Posted 10:58 PM by Floyd

Sherry and I just got back from the A's-Expos game. It was the first time I had seen a game at the Coliseum (and the first baseball game Sherry had ever seen). Yesterday for some reason I decided that I wanted to see the A's play, and found a couple of my friends who wanted to go. I called up an agent at tickets.com and requested four seats that were accessible to a person on crutches. The seating area I was aiming for was near first base, on the middle level.

The reason I wanted to be near first base was so I could sit behind Scott Hatteberg and yell "Pickin' Machine"! I have just read "Moneyball", Michael Lewis' latest book on the 2002 A's, and I had my eye out for the players described in the book.

The game started at 1:05. We planned to take the 11:51 BART subway train from Daly City (just south of San Francisco) and arrive at the Coliseum around 12:30. Unfortunately the direct train to the East Bay was cancelled, and we had to take another train and transfer. We got to the stadium around 12:40 and met up with our friends near the "will call" booths. I picked up tickets, and Mike and I ran interference for Scott as he hobbled his way through the corridors.

It was a fine day, around 75 and clear with a slight breeze. I enjoyed the atmosphere at the stadium, but ... $7 for a cup of beer?!

Unfortunately our seats, while convenient for Scott, were not near first. We were in right field next to the foul pole, and spent the game looking at Terrence Long. Long had little to do in the field, but Hatteberg did have a good day: two hits and one walk, and a great catch of a high line drive.

The game was close early on. Montreal scored in the first inning, but Tim Hudson was strong and the Expos could only muster a few hits and no more runs. Oakland catcher Hernandez had a two-run shot and that was all the scoring until the seventh inning.

Expos star Vladmir Guerrero was injured, but DH Edwards Guzman was hot. He had been brought up from the minors in April, and probably had seen action only in interleague play. A stastistical curiousity: His batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage were all the same. (So all his hits were singles, and he has no walks.)

The A's blew the game wide open in the seventh. CF Eric Byrne had a three-run shot, and the Expos appeared to give up. They did not pull the reliever, who had given up the home run and another run on a wild pitch to Hernandez; he did strike out Hernandez to close out the inning.

In the eighth I got to see Moneyball's other leading character, submariner Chad Bradford. Bradford does have a weird motion but it's not as extreme as Lewis described it; from reading the book you would think that Bradford has to dust himself off the ground after each pitch. Bradford retired the side and the next two half-innings were also unremarkable. The A's emerged with a 9-1 win, and finally had found an NL opponent they could beat.

Made a correction: Hatty had one walk, not two.