A's on the Upside

I vowed that I wasn't going about the Oakland A's again until they were over .500, and now that they are, I can break my baseball silence.

At the end of July, Oakland was eight games under break even, 13 games behind the Angels in the division and 10 behind the Mariners for the AL wildcard. They've really picked things up this month, winning 15 of 22 games and their last five in a row, but they're still 10.5 back in the division race and 8.5 back in the wildcard race. They're too far back with too few games remaining.

Even though they're mostly playing for pride at this point, it's sure been a lot of fun to watch. Due to ongoing injuries and their place in the standings, the A's have been playing young players who've given a big boost to their anemic offense. Jack Hannahan, J.J. Furmaniak, and Jeff DaVanon are hardly household names, and they're only "young" in the baseball sense, since they're all in their upper 20s, but they're all playing like it's their last chance to make it in the major leagues.

It's times like this when I realize why I love baseball. Even when your team is out of the race, it's still worth your while to keep following, because you never know what surprises are in store. The first step toward making a move is to get to .500, and the A's are over .500, so all they have to do is keep winning and hoping that the teams ahead of them start fading. They're at least a month away from elimination, and it isn't over until the magic number is zero!