The misery has ended: 2008 Oakland A’s Post-Mortem

Well, at least they didn’t lose 90 games.

Finally, the A’s 2008 season of misery has come to an end. Even though we ended the season with fewer wins (and just as many losses) as 2007, this felt like most miserable season since 1997, when they came close to dropping 100 games, and I seriously considered giving up baseball. This year wasn’t as bad as that, but this is the first time in many years that I actually avoided opportunities to go to the ballpark and catch a game. And I must say, just about every time it paid off, as I saved myself from witnessing at least four more humiliating losses that I would have had to endure otherwise.

As evidenced by the record, the A’s weren’t very good this year. There are no good 75-86 teams. No team that started Jack Cust in 148 and Jack Hannahan in 143 games can ever be any good. Despite their obvious deficiencies, the A’s messed around and made me optimistic for a respectable finish somewhere around the middle of the season. When they got excruciatingly awful post All-Star Break, they made me feel like a moron. And just when it looked like they were go some life in early September, and looked like they were going to finish the season with a lil’ bit of dignity, they fall flat on their faces again. The A’s completely boned their chances of finishing the season in distant second in the AL West by dropping two out of three to Texas, and then finished the season by getting swept by the worst team in baseball. Not exactly an inspirational showing by a plucky young team.

But it was readily apparent by the weekend before the All-Star Break this season was all about setting up for the next few years. And I’m still not convinced that this is like the 1998 season, the last time it looked like we were awful, but had the potential to do eventually do something. I won’t rehash too much who should stay or go (I’ve done that like four times this season on here), but I think an outfield of Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Sweeney, and Cliff Pennington, is probably, well, something. Kurt Suzuki is just as good as most catchers starting in the AL. On the pitching, Greg Smith and Dana Eveland obviously hit their rookie walls, but the former won’t lose 16 games again, and the later looked pretty good when he got back from the minors. And while Gio Gonzalez didn’t look nearly as good as advertised, the much-maligned Dallas Braden looked markedly improved. With a healthy Duchscherer, the starting staff might be good next year.

As for needs, well, it’s obvious a right-handed power hitter would be really nice, but the don’t exactly grow on trees, and I don’t think we’ve got the pieces or the inclination to trade for one. There’s a lot of talk of bringing the obviously left-handed Jason Giambi back, which is fine I guess. I’ll take anyone who doesn’t strike out close to 200 times a season.

Which bring me to the A’s greatest need: their need not to bring back Jack Cust as an everyday player. Please, for the love of all things holy, just let this putz go away. Even with his 33 HRs this year, he couldn’t carry Rob Deer’s jock-strap in a suitcase. I’d bring back injury-prone Big Frank over Cust. Hell, I’d bring Mike Sweeney out of retirement before giving Cust a chance to make more money off the team via arbitration.

While this was not a fun season by any definition, at least it’s over. Though I wouldn’t ever say I’m optimistic about the future, I can say with some confidence that I don’t think next year we’ll be as bad as we were this year.

Politics from the Inside

There are many, many things I do not like about Republicans running for national office, especially the highest two offices in the land. In general, they’re a smarmy, smug, hypocritical, lying, and outright evil bunch. It should probably say something that as politically, morally, and intellectually deficient as I find John McCain and Sarah Palin to be, they're probably the second least annoying of the Republican Presidential tickets I've seen in my lifetime (Bob Dole and Jack Kemp were slightly less insipid). Yet, like every other Republican jack-ass that’s aspired to be or has been the president or vice-president, McCain and Palin position themselves as the “OUTSIDERS,” untouched and unspoiled by the “Washington Elite.”

It’s complete Bush League bullshit. And it is always untrue. There are NO outsiders that get elected to anything, anywhere in this country, on any level of politics, be it national, statewide, or local. I’ve known and been friends with a few elected officials in my life, even some Republicans, and not one was an “outsider.” They were deeply involved in the town, city, or region where they were running for office, and were well connected to people and organization all over the state. They were ambitious, intelligent folks who were well-aware of how things worked inside and outside their region. And I’m not talking about having their hands in the pockets of every developer that came along: they knew how to work the political system in order to best serve their communities in their way they knew how.

Which is why I feel strangling someone every time I hear some Republican Presidential candidate glibly spew his or her outsider credentials. It’s an outright lie. There is no way to get elected to the U.S. Senate, much less serve for 26 years, and still be a MAVERICK. And there’s certainly no way to run for President, much less earn the votes to be at the top of ticket. What, you think the RNC would get behind someone who’s served almost three decades as a Senator and been an outsider their entire career? That would mean they literally accomplished zilch during their time in office, being a complete and total outsider and all. And MCain assures as all of his long and distinguished record of service as a Senator. Sorry Abe (as in Simpson), you can’t have it both ways.

And Governor Sarah Palin can go shit in a hat with her continued her nonsense. George W. Bush spent his 2000 campaign railing that while Al Gore was “for and of Washington,” while he, as a Governor, had no meaningful political connection to the city. This is from a guy whose father was also President of the United States. Let me reiterate you do not get elected to be Governor of any state without being well-connected to Washington D.C. And that includes Alaska. I guarantee you that even when Palin was elected to be the mayor of Moose Fuck, Alaska, population 9,000, she was well-connected to everyone who was anyone in that state. So miss me with all this outsider bullshit.

I’ve also known a few, real, genuine outsiders that have run for elected office, and all, save one, were completely worthless as candidates. Just about all were clueless as to how things really worked in their cities or communities, and lacked basic understanding of what it meant to be a council-person, mayor, representative or whatever. I have serious suspicions that one of these "outsiders" was actually mentally challenged. Not one was fit to hold an elected office. And the voters recognized this in every instance. Why people continue to fall for the okey-doke on the national level is beyond my understanding. But what I do understand is a “political outsider” is a synonym for “amateur.”