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USA TV Talk Sports with Justin Mazzarese
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Don�t Snooze on Oakland
Justin Mazzarese
Sports Editor
By tying the Yankees with 47 wins in the second half of the season, the Oakland Athletics have once again put together one of the best teams in baseball with hardly anybody giving them a murmur of a mention; but luckily for Oakland, they will actually be playing in this years ALCS at discount price. What the Yankees did, or did not do this past weekend, was one of the saddest or greatest events in sports long history. What the Yankees need to realize is that they are fooling around with the chemistry of baseball. Who in that sad lineup would be willing to bunt the runner over to second?
Also, lucky for the Athletics, they do not need to worry about those basic questions. Even with the lose of all-star talents like Jason Giambi, Tim Hudson, Johnny Damon, Mark Mulder and Miguel Tejada their team approach has made them into a contender year in and year out for the past decade. This year, the Athletics reloaded with the biggest crop of no names in the past decade. The biggest bullet in the barrel being the 6�5�, 275 pound �Big Hurt� Frank Thomas.
Thomas compiled a season to silence all critics, especially those of the White Sox organization. Thomas hit .270 with 39 home runs and 114 RBI�s this year with hardly having the luxury of a Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez protecting him; Eric Chavez�s .242 batting average was his only protection. With this kind of a season, Thomas reintroduced the idea of him being, not only this past generation�s greatest player, but one of the greatest players of all-time. Although with a healthy exception, there are barely any players that can compete with Thomas�s career numbers of .305, 487 home runs and 1579 RBI�s.
What should make Thomas the front runner for the MVP is not his numbers, although a strong case could be made with them, should be his intangibles he brings to the team�See Derek Jeter.
One such incident happened earlier in the month of September against the Minnesota Twins. Thomas hit a frozen rope to Twins shortstop Jason Bartlett who made a great play and robbed Thomas of a hit. Thomas then proceeded to the dugout where he broke his bat on the bench in fit of rage in front of the entire team. When he speaks, they listen.
The young Athletics team not only listened but more importantly watched as did the 54,000 Minnesota citizens who most likely called out of work or school last Tuesday for game one of the ALDS. In that game, Thomas single-handily defeated Cy Young candidate Johan Santana by hitting two critical home runs; one being in the top of the ninth inning that secured the win. This win meant so much to the Athletics because this was their biggest game of the year for one reason: they beat Johan Santana in game one which subsequently took the wind out of Minnesota�s sails. The win did just that. The next day Minnesota players tried to do too much with one instance being Torii Hunter who dove for a ball but missed, which ended up as a game deciding two-run inside the park home run.
With the sad $200 million road block out of the way, Oakland may finally be able to cruise to their first World Series title in 17 years with Thomas in the driver seat.
Copyright 2006 Justin Mazzarese. All Rights Reserved.
All photos herein are the exclusive property of Albert G. Bruhn.
Reprint without permission is prohibited.
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