In the next to last Spring Training game before the 2006 season opens up with a series against the Yankees that kicks off Monday, the A's played an exhibition contest against the local rival San Francisco Giants at the Coliseum, and positively blew them away, starting off with a four-run first inning featuring two home runs, and continuing the pressure through a 14-3 victory.
As part of our season ticket package, my wife and I enjoyed our first Bay Area baseball of the season at McAfee Coliseum. The A's featured a pair of two-run home runs in the first inning by Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez, another home run by the newly acquired Frank Thomas, and strong pitching by free agent signee Esteban Loaiza. It was great to be back in the Coliseum again, and to try out the seats where we will be every Friday and Saturday through the summer (so long as the A's are in town). Our seats are between home plate and the visitors' dugout, and just far enough forward that we're not wholly covered by the cement overhang. This means we won't be cold during the sunny July and August afternoons when everybody else is worried about getting sunburned.
Another side benefit of the game was booing Barry "steroids" Bonds. He was a miserable failure at the plate, never reaching base, and heard lusty disapproval from the home crowd, who didn't always impress me with their not so creative epithets. In fact, at one point, when the Left Field bleachers chanted, "Bar-roid, Bar-roid", Barry could be seen swaying to the rhythm with his hips, in a mock dance. All in all, the good guys won, bad guys lost, and we enjoyed the trip.
Listening to ''A New Culture Is Born'', by Blank & Jones (Play Count: 7)
Tomorrow morning, and way too early... I'm headed off on a flight from San Francisco to San Diego for an industry event, and make it back here by Thursday. Now, while some might claim I am getting the chance to get far away from the incessant rainstorms we've had here in the Bay Area, even weather.com is conspiring against me to make this not happen - forecasting showers for the San Diego area both tomorrow and Tuesday. But we'll press forward and do our jobs the best we know how anyway. After all, it's not as if the rain will reach the exhibition floor. And if it does, we'll definitely have other issues to discuss here.
It's prediction season for the baseball media, and many are predicting the A's to win it all this year, while Bobby Crosby and Eric Chavez have been named as MVP candidates, and Harden for the Cy Young. But what about the players themselves? In the latest in the series of comics that has 
After the A's game this afternoon, we were headed down south I-880, when a short distance ahead of me I saw glass and metal fly in a quasi-explosion, cars spun out of control coming to a rest diagonally, and directly in front of us, a van stopped, covering our lane, and multiple cars were leaking gas. One car, in the furthest right lane, had its front half completely totaled. As we edged our car around the stopped van, I got on the cell phone and dialed 911, expecting to reach an operator and give them an update to the where and when, as others helped the accident victims. Yet, when I called, after several rings, I was told I had reached the highway patrol, and "if this is an emergency, press any key." So, I hit a key, and was transfered to the emergency line, where after several more rings, I hit an automated response saying "all emergency operators are currently busy assisting other callers."