William the Conqueror and Puff the Magic Dragon

In 1066 a visitation by Halley's Comet was seen as a bad omen for Hardrada,a Viking seen as a contestant for the crown of England. But Hardrada pressed onward regardless of this omen. Harold, the present king knew he was about to attacked from two fronts--Hardrada the Norwiegan and from the north and William the Duke of Normandy from the South. Harold cleverly engaged Hardrada after the battle of Fulton when the Vikings were tired and separated from their resources awaiting truce discussions. Harold surprised these Vikings who fought "berserker" style--like men possesed --and finally killed Hardrada and sent the Vikings packing and out of the playoffs. William chatted up the Pope to get Papal blessing based on the argument that Harold was a bit trecherous and had given up the high road in his endeavors. The Pope went along and William armed with Papal blessing turned his invasion into a crusade rather than what it really was which was a beef with Harold and a shot at the King Gig. But William was smart enough to bring the best players he could find and figured the better team might win the finals.

As it went in the Battle of Hastings, so it went yesterday in the Arizona desert storm of the semi -finals in the 55 and over American League showdown between the Pallidins and your LI Athletics.

With a promising start, the A's had runners on first and second after a base hit and a walk but a ground ball to the third baseman resulted in a force out at third and throw to first for a double play. This was the first bad omen was observed by the LI A's nation. As the Pallidins began their half of the inning, a quick out was registered on the second pitch as a change up was lofted easily to center field for out number one. But the next pitch was grounded routinely to shortstop but mishandled. Your faithful correspondent checked the sky for Haley's Comet but finding nothing, still felt a prevading sense of unease. The unease was accurate and more difficulties ensued and the A's were fortunate to get out of it down only 2-0.
The second inning for the A's started well with a leadoff walk but the second double play by the Pallidins erased this chance. In the Pallidins second the start was more ominous than rolling dark clouds and the sound of thunder as an easy flare to second base fell unconested as the second baseman asserted the excuse of not seeing the ball come off the bat. Buoyed by this the Pallidins scatched out another run on similar miscues and led 3-0 after 2.

However, it was third inning that sealed the fate of the A's to parallel that of Hardrata's. A leadoff single was followed by a bloop single. Then a fly to left that posed a difficulty scored two and the rout was on. Hardrata did not leave the battlefield with his head intact and your LI A's did not finish the 3rd with the game as contest. It seems less meaningful to detail more and I will summarize to report the final score was 14-7 but not really that close.

So now it becomes time to deal with defeat and dispointment and moving ahead.
(unlike Hadrata and Ted Williams at least we have our heads). We know about the story of Puff the Magic Dragon and how a dragon lives forever but not so little boys
and painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys. Well, we will put away our spikes and gloves today and muse about the final game and what could have been.
But when you consider eveything, on balance the baseball gods actually administered appropriate justice. The Pallidins happened to be a better team and the BG's ruled in their favor today.

So now comes the healing and the preparation to be better. Like the remants of Hardrata's shattered army who sailed back to Norway, your LI A's will fly east to lick their wounds both physical and emotional and use the winter to repair.
At this point your faithful correspondent wishes to thank A's Nation for all their support and good wishes. I wish we could have brought you back the ring but as Teddy Roosevelt would have approved at least we were in there taking our shot. And with baseball there's always next year...

Teddy Roosevelt, Vince Lombardi, Earl Weaver, Stephen King and Don Quixote

Prior to a World Series game between the Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds Earl Weaver was reviewing the Reds lineup for the pitchers and catchers.
"Conception," he said referring to shortstop Dave Conception, "dead fast ball hitter... can't give him anything to hit". "Griffey." he continued," terrific fastball hitter" and Bench just kills fastballs, Foster hits fastballs 500 feet and we cant throw him fastballs, Rose is hitting fastballs on his way to record for most hits-cant throw him fastballs. Jim Palmer, the future hall of famer, upon hearing all this said, "hey skip, every guy there seems to crush fastballs, that is what i throw. And Weaver with a wink says to Palmer, yeah, but not YOUR fastball.

My buddy Sandy Rosenburg catches for me at Alumni games up at Amherst and prefaces my going to the mound with "it is time for YOUR fastball" and we exchange knowing smiles. But today it is time . We have heard the Pallidins are great fastball hitters--but not today!

The players all arise today feeling fatigue as they approach the 7th game in 5 days. Vince Lombardi emhapsized conditioning to help overcome fatigue in football as he opined that fatigue makes cowards of us all. No fatigue for me today--I am ready to go.

Teddy Roosevelt had a lot of nice quotes but I have always liked this one: "Far better it is to dare mighty things, to enjoy glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirts who live in the gray twilight and know neither victory nor defeat". Well, no gray twilight for me today and a I am truly excited to be daring to win out there today challenging them with my best fastball.

Stephen King points out that fear is a survival impulse and the adrenaline that kicks in when we are fearful is there to help sharpen our wits and pump blood to the muscles we may need. I can tell you I feel the adrenaline starting already--waking up periodically with the game on my mind, and walking to this office to generate this report from your faithful correspondent. And let me offer this : Is this great or what?--I go to the mound today to pitch a playoff game and everyone involved is treating it with the urgency and importance.

Don Quixote devised his own quest to be a knight errant. He battled windmills , endured humiliations , battled evil and was "willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause". But his quest was really about selecting the journey he wanted to be taking rather than defining a destination. Selecting the journey is a choice we all make and mine today is to be on that mound throwing MY fastball. The Pallidins are going to get all I have today.

"No Joy in Mudville" or "She came in through the bathroom window"

The A's journeyed to Phoenix Municipal Stadium to play the ferocious Bears from Chicago in the final game of the rpound robin play with a playoff berth on the line. The stadium is the home of the Oakland A's and is a beautiful place to play. However, the A's disapointed themselves and A's nation today by playing poorly in all facets of the game losing 15-7. There are not any on field highlights to report and your faithful correspondent admits the best part of the day was when the Chicago crowd got up to sing take me out to the ballgame during the 7th inning stretch in keeping with the tradition of Cubs fans at Wrigley Field. Jimmy Scott and Doc Parson pitched today but got less support than Mark David Chapmans' petition for parole. After the game the disconsolate A's trudged back to the hotel and mused on the problems for the day and began to hope the Pallidins would handle the San Diego Cubs and still allow the A's to back into the playoffs. Doc Parsons and Bruce Butterfield have been trying to monitor the emotional moods of the baseball gods and proposed the gods may have an even bigger beef with the Cubs than with your fighting A's. Perhaps the BG's are toying with us,offered Doc as an explanation or the A's poor fortune. But now the A's needed a Cub loss to get in the playoffs. Several A's journeyed to Mesa to watch the game and sent frequent updates via cell phone to the team. Initially, we heard the score was 10-4 Pallidins in the 5th but soon were heard the game was tied up. Eventually we got the last inning , the guys straining with anxiety during the moments between each call. Then we heard the Cubs were down three but had the first two runners on base with solid singles--and then a Cub hitter lines a shot to second--the 2b catches the ball and tags second and throws to first for a game ending triple play !!! the BG's just hammered the Cubs with this finish and we can assume they are up there laughing heartily at their own jokes.. so the Cubs go home and we are in the playoffs.

Manager Ed offered he figured we were in all along and tomorrow we will go back to Maryvale(home of the Milwaukee Brewers) where we play the semi finals against these same Pallidins at 9:30 am. Your faithful correspondent expects to be on the mound to start the game and can assure A's nation of the best effort possible. For now though, it is time for rest for tomorrow soI bid you good evening.

Thermopalye or "I'm Still Standing"

As young students we were all awestruck reading the story of the 300 Spartans in Thermopalye. These warriors valiantly held off 15,000 attackers from Persia for 6 days before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers. And now, their spirit and determination lives on in your LI A's!. Much like the Spartans would start the day's battles with a shout of "SPARTA" so too, will your LI A's commence the battle today with a battle cry of "A's WIN". In just a few hours the A's will take the field against the brusing Bears of Chicago culminating the round robin pool of games for this 4 day marathon. Much like soldiers in the civil war used the early morning hours to write their loved ones prior to a potentially fatal battle so too, does your faithful correspondent write the the A's Nation and offer his thanks for your support in this grueling test of wills and heart.

After last yesterday's exhausting battles, the A's retreated to the hotel and reflected upon their circumstances. Manger Ed Jusino, after having caught both games in 90 plus heat(and doing a great job)was too tired to get out of his uniform and sat contemplatively while still encouraging his troops and offering support and reinforcement for today's contest. "There was a lot of good out there today" he would start as he chatted with each player and he found ways to perk up each of the warriors and give them the bit of confidence they can use this morning. Players would come away with renewed enthusiasm after a chat with Ed and slowly the exhaustion each player felt evolved into optimism and confidence. As players walked away with an inner confidence and renewed faith, it was as if Elton John were singing "Can you feel the love tonight?" in the background.

Winston Churchill once mentioned nothing is quite so exhilarating as being shot at but escaping unscathed. So today we are in the sights of the snipers from Chicago- with a win we have chance to escape unscathed and make the playoffs but the risk is we will meet the fate of those valiant Spartans and meet our end today. I think I can speak for all of the A's in reporting to our A's nation that we are eager to meet this challenge and we thank you for your continued enthusiastic support. We feel we are all in this together banding with common purpose to our destiny. We expect to hear Elton singing "I'm still standing" when we conclude the game today.


Now it seems appropriate for a word about some of the players:

Bruce Butterfield journeyed to Arizona from St Louis to play again with your faithfull correspondent. As many of you know, Bruce and I were teammates at Amherst and Bruce now has a daughter Liz there and his son Tim is likely to be there next year.Bruce has been playing second base and third base here all week. Yesterday, Bruce came up with a big hit in the comeback against the Giants knocking in the go ahead run. He has been an important player and it has been an honor to play with him again after the brief hiatus of 36 years.

Steve"Doc" Parsons has been coming to play in this tournment for 19 years and is still craftily getting hitters out with an assortment of pitches and change of speeds. On Wednesday, he kept us in the game against the Cubs for several innings and yesterday gave us two solid innings against the Pallidins. He has the "all hands on deck" mentality to give us some more help today and will be on the short list of those entrusted with the sacred duty of getting us to the playoffs.

Jeff Carroll has also been coming to this tournamnet for 19 years or so and has hit the ball like a champ this season. Yesterday, playing all 18 innings in right field in 90 plus heat he still managed to give us several nice catches even though jeff normally is an infielder.

Jimmy Scott will likely start today and we are all confident he will do a great job. A tall engineer, he brings a calculated efficiency to his pitching with an especially nasty curveball that has generated a nickname for him of Captain Hook.

Johnny Mac-- a solid player who hit a bases loaded triple yesterday to break open the game has been a solid performer all over the field . He has caught played CF and 1b and is the heart of the team. He hits third in the lineup and we are counting on a big game from him today.

Jerry the pitcher is a prince of a guy and often his lovely wife serves to the lead the A's nation in cheers. Jerry threw in both games yesterday and has reported he is there today if needed.

As we head to breakfast where one player a has opined that is it a 5 Ibuprofen breakfast. We plan to survive today and I look forward to reporting on this historic event which commences at 1pm eastern time. We realize A's nation will be glued to the TV for this game promise you our best--On to battle!