Although I understand the need for weekday daytime baseball, so that visiting teams can get an early start on their travel plans out of town, for those of us at the office who actually work for a living, there are really only two choices - give up one's fandom for a day and look back wistfully on the game you missed, or surreptitiously sneak glances at the contest throughout, admittedly impacting your productivity. That was the struggle yesterday, as the A's took on the Cleveland Indians in the 4th game of the series, featuring the return of would-be ace pitcher Rich Harden, who has spent the vast majority of the season on the disabled list, unable to play.

With the A's "magic number" at five, Harden took the mound and exhibited an authority unlikely from any veteran who had missed as much times as he had, made even more remarkable by the fact that Harden remains a very young player, who has yet to see his 25th birthday. On a strict pitch count of 60, Harden made his way through three innings, striking out seven, and giving up only a solo home run.

While we continued our work efforts, a quick peek at Athletics Nation showed those with more flexible time were going completely bananas over Harden's return. On an otherwise hum-drum Thursday, the news of his start and its in-game success spawned more than 1,100 comments and four game threads, where other game would most likely see 500 and two respectively.  The excitement was palpable, as baseballgirl started the day off with a "WHEEEEE!" and added on shortly after, HARDEN IS BACK!!!! A million pitches through 2, but he's striking everybody out."

After Harden exited, the A's rallied to take the game from the Indians 7-4, and the series, three games out of four. With the victory, the A's further reduced their magic number to four, with their rival Los Angeles Angels coming to Oakland to start a penultimate series this evening. If the A's take two of the three games on the weekend, they are the champions. We will be there tonight, and though we also have tickets for Cal vs. Arizona State tomorrow, we are hoping to be at the Coliseum Saturday as well, to see the A's players and fans alike erupt in pure joy.

Listening to ''Blue (Da Ba Dee) [Radio Edit]'', by Eiffel 65 (Play Count: 7)

It's been a long-held tenet of the journalism field that anonymous sources were to be protected by the reporters who worked with them, and that anonymous sources needed to trust their identities would be safe, even under threat of legal action. This high-scale drama has played itself out time and again as ink stained wretches have pledged they would rather go to jail than give up a source. In most cases, it can be said the threat of going behind bars is a scare tactic that has little chance of happening.

In the last year, a few notable cases have highlighted this struggle - from the Valerie Plame scandal, where Robert Novak refused to give up a confidential source, but was not threatened with being in the pokey, but Judith Miller was, to the ever-unfolding story at HP, where reporters' phone records were surreptitiously obtained. Now,  Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada of the San Francisco Chronicle have been jailed for refusing to testify on who leaked grand jury testimony around the Barry Bonds BALCO steroid scandal, which formed the basis for a series of high-profile articles, and later a book.

Regardless of how I feel about Barry Bonds and his sullying of the game of baseball through reliance on pharmaceuticals, it is my belief that reporters serve a critical role and that they should be able to utilize anonymous sources - so long as they work with their editor and can ascertain the data being reported is factual. If reporters either believe that the company they are reporting on (like HP) or the government (see Bush, George) can gain access to their phone records, or that they could later face jail time for working with anonymous sources, and this impacts their willingness to break stories and tell the truth, then the medium is in very serious trouble.

Instead of throwing Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada in prison, they should be applauded for getting the truth out there, and bringing to light one of the biggest sports stories of a generation - one that otherwise might not have had the awareness, and certainly not the detail, that this does. I sincerely hope that cooler heads prevail and recognize that they were serving a higher purpose - one that needs to be respected.

Related Links:

ESPN: Reporters who refused to reveal BALCO leak get prison

ESPN: Outcome for Chronicle reporters means we all lose

Listening to ''Sibeling'', by Depeche Mode (Play Count: 11)

As previously noted, the Apple iTunes store is by far my #1 source for new music over the last three-plus years. Though the store initially launched with a very limited number of artists I found interesting, Apple has continued to add new artists, albums and songs every week, and it's getting harder and harder to find songs I'd like but the iTunes store doesn't have - even for those who listen to music on the fringe, as I do. However, as the store database becomes more cluttered with millions and millions of songs, I'm noticing that inconsistent variations between artists or music genres makes obtaining new music that much more confusing.

For example - one of the world's best electronic DJ's is DJ Tiësto, from Holland. His last name being what it is (Tiësto) means that if you search for Tiesto, you find one set of music, if you search for DJ Tiesto, you find another set, and lastly, spelling DJ Tiësto exactly as so gets you a third grouping.

Even worse, when multiple artists choose to join forces, a listing is created that highlights the pair, rather than displaying the work in the listing for each, individually. That seems silly. Again, Tiësto is a great example. Earlier this month, the DJ collaborated with Maxi Jazz, the lead singer for Faithless, on a great track, "Dance 4 Life". But you won't find it under DJ Tiesto or Faithless. I was lucky to stumble upon it at all.

Apple isn't perfect, but in order to best serve its loyal customers, in my opinion the company needs to put as much attention into the back-end database for the iTunes Store as they do in the way the application looks to ensure highest satisfaction.

Listening to ''The Tube'', by DJ Tiësto (Play Count: 3)

It's looking more and more like the A's will have an opportunity to clinch the American League West division title against their rival Los Angeles Angels this upcoming weekend when they come to Oakland to take on the surging green and gold crew. Tonight, like yesterday, the A's fell behind early 2-0, closed to within a run on a home run (tonight it was Milton Bradley, yesterday Eric Chavez), and opened up the game in the later innings. As with yesterday's ballgame, a starter who has given us scares earlier in the season came up big - as Esteban Loaiza went into the eighth inning and gave the A's the chance for the victory, as Kirk Saarloos did yesterday when he battled through five innings and garnered 11 strikeouts.

With the victory, the A's reduce the "magic number" to claim the division title to five, as any combination of A's wins and Angels losses totaling five will mathematically clinch their first-place position and make our playoff tickets worth something more than the paper they are printed on.

Aside from the strong pitching, team MVP Frank Thomas continues to hit at a torrid pace. With the game tied, the Big Hurt came up with two runners on and clubbed a double to deep center field, giving the A's a 4-2 lead, all they would need in the eventual 4-3 victory. In a year when we thought it would be amazing for him to reach triple digits in games, Frank has realistically thrown his name into the ring as a legitimate league MVP candidate by powering the A's with 38 home runs and well over 100 RBI. Every time he steps to the plate, time stops and waits for him to inflict serious damage. It is a joy to watch him hit.

We're getting oh so close to October. I can almost taste it. Go A's!

Listening to ''Block Rockin' Beats'', by The Chemical Brothers (Play Count: 4)