In Which I Travel to the Cities by the Bay
I should really contact Dan Johnson to let him know that it would significantly prolong his Major League career to fly me all over the country for A’s games. After enduring yet another slump over the past month, he was a key producer in the the two games I saw him play this past weekend. After hitting a go-ahead RBI double against Scot Shields in the A’s 8-4 win on Friday night, Johnson blasted a two-run homer that temporarily gave the A’s the lead in Sunday’s eventual 4-3 loss. I’ve seen him play in Kansas City, Chicago and now Oakland, in addition to his spring training, AAA and collegiate periods, and he’s hit well in all. I obviously have some sort of “Dan Johnson mojo”, and for the good of the team, not to mention Johnson himself, it would probably be best to have me follow the team around for the foreseeable future.
I just looked up Johnson’s numbers in the 12 major league games I’ve seen him play in over his three-year career. It’s pretty astounding. Over 51 plate appearances I’ve witnessed, he’s hit .390 with an on-base percentage of .510 and a slugging mark of .976. He’s hit seven home runs in my presence with a 10:5 BB:SO ratio. Small sample size be damned, those are some pretty amazing numbers. Twenty percent of his career home runs have come in the dozen games I’ve watched him play — out of 282 career games played.
While I come from Nebraska, where a snowed out baseball game can be common, I found Oakland’s night temperatures at the Coliseum to be surprisingly chilly. I’ve been acclimated to 95 and humid back home, and this Bay climate was pretty unexpected. I was on the fence about buying an Oakland hooded sweatshirt or jacket, but the brisk, damp breezes convinced me to make the investment. And what an investment it turned out to be. I wore my new dark green zipped hoodie almost non-stop over the three days I spent in the Bay Area, not because I like it so much — though I do — but because it’s a completely different kind of summer than I’m used to. A cold one.
Around noontime on Sunday, Ken Arneson — the founder of Catfish Stew and the baseballtoaster family of blogs — stopped by my hotel at Jack London Square to drive me to that afternoon’s game. While he assured me that Bay Area weather was predictable — cool in the morning, the fog burns off by one, and then sunny — the game was periodically sprinkled with drizzle. Worse, John Lackey was pitching for the Angels.
Dan Haren did his part, allowing only two runs to Anaheim, but the offense struggled against Lackey — as they do against most pitchers in the American League. Dan Johnson’s two-run shot to deep center temporarily put the A’s ahead, but Kiko Calero is obviously still struggling to regain his effectiveness. Calero gave up the lead, and while the A’s nearly got to Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth, walks by Nick Swisher and Jack Cust went for naught when Mark Ellis’s line shot to the gap in right-center was caught by Gary Matthews.
(link to slideshow of game photos on photobucket)
I enjoyed finally meeting Ken and our other co-author, Philip Michaels. Both are very fine writers, and I’m honored to have been asked to join them at the beginning of this year. I thoroughly enjoy partnering with them on Catfish Stew, since we all have different writing styles and distinct areas of interest when it comes to covering the A’s. Apparently it’s working out well, because we were mentioned by name in the July/August issue of ATHLETICS magazine. I’m still in a bit of a state of disbelief about my name appearing in the official publication of my favorite baseball team…
A part of my weekend that I’ve as of yet failed to mention is actually the impetus for my journey to the Bay. On Saturday, about 120 fellow A’s fans and I gathered in the Home Run Plaza for Saag’s sausages and a Q & A session with Oakland General Manager Billy Beane and radio play-by-play master Ken Korach. It was AN Day IV, the fourth annual meeting of regulars from AthleticsNation.com — the first I’ve attended. I enjoyed meeting many people I’ve only corresponded with by email, and shaking hands with some of the kind folks that read what I write on The Pastime, Catfish Stew and A Minor Consideration. Sal Baxamusa, of The Hardball Times, was just as nice and interesting a guy as you might want to meet. Vlae Kershner, one of the fine fellows from SFGate.com’s A’s blog, was there, too. Vlae has linked to The Pastime before, and seemed genuinely amused yet delighted that there was an A’s fan as devoted as I am from the great state of Nebraska — not exactly in the A’s target market.
After eating a quick meal outside, the AN herd moved inside Mount Davis to pepper Billy Beane and Ken Korach with questions ranging from bland (”What made you want to be a broadcaster?”) to pointed (”What’s the deal with all the injuries, and why haven’t you fired Larry Davis?”). Ken was genial and seemed pleased to chat with fans as long as he could, while Billy was as open as you can expect a GM to be. Beane did deftly deflect and dodge some questions, but that’s to be expected. For the most part, it was a very satisfying Q & A session — with one exception. The acoustics in the hallway were horrible, and it was only exacerbated by the constant opening and closing of doors in the suites near us. I could only hear half of the responses, and I had to state my question in my loudest speaking voice so Beane could hear. If you know me, you know that I’m a pretty loud guy anyway, so you can imagine the din I must have had to overcome if I had to intentionally make myself louder. My query for Beane was related to how the changes in the amateur draft — slot money, August 15 signing deadline, etc. — has changed how he negotiates with and signs draftees. He responded that of course he can’t answer that completely, since the deadline is still two weeks away, but that he suspects it might have motivated a few high draft picks to sign earlier, since that’s what’s happened with Oakland’s top ten picks. He didn’t comment on 12th-round pick Gary Brown, who I mentioned, as I had hoped he might. I was looking for some nugget of information on whether Brown would sign or head off to Cal State Fullerton, but alas, my prospecting came up dry.
After the Q & A wrapped up, most everyone went out to watch the game. I sat with some of my fellow midwestern A’s fans — Kyle, Greg, Kevin and Terra — all good people and fine A’s fans that hail from Wichita, Kansas. The game turned out to be a win, continuing AN’s streak of wins on AN Day. During the last inning or two, Tyler Bleszinski — the founder of AN and the sbnation family of blogs — sat down next to us and we chatted for quite a while. Blez has been a boon for all of us non-resident A’s fans, and I personally really appreciate what he’s done to expand the borders of sports blogging. Past all that, Blez is one heck of a nice guy.
Afterwards, a number of us went to Pacific Coast Brewery in Oakland to hang out and talk, since we were getting kicked out of our seats after the game ended. This, of course, was when Barry Bonds decided to finally juice No. 755 out of the park — but we didn’t let that ruin our evening.
Jumping ahead a bit, past the baseball action, I spent the evening after the Sunday game doing some fairly touristy things with Kevin from Wichita, who had decided to delay his flight by a day to take in some more of the Bay Area. We took the ferry from Jack London Square in Oakland across the Bay to Pier 39 in San Francisco.
The catamaran ferry fairly flew across the water, leaving us little time to snap pictures of the Bay Bridge, Alcatraz and downtown San Francisco as they emerged from the thick fog.
Our first task, once disembarking upon the pier, was to find some nourishment. Garlic fries and hot dogs at the Coliseum only stave off hunger for so long, after all. Kevin was intent on finding some genuine San Francisco sushi, and that we did. A place called “Grandeho’s Kamekyo Japanese Cuisine Sushi Bar” was where we ended up. I’ve had very little Japanese food before, except for a taste of sticky rice and seaweed wrapping back in high school, in Mrs. Eggers’s class, but that’s another story altogether. At the sushi place near Fisherman’s Wharf, I let Kevin decide just what we should order. I believe we had, in no particular order, pickled ginger, marinated soybean sprouts, white and red tuna, California rolls with crab, Alaska rolls with salmon, some kind of barbecued eel roll, wasabi, and some other things I’m not sure I recollect. It was overall much better than I expected — perhaps even very good, which is as high a complement as a Nebraskan beef-lover as I can give to raw fish.
After almost mistakenly disembarking on the island of Alameda on the trip back across the Bay, we made out way back to the hotel, where Kevin quickly crashed in preparation for his early morning flight. I looked through the 550+ pictures I took over the weekend, sifting out the mediocre from the fairly good. Some of the better ones have peppered this story, and some are destined to end up at Catfish Stew or A Minor Consideration.
On Monday morning, I awoke at 9:30, slowly packed my things, and made my way towards the nearest BART station — Lake Merritt — 12 blocks from my hotel. On my way, I passed through Oakland’s Chinatown, and the vibrant, busy produce market on 8th Street.
After a two-stop BART ride, the AirBART shuttle to the airport, and a shockingly long line for the security checkpoint, I now sit writing at Gate 27 in the Oakland Airport, waiting for my flight back to Omaha by way of Phoenix. Instead of paying $9.99 for access to the WiFi network here, I think I’ll just wait until I arrive home — or find free access — to post this travelogue to The Pastime.
Continuing my month-long period of hectic travel, I’ll be heading off on a weeklong trip to Glacier National Park in Montana on Thursday, and I don’t anticipate writing too much about baseball while I’m gone — though I’m sure I’ll try.