A Fine Line of Fanaticism

Growing up my friends and I chose our favorite athletes because they were the best. They could be home run hitters, award winners or champions — It didn't matter what on-field accomplishment — as long as they were the best.

Along the way something changed.

I'm an Oakland A's fan so individual players haven't meant much to me in a long, long time. But is that because the team's management moves pieces like a set of Legos or because of my fascination with fantasy baseball?

I don't remember when I drafted my first fantasy baseball team, but I started becoming really serious about it shortly after the A's were eliminated from their most recent trip to the postseason. That would be 2006, so let's say I started really paying attention to fantasy baseball in the spring of 2007. When one dedicates all that time and effort into building a championship caliber lineup you have to study each team and each lineup carefully.

All of that research often leads to forming "crushes" on certain players because of the value they have in the fantasy realm. For example, Atlanta Brave Brian McCann will always be my catcher as long a I can help it. I'm not from Atlanta and am not a Braves fan, but he's a great fantasy asset from behind the dish. I'll usually find myself tuning into games he's playing in to see how he plays.

That is my dilema. I love the game of baseball and I love the Oakland A's, but I've stopped caring about the players on my team as much as I care about the team itself. Is that okay? Can I love the mascot, the team colors, the ballpark and the game-day atmosphere more than the players I'm paying to see?

I'd rather see the the team light up the win column than a player from my team get elected to the All-Star game. And I certainly don't care if that player gets traded because I'll enjoy his replacement just as much.

I've decided to follow the 19 or so players I select of draft day in March and not the fluctuating 25-man roster on Oaklandathletics.com.

And I'm fine with that because players don't win the World Series, teams do.

History Repeats Itself

Six names that meant everything to an Oakland Athletics fan up until 2007 — Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Tejada, Giambi, Chavez — are now just an echo bouncing around the spacious Oakland Coliseum. These players all retired, or have moved on to different things since they led the A's to four division titles and five playoff berths between 2000-2006. Other stars shuffled their way in and out of the Oakland lineup, but these six players were the staples that held the green and gold together.

All that has changed.

Over the course of four years the A's have brought in All-Stars and shipped them out for prospects. Those prospects usually turned into All-Stars and were dealt for more prospects, and so on. The team continued to lose games and fans. There hasn't been a solid core of players for spectators to get to know and love.

Sure, we had Mark Ellis for a long time. Eric Chavez even stuck around for a while until his back gave the team too many problems and they let him walk away. The team and its fan base is just waiting for the day when things are like they once were: steady.

That day is rounding third as we speak.

Today the A's traded an All-Star pitcher for the second time in a month and a third trade is looming. The team sent Gio Gonzalez to the Washington Nationals for four intriguing prospects that give the team depth and quality. One pitcher, Brad Peacock will make an impact on the major league team very soon as will Tom Milone. A.J. Cole is 19 years old and is probably the second best player in the package and catcher Derek Norris has shown great power in the minors and could see playing time should the A's trade Kurt Suzuki.

Peacock and Milone, along with Jarrod Parker whom they got from Arizona in the Trevor Cahill deal, could be the makings of the next big three. Add in 2011 first-round draft pick Sonny Gray and 23-year old Brett Anderson and we're looking at the makings of a championship caliber rotation by 2014.

However, the A's problem has never been on the mound. It has been in the batter's box. But like the 3-4-5 combo of Tejada, Giambi and Chavez of the early 2000's, the A's are nearing a return to offensive glory.

26-year old Michael Taylor could find himself filling our No. 3 slot in the lineup if he finds his potential soon. Second baseman Jemile Weeks — the one player the A's won't trade — hit .303 and stole 22 basesin 97 games in 2011 and should be an All-Star leadoff hitter for a long time. our 2009 first-round pick Grant Green and 2010 first-round pick Michael Choice will find a spot in the lineup sooner rather than later.

As soon as the Oakland to San Jose move gets figured out and a state-of-the-art stadium gets built, the 2014 A's will be the team to beat. They'll have power, speed and pitching. All the team needs is faith in the team. Faith in Billy Beane that what he is doing right now won't fail. It won't.

The Moneyball era is over, but a whole new thing is brewing in Oakland, hopefully 35,000 people will show up every now and again to witness it.

Tim Tebow Doesn't Care About Stats

Win isn't a word in Tim Tebow's vocabulary. He's a competitor, but the final score isn't what matters most to him at the end of a football game, he's just grateful for where he is and for the lives he is impacting. That is the whole point of "Tebowing."

At the start of the fourth quarter of the Denver Broncos game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday his thoughts weren't focused on how pretty the 7-1 record will look next to his name on ESPN.com. And he certainly didn't care that he surpassed 200 passing yards for the second game in a row. Good ol' Timothy Richard Tebow just wanted to play his best and see his teammates rise to the challenge alongside him, not behind him like the typical NFL quarterback.

“I don’t think it’s Tebow Time,” he told Yahoo Sports. “I think it’s the Broncos Time.”

For Tebow it is a team effort, win or lose. He just wants to be in the game, thanking the Lord for every opportunity he's been given.

He has been on every football fan's mind lately. Skip Bayless tweets about him every two minutes and former and current NFL players always have something to say about the two-time Heisman Trophy winner. Still, the attention hasn't changed the foundation he stands on, teamwork.

Tebow wants people to know that it is the Denver Broncos that have led the Denver Broncos to six consecutive wins and sole possession of first place. Tebow wants people to know it was place kicker Matt Prater's 59-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter that tied Sunday's game and capped off a comeback from a 10-point deficit. Tebow wants people to know it was Prater's 51-yard field goal in overtime that won the game.

The next time you hear someone around you say that Tebow isn't any good you should ask them why. You can direct them to the stats, because numbers don't lie. But you should also point them toward the intangibles Tebow posses each time he takes the field.

Humility. Courage. Dedication. Passion. Those are just a few attributes Tebow exemplifies on and off the football field — not a lot of professional athletes match him there.

Do lockouts taint the image of American professional sports?

The NBA encountered another pitfall today as the players association rejected the latest labor deal proposed by the league and began disbanding.

In the past year we've seen two professional sports' seasons in jeopardy due to monetary disagreements. The NFL nearly didn't settle a dispute about owners not being able to equally distribute $9 billion. No, the NBA can't decide how to evenly split the league's revenue among the owners and the players and the 2011-2012 season may not happen at all.

Why are our most popular entertainers selfish to the point of not playing because they will lose out on a just few million bucks. Yes, I know the quality of life they are used to at their current salaries may change and this could result in them not being able to pay for their Bently's and mansions—wait, what am I saying? Who pays their check anyway?

It is the fans that lose out when superstars think it is in their best interest to play only for money. We pay the admission price, we fill the stands, we support their charities and events. Basically, without us there wouldn't be a sport for them to play.

The NBA players want to lockout their season, well I say so should the fans. If, and when there is pro basketball played again in America the fans should not be present.

Hall of Shame? Palmeiro and Gonzalez highlight tainted group of Hall of Fame hopefulls

The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has come a long way since 2007 when superstars and all around good guys Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn were elected. As steroid allegations and confirmations have soiled this years list, voters will have till Dec. 31st to choose who they want to represent Major League Baseball in next year's induction ceremony into the Hall of Fame.
This year's ballot is talent deprived and filled with scandal. Once great players Rafael Palmeiro and Jaun Gonzalez are two of the more decorated players on the list, but both are surrounded by steroid use. Pamleiro testified in 2005 that he never used steroids, but was caught a few months later and was suspended 10 days. He is 12th on the career home run list and is one of four players to accumulate 500 home runs and 3,000 hits.
It has never been confirmed that Gonzalez used steroids, but in the 2005 book, Juiced, Jose Canseco claims that he used steroids alongside Gonzalez who has 434 career home runs and owns two MVP awards from his time with the Texas Rangers. His career was cut short due to injuries that lead many to believe that he used performance enhancing drugs.
Other names on the list surrounded by drug allegations are first timer Brett Boone and returner Mark McGwire who admitted to steroid use this summer.
Much of the ballot is filled by players who merely meet the requirements, but don't garner the attention that a Hall of Famer usually does. There is no automatic entry into the Hall of Fame no matter what statistics a player might carry with them, nor is there any official statistical criteria, but typical things voters look for when choosing are 500 home runs, 3,000 hits for hitters and 300 wins for pitchers. Taht mean that players on the list don’t deserve to be, but are by meeting the time requirement. However, a few names who remain untarnished by all this actually have a fairly good chance of beating out their rule-breaking peers based on merit.
Roberto Alomar and Edgar Martinez, and Jeff Bagwell were all outstanding players during their careers than spanned two decades and were able to avoid the drug scandal that wiped away baseball's credibility. Now, whether or not that will help their chances of induction, we won't see till the results are announced on January 5th.
Other notable names on the ballot are Kevin Brown, Tino Martinez, lee Smith, and Larry Walker.

Destiny Calls

It must just be the Giants' year. I'm not knocking the Rangers here because I have been pulling for them all postseason long, but there's no denying how well the Giants have been playing. The Giants weren't favored to win the division, then they did. The weren't favored to beat the Braves, then they did. They weren't favored to beat the Phillies, and then they did. And now they are beating the favored Texas Rangers 3 games to 1 in the World Series. The Giants have the kind of motivation to win that could turn someone like me into a fan(it really hasn't, but I'm going to pretend it has). I hold fast to my opinion that Barry Bonds is the worst person to play the game of baseball and that since the Giants traded for him, paid him, and hoisted him on their shoulders for being selfish, I can't stand their franchise. This season the Giants are playing to destroy those demons that they are Bond's team and I really respect that. They are letting rookies like Buster Posey and Madison Bumgarner play crucial innings and getting great results as of that risk.
If the Giants win game 5 tonight they will emphatically put their stamp on the game as the best team this year. You can get lucky enough to win the first two series' of the playoffs, but then to go out and play so well and dominate the best team in the American league as easily as the Giants have, that takes something much more than luck. The Giants are clearly outlasting their opponents.
They aren't as skilled of a hitting club as Texas is, and their pitchers are comparable, but the Giants are holding together when the Rangers are falling apart. Aside from the game one shootout, both pitching staffs have been competitive enough to win any of the games, but the Giants just aren't letting the Rangers get the offensive edge. So far they have kept Josh Hamilton in check along with Vladimir Guerrero. Nelson Cruz was tops in the league in homers this postseason, but the Giants pitchers have quieted him too. The only meaningful hit for the Rangers came from Mitch Moreland who has been practically anonymous all year long.
If the Giants are to keep winning and close things out tonight they need to continue what they are doing. The Rangers aren't losing necessarily, the Giants are just winning. You can't discount what good teams are doing and this time I think it just is the Giants' year.

-Joey D

Youth Movement

I am going to do my best to not be biased tonight for game 4 and to just enjoy it for what it is. Tonight's game is sure to be a great time because it is bound to be a wild one. Neither of the starting pitchers have much experience both in the playoffs, and in the Major Leagues in general.
Giants starter Madison Bumgarner is a 21 year old rookie who was very impressive this season going 7-6 with a 3.00 ERA and 86 K's in 111 innings, but what he lacks in experience he makes up for with determination. He was left off the Giants' roster after spring training due to mechanical problems that left his velocity startling low. Teammate Jeremy Affeldt said Bumgarner s fearless and that is true. Bumgarner is taking a 1-0 record in the playoffs into tonight's start, but what many don't now is that he is historical. He became the second youngest pitcher to win a series clincher in the playoffs after he helped finish off the Atlanta Braves in the division series. He hasn't gotten down on himself for his early season woes, but instead trained hard with coaches and trainers in order to find his errors and improve upon them.
The Texas Rangers' hurler Tommy Hunter is another young pitcher who wasn't on his team's Major League roster to start the year, but was outstanding this season when the Rangers called him up. He went 13-4 with a 3.73 ERA, but has been disastrous so far in the playoffs. He is 0-1 with a 6.14 ERA in 7 1/3 innings across two starts.
I'm a rooting for the Rangers to pull even in the series and I'm looking forward to a high powered game full of lots of scoring(advantage Rangers), but I wouldn't be surprised if both starters buckle down and get their jobs

-Joey DeClercq