This is a discussion on 4/10/05: Harden vs. Brazelton within the Oakland Athletics forum at Strike 3 Forums; Oakland at Tampa Bay
April 10, 2005: Tropicana Field, 11:15 PT
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Harden: 0-...
WEATHER OR NOT: Some of the Athletics were ticked off, not to mention shivering, at having to open the season with a week-long trip to the AL East. The idea that the weather might be less conducive to baseball in Baltimore than it would be in Oakland was apparently lost on somebody, according to center fielder Mark Kotsay.
"I don't know why we got the short end of the stick," said Kotsay, a SoCal native who has played for two California teams and the Florida Marlins. "I don't know what the schedulers were thinking. I know it's not going to be 30 degrees and snowing in Oakland."
"I still haven't come to grips with it," added teammate Scott Hatteberg. "We have such beautiful weather in Oakland, and we're leaving (the Coliseum) vacant and we'll be out in the snow. I thought I'd left those days behind when I left Boston."
Typically, left-handed pitching ace Barry Zito had different thoughts on the matter, even if he did lose the opener at Camden Yards.
"It's cool, something we haven't done," said Zito, "and it gets us out of the division."
Exactly. The two teams the A's are facing this week – the Orioles and Devil Rays – combined to finish 53½ games out of first. Oakland opens its home schedule against the Blue Jays, who actually finished behind Tampa Bay last year, a truly inconceivable concept.
yes, I don't like the schedule either...MLB outsources it to whoever can come up with the "best" schedule...among the crap brought up in that article for the 2nd year in a row the A's go to Boston twice and Boston only comes to Oakland once...unacceptable. In another article I read when the new schedule was accepted, it said the A's will travel the most miles this year out of all the other teams!
Macho Man (on Family Guy): "I must be in Quahog, 'cause all I see is a bunch of hicks!"