[thehatfield]

Top 10 Selling Oakland Athletics Jerseys as of 6/13/21

(Name/Jersey Number/Previous Position)

1. Mumbles Yamasita #34 (3)
2. Fairfax von Schoening #25 (5)
3. Nori Nakamura #35 (-)
4. Travis Byers #8 (-)
5. Teddy Revelez #12 (6)
6. Fred Cake #85 (2)
7. Rowley Dickson #10 (1)
8. Bill Mathis #29 (8)
9. Francisco Quinenes #14 (9)
10. Edgard Galdames #37 (-)

Jose Arce, Ken O’Bryant and Cornelius McInally all dropped out of the top 10. Otherwise, not very many dramatic changes aside from Nori Nakamura’s arrival on the list at #3 and Rowley Dickson falling to the #7 slot. While there is no doubt Nakamura has benefited from frequently being matched against other teams’ 4th and 5th starters, his 9-1 record out of nowhere this season seems to have inspired the fanbase to accept the former Blue Jay as a real white elephant.


Next Up: 3-game series at home against New York Mets

It was nice to be back at home after a successful 12-game road-trip even though the World Series Champions were coming to town. Despite being near the top of the league in terms of payroll over the last 15 years the Mets have, until last season, been called perennial underachievers who had won just 3 division titles with no National League Championships in their first 14 years. If you took away their baseball-best 46-17 record this season the franchise has a puzzling all-time record that is below .500 (1,211-1,219). But since they bottomed out with back-to-back last place finishes in 2014 & 2015 they have been on a slow but steady rise that saw them win a Major League-best 107 games last year.

Luckily for us it looks like we might be hitting the Mets at the bottom of their pitching rotation because they are led by 30-year old 7-time All-Star and 4-time Cy Young Award winner Brandon Radley. The 213-pound left-hander is doing it again this year, with a 9-2 record and MLB-best marks in ERA (1.83), innings pitched (113.1), strikeouts (150), and opponent’s batting average (.188). He’s also third in baseball in WHIP with a tiny 0.96. The Mets are also getting big lifts from starters James Barnes (36 years old, 7-2, 4.30 ERA, 75.1 IP), and 27-year old Gene DeVaughn (10-1, 3.52 ERA, 79.1 IP), in addition to reliever Wye Budgeford (26 years old, 4-1, 2.08 ERA, 39 IP), and 25-year old closer Rocky Trowbridge (2-3, 1.71 ERA, 15 SV, 2 BS, 31.2 IP).

The lineup is anchored by 29-year old first baseman and 4-time All-Star Hippolyte “Workhorse” Ashe who was hitting .297 with a Major League-best 28 home runs (he hit 70 last year) and 77 runs scored. His 70 RBI are fifth overall in baseball this year. Bill Cake, the brother of our starter Fred Cake, has settled into the New York lineup just fine since his trade from San Diego and was having another solid year with a .270 average, .364 OBP, 16 home runs and 54 RBI. In the third game of the series Fred Cake was our projected starter so we might get to see an interesting brother-against-brother pitcher/batter match-up on Tuesday. 31-year old second baseman Adelardo “Wild Man” Arguijo was hitting .295 with 10 home runs and 45 RBI but much more was expected of the 8-time All Star and 3-time MVP considering his talent; he was still recovering from a dreadful April where he hit just .133. 6-time All Star catcher Leith MacIlwhom, 32, was the last big-time player on the Mets with a .338 average, .456 OBP, 10 home runs, 33 RBI and 52 runs scored in 213 at-bats.

Since we were back at home after playing Interleague in the National League parks our lineup would revert back to its normal configuration:

1. Yamasita CF
2. Galdames SS
3. Revelez LF
4. Guevaro 3B
5. Byers RF
6. Arce 1B
7. McInally C
8. Quinenes DH
9. Page 2B

I was personally excited to see if the recent round of publicity and our recent strong performances would bring more bodies out to the ballpark.


Injury Update

25-year old starting pitcher Neifi Villaluazo is out for the next three weeks with a herniated disc in his back.

26-year old second baseman Ken O’Bryant is out for the season after undergoing surgery for a broken foot. He won’t be able to start serious rehab for the next 5 months.


Sunday, June 13, 2021
Game 63 vs. New York Mets
6-4 Win; 23,534 in attendance
W: Glaus (1-1) L: Limon (2-3)

Recap: A bit of a disappointing crowd for the World Series Champions but no matter as we got this series off to a promising start with a comfortable 6-4 win. The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead when Leith MacIlwhom hit a 2-run homer off of Gib Glaus in the top of the 2nd inning. While it started to look like Glaus was headed for his second straight dreadful start the 27-year old lefty settled down and allowed his teammates to rally for 2 runs in the 4th and 3 more runs in the 5th. Cornelius McInally hit his third home run of the season in the 7th inning to finish the scoring for Oakland. The Mets tried to get back into the game when Bill Cake hit his 17th home run of the year off of Glaus in the top of the 8th inning and a runner scored on a fielder’s choice before Glaus wriggled his way out of trouble. New York starter Miguel Limon was ineffective in his 4.1 innings of work, giving up 7 hits and 5 earned runs while walking 1 to keep his ERA above the 7.00 mark on the season. Mumbles Yamasita went 4-for-5 with 2 runs scored and Artie Page was 2-for-4 for the A’s. MacIlwhom, Cake and shortstop Terran Riley all had 2 hits for the Mets. Francisco Quinenes took home the golden sombrero with an awful 0-for-4 performance and 4 strikeouts which makes him 0-for-8 with 7 strikeouts in his last 8 plate appearances.


Monday, June 14, 2021
Game 64 vs. New York Mets
9-7 Win; 22,453 in attendance
W: Nakamura (10-1) L: Budgeford (4-2) H: Frank (4) SV: Mathis (22)

Recap: Cornelius McInally delivered the critical blow, a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 5th inning, just after the Mets had scored twice in the top of the inning to tie the game at 5-5. McInally’s homer, his second in as many days, helped continue Nori Nakamura’s run of outstanding luck as once again the 27-year old starter picked up the victory in a game where he had less-than-stellar stuff – 7 innings, 7 hits, 6 runs (5 earned) and 4 walks. We knocked 36-year old soft-tossing Mets starter Alex Lenard out of the game after he surrendered 7 hits and 5 earned runs in just 2.1 innings of work but it was Mets reliever Wye Budgeford who took the loss after he was the one that gave up McInally’s home run. New York’s Hippolyte Ashe hit his MLB-leading 29th home run of the year in the first inning off of Nakamura and went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI on the day. Mets right fielder Dave Saddler was 2-for-3 with a walk and 3 runs scored. Travis Byers, Dome Guevaro, and Teddy Revelez all had 2 hits and scored 2 runs for us. Francisco Quinenes was 0-for-3 with another strikeout which pushes his hitless futility streak to 8 strikeouts in his last 11 at-bats.

Heading into the next game, which of course was also the date of the amateur draft, Manager Jeff Hance called me up to tell me that he decided Cornelius McInally and Artie Page both needed the day off and that Tanyon Meagher and Reydel Vazquez would get the start.


Tuesday, June 15, 2021
Game 65 vs. New York Mets
6-1 Loss; 22,462 in attendance
W: Radley (10-2) L: Cake (5-3) SV: Mata (1)

Recap: A predictable loss here against Mets ace and baseball superstar Brandon Radley overshadowed the brother verses brother storyline and marked the sixth consecutive series where we ended up with a 2-1 record. Our starter Fred Cake nearly stole the show as he took a 1-0 lead into the top of the 7th inning but Hippolyte Ashe struck again with his 30th home run of the season, a 2-run shot, to give New York the 2-1 lead. In the bottom of the 7th inning with two outs and a man at third base Ashe made an outstanding defensive play at first base which robbed Mumbles Yamasita of a sure RBI when he dove to his left and snagged a sharp grounder that was hugging the right field line and tossed to Radley in time for the out. Player of the Game Radley exited the game in the 8th inning after allowing 1 run on 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 11 in 7.1 innings of work. 37-year old right-handed reliever Ramon Mata pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief for his first save of the season. The Mets’ Bill Cake was 3-for-4 on the day including 2-for-3 with a double against his brother Fred. Edgard Galdames had our RBI when he plated Yamasita with a single in the bottom of the 5th inning. Francisco Quinenes broke an 0-for-14 frigid streak with a single down the third base line in the bottom of the 9th.


Current Oakland Record: 43-22

Despite the good work against the World Series Champions the Los Angeles Angels cut our lead from 8 games to 7½ games in the American League Western Division. I was pretty disappointed that we didn’t bring more fans out for the Mets despite the fact that they hit us on a Sunday through Tuesday swing and despite the fact that in the series finale we had Brandon Radley in the stadium and the brother verses brother subplot. I had actually missed the last game of the series in-person as my toady Herb Watson, Head Scout Gaspar Zelaga, longtime scout Lucio “Lucky” Ubeda and I flew into New York City for the 2021 amateur draft.

After the draft we had a day off before the 33-32 Washington Nationals came to town.