No Place Like Home

The A's open at home tonight against the Chicago White Sox. Rich Harden will be parading his fantastic stuff in front of the home fans, healthy, for the first time in who knows how long. Mike Piazza will make his home debut as an Athletic. And given how he just put one up the Angels' ass, the home fans will be sure to like him regardless of his performance tonight. Bobby Crosby will strike out and probably make an error or something as well. There's always some bad to go with the good. Especially when it concerns Bobby Crosby.

And I'll be watching all of that lovely, fun, exciting baseball up close and personal...........on my computer screen. On MLB.tv. 3,000 miles away. In Boston, where it's 48 degrees out right now and where it snowed like last week. (Sometimes, certain things make you second guess certain big decisions you've made. And yes, 48 degrees is still cold. I don't care what any of you native East Coasters, or New Englanders especially, have to say about it.)



It's not like the home opener is a particularly big deal to me. I've been to a few, I've enjoyed the festivities. I prefer FanFest (which, hey, I also missed.) But, you know, if I were at Sac State or Davis or Santa Cruz, or, hell, even Santa Barbara or SDSU, I could make the little pilgrimage to Oakland. Instead, I'm sitting here counting the days until I can eat a real burrito under real weather.

(Mid Post Clarification: I like my school. I like Boston. But it's April and it snowed last week and it's been baseball season for like a week and I haven't been to an A's game. I need me a little summer.)

Crappy as the Coliseum may be, it's still my Coliseum. I'd rather watch baseball there than just about anywhere else. A's-Angels in September in the Coliseum is for me as good as it gets if you discount stuff like the Playoffs (which, hey, I probably also could've gone to. Come to think of it, what's with all this huge stuff fitting squarely into the two months of the season I'm not home? Thank God I'll be able to get to the All Star festivities, or I'd probably take out some poor Red Sox fan walking down the street.) And I dearly want to watch baseball there. Like right now. I want to participate in the monotonous, generic, but beloved "Lets Go Oakland" chant. I want to see those stupid dot races that get everyone all riled up, why, only God knows. I miss the crappy dollar hot dogs. I miss the BART rides to the game. I realize I'm going on and on over the lamest things ever. But it's what I want to post about right now and doggone it you're going to read it. (Though, given this site's traffic, chances are, no, no you're NOT going to read it!)


my crappy coliseum


Anyway, I'll be watching. On that little box on the computer screen that you can't really expand otherwise it'll be overly fuzzy, thus defeating the purpose of watching at all. And instead of commercials I'll get that ridiculous faux Breakout graphic the MLB people must just think is the darndest thing. Suffice it to say, something tells me it won't quite capture Rich Harden's darting fastball quite like I'm hoping.