October 06, 2006
Ending the Streak
Josh Suchon reminds us that not only have the Athletics lost nine straight division clinching games, but they've done so in bizarre fashion:
Terrence Long lost a ball in the sun. Jeremy Giambi didn't slide. F.P. Santangelo muffed a routine grounder. Practically the entire team contributed to the worst defensive inning of all-time.
Billy Koch served up a back-breaking, ninth-inning home run. Eric Byrnes missed home plate and didn't go back to touch it. Miguel Tejada stopped running between third base and home.
The A's haven't just lost nine straight potential clinching games in the division series, they've lost them with some of the most bizarre, horrifying, and mind-boggling mistakes -- mental and physical -- in playoff history.
Those images, fair or not, are part of the A's playoff history. Right there with Joe Rudi leaping against the wall in Cincinnati, Jose Canseco hitting one into orbit in Toronto, and Dennis Eckersley's dramatic long uppercut fist pump after wrapping up the 1989 World Series against the Giants.
Nothing against the Twins, but this is one streak I'd like to see broken. Beane was the first GM to prove Selig wrong about the relationship of money to winning, and I'd like to see him rewarded with a playoff win for all his work.
I like the job Beane has done, but it is a serious misstatement to say he proved Selig was wrong about the relationship between winning and money.
All Beane has proven is he and his team are a good judge of talent and that he has an understanding of what is over and under valued on the free agent market. Nothing he has accomplished changes the fact that teams with deeper pockets have a much easier path to success. Oakland has had some success by not making many expensive errors in judgment. The Yankees can make a few expensive mistakes (Pavano, etc) and still reach the playoffs. The Yankees have 10 players who would be the highest paid player on more than half the teams. That level of depth (unavailable to other teams) is what carried them through a season with so many injuries. How many other teams could add a couple years of Abreau's contract to fill a mid-season need?
The system has problems and as well as Beane has done those problems still exist.
