It was one of those days where everything seemed to be just a little bit off. Here I was, going to a Wednesday game, having also gone on Monday. I had to keep reminding myself it was Wednesday, not Sunday. On the way to the train stations, I stopped at a drug store to buy a single-use camera. I didn’t realize until I was on the train headed to the Coliseum that I had purchased an indoor flash camera. Oh, well, I thought to myself, it will be foggy before the game. Maybe the flash will help.

Here on the Left Coast, we call the fog Nature’s Air Conditioner. If it’s sunny early in the morning, you know it’s going to be a broiler. But that doesn’t mean it is necessarily cold because it’s foggy. By the time I bought my ticket and got on line to wait for the park to open—a record early appearance for me—I taken off my sweatshirt and tied it around my waist. That revealed my Byrnes 22 T-shirt. On Monday, someone was wearing one everywhere I looked. But today, I saw only one person wearing one: me. There were a lot of Crosbys and still some Tejadas. Later in the day, I would see someone wearing a beautiful Chad Bradford A’s jersey. Some folks might remember Mr. Chadwick Lee Bradford of Mississippi, a sidearmer shipped to Boston as soon as he had recovered from his back surgery, in exchange for Jay Payton, the new A’s left fielder, who, I acknowledge, has been doing a bang up job for his new team.

While waiting for the gates to open, I wrote a little poetry, some of which is already on this blog: "Young Girls with Gloves" and "Home." The latter dedicated to Byrnes.

It being a day game after a night game there was no practice. So you would think that the players could or would mingle with fans and sign stuff. But that was not the case. Some of the A’s were stretching and jogging by the left field bullpen where a few pitchers were warning up. But only one of the A’s, wearing his jacket over his number, so I don’t know who it was, signed a few things in front of the A’s dugout along the third base line. I waited with my clipboard just behind the visitors’ dugout hoping that Eric Byrnes would show up and sign my latest "Eric Byrnes Pitch Count Report." Next to me was a boy with an Eric Byrnes baseball card. I used to collect baseball cards as a kid, but I haven’t seen one in a long time. The photo appeared to capture Byrnesie in mid-swing, staring at the barrel of his bat with all the intensity we know he has. It was a great shot. Kudos to the photog.

But there would be no Eric Byrnes, Miguel Tejada, Sammy Sosa, or just about anyone else folks were lined up to see. Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley walked from the bullpen to the dugout and was asked to sign one thing when he reached the dugout corner nearest home plate. Starter Bruce Chen exchanged waves with us as he went to the outfield for a light game of catch with someone else wearing a jacket that covered his number. I was surprised to see Chen assume a catcher’s crouch to take some tosses from the other guy. Gee, isn’t that dangerous? What if he gets hit in the face? I thought. Fortunately, there was no need to worry about that. Chen signed a whole bunch of things when he got to the homeside corner of the dugout.

Former catcher and now Orioles coach Elrod Hendricks passed by. He would later become accidentally involved in a play. A foul fly was hit toward the Orioles bullpen. David Newhan, playing right field, went after it at full speed. Hendricks, on the bullpen bench, stood up and tried to get out of the way, but he and Newhan collided and Newhan missed the catch. It was a very mild collision, nothing like what happened to Mets’ outfielders Cameron and Beltran a few weeks ago. Still, Newhan was lucky. Hendricks may sport gray hair, but he’s still straight-backed, broad-shouldered and solid as the brick wall at Wrigley. Crashing into him, even slightly, is cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

The sky was clearing by the time the security personnel told us folks hanging out at the dugout to go to back to our seats. By the time I reached my seat, up in the next to the last row of a third deck section between first and home, it was time for the sunscreen. I thought of the Bud Light commercial that "paid tribute" to "Mr. SPF-80 Sun-block-wearer" and his "Coconut-Scented Force Field." I was wearing only SPF-45…unscented. Others were donning similar stuff. White goo was definitely the order of the day in the third deck at the Coliseum.

Candlestick Park, where the SF Giants used to play until the 2000 season, had the reputation of being windy and cold. One season they gave out the Croix de Candlestick, a commemorative button for anyone who stuck it out until the end of an extra inning night game. Years ago, someone visiting Candlestick for the first time—I’m sorry, I don’t remember who it was—was aghast at the wind conditions. And this was during the day, before the wind really kicked up. He is reported to have said that if Willie Mays had played anywhere else, "The Say Hey Kid" would have hit 800 homers.

The Coliseum in Oakland is near enough to San Francisco Bay to receive the wind coming off the water. Opening Night 2004, which marked the first time I ever went to an Opening Night, was football weather, and the veteran fans were dressed for such, blankets and all. But game three of the Orioles series was a day game, and it was great to have the sun on my back. I had gotten chilled at the Monday night game, and I think a little fluid built up in my lungs. The Wednesday afternoon sun baked that out during the game. And the wind kept the sun from being oppressively hot. But that alternation of hot and cold is weird and may have contributed to the tiredness I felt at the end of the game. But, then too, the tiredness may have come from the energy I expended in openly rooting for the Orioles to complete their sweep of the A’s. No sense trying the scholarly dispassion bit I did in Game 1, when the nearest people to me were new parents who spent more time taking digital photos of their baby than they did watching the game. On Wednesday afternoon, there were more people around—two dollar admission will do that for a team—these folks were into the game, and a few of them were also rooting for the O’s.

Byrnes’ name was still warmly greeted when the Orioles’ lineup was announced. The strange thing today was that Daniel Cabrera was announced as the Orioles’ starting pitcher, but then suddenly it was announced that Eric DuBose would start instead. This caused a number of changes to the announced A’s line up. The PA guy announced three changes and said we’d get caught up on the rest later. It turned out that Cabrera felt back stiffness while warming up and was pulled at the last minute. (I wouldn’t find that out until I visited KPFA after the game and one of the guys in the newsroom told me). Du Bose would go on to baffle the A’s, new lineup and all.

Ever feel like you are carrying just too much to the ballpark? I have a small black shoulder bag with too many compartments that I take to park because it’s the smallest bag I own, but it allows me to carry money, ID, ATM card, train ticket, tissues, sunscreen, pencils and a pencil sharpener. Turns out that it also fits my radio and ear buds and that indoor, single use camera I now had not a single use for at the Coliseum. But I also had my now unnecessary sweatshirt, my clipboard with the scoresheets and the Eric Byrnes Pitch Count Report. And a cardboard tray containing two "dollar dogs" and a cup of soda for which there was no straw or lid. The report suffered a couple of small mustard stains early on as I tried the wolf down the "dollar dogs" before Byrnesie’s first plate appearance. I managed to get the report cleaned up in time. The mustard stains are very small and barely noticeable now.

I thought Byrnesie’s hitting slump was going to end in his first AB, when he ripped a line drive down the left field line. But instead of a double, all he had was a foul ball. As they say: "Baseball is a game of inches." Byrnes struck out.

Danny Haren, the young A’s pitcher, had a rough 2nd inning, and a rough 4th inning. Two runs on 4 hits each time. But the indicator that this was not his day came in the third, when it cost him 25 pitches to get a 1-2-3 inning. Ten of those pitches went to Eric Byrnes. Yeah, Byrnesie struck out again, but it was a good AB that contributed to the earliest exit Haren had had in quite a while.

(Danny Haren trivia: he came to the A’s from the St. Louis Cardinals in the deal that sent pitcher Mark Mulder, one of the A’s "Big Three," to the Cards. I think former A’s manager Tony La Russa, who now manages the Cardinals, keeps an eye out for any old A’s he can use. (Eckersley and McGwire finished out their careers in St. Louis). Anyway, Haren’s father was concerned about his son’s ability to adjust socially to the new team. Seems Danny’s a bit shy. So Danny’s dad asked Cardinal player John Gall to let his cousin on the A’s know that Danny’s a good kid, it just takes him time to warm up to a new situation. Gall relayed the message and Danny Haren was welcomed by, and became fast friends with, Gall’s cousin—Eric Byrnes).

Throughout the game, a small girl was sitting directly in front of me. She was maybe about four or five and quite fidgety. In the 5th inning, she turned around and stared at me, clearly wanting some acknowledgement of her existence. I usually try to be nice to such small fry, but "not now!" I thought. I was too busy nibbling on my clipboard, muttering "Ribbies, Ribbies Ribbies," and staring at home plate. Eric Byrnes was up with the bases loaded.

Justin "The Duke" Duchsherer was pitching. Byrnes took a ball. Then he took a strike. Then he hit a grounder to second for a double play.

But hey, there still was a bright side…sort of. Unlike the time in the first game when Byrnesie popped foul to the catcher with the bases loaded, this DP scored a run. No official RBI for Byrnes, but that run counted just as much as a run scored by a sac fly would have. Except that now there were two out instead of the one a sac fly would have created. But when a player is in a horrible batting slump, fans and teammates alike have to be grateful for small things.

Ultimately, the Birds won 5-3, completing the sweep.. Byrnes went 0-4 with 2 strikeouts and that double play. He had a quiet day in the field, making one put-out in the first inning. And by the time he came to bat in the 8th, the announcement of his name drew no special reaction from the crowd. At the end of the day, Eric Byrnes had become just another player on the other team.

Kéllia Ramares
Oakland, CA
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