The God awful A's

There is a movie soon to be released on the big screen that will be portraying the Oakland A's and the way they runs their organization, there was also a book a few years back called (Money Ball) in which the upcoming movie takes it's story line from, The Oakland Athletics who back in the 80's played a brand of baseball that they called (Billy Ball) when then manager Billy Martin was playing an aggressive style of baseball that made Bay area fans proud of their team, today play a different kind of Billy ball. Ever since Billy Beane took over as the A's GM, the Athletics have been playing a more laidback kind of baseball while using very little resources, and although it gave the team some early success as a team doing it their way, right now what you see out on the field from the Oakland A's looks pathetic.

Things may be bad for my NY Mets with everything that has gone wrong the past few years, bad baseball on and off the field, never ending injuries, financial problems, it never ends for the Amazings, but thank heavens my team is not the A's. The A's who came into Citi this past week for 3 against the Mets gave me the chance to checkout the guys in the funky green & yellow uni's and low budget baseball ways. The A's did take 1 out of 3 but let me tell you they looked more like a minor league team. I think it's good for a team that has a philosophy of getting on base and working the count but who is going to drive in the runners if everyone is following this same philosophy? You still need real players that are going to drive in the runs and let's face it the A's don't have those players. Billy ball does not work in today's game, not when you're competing against some heavy hitters like the NY Yankees and Boston Redsox, not even in a weak 4 team division, and not when you're 3rd place hitter is Coco Crisp, a guy who would not even be starting on half of the major league teams today. The way the A's run their offense at times left hitters standing at the plate looking at pitches caught with the bat up their ass when they should had been swinging. Too many times I saw A's hitters waiting on the wrong pitch trying to work the count, they need aggressive players, they need real players, they need to spend more instead of wasting money on washed up players like Hideki Matsui.

Throughout this past series between the Mets and A's, the Mets SNY station was showing video of the 1973 WS when both teams represented each league in the fall classics of that year, it was a series where the Mets had a 3-2 lead only to lose the next 2 games in Oakland, a series where the Amazings were trying to amaze the baseball world once again going up against the premiere team of the decade, a team that featured hall of famer's Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson that was going for back to back titles, a team in the Oakland  A's that would go on to win 3 in a row winning in 72, 73 and 74.

Today the Oakland A's represent a small market team with little upside.