Monday, April 9, 2007

The Oakland A's Monday #1

Overall: 3-4 (3rd Place, AL West)
Last Week: 3-4 (1-2 vs. Mariners, 2-2 vs. Angels)

Last Friday, I made my first drive of the new baseball year up to Anaheim to see our heroes play the hated, hated, hated Angels in front of their idiot fans. (Stupid link, hit 'refresh' if it doesn't work the first time.)

As usual, I was joined by Friend of the Bootleg (FotB), "Stone Cold", who bears an uncanny resemblance to a swollen Steve Austin ("it's glandular!") We've been doing this every year since the late '80s, save for a three year stretch in the mid-90s while I was finishing up the final 36 months of my six-year stay in college. Longtime readers know that I red-shirted my first two years.

We met at the famous National Sports Bar & Grill, which ranked #25 in Sports Illustrated's Top 25 American Sports Bars. A feat only matched in numeric meaningless-ness by any countdown sports show with the words "Best Damn" before it. Still, the sourdough buffalo chicken melt with onion rings was better than a black girl's ass: fat and fabulous!

Jerseys of choice: For me, a 1973 gold throwback that I had personalized with the name and number of John "Blue Moon" Odom, famous for his All-Star pitching on those Swingin' A's teams of the '70s and for fighting teammate Rollie Fingers a few years before Odom did two months time on a drug conviction. For Stone Cold, an A's BP jersey with Venezuelan Lilliputian Marco Scutaro #19 on the back. Trust me, we both appreciated the sad, inherent hilarity in our "fashion" choices.

And, we both know we're in our 30s.

The actual game was one of those ubiquitous American League snoozers where everyone waits around for the 3-run HR. And, on this night, it came in the seventh inning off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero in a 5-2 Angels win. Stone Cold and I found entertainment in the audience, though.

Whether it was the little Hispanic kid in front of us with the crazy Carlito 'do or the spectacular rack on the young girl two seats from to our left (I said "over 18", my boy – who's a high school teacher and paid to know these things – said "no way"), it was still a good night.

This Week: vs. White Sox (3), vs. Yankees (3)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor, poor lost Cam. Born in Los Angeles, lives in San Diego, yet roots for a team that plays in a city he has no tie to. And, those white shoes the A's still wear are just precious.

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see how often you don't keep up with the weekly A's report.

And regarding the white cleats it helps with their "softball" team look.

See you in San Fran.