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!