Other Boards

[RobDogBucky]

are somehow better or desirable or more popular for what reason?

A sampling of yesterday's sky is falling reaction by those other loyal fans on a "better board."



"Harden is just an inning or two at a time pitcher. As soon as the A's realize that, he will have a nice, long, productive career."

"**** you Rich, you're made of glass. I'm sick and tired of players that can't stay healthy.
Game over because Kennedy can't pitch and our offence is non-existant. Absolute rubbish, again."

"3-2, embarassing. the a's should have swept this series."

"No sports team has ever enraged me, however briefly, like this A's team.
It's the most embarrassing competitive team in history."

"oakland needs to spend money and compete, or contract."

"nice play by swisher out there, unfortunately, two runs will be too m uch to overcome in the 8th."

"yeah for teams that don't have a little league offense, this situation wouldn't be that bad. Two runs, heart of the order. But, unfortunately we're a total embarassment right now."



And that folks is how the other half lives, er, watches a game.

With fans like that.......

And folks wonder why some don't want to bother going through that time and time again on a message board when the team is in the middle of a game that still has not been decided.

What a pity party when the A's are behind. I just can't stand the negativity that pervades the chicken little crowd that has no faith. This is a great come from behind team with great heart.

I love watching these A's. Even when they are behind.

Go A's!

Later,
RDB

[TheFlyingBomb]

Sometimes I feel like a lot of people on message boards actually hate sports, based on stuff like this.
I know I don't post a lot, but that is primarily the reason I stick to this board. It's okay to criticize your team's performance, but there's a healthy segment (mostly on other boards) of the message board community that
seem to be looking for reasons to complain.

[RobDogBucky]

Hey Flying;

You missed a great series vs the Skanks here in Oakland. Too bad they don't return this season. Each game was electric. I don't think I missed a pitch, except Saturday night when watching from home I nodded off in the 12th. Unfortunately I saw Greedambi hit his blast to win it. What a series though, and what an ending yesterday.

It was going great with Harden pitching well and a 2-run lead from a good first inning again. Then Harden stuck his hand out to knock down a ball hit up the middle, trainers came out, he was okay to continue. But a couple of innings later, the trainer/manager returned to the mound and Harden was taken out for "stiffness," in his shoulder. Now Harden said after the game it was no big deal, but my dog, after these last few years of tiffany glass Harden and Crosby and Bradley, it almost seems like it is just a matter of time. Any way, yesterday, Kennedy proceeded to give it all up and before you knew it, it was the bottom of the 9th. Then Chavez made the first out, followed by Walker getting on, (the more I see of Walker the more I like it) and Crosby hit a bullet to right that Abreu caught. Then Kendall worked a walk and it was 2 on, 2 out, with Scutaro coming up. This is all against Marianos Rivera. He got down in the count, 0-2, and broke his bat on a pitch he sent deep the left field line, and hit the mound in the A's bullpen. He grabbed a new bat and stepped back up there, and the minute he hit it, the trajectory had everyone in the stands on their feet giving BIGTIME body language to have it stay fair. My vantage point was down that left field line and when a ball's trajectory goes from right to left and you can see the left fielder react, the only question was if it was fair. It was clearly far enough from its initial trajectory off his bat.

When it clanged off the pole in left for a 3-run homer, it was the sweep vs the Twins all over again at the Coliseum. Scutaro the hero once again. He has done it 8 times in three years. Amazing. My voice is shot from yelling back at the obnoxious NYY fans who got more vocal after they got the lead and it looked for all the world like they were going to win the series. But I guess you probably saw all this a million times yesterday on the highlights, as so many other games were cancelled they kind of had to show the A's highlights often just to fill the airspace.

But man, this was like playoff atmosphere, and it was great to have the Scooter win it again. That kid is MONEY!

How is NC? My nephew keeps chugging along at Elon, they beat Wake last week and took 2/3 from Furman over the weekend. The weather interfered with them yesterday, but they saw it coming and scheduled a double header for Saturday and got them all in before any storms could hit. From the looks of things, they are lucky they did.

How did you fare where you are with the storms?

Go A's!

Later,
RDB

[ak4na2]

i will admit that i flipped channels with no intention of going back after the 8th inning ended.. but alas curiosity got the better of me.. good thing to..!!

i am known to be a pessimistic optimist.. =) like yesterday.. i said something like
- the game is over but watch.. the a's are somehow going to get scutaro to the plate..

i do wish they would play some less stressful games though..

[whobob]

"No sports team has ever enraged me, however briefly, like this A's team.
It's the most embarrassing competitive team in history."

"oakland needs to spend money and compete, or contract."

There's also a lot of good stuff, too. Should there be more posters here, it would be much of the same. The good along with the bad. As for some of those quotes, they aren't bad. The first just shows how much he cares. The second is outrageously sarcastic. It's quite ironic. Nothing like rubbing Bud Selig's face in his own quotes.

[Nat]

I see it as a combination of those funneling real-life hopes & dreams into a kid's game they have no control over....and the 20./20 hindsight given to everyone after something happens.
Whoever those people are, I feel kinda sorry for em

And yea, those kind of fans are everywhere...can't blame the place they choose to vent.

[RobDogBucky]

"Should there be more posters here, it would be much of the same."



Just dump it up to crumpit

[TheFlyingBomb]

Yeah, I hate having missed that series. Not even one of the games was on TV. My local bartender out here is a Skanks fan and we had a pretty good-natured rivalry going all weekend. Unfortunately, we had to look at ESPN's bottom line all weekend just to see who was winning. Glad we came out on top!
I'm staying optimistic about Harden, but it's hard. Overall, I'm happy with the A's start, given the strength of the teams they've been up against.
Rob - the NC weather has been pretty gross for the past few days. If not for taking a series from the Skanks, I'd probably be a little angrier about my mildly-flooded basement. I'll live though! Glad to hear your nephew is tearing it up at Elon. I'm only about an hour from there, I may try to make a game at some point.

[RobDogBucky]

Nat;

"...can't blame the place they choose to vent."

No, I know it, and I think Whobob got undies in bundle and wanted to defend homies there, but bear with me. Didn't mean to offend, but was just ironically touched by a site that self-promotes on other boards and yet offers up the pity party in spades during games and with excessive criticism of our own players/coaches, etc., afterwards. I mean the excessive parts. Boards are boards are boards.

It was my personal experience last season that every close game the A's were in, (unfortunately at that site there appears to be more out of towners without local video broadcast access, etc. than other boards) there would be this outpouring of instant knee-jerk pessimism. I would check out the game and once in a while check the board during that game and would just be overwhelmed by the negativity. It was almost as if they used the A's as a venting vehicle for all of their own dilemmas in their lives and unhappiness or sumpin'. There are lots of other boards though and no one of them is all that different than the others. Except of course, our little oasis here at the new FanHome.

I dunno what explains it, whether many of these fans have never played the game or what? But I was raised and played and trained and coached with the thought that you have no chance if you give up or if you "get your dawber down," as Hum Baby Roger Craig used to say. I know, he was the Gnats' skipper, but you mine the good from the bad wherever you find it, I always say. I guess I feel that we are all in this together (when there is a game on) and that deep down inside I am a part of it and have to behave accordingly, the way I was trained to think in the middle of that experience. I also know though, from having been in stress-filled team-work situations, that not everyone reacts to them the same way.

Like I said it is a phenomenon I confronted on message boards with fans venting during the course of a game. It was somewhat new to me, and I guess I was just brainwashed into never complaining, never giving up, always thinking there was a way to pull it out if behind. Look what happened in 2 of the 3 games this weekend?

That same ethic provided that one did not gloat or get too cocky when winning as well. I get the heebie-jeebies sometimes when my wife gets effusive over something that came our way through good fortune, that you don't tempt fate and gloat about it. She does not know that I feel that way every time, as I don't always want to rain on her parade, etc., but the prevailing winds would blow caution to me in that same situation in not revelling too much in what amounts to random good fortune. Maybe it is my working class background in never looking a gift horse in the mouth, etc. A larger philosophical debate there I suppose. One for another time and place.

I have played the game, I have coached the game, and I have been a fan for almost 60 years, so I do have some frame of reference in being in a tight contest. I would never want my teammates to ridicule each other, or to have them thinking as a team that we had no chance. "There's no crying in baseball," touches a little on that ethic I suppose, and that phrase could mean many things to many people. I had a group of apathetic players once, and they really weren't taking the competition seriously, a beer league team. They got pasted in their first game and I needled them about it. They got pissed and felt lousy about losing. I asked if they wanted to win instead, and they all said yea, we definitely don't want to feel like this (losers). I made them practice more and worked on fundamentals and worked on mistakes between games. (I knew the other teams were not practicing after the season started) They got a taste of that teamwork and winning working on mistakes and that's all she wrote. They went on to be self-motivated and the feeling of pride in achieving a group goal was the catalyst for a winning season and a league crown.

For the players it is motivation, and I think for a fan the key is attitude. You will have horrendous ups and downs if you look at the little picture and focus on your own feelings. You will have more success if you try to work on achieving small goals first then building with fundamentals to larger achievements. I think a similar ethic applies to a happy fan, never give up, always support your team, don't taunt the other team. Good grief, I sound like Chris Farley's motivational speaker that lived in a trailer down by the river. Rant off.

Flying; If you go to see an Elon game, he is #25. His HS buddy is the big bopper on the team (DH) and they both hope to get drafted by the same team. Fat chance that, eh? Well, they can dream, and wouldn't any of us give our left *** (whatever) to have a chance at going to the show. Just signing a contract and be given a chance would be it for me. I would always have something to tell the grandkids with that. Get those sump pumps going. Two words to avoid basement flooding; French drains.

Go A's!

Later,
RDB

[whobob]

Brainwashed into never complaining, huh? Does the never complaining just mean the players, not the fans?

I respect your attitude, but fans are not players. They don't have to have the mindset that a 4-2 game in the 9th inning against one of the game's best closers is out of reach. They're passionate to the point where they have to have an outlet to express it in. It's better they complain about it on the boards than around the house-- I know a passionate fan after a tough loss isn't always in the best moods. It's nothing about their character, you could catch anyone in a bad moment.

The first quote was a perfect example of that, and was put rather eloquently. The second was meant to be taken with a bit of humor, which I find admirable since the A's were actually losing and had something like a 10 percent chance of winning going into the ninth (according to the graph that another poster put up).

[RobDogBucky]

Wild Who Baloo-Who;

You asked questions, you deserve answers.

Sorry, did not mean to offend. Note to self; Not everyone takes this as seriously as I do. Let me try to explain if possible.

"Does the never complaining just mean the players, not the fans?"
-I guess in this instance I have been conditioned into the mindset of the player. Was taught that complaints = negativity = self-doubt = failure. Just my own conditioning, not others. Just surprised at others quick to complain. Stalinesque, yes I suppose rather severe. My bad, hard wiring.

My paragraph re: "Like I said it is a phenomenon I confronted on message boards with fans venting during the course of a game." I thought this explained where I was coming from. I am a fan, I get pissed, my wife knows if the A's won or lost just by looking at me. And the rub about this weekend was the complaining was occurring with a lot of time left in the game(s). I just don't understand the panic/depression/give up mode at that time.


"I would never want my teammates to ridicule each other, or to have them thinking as a team that we had no chance. “There's no crying in baseball...”
.. .For the players it is motivation, and I think for a fan the key is attitude."

I guess it is a carryover from too much competitiveness and how to deal with that. With that said, let's dismantle the currently unsteady, listing Angels. Kind of like the A's, two wounded teams trying not to cave in to hardship. And in our case trying to win all these close games while our offense wakes up.

Go A's!

Later,
RDB