Watching the Raiders defense fruitlessly try and defend the Chargers in the final game of the 2011 season, I was reminded of that famous quote by Aristotle. He said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."The Raiders may have a commitment to excellence. However, far too often in the 2011 season it was a lack of excellence that became a habit. It was that repeated habit of mistakes, penalties, lack of focus and discipline that caught up with a team many felt was ready to make a playoff push in 2011. Before you can truly ...
Josh Willingham hit 29 home runs for the Oakland A's in 2011. Tuesday night he hit a walk-off home run for the Minnesota Twins that defeated the A's.It was a pitchers duel for most of the night but in the seventh inning, the Oakland A's looked like they might pull off the victory after they broke through for a run and followed it up in the eighth inning with another run.The Twins were shut out for eight innings and broke out in the ninth to defeat the A's 3-2.Brian Fuentes came in to close the game for Oakland and allowed ...
Everybody has been waiting four months for this day to arrive: The date that Manny Ramirez is eligible to rejoin a major league ballclub.Last December, Ramirez hinted that he was interested in un-retiring from baseball, following a seven-month absence in light of his positive drug test result during May of 2011, while he was playing for the Tampa Bay Rays.This past February, Ramirez agreed to a minor league deal with the Oakland Athletics, allowing the beleaguered slugger to attempt to add to his 555 career home runs, pending his service of a 50-game suspension to start the 2012 season. Fifty ...
Yeah, I know what many people will think after reading the title. "The Raiders? This guy must be crazy." Even some Raiders fans may think that this may be too strong of a statement. But if you look at the AFC West, it would be hard to dismiss the Raiders as a team that could win the division. Again, I know people will bring up the transition that the organization has gone through—new general manager, new head coach, new defensive coordinator, practically new everything—but in this case, I don't think it is going to matter. Let me remind you that ...
Even though Manny Ramirez's 50-game suspension will be over soon, he will not immediately join the Oakland Athletics. He will stay at Triple-A Sacramento until the Athletics are ready to call him up.Ramirez is a pretty polarizing figure but his return to the major leagues will not only be good for the Athletics, it will also be good for baseball.Once Ramirez is promoted to the majors, there will be a lot of fanfare surrounding his first game in the majors since April 2011. It will be interesting to see how he performs after being out of the majors for such ...
With a move looming and little support from commissioner Bud Selig regarding San Jose, it's time the Oakland Athletics forget about the Bay Area and look at Sacramento as a destination. It's no secret—the A's want to move to San Jose. There's just one major problem standing in their way: the San Francisco Giants. Currently the Giants own territorial rights to San Jose—a large portion of the Bay Area—located just under 50 miles away. On May 25, Ken Rosenthal wrote that Commissioner Selig will sit down with both parties once more to push a solution. Rosenthal also noted that "the Athletics ...
The Oakland A's continue to count down the days until Yoenis Cespedes returns to the big leagues. The A's are 7-13 since Cespedes went on the DL May 7 and have lost their last six games.He played his first rehab game with Triple-A Sacramento on Monday and finished the game 1-for-3 with a single and a strikeout. It is a good sign that he had a base hit in his first game, despite the fact that he struck out.If anything, the strikeout might be a glimpse that he is on the right track considering he was averaging more than a ...
It was only a week ago when the Oakland A's found themselves in the thick of the AL Wild Card chase. Since then they have gone on to lose six in a row, seeing their GB rise to five in the wild-card standings.Not only that, but they have slipped to third in the AL West, now finding themselves behind Los Angeles as well as Texas. Luckily for the A's, it's only May, and there's plenty of time to turn things around. They are also expecting several big-name players to return soon as well, which should help out immensely once the ...
A very solid start spoiled. A relative offensive explosion ruined. And a golden opportunity to break through in the ninth wasted. The recipe for a loss mixed together in Minnesota and the Oakland A's dropped their sixth straight game 5-4 to the Twins. Ryan Cook allowed his first runs of the year in the eighth inning, taking the loss. Despite home runs by Josh Reddick (his 14th) and Kila Ka'aihue, it was the the A's inability to score with runners on that doomed them again. Down a run in the ninth, the A's got a gift from the Twins when second ...
The Raiders concluded the second week of organized team activities (OTAs) and the coaching staff is doing their best to evaluate the players in non-contact situations.Without pads and contact, there is little evaluation that can be done of the offensive or defensive lineman outside of participation. It's pretty tough for a lineman to raise his stock against a blocking sled.Organized team activities are more of an opportunity for the receivers, backs, linebackers and the secondary to show off their athleticism and natural ability.There are numerous determining factors that indicate a player with a rising stock, but having the starting quarterback ...