5/29/11 There's No Crying in Baseball! O's @ A's @ OakCo

On a very rare occasion where Adie and I had the same day off, we headed for Oakland to see my two favorite AL teams battle it out, East vs. West style.  

I know some might question my love for the Orioles since they have not been a good team of late...but it has to do with a superstar hero with a pair of  to-die-for blue eyes.  The love affair started over 20 years ago and my loyalty remains to the only organization he ever played for. 

Okay, so I took that picture at Angels Stadium...whatevs. ;-p

Honestly, since this was a while ago and in the midst of the drama with my mom's illness, I don't remember too many details about the day.  At least at the beginning.  So I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves & narrate when I have something to say. Let's start with the visiting Orioles.

O's starting pitcher Zac Britton warming up

Some of the A's fans were very excited with Willie Randolph went over to say hi.

Hottie alert!!  There are some cuties on the O's.

(Wow...I take waaaayyyy too many pictures.  *le sigh*)

And now, the home team!  These were taken from our seats behind the A's bullpen. 
Second row, baby!  Sweet!
We'll start off with a Daric Barton bunny hop.

And follow that with Conor Jackson hotness.

OMG!  Mark Ellies!  *Sob*  I can't stand it!!!  I miss him so much. 

[singing] And I-ee-I...will always...love you-ooo-oo-oo-oo[/singing]

And the man we like to call...Swooney...

And speaking of swooning...practically EVERYTHING about Josh Willingham is swoon-worthy. It's a sneaky type...you look at him and think he's a cutie...but then BOOM! you hit the floor. 

To illustrate what I mean...

Wait...wha?  the???  How did that get on my camera?!?
Okay, okay...moving on...

Bullpen besties. Yes, Andrew has the candy bag.  This was Andrew's first day off the DL and we were hoping to see him pitch, which he did.  But we didn't see it.  It's a looong story that, frankly, pissed me off.  So we'll let sleeping dogs lie.

More bullpen dudes.

And another dearly departed player who will be sorely missed.  I still follow him on Twitter because he's just a good dude, right down to his Rivercat days...Brad Ziegler.

The pregame was kind of exciting for me and my old-school 80's music love.  The first pitch was thrown out by Bell Biv Devoe!  Now you know!  I loved them...still love their old songs.

Here they are getting ready to hit the mound. 

Brad Ziegler caught their pitches and signed the balls for them. 

They were pretty decent - at least I don't remember any bouncers.

And then it was time for the national anthem.  I'm one of those people who still love the anthem (and the Canadian anthem for hockey games) to be sung at sporting events.  But I can appreciate and respect the anthem and still surreptitiously capture the moment (and lidless players).

Obviously it was "Take the field with the A's Day". That's always cute to see.

One last pic from the pregame...J J Hardy warming up on the field.

After close to 2 hours of ogling players like I like to do...let the game begin!

In the above picture, you can see Daric Barton looking up into the stands.  Apparently, there was a dude up there heckling Barton hard.  We heard about this later and I looked back and had a couple pics of Barton giving it back to him.  If I remember correctly,  Barton had the guy thrown out.

More game pics...

The dugout celebrates a Josh Willingham homerun!

Aussie, Aussie, oy oy oy!

The relievers return from a communal clubhouse break.

Unfortunately, Adie was volunteering at an event back in Sacramento and had to be there at 5pm for check in. So we had to leave before the game was over, which drives us absolutely cra cra!  But it couldn't be helped so off we went.  Of course we missed Andrew Bailey's season debut!  He came in to pitch right after we made it to the car, so at least we could listen to it on the drive home.

The A's won the game and a good time was had by all.  Except maybe the Orioles.  

xoxo