There’s no crying in A’s-ball

In Oakland, no change of ownership/no new stadium means no PSLs. No $18 sandwich at Crazy Crab’z. No weighty free-agent contracts. And a family of four can attend, eat (hot dog AND peanuts!) and drink for $60. Plus Barry Zito is on Alert-5 Aircraft in AAA Nashville. So who needs a goddamn trophy?

By Andrew Pridgen

When I was 12, the golden age of Bay Area baseball was represented on the wall above my bed by a pair of adjacent Nike posters. The poster on the left, Will Clark’s compact left-handed stroke frozen over a stanchion of the Golden Gate Bridge. On the right, Mark McGwire’s rhinoceros-horn-sized forearms stretching halfway over the span.

While I knew it was the much-less-scenic Bay Bridge that connected the two teams, the message was simple and direct: The strong- and sweet-swinging duo was the only thing bigger than the region’s most notable landmark.