Broadband Politics

Posted by Richard Bennett

Friday’s ball game was one of the classic battles you never forget. The A’s are looking to clinch a pennant this weekend while the Angels are out to finish a disappointing season respectably. The score see-sawed back and forth with the A’s taking the early lead on a run scored off a walk and a first pitch hit-and-run play where Kotsay hit a double and catcher Kendall scored from first, then increased it on a Nick Swisher solo homer an inning later. Then the Angels tied the game at two and blew a chance to take a lead when Kendall decoyed Vlad the Concussor into not sliding home and tagged him out. Bad baserunning is the Angels’ trademark this season (or is it poor fielding? I forget)

Then the Angels did take a lead on a homer by one of their seniors, but not for long as Eric Chavez tied it up with a blast of his own. Milton Bradley put the A’s ahead with a homer in the eighth and we started getting ready for the fireworks after the game. But oh no, not so fast. Jay Payton dropped the ball when he slammed into the field after making a great catch with two outs in the ninth, and an Angel slunk home on a bad relay by our heart-stopping closer Huston Street.

So it’s into extra innings and some theatrics by home plate umpire Ron Kulpa. Kulpa has a history of getting into confrontations with black players. He notoriously picked a fight with Barry Bonds that followed the same script as this thing tonight, and got head-butted by Carl Everett for some of his egomaniacal behavior. This time he got into it with Milton Bradley after our hero pointed out that Kulpa’s strike zone was not exactly square. Milton said his piece and turned around and started walking back to the dugout, mutting something as he walked. Kulpa was on his back the whole time and threw him out of the game AFTER HE STOPPED ARGUING AND HEADED BACK TO THE DUGOUT. Naturally, Milton wasn’t too pleased about that and a few folks had to prevent him from dispensing natural justice on the ball field. Kulpa’s the kind of fool who performs a little dance and a song every time he calls a strike, kinda like a toddler who’s just learned to use the toilet and is very impressed with his turds. But we don’t go the ball park to watch some racist drama queen ump pick fights, we go to see the athletes play the game. He should be fired. But back to the game.

The A’s got Brad Halsey out of a jam in the top of the twelve with a timely double play, and then it was all down to reserves Bobby Kielty and Marco Scutaro to win the game. I praised these two in one of them on-line discussions with some Angels fans early in the baseball year only to be ridiculed, so I really enjoyed this. Kielty hits a lead-off double from the left side, his weaker one, and Payton moves him to third.

Then the genius Scioscia walks our strike-out king Swisher to set up the DP and moves his center fielder Bilbo Baggins into the infield where he spends all his time chatting with the other guys about who covers second. He has his tired reliever Krod throw nothing but high fastballs and guess what? Marco hits one to center to win the game, his eighth walk-off hit in like two years of part-time play.

So now the magic number is two and the Angels are essentially toast. They were unbelievably weak in base running and fielding, and their manager made a whole series of bone-head by-the-book moves that ignored the skills and weaknesses of the particular dudes in question. Every great rivalry needs great rivals and the Angels didn’t hold up their end of the deal this year. The A’s are more impressive in each game, as a different part of the team rises to the surface and snares the prize. They use all the tools that a baseball team has, not just the long-ball or small-ball arsenal. They’re talented, they play with passion, and they just don’t quit. This is a team that can go all the way, especially now that Harden and Chavez are healthy.

I pity the poor Mets.