here's hoping the A's can keep this magic ride going.

Raiders Sports Guy

Tru, Fosse and Terry Steinbach visited my sixth grade class over 20 years ago. What story do you think he told? To a room full of sixth graders? While a real life, Oakland A's starter was waiting to speak? Old bitter red-ass indeed! For the record, Steinbach was a total class act and spent time answering questions for all of us, and totally got what a big deal it was to the students.