A's vs. Boston in Japan - A Horrible and Complicated Waste of Time

The Oakland Athletics played in Japan against the Boston Red Sox in a two-game exhibition that actually counts in the American League Standings. The series turned out to be a split, which was good for both teams, as Japan is a long way to go to get swept. Amazing waste of time though. The Japanese know all about Baseball by now, I think, and there is absolutely no need to send MLB teams there to play at all, let alone in games that count in the standings. But it was done - Damn you, Bud Selig. With that money-grabbing crap-fest over, the A's and Red Sox will come back to the U.S. to play out the rest of Spring Training before beginning the regular season again. So if you are keeping score at home, that's; U.S. Spring Training, Fly to Japan for Spring Training, Open the Regular Season in Japan, Fly back to the States, Continue Spring Training, Start Regular Season again.

Awesome.

Richie Harden looked as impressive as always, which means that if his history holds true, he will pitch like Cy Young right up until he gets injured for the season.

And can the Giants look worse? That team is going to be a spectacle to behold in S.F. this year.

Sllaacs

History

Sunday's game was so brutal, it's taken me this long to write about it. My daughter was born just before the season started in 2005. Since she's been alive, the Raiders haven't won a game in their division.

So Sunday afternoon, I went and got her. She's two now, and every time she sees football on TV she says "Yay, RAIDERS!" She has a little Warren Sapp jersey and a smart-looking Raiders sweat suit. So I grab and I tell her, "The Raiders have a chance to beat Denver, something they haven't done since you been alive."

She said "Yaay, RAIDERS!" and Seabass nailed the 52-yarder.

And then came the time-out Shanahanigans, and the subsequent miss, and all of a sudden I felt like one of the douche bag Red Sox fans in the Ken Burns Baseball documentary who woke their kids up in the middle of a school night to witness history, only to see Buckner let the ball dribble between his legs.

Obviously, this loss wasn't that much of a stomach-punch. And I knew, like probably every Raiders fan knew, that the 2nd kick was going to bounce off that upright. There's no way that kick was going in.

But c'mon, Kiff. Please get McCown outta there. He's killing us. It's not like 1998 when Gruden had no choice but to leave Donald Hollas out there to get murdered. You've got a choice. Could Daunte really be that bad?

You've given us some hope. Don't kill it.