Notes From The Nat

If you’ve never seen the SB Nation corner of the web devoted to the LosAngeles Angels of Anaheim, Disneyland, California, United States ofAmerica (sometimes shortened to LAAADCUSA, other times shortened toHAHAHA), Halos’ Heaven, you’re not missing much.

When the admin isn’t banning people who disagree with him, he’sdeleting posts that make fun of him, changing diaries that other peopleposted, changing polls, and editing his own posts to make himself looksmarter after the fact, you have to suffer through endless reams ofdata about why Darin Erstad is worth having on a baseball field despitehis tendency to end the season with an OBP barely breaking .300.

But today I witnessed the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. Itstarted with the site admin pointing his users to an article on thesatirical website, The Onion, entitled "Ichiro: ‘The Best Part AboutPlaying For My Country Was Not Playing For The Seattle Mariners’"

A sample:

"SAN DIEGO?In an interview following Japan’s 10-6 victory against Cuba in the World Baseball Classicchampionship game Monday, Ichiro Suzuki called the tournament a "greatopportunity to represent anything besides the Seattle Mariners.""Playing alongside my countrymen on the world stage was nice, but thehighlight of the event for me was not having to watch helplessly fromthe on-deck circle as [Seattle outfielder] Willie Bloomquist pops outfor the fourth time in one game," said Ichiro, who has beencontemplating a return to his non-Mariner roots since late 2003."Honestly, I would have played for the Netherlands team if it meant 17days away from the Mariners spring-training camp."

Now, that’s pretty funny, though not as funny as The Onion usuallymanages.

Well, here’s the first response by an Angels fan on HalosHeaven:

Ichiro??

I’ve never heard of "Onion Sports" before Rev, but it’s hard to believeIchiro said these things. I mean, I don’t blame him for being sick ofplaying for a losing team, but he’s always seemed like a prettysoft-spoken guy. A professional who keeps his mouth shut and does hisjob.

In addition those comments are very much like a spoiled Americanathlete speaking and VERY un-Japanese. For those of us who knowanything about the culture and mores of the Japanese it is verysurprising to hear that. It makes me think that something BIG must havehappened behind the scenes — the Mariners must have insulted Ichiro ina big way to cause him to do that. What’s the real story here? Wasthere some conflict about him playing in the classic? - Jack Frost

Wheeeeeeeeee! Is there anything more satisfying than findingirrefutable evidence to back up the long held belief that the dumbestfans in all of baseball support a team that employs a monkey toencourage people to pay attention, while claiming to be a part of acity that is, in actuality, home to another team?

I’m going to start a petition that they should change their team nameto Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Hollywood And Halos, America. Thatway we could change their abbreviation to LAAAHAHA.

2004 Vancouver Canadiansoutfielder, Javier Herrera, who had been pounding the heck out of theball in Winter Leagues and spring training, reported to A’s physiciansthat he was feeling a twinge in his throwing elbow, and the prognosisisn’t good.

Baseball America has the details:

Athletics outfield prospect Javier Herrera will likely miss theentire season after being diagnosed with an injured elbow ligament thatwill require Tommy John surgery. Herrera, the organization’s No. 2prospect, was sent to the minors after a stint in big league camp.After reporting to the minor league camp, he reported pain in hiselbow. Dr Doug Freedberg in Phoenix confirmed the injury and toldHerrera that he would need reconstructive elbow surgery.

Not. Good. But then, Herrera is only 20 years old, so he’s got plentyof time to get things back on track. The big question will be, however,will this surgery take away one of his five tools?

What the injury means for Oakland’s AAA depth is another big question.Whereas the A’s have ample outfield depth in the majors right now, withBradley, Payton, Kotsay, Swisher and Kielty able to patrol theoutfield, after that it gets a little weak. ‘Two Buck’ Chuck Watson isdoing okay in spring training, though he looks likely to end up a AAAAcaliber player more than a real contributor to the big squad, andformer C’s outfielders Danny Putnam, Richie Robnett and Travis Buck areprogressing through the system pretty well, albeit a level or two belowwhat they’d want to be in order to be potential call-ups for thisseason.

Bottom line - it could be worse. But it could also be a lot better…

Sorry about the week off, but I’m in the midst of a rather largefreelance contract and had to go interviewing people all over hell’shalf-acre (IE: the USA).

In the last week I’ve been in Seattle, San Jose, Austin and Dallas -next week I’m back in Seattle, then down to Petaluma, then the Bay Areafor a few exhibition games and the A’s home opener vs the Yankees, thenhome. And a few weeks after that I’m off again - this time to Florida,Houston, Minnesota and possibly New Jersey.

The moral of this story is, never ever agree to write a book without the client agreeing to cover all travel expenses. Yikes!

There’ll be plenty of updates in the coming days, then a week of quiet,and then we’ll be back into the thick of things as the C’s seasonapproaches.

Stay tuned, and if you’re gonna be in Oaktown on the 3rd ofnext month, drop me a note. You can buy me a beer. Heh.

The University of British Columbia, Nat Bailey Stadium’s springtime tenants, went on a shooting rampage that would leave Dick Cheney envious this weekend when they exploded on the Eastern Oregon University, beating them 15-0 and 19-4 in a double-header in which the Mountaineers managed only 9 hits across 14 innings.

In the first game of the day, UBC starter Shawn Schaefer gave up only one hit and one walk over 6 innings, with Tim Henderson pitching a perfect 7th to end the game. 1st baseman Connor Janes hit a 2-run homer in the 5th to start the onslaught in what turned out to be a 9 run inning. DH Steve Bell-Irving went 3-4, while CF Tyler Willson went 3-5 in support.

In the second game, UBC managed a whopping 11 runs in just the 5th inning alone, including a grand slam to catcher Brendan Kornberger, and a 3-run dinger to perrenial home run threat, Connor Janes. SS Davey Wallace went 5-6 hitting in the #9 spot, while lead-off man and second baseman Mark Capone went 4-7, equaling the school record for most at bats in a game. Brendan Rolfe, Dave Pasquali, Brad Ashman, and Joey Benda each pitched a perfect inning to close the game down after starter Doug Grant gave up four early.

Earlier in the week, UBC drilled Albertson in four games, beating them 7-1, 11-6, 2-1 and 8-5. Shawn Schaefer pitched a 7-inning complete game in the 2-1 victory, while Jeff Tobin pitched 6 scorless innings, striking out 7 and walking nobody in the third game of the series. Brad Ashman, who was getting clobbered early in the season, scored the final win with 2 2/3 innings of one-hit ball, making him equal with Jeff Francis as UBC’s most winningest pitcher.

UBC rolls into their next series with a 3-0 regular season record in region I play, and a 4-0 record in the NORPAC standings. In fact, the TBirds are looking so strong right now that a certain school that will remain nameless actually DUCKED them last week, reasoning that they had a chance at playing a high profile school who was touring around the same time… Cowards.

UBC starts their home season at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday March 18th (yes, that’s this coming Saturday), and I won’t be there. Unfortunately it conflicts with the South By Southwest Film and Music Festival, which I get to every year in Austin Texas, but I’ll be back in town for game 2 on the 21st and 22nd against the usually mighty Lewis and Clark State.

Oh, and did I mention I’ll be in Oakland on opening day against the Yankees?

Suh-weet…