2011 Oakland A's Season

                With being a huge Oakland Athletics fan I am very excited for the 2011 baseball season. For the A’s this season should be an interesting season keeping their great young pitching staff from last year but at the same time adding in crafty veterans like Brian Fuentas into the mix should really boost the team moral for this season. With very few pickups over the year it was not a very big off season for the Oakland Athletics. The few pickups they did make should fill some of the gaps they had from last season. The A’s did make a few pickups for the 2011 season, such as David DeJesus and Connor Jackson but the question is still asked, “Will the hitting this year pickup enough to push the A’s over the hump?” this is very important considering that the division still hosts the 2010 ALCS champions the Texas Rangers and the 2003 World Series Champion Anaheim Angels.  

                I feel that the Oakland A’s did make some moves in the right direction during the off season, but are still having the same problems that they have encountered in the past. They still lack a dominate power hitter that will hit over 30 homeruns this year to increase their run production. Also on a team that the average batting average last year was around .250 they need to increase the team average to at least .270 and I do not feel that these pickups are enough to do that.

                So once again A’s my fellow A’s fans I am sorry to say, but I think we are going to spend another post season at home watching someone else’s team playing during the playoffs. I mean anything can happen in America’s greatest pastime, but with such a strong division and schedule it’s not looking good. I just that we can finally keep our whole team through the whole season and not make that famous Billy Beane move and trade away our best players at the all-star break. Whatever the outcome of this season you can count on two things: me being planted on the couch in front of the television watching every game and finding me in the parking lot tailgating weekly. See you at the ball park GO A’S!!!!!

The Progression of Bats

                I’m sure if you grew up playing baseball like me you had a dad tell you how lucky you were to have the aluminum bats we grew up with instead of the old wood bats they used to use. Every year baseball and softball bats keep getting better and better. It has become less about who has the most talent and more who has the best technology.  Here is a list showing how the bats have progressed:

1^st Wood

2^nd Single wall aluminum

3^rd Double wall aluminum

4^th Triple wall aluminum

5^th Two piece bats

6^th Composite carbon fiber bats

                I thought what I had growing up was the best a bat could get but I should have known. The new carbon fiber bats are ten times better than the bats I had growing up. They have so much more pop to them that college sports had to outlaw them because a single player was hitting 5 homeruns in a game. This is a ridiculous showing that no one should ever be capable of doing.

                People are even taking the bats and modifying them by making the inside wall even thinner to give your balls an extra 50 or 60 feet in distance. This is highly illegal and dangerous but it doesn’t stop people from continually doing it. If something isn’t done soon about these bats getting way too hot adults and little kids are going to start getting seriously hurt or killed by the use of these bats. So why don’t we go back to the way things used to be and make the game more about skill and not as much about who can buy the better bat? If not I am scared to see what will happen to the game I love so much.   

The Art of Tailgating

When attending a sporting event there are two very important things to take into consideration: first attending a fun entertaining game and secondly having fun in the parking lot before the game tailgating. Myself I would consider myself to be a huge tailgater. I realized from a young age that weather or not the game goes the way I wanted it to the game still can be a success with a successful tailgate. Especially with the bad economy tailgating is an important way to get together with friends party and save money by not spending it on over priced beers and food inside the stadium. Another plus is a successful tailgate is even fun for people that may not enjoy sports. My roommate hates attending baseball games but still loves going to A’s games with me because of the party we have before and even sometimes after the game.

                There are all different kinds of way to pulling off a successful tailgate from your basic cold cut meats and beers to your extravagant with anywhere from shrimp to t-bone steaks. If you were looking for me before any sporting event I would not be hard to find. I’m the guys with the music blaring, barbeque full of at least three different kinds of meat, flags hanging in all directions, beer pong/flip cup table set up, and most importantly a cooler or keg full of beer. If you think that I take this seriously, this is just a minor set up in comparison to some. You can see in this clip from youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXT0C3bUWTk) That many people take it much more seriously than me and have made tailgating into a sort of art that most people can’t even understand. One day I will complete my goal and buy a trailer and make it into the ultimate tailgating trailer with a built barbeque/smoker, mini fridge, beer pong table and the biggest stereo system I can find.  No matter what you feel about sports a tailgate experience is a good time to have for everyone and should be something everyone should try at least once. 

Player Contracts Getting Out of Control

With all professional sports athletes making more and more every year the question rises how much is too much for a person playing a game to get paid. 20 years ago Alex Rodriguez got signed to the Texas Rangers for an outrageous contract for the time of 10 years for 256 million dollars and last season a player for the Philadelphia Phillys by the name of Ryan Howard got signed for 5 years 125 million dollars. Is this too much for someone to be paid to play a game that most little kids play as young children when they are little? Most people do not see the reason that a professional athlete gets paid more than a doctor or a police man that protect and save our lives.

                I would have to agree that player contracts have gotten out of control in professional sports but if you take a better look at what it takes to get to the place they are I would agree with them being paid millions. A professional baseball season goes from preseason in March all the way until October depending if they make the playoffs. There is no real offseason for a professional athlete becauses if you want to stay competitive and keep getting paid the big bucks your going to need to stay in shape working out every day and practicing. I feel this is the same thing as a person that gets paid for all the work they went put into to become a doctor or an international businessman who went to years of college to get into his position.

                Who cares if it’s a game or not it still takes blood sweat and tears to get to that point to get paid the big bucks. I would believe that contracts need to have a cap on them so that they do not get out of control but I have no problem with them getting paid under 10 million dollars a year. If they weren’t getting paid that much all the money would go into the owner’s pocket. If anyone deserves to get paid for the profits being made off the game it should be the players. They are the ones sacrifice their bodies and relationships with their families for the game. Whatever you believe this controversy will never be solved so it is better just to get used to it.

Drinking and Softball

                If you have not noticed this far into my blog I am a huge softball fan. Some people call me a softball slut because I will play on any team that asks no matter how good or bad they are. With all of the softball I play I get a lot of criticism because of the bad stigmas surrounding softball and drinking. People feel that softball is just a bunch of men going out getting drunk and throwing a ball around. This is not always the case. Yes drinking beer and softball go hand and hand there is another side of the game that most people do not realize.

                For many people softball acts as an activity to replace bad habits they may have had in the past and help keep them on the right path. I have many friends that I play with to this day that used to be in and out of rehab and continuously having a problem staying clean. So some of the rehab clinics in the area got together and decided that it would be a good idea to put a softball team together to give them something else to do and still have the support of other people going through the same problems. These teams have become huge in the city of Concord and the success rate has been tremendous. The softball clean and sober program is just one of the many advantages of the game.

                Me personally I do better in school and stay out of trouble more when I have a sporting activity to look forward to play. I have always gotten better grades when I was playing a sport. Before playing softball I had been arrested a couple of times for DUI and DIP (driving under the influence and drunk in public) but when I started playing softball all of my trouble stopped and my grades went through the roof.

                Yea we may throw back a couple of beers after a game but it is not the same game our dads played when we were kids. A lot of us take it too seriously and have too much on the line to get drunk and go play. So next time you think of softball as just another beer league think again. Who knows you may even find yourself on the field one day in the future.