OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. NEW YORK YANKEES
August 4, 2004
(by PHIL RIPPA)

PR: For reasons, yet unclear to myself, I decided that I wanted to do at least one game recap for all 30 major league teams. Well, I should probably insert the word “try” in there somewhere. Maybe the idea of forcing all of you to sit through baseball talk pleases me. Maybe it is the idea that I need to clutch to this baseball season as long as possible as football is going to be really really long and will make me cry. Maybe it is just because I am way to bored being unemployed (all employment opportunities and cash can be emailed directly to me, you cheap, selfish bastards).

PR: I am not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, there is no Joe Morgan calling this game. That is disappointing in a source of material type of way as these recaps are cake when you have Joe proclaiming that Jesus Alou was the greatest OFer in the history of baseball. Plus, the A’s are playing tonight. That is usually good for a two inning rant about what a terrible author Billy Beane is. On the other hand, calling the game are Chris Berman and Jeff Brantley in an outstanding contest of battling balding spots. I expect comb-overs at dawn soon.

PR: Tonight is going to be Estaban Loaiza’s first start with the Yankees. This will be interesting. I mean it can’t be any worse that Jose Contreras. I think Loaiza’s family has been in the States for several years now so we shouldn’t have to hear about that.

PR: Also speaking of firsts – John Olerud is making his first start for New York at – first. I think I have mentioned enough on this failure of a website that we run that I have always dug Olerud a ton. I am not thrilled about his signing – more because it reminds me of losing Nick Johnson and the wackiness that is Jason Giambi fielding. Still, Oleurd can field better than anyone else on the roster who could man first. And really – Tony Clark wasn’t making anyone forget Gehrig or Mattingly so sticking helmet boy out there really shouldn’t suddenly make the Win Shares disappear. I enjoyed Rob Neyer busting out the “Olerud isn’t very good this season” column about three months after everyone else – including the Seattle Mariners – figured it out.

PR: Canadian heart throb Rich Harden is on the hill for Oakland. Of course, that means I am fully vested for fantasy reasons. I hate starting guys against my favorite team. Fantasy sports are a cruel cruel mistress. Harden strikes out two in the first inning. That will help the old stats.

PR: Oakland leads the league in sideburns and goofy chin hair. The ladies love it though and when you have the handsomest in charge, anything less would be uncivilized… or something. The leader in the clubhouse is Bobby Crosby who has what appears to be a melted Hersey kiss on his chin.

PR: This is why Chris Berman can actually bring the fodder for this column. Crosby makes a first inning error. Berman busts out the nicknames (and I don’t crush my own skull with the laptop) and goes Bobby was “Crosby, Stills and Nash”. You groan but it is worth it as Berman immediately barges into declaring – and proudly I might add - “I am going to see them (Crosby, Stills and Nash)!” I could picture Peter Gammons back in the Baseball Tonight studio rolling his eyes.

PR: Jermaine Dye, who is finally healthy again (Dye, you will recall, broke his leg in the 2001 playoffs after smashing a ball off of it), provides some pop to the lineup in addition to some fine fielding (including one of those fluky great catches last night against Derek Jeter that saved the game for Oakland.) Anyway, Dye gets the game’s first hit and run by hitting a rope that takes advantage of the short porch in right. Oh yeah – Loaiza looks like he will fit right in the Yankee rotation.

PR: Well now, Olerud drives in two runs in his very first at-bat. That will help win over a crowd. He got a huge assist from Oakland catcher Adam Melhuse who blew the tag on Hideki Matsui. Somewhere Jeremy Brown… well somewhere Jeremy Brown stuffs his face and fails to live up to expectations. Oops… did I just lose my saber street cred?

PR: Loaiza battled with his control through all of the early innings. I would constantly look up and it would be runners on first and second. This was the situation again in the Top of the 4th when Eric Byrnes comes up. Byrnes just happens to be the hottest hitter on Oakland. So he just smokes a ball to dead center for a three run homer, giving the A’s a 4-2 lead. That runs Loaiza’s home runs allowed total to 25 for the year. Javier Vazquez will be estatic to have him as a teammate. Yup, he is going to fit in just fine. Oof…

PR: Jeff Brantley trying to proclaim that Loaiza had just made a couple of bad pitches was pretty high on the comedy meter. I mean, when even Berman points out how ridiculous that statement is, you know that your point was… well wrong. I guess Brantley must have gotten mousse in his eyes and it is distracting him.

PR: Berman has this obsession with players born in the 80s. He first mentions it in regards to Harden (who was born in 1981). He brings it up again in regards to Bobby Crosby (born in 80). Of course, I am thinking, “Yeah, Harden will be 23 in November. That isn’t that young.” And then you realize that in 1981, you remember watching Superfriends when Reagan was shot and you weep giant giant crocodile tears in realization that that was over twenty years ago and that Reagan is finally dead and you have wasted all those years of your life. I think I will need a moment.

PR: Olerud is now 2-2. Oh yeah – this won’t last but I am going to live for the moment. Actually, this is as good a time as any to bring this up. Members of the 1993 All-Star team: Olerud, Gary Sheffield, Mike Mussina. Sheffield and Mussina were also All-Stars in 1992, with Ruben Sierra. THAT is going to depress me. Forgotten youth…

PR: Well there is a piece of news I wasn’t expecting. I was all prepared to have to go on another rant about the stinkyness that is Felix Heredia. And then I find out that Heredia has agreed to go to Tampa to work with Billy Connors before going to Columbus. That means the one stinky lefty on the NY pitching staff is now… CJ Nitkowski. (Quiet your giggling Ed.) Well, it is better than Heredia but we need to start recycling through some other guys because I am weary of the Tanyon Sturtze experiment too. Someone has to have either Rich Monteleone on Mark Leiter’s number handy.

PR: WHOA! Whoever was manning the Baseball Tonight desk tonight (I have so beyond the point when I can recognize the anchors by voice) breaks out OPS in talking about Manny Ramirez during a gamebreak. How did he get that past the ESPN censors? Berman makes up for it by being confused and then resorting to a UPS joke. TRADITION!

PR: Matsui is an easy fella to love. Nights like tonight make it real easy. First at-bat, he smashes a double off the centerfield wall. Second at-bat, he hits a shot that Mark Kotsay manages to corrale. Third at-bat is a laser that screams over the right centerfield wall for his 20th home run of the season. Lead is down to one. Yeah, Matsui is in the lineup everyday, gets on base, plays better OF than Bernie Williams (though at this point, I play better OF than Bernie Williams so this one isn’t the highest compliment) and the power is showing up. Yup, lots to love.

PR: Loaiza day is done after six innings meaning the Yanks have to go to their sad sad longer relief men. The line isn’t especially pretty – 6 IP, 5 earned runs, 4 walks and 2 HR allowed. At least he did have 6 Ks. Still, different name, same result. That is certainly not what you would hope for in this deal. I am guessing Loaiza is just saving himself for those all important Tigers and Royals games. Ah… his memories of the AL Central. In the meantime, Paul Quantrill comes in and immediately gives up a homer to Eric Chavez. You would think that the staff suddenly got transported to Coors. Yeesh. Yet, we had to trade Gabe White away. I really don’t understand baseball.

PR: ESPN brings up the 25th anniversary of Thurman Munson’s death. I love my sister. She is the one who introduced me to sports when I was six. That is where my love of the Yankees and Giants come from. Still, my sister is insane and it often gets cringeworthy when she starts stalking the players and littering the NY media with a variety of things. I guess I should really post her letter to Roger Clemens from this offseason. Oh tell the story of how she ended up getting Mark Wohlers to buy her coffee. But for now, I will paste the string of emails I got in regards to Thurman Munson. (If he was still alive, my sister probably would have a restraining order placed on her by the Munson family. Even in death, the odds stand at maybe 30% that it will still happen)

“Since today is the 25th anniversary of the death of The Captain, ESPN Classic is running Yankee tributes all day and a special one for Thurman at 930pm.

I changed my car plates from ITS J9 to 15CPTN with the Yankee symbol.

Boy am I glad I got to speak to Diana Munson during Old Timer's weekend this year.

1050am radio Michael Kay asked for memories about Thurman Munson.  I was the first caller they took on the air.  Then the next caller, Michael, gets on the radio and says he KNOWS me. hahaha  He said "I know Jeannie and she is a really big Munson/Yankee fan and she is always talking about Munson at The
Stadium."  hahahahaha  I am a big celebrity in the Bronx.

They read my email about TMunson on the Dan Patrick show.  I missed it when the talked about Thurman the first time during the first 10 minutes of the show.”

PR: Enrique Wilson had himself one heck of evening in the field making three fine plays. He did nothing with his bat but that should come as a shock to no one since Pedro Martinez wasn’t pitching. His last diving stop in the Top of the 8th helped keep the Yanks in the game. It appeared that he torched his shoulder though.

PR: Harden gets into trouble in the 7th but the bullpen combo of Chad Bradford and Ricardo Rincon bail him out. Rincon works the 8th too and makes things hella interesting. After walking Matsui, Ricardo has a 12 pitch battle with Bernie Williams eventually striking out the jazzman. That AB was so long, ESPN had plenty of time to discuss the decline in production that Williams has been suffering through the last two years. But God forbid we ever throw him under the bus. Rincon also whiffs Olerud before giving way to Jim Mecir. Mecir tosses three pitches, enduces Sierra to ground out. Stupid effective bullpen.

PR: When Paul DePodesta took the GM job with the LA Dodgers, things were bound to change for the Athletics. One of them was that there wasn’t going to be someone around to mention to Billy Beane that maybe using Arthur Rhodes as your closer isn’t one of the finer decision that one can make in the game today. Someone finally got the courage to point this out to Billy and Octavio Dotel was brought in from the Astros in the Carlos Beltran deal. Dotel is a much better closer than Arthur Rhodes could ever be. That being said, Dotel gives up a two run DONG~! to Gary Sheffield to tie the score at six. We are destined for extras now. (This might put the kibosh on my plans to also do a recap of the Phillies/Padres game. Not that this necessarily would be a bad thing.) The stat is something like Oakland has blown like 25 save chances this year. Ouch.

PR: The highlight of the 9th inning rally is that Jeff Brantley name drops Bill James and Berman starts to seethe. Berman spits out through obviously gritted teeth “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”. All while Brantley giggles as he baited Berman better than he could have ever hoped for. I love Berman being the bitter, bitter old man clinging to the days of no bullpens, all travel done by train and public address announcers on the field. He and Bob Costas probably have weekly lunch meetings where there add new names to their “People we would like to kill” list. Along with fantasizing about a MLB with Joe Morgan as commissioner.

PR: Top of the 10th could have filled an entire piece just by it’s with the various little interesting things going on. Simply, Oakland loads the bases with just one out without hitting the ball hard at all. Mariano Rivera is able to work out of the jam thanks to the VETERANESS~! of Olerud and getting Kotsay to fly out to centerfield.

PR: Sadly, the Yankees were not able to score off of Chris Hammond in their half of the 10th which disappointed a) because I really wanted to laugh and laugh at Hammond some more and b) it really is getting way past my bed time.

PR: Rivera has one of those horrific performances that will get forgotten because he didn’t blow a save and he eventually got the win but man 51 pitches, two walks. He had to work out of the bases loaded jam in the 10th and a runner on third in the 11th. No matter what he wasn’t pitching another inning, leaving just Sturtze. Nitkowski wasn’t getting into the game – though there was some great shots of him getting dressed in the bullpen and starting to stretch after just arriving at the stadium. A guy pitching who wasn’t on the team when the game started would have been amazing.

PR: Alex Rodriquez hits a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th off of Justin Duchscherer to allow us to all go to bed before the dawn of a new day. They play an afternoon game Thursday which will lead to lots of regulars getting the day off. Call it a hunch.