[Paulie123]

The Oakland Telegraph
4 November 2034
THEY'VE ONLY GONE AND DONE IT AGAIN! Beane signs off with a 9th World Series ring as magical A's destroy San Diego
By Walter Waytofinish, fairytale endings correspondent

It was billed as one of the potentially great World Series match-ups. An all-Californian battle between defending world champions San Diego and the 119-win Oakland A's. Unfortunately for the many neutral fans watching, unfortunately for Padres fans, but very fortunately for A's fans, it was an utterly one-sided blink-and-you've-missed-it affair. What a finale for Oakland GM Paulie Beane, who got his wish of winning his final game in charge. His team, so dominant throughout the regular season, turned on the style when it mattered most, crushing the Padres to a pulp. They have, deservedly, been crowned World Series champions for 2034. It is Beane's ninth world title over his twenty years at the helm, and the eighth in the last twelve seasons. That's a dynasty, right there.

We should recap, because it was over so quickly you may well have missed something. Game one: ace pitcher Felipe Gonzales completed a perfect 4-0 postseason, after going 7 inning for 3 runs. Not his best, but good enough after the A's powerful lineup smashed 5 runs in the 6th inning. Games two and three were embarrassing for the Padres, to be honest. They wouldn't have had any less joy against Antonio Perez had they turned up drunk, as he had them swinging at thin air time and again. He threw 9 innings for a single run on three hits, to give the A's a 7-1 win and a 2-0 series lead. Somehow it got even worse for San Diego in the third game, as they ended up on the wrong side of a 13-3 duffing up. Third baseman Tony De Jesus opened the scoring for the A's with a 2-run homer in the 4th, and the game was well and truly won when pretty much the entire lineup got on base in a 7-run 5th inning.

So, 3-0 down in the series and with a mountain to climb, could San Diego pull off something very special? In a word: no. They did start game four reasonably well, opening the scoring with a solo homer off starter Mario Plourde in the top of the 2nd inning. But the fightback was decidedly short-lived. De Jesus's RBI double was swiftly followed by catcher Miguel Rojas's 2-RBI triple, as Oakland struck back immediately to take a 3-1 lead. Then soon came shortstop Liam Brown's 2-RBI double in the 3rd, and at 5-1 the match was won. A break for rain did little to dampen the increasingly drunken imaginary celebrations by the 30,500 imaginary fans packed into the Coliseum. When play resumed, the A's relief corps ate up inning after inning until suddenly, two runs off Porter Hawkins in the 8th closed the score to 5-3. Field manager Phil D'Manager gave the ball to closer Frank Sargent in the top of the 9th to seal the game and a 4-0 series win. Sargent, the A's first round draft pick in 2030, a prospect promoted onto the roster by Beane, a player exceedingly popular with the supporters in a way that only young homegrown players can ever truly be, threw a groundout and two strikeouts to secure the win. The crowd went wild with joy. The rest of the team leapt off the bench in a desperate chase to jump on top of Sargent and pour Gatorade over D'Manager's head.

Sat in his office in the bowels of the Coliseum, Beane was, as usual, not watching the game and was instead engrossed playing a game on his iPad. Well, he says he was playing a computer game. For all we know he might have been using it for something rather less wholesome. Nevertheless, as he heard the muffled sound of the roar which greeted Sargent striking out the final Padres batter, he glanced up and listened intently. A wry smile briefly flickered across he face as the realisation dawned on him of what the noise meant. He felt the adrenaline surge through his veins suddenly at the excitement. He paused, taking it all in. World Series champions. The poorest team in baseball. Him, a foreigner thrust into the GM role some twenty years previously with little or no relevant experience. Now, here he was, a nine-time world champion.

The press will want to speak to me shortly, he thought. Well, they can wait. As of this moment he was no longer the general manager of the A's organisation. He returned his attention to his game and carried on playing.