Hot Bats Stomp the Nats!

Last Friday, May 9th was the first of three inter-league games against the Nationals.  It was the first time that the Nationals have ever played at the Oakland Coliseum, and the first time these teams have squared off since 2005.  Although we shouldn't expect them back anytime soon, with a long cross-country flight to reflect, you know the Nationals won't forget getting swept in Oaktown anytime soon!

The Nationals-A's inter-league series was a reunion of sorts for players formerly of the other team.  Former Nationals prospect Tommy Milone, part of the Gio Gonzalez deal, took the mound opposite Doug Fister to start the series on Friday.  Milone did not disappoint - best pitching of the season against his former team.

Also, the Nationals and A's indirectly swapped Jerry "the gentlemen" Blevins and Fernando Abad this offseason, so some of the fans from Section148 took the opportunity to welcome Mr. Blevins back to the ballpark in gentlemanly fashion..... by wearing business suits!

"Suit night" in support of the Blevins' return, took on a life all its own because Friday night also was the #nerdpower night.  The A's stadium give-away for Friday night's game was 10,000 black rimmed plastic glasses, without lenses, to the first 10,000 fans in support of the Oakland's favorite nerd and true winner of the Face of MLB contest, Eric Sogard!

In the 6th inning, Wes saw some face time on CSN's television coverage!! When the famous A's commentator Mr. Ray Fosse saw Wes and the rest of the guys dancing in the right field bleachers on the big screen, Mr. Fosse annointed Wes and the Section148 guys as the "real nerds" of #nerdpower night.  What fun!! It was an incredible night and the A's never looked better in the 8-0 victory!

On Saturday, May 10, 2014, Journey performed an awe inspiring national anthem and post game fireworks to the music of Journey promised a packed stadium crowd.  The fans from Section148.com showed up early for a tailgate BBQ and release of the new "Oak town business" gold shirts....

We had a blast and hope to see more new faces at the next BBQ in June.  We had fun meeting some new friends, giving away free bracelets and stickers, and enjoying the beautiful afternoon weather.

But Saturday night belonged to John Jaso.  He knocked in the winning run with a double that hit high off the right-field wall, scoring pinch-runner Nick Punto from first base with two outs in the 10th inning, giving the A's an awesome, come from behind 4-3 victory over the Nats right before the fireworks show!  

It was already such a great weekend... but there was still one more game to be played.  We came out on Sunday for a combination of mother's day and breast cancer awareness day!  It was very touching to see the A's honor 350 breast cancer survivors on the field before the game.  In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Day, A's fans came out  in droves of pink shirts and pink jerseys.  Even the players got in on the action; Jed Lowrie, Yoenis Cespedes, Brandon Moss, Nick Punto and Josh Reddick used pink bats.  

The weather was beautiful, the crowd was energized, and the A's bats stayed hot to the tune of a 9-1 victory!  LETS GO OAKLAND! 

We are looking forward to many more adventures this season and hope to see you at the games soon.  

Come sit with the "real nerds" and lets cheer our boys to victory! 

Retaliation: Why Pitchers Are The Most Sensitive Athletes In All Of Sports

At this point, this has gotten pretty ridiculous. Every week it's something new, last week it was the Carlos Gomez/Gerrit Cole incident. This week it's Paul Clemens and Jed Lowrie.

Let me start out by saying that I understand that throwing at hitters is a baseball move that is similar to fighting in hockey. It's a way of the players policing themselves, but I believe this practice has gotten way out of hand. Pitchers are throwing at hitters for every little thing now, like when they get mad at hitters for admiring their home run, or bunting in a blowout. Both of these cases are sore loser acts. If you're so mad that a batter pimped his home run shot, then don't hang that flat slider to a great hitter like that. Same goes for bunting, in the case of Jed Lowrie, Lowrie tried to bunt for a hit because the Astros were executing an "over-shift," which just asks for a bunt down the third base line, no matter the score.

The only time a pitcher should throw at a hitter is when the opposing team has tried to intimidate that pitcher's hitters with inside pitching. That is part of the game. That is how the players police themselves, and that is definitely not a case of being sensitive.

Ironically, I have long admitted that I am a "semi-modern" baseball fan who supports the DH (and calls the pitcher batting rule: outdated and ridiculous), and isn't a fan of interleague play. The only reason why I'd want the DH abolished, is just so pitchers can get a taste of their own medicine by having balls thrown at them.

Please discuss in the comments.

John Jaso And The Phenomenon Of A "Team" Killer

We saw it last night. The first game of the year the Oakland A's have won where they should've lost. The bounces weren't going their way, and their approach at the plate played into the hands of the Angels' starting pitcher, Hector Santiago. When you have great starting pitching, you have a chance to win any game, and with the exception of two bad pitches to Albert Pujols, that's what you got from Jesse Chavez.

Because of Jesse's great start, the A's had a shot to win it in the 9th only down 2-1. Josh Donaldson's great at bat that produced a single against Angels closer Ernesto Frieri started it off for the A's, and then came John Jaso pinch-hitting for Derek Norris. I was actually texting someone while John Jaso was up to bat and I said, "He's done it before against the Angels, why not do it again?" I was referring to Jaso's home run off Kevin Jepsen last season in the Angels' home opener which ended up being the start to a 5 run A's inning that shoehorned the labeling of the Angels bullpen as the "#Blowpen." A trend which clearly hasn't changed since then.

This time, the situation was a little different, it was the 9th inning (Jaso's HR off Jepsen came in the 7th) and unfortunately for the A's, we never got to see Kevin Jepsen who has an ERA over 10.00 against the A's and Jaso was instead up against their closer. Frieri was quite shaky last year, giving up plenty of walk-off home runs, but the situation still was a little grave.

Talk about deja vu for Angels fans, John Jaso sent the home fans home with a big blast. A no doubter off the bat that provoked large cheers from a rather impressive cell of A's fans at The Big A. Angels fans have been tortured by the talents of John Jaso over the past couple of years, his time with the Mariners provided some ground work and his time with the A's has just cemented this fact: "John Jaso is an Angels Killer."

Pundits and fans will mention this every now and then, every fan can probably think of one guy who has just killed their team in the past on multiple occasions. Proponents of sabermetrics doubt the validity of a player doing better against certain teams over their careers for a variety of reasons, but the fan side of me believes that this is a real thing.

For the sake of information, here's John Jaso's slash line against the Angels since 2011: .315/.435/.517 in 89 at bats. As said by Susan Slusser, Jaso's a .430 hitter at Angels Stadium through his career with 6 HRs and two of those being pinch hit home runs. That is pure dominance.

Terms like "(insert team name) Killer" make sports fun, it makes our rivals' players easier to hate and really creates deeper nerves during one game. There are a few A's killers that come to mind: Kenny Rogers, Placido Polanco, John Lackey, and Ervin Santana. Rogers, Santana, and Lackey got to pitch a lot of games against the A's since they played for the Rangers and Angels for much of their careers and that's why they come to mind. Polanco on the other hand flat out dominated the A's in 2006.

In 2006, Polanco had a slash line of .516/.545/.548 in 31 at bats against the A's. The A's then would meet Polanco's Tigers in the ALCS that year where he ravaged the A's again in their 4 game sweep with a slash line of .529/.579/.588. Dominance like that isn't something you see all the time.

Now of course, there's a flip side to an "(insert team name) Killer" but I haven't really thought of a name for it, nor have I given much thought to it. Off the top of my head I think of how the A's always hammer Rangers' ace Yu Darvish but other than that I can only think of a few small examples like Kevin Jepsen or Matt Thornton.

Please give me some more examples in the comments!

It was all Oakland A's in the Bay Bridge Exhibition Series!

The Exhibition Series against the Giants was alllllllllll Oakland.  Even if the games didn't count it was great to watch the Oakland A's dominate both Thursday and Friday nights' games.  It was equally exicting to have baseball back in the bay area and see fellow A's fans in their green and gold to support and cheer at A&T Park....

Unfortunately, game three back at O.Co was a win for mother nature...

The cheers began by 12:30... LETS GO GROUNDS CREW

Even with the rain-out, it was fun to be back at Oakland Coliseum just to see everyone coming together for the promise of a new baseball season.  We're looking forward and crossing our fingers for playable weather tomorrow night! See you all for Opening Night baseball! 

Free Stuff

As Oakland A's fans.... we love free stuff.  We will stand in line for hours before first pitch on an overcast Saturday morning for the chance to get our hands on 1 of 10,000 bobble-heads, blankets, team photos or jerseys.  We will let insurance, auto and newspaper companies spam our email inbox's for yet another gold rally towel, keychain or a bag.

Free A's stuff brings out the kid in all of us and can be a lot of fun (until someone cuts in line in front for that bobble-head at the last minute - so not cool).

In the name of free stuff and childlike joy, we've got your free stuff right here to add to the collection!  Order any t-shirt and get a free "Heartbeat of Oakland" wristband (while supplies last).

We'll see you in line for that  back-to-back AL West division blanket on April 5!

Three weeks and counting

If you were like us, waking up this morning was little harder then usual.  It was so dark!  Daylight saving/clock changing takes some adjustment, but it's great sign that baseball is almost here.  In fact, we are only THREE WEEKS AWAY from Opening Day!

We have been busy at Section 148... designing and printing new t-shirts for you.  We are really excited about what we've done so far, what's coming soon and all the friends we have been making!  

Our newest shirt, SONNY G, was a collaborative effort with a Section 148 Fan - Richard L. from San Jose. Thanks for the awesome idea Richard.  We look forward to future collaborations with Richard and other creative Oakland fans!

Since we here at Section 148 don't have the good fortune of being able to go to Spring Training in Phoenix, we have been just hanging around...

literally... and getting ready for the season's first free tailgate BBQ on the Saturday April 5th home game. Get your tickets, come join us and be a part of the Section 148 Army! LETS GO!

Oakland FanFest

Oakland’s FanFest has come and gone.  Serving as the unofficial kickoff for the upcoming season, bad weather and long lines couldn't keep the loyal Oakland fan base from driving out to O.Co and being with their favorite players!  The new forest green jerseys look amazing and we had reason to celebrate with Coco Crisp signing a 2 year extension on Friday!  

We don’t have to wait long before players report to spring training and we find ourselves at O.Co again for opening day (night?). 

It was an exciting day for Section 148 Line’s launch, even if it was less than ideal weather.  After standing outside for several hours, we finally started to feel our toes again this morning.  But it was all worth it!  We had a blast seeing familiar faces from last season, serving hot chocolate to shivering fans and meeting new friends! 

We can't feel our toes anymore but all smiles for OAKLAND! 

Thank you to Kimm @_kimms_ for hanging out for the day. 

Congratulations to Rudy and his son!  Rudy won the FanFest giveaway prize pack which included last season’s Coco Crisp bobble-head.  

Don't worry, more contests will be coming soon! See you on March 31, 2014!