Oakland A's 2024 And Beyond Dynasty

[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.

[Paulie123]

some screenshots

[Paulie123]

last ones

[Paulie123]

The Oakland Telegraph
12 November 2034
Major awards for Gonzales and Beane as Forstar takes over at Oakland
By Dawn Ovanewera, new beginnings correspondent

After a season of unbridled success for the Oakland A's, there were no surprises at the MLB end of season awards bash last night, when starting pitcher Felipe Gonzales became the latest A's pitcher to walk away with the American League Cy Young award, while former GM Paulie Beane won the AL manager of the year for the tenth time.

The 26-year-old Gonzales has been a sensation all year, recording just two losses en route to a stunning 22-2 record and 2.84 ERA mark. Beane traded a superb relief pitcher, Nathan Boyd, to get Gonzales from Pittsburgh a year ago, but he will reflect on ultimately making a very good decision with that trade. By a neat symmetry, the National League Cy Young winner was Washington's veteran pitcher Lucio Vargas, whom Beane allowed to leave Oakland as a free agent, thereby simultaneously making Beane reflect on making what panned out to be a not very good decision.

New Oakland A's general manager David Forstar said to reporters at the event, through slightly gritted teeth, he was delighted that his first act as leader of the organisation was to hark back to the achievements of his predecessor. "Paulie has been this organisation's greatest leader, even by the illustrious standards of those who came before him. If I can come even remotely close to what he's done, I'll be delighted and I'd hope the fans would be too". Fan spokesman O. Clandmad said that supporters had, with astonishing unreasonableness, become accustomed to ridiculous once-in-a-lifetime levels of success now, and would probably not tolerate only being "remotely" as good as under Beane. Beane himself offered no comment, mainly because he wasn't in a position to formulate actual, coherent words; with no reason to get up in the morning he decided to get absolutely plastered on the evening's free booze.

Forstar refused to comment on rumours that Beane has not even cleared his things out of the GM's office suite yet, and that Forstar was still working from his old desk for the assistant to the assistant to the assistant manager. He said, somewhat passive aggressively: "We are still in the process of the handover period between us. This transition phase is due to be completed shortly." He confirmed reports that Beane would not be making the mistake of so many long-standing sporting team leaders and, on retirement, moving up to be a director or other figurehead role within the organisation. Beane will be making a clean break from the club, giving Forstar the room to make his own mistakes, sorry, to put his own mark on the team, without working under Beane's massive shadow.

[Paulie123]

The Oakland Telegraph
19 November 2034
Forstar rails at "madmen" on arbitration panel after "bonkers" awards for Bates and Childress
By U. Pillocks, arbitration awards correspondent

One week into the job, and new Oakland general manager David Forstar is already displaying some of predecessor Paulie Beane's character traits. "Paulie warned me about those arbitration panel lunatics and madmen", a visibly fuming Forstar said to reporters at yesterday's press conference. "And now I have experienced for myself exactly what he was talking about. What planet exactly are these people on? Planet Bonkers, apparently."

The cause of Forstar's ire? Yes, we've rather given it away in our headline, haven't we. Damn sub-editors. Forstar is incensed by the arbitration awards for second baseman Herb Childress, who received $8.9m despite putting up a .769 OPS and missing half of last season through injury, and starting pitcher Carl Bates, whose 5-3 record and 5.04 ERA was apparently enough to warrant a $14.8m salary for the 2035 season. "These are fine players and key members of our roster", raged ferocious Forstar, "but these sky-high awards take the biscuit. I can only assume that Herb and Carl are related to, or exchanging bodily fluids with, some of the panel members". At this point he picked up the microphone on the desk in front of him, blurted out a range of four-letter expletives that would make even a long-distance truck driver wince, and stormed out of the press room. When violently slamming the door behind him failed to cause it to shatter and fall from its hinges, he returned moments later armed with a baseball bat, and, in full view of the watching press corps, battered the poor defenseless door into submission. This irrational loss of temper must have been one of the key competence areas he demonstrated at his interview for the role.

Right fielder Sergio Strickland and Cy Young-winning pitcher Felipe Gonzales were awarded the maximum $15m salary by the panel. This didn't get Forstar's goat, what with it just being a match for their 2034 wage and, frankly, excellent value for money given their talent and performances.

Ballooned by these arbitration awards, Forstar's projected 2035 payroll, once unused outfielder Vicente Garcia has left to free agency, will now be $163m, exceeding owner Ban-ki Rupt's $160m budget. Bates and his bumper wage look to be vulnerable to trade to bring the club back within budget, and Forstar may also consider whether Luis Trujillo should stay, what with good young player Donald James waiting in the minors. So, one week into the job, he already hates the arbitration panel and has to work out how to reshuffle his roster to cut the payroll. Welcome to the GM's chair at Oakland, Mr Forstar.

[Paulie123]

The Oakland Telegraph
20 November 2034
EPILOGUE: Funnyball
By Homer Run, chief baseball correspondent

Paulie Beane got up early and headed to the Coliseum yesterday for his final working day as an employee of the Oakland A's. He wanted his last day to be a Sunday because, with it being the offseason, he thought the front office would be largely empty and he could make a quiet exit. How quickly you forget, he thought to himself when he arrived. It was abuzz with the hum of dedicated people hard at work: researching trade targets, negotiating new merchandising contracts, telephoning the representatives of soon-to-be free agents, developing their data systems, devising new metrics for analysing player performance, modelling prospective new ticket pricing arrangements, the list goes on. The A's didn't achieve all that success on the pitch without a talented and hard-working team of staff beavering away off the pitch.

Beane walked briskly past his former colleagues' desks, and headed for the analysis office. The club's chief sabermetrician, Mike Rosoft-Excel, was watching a grainy black and white programme on a small television screen. "Hey, the 1966 World Cup final!", said Beane, recognising the famous pictures of the England versus Germany football match at Wembley Stadium immediately. "That was nearly 70 years ago. What're you watching that for, Mike?"

"You English guys always bang on about this", said Rosoft-Excel. "The most significant sporting achievement in the nation's history, you've said to me on numerous occasions over the years. So I thought I should finally get round to checking out the tape. And what's particularly interesting is that it's relevant to today. Watch this, look."

Beane saw on the screen the familiar images, at the very end of injury time, of Jack Charlton, the centre back, hitting the ball long down the pitch towards striker Geoff Hurst. Hurst, visibly exhausted, collects the ball and staggers more than runs in the direction of the German goal. The Germans, equally tired and out of position from chasing an equaliser, can't muster a challenge. Hurst continues his run, reaching the edge of the penalty area. "Look", said Rosoft-Excel again, pausing the video. "It's 3-2 to England at this point. Injury time has basically finished. The World Cup is won. Hurst is knackered. All he's going to try and do now is blast the ball as hard as he can into the crowd behind the goal to waste whatever final few seconds remain. But watch what happens."

Beane, an avid football fan, has seen this a thousand times before, but, as Rosoft-Excel unpaused the tape, he leant in and watched it again anyway. Hurst's shot arrows straight into the top corner of the net. "All he wanted to do was waste a few precious seconds and preserve the win", said Rosoft-Exel. "But look at what he's gone and achieved in the process. A famous 4-2 scoreline. He's become the one and only player to hit a hat-trick in a World Cup final. He's created an iconic sporting moment that has become part of the folklore and fabric of a country. He was later knighted. With that kick of a football, he set out to achieve one thing, but ended up achieving so much more besides."

Rosoft-Excel went on. "It's a metaphor for your career here. You came here from England wanting to win a World Series. You've ended up achieving so much more besides, and you've created sporting stories and moments that have become part of the folklore and fabric of a fictional baseball dynasty report."

He's not usually given to sentiment, but Beane's eye briefly appeared slightly watery. "It's been a great pleasure working with you all these years, Mike", he said, looking the analyst right in the eye and shaking his hand. "You're one of many, many people in this organisation without whom none of our success would have been achieved. I hope you're as proud of yourself as I am of you."

With that Beane left the room. He spent a lot of time that morning pottering, mostly. He at last emptied his few personal belongings out of his office, sorry, David Forstar's office. There weren't many items, and he packed them all into a small cardboard box he'd brought with him. So many of the objects and souvenirs he'd brought into the room at some point or other over the years had been broken, smashed, or chucked out the window during the course of one of his fits of pique following a disappointing defeat or during a poor run of form. He found a small shot-sized bottle of whisky he'd stashed in a drawer. I've packed away a fair few of these over the years, he thought to himself, subconsciously rubbing his liver.

He chatted with colleagues round the office and just generally distracted them from their work. He could tell that they wanted to say bye to him, but equally, having done so, then just wanted to crack on with the work they were doing. Unlike him, they did have a 2035 season to prepare for. That's the thing about sport, he thought to himself. It's very much like life. While it always comes to an end for an individual sooner or later, baseball as a whole carries on without them. There's always another season. There are always more players. There are always more mugs willing to try their hand at being a general manager.

Talking of which, he sought out the latest one, his successor, Forstar. "You finally cleared out of my new office?" joked Forstar. Beane wished him all the best. "I'm rooting for you", he said. "I know you'll do just great. You don't need my help and you don't need my advice. You're ready for this". They discussed briefly what was coming up next for Forstar: the free agent market. Life goes on for the club. Beane might be stepping off the ride, but the baseball merry-go-round stops spinning for no man.

Shortly before lunchtime, Beane made a point of speaking to his long-standing field manager Phil D'Manager. The pair had had their differences at various times over the years, that was for sure, and particularly in the early days. Relations between the two men had frequently been tense, sometimes breaking out into stand-up arguements, but things had thawed in recent years as the A's kept winning and the two men mellowed with age. "Thank you Phil, for everything. Yes we disagreed sometimes, but I thought we worked well together. Having people in their team prepared to offer them an alternative view is, I think, vital for any successful leader. I certainly had that with you", chuckled Beane, as he and D'Manager's shook hands warmly.

The players were the only members of staff Beane didn't go and say goodbye to. He never fraternises with the players. Who knows whether he'll ever be back in the major leagues as a GM one day, and seek to sign or cut any of these guys. Better to keep his distance, even now.

By 1pm he was done with his goodbyes, and, to be honest, starting to get a bit bored. Time to go. Carrying his box of belongings, he walked outside to his car. He placed the box onto the passenger seat, and walked round to the driver's side door. As he reached for the door handle, he stopped, turned, and gazed up at the hulking exterior of the Coliseum. He gazed and gazed.

Deep inside he became aware of a strange sensation. A sense of loss, a sense of melancholy, a sense of regret, a sense of longing, a sense of dread, a sense of yearning for wonderful times past that can never return, a sense of... second thoughts? Well, it was all of these things, and yet none of these things. The feeling was hard to describe and he had never encountered it before.

He must have stood there, looking up at the stadium with his hand poised on the car door handle for 5, 10, maybe 15 minutes. Then finally, he seemed to get a hold of himself, to reach an inner peace. He took a deep breath, opened the door and got in the car. Without once looking round, he drove away.

[Paulie123]

So that's the end of this dynasty report. Thanks to all of you who have read it. Getting regular thanks (cheers, Texasborn!) and seeing the page views slowly count up encouraged me to carry on with it longer than I otherwise would have. Looking forward now to MLB Manager 2016!

[Texasborn]

Well, it was a truly great dynasty and was well done. Intill another day.

[kpmcneil22]

This was awesome! Great job!