It seems as though it was just a few weeks ago that I was sitting in the Coliseum with 20+ family members cringing as the A’s were dominated by the now overpaid Justin Verlander and the rest of the Tigers. It seemed a pretty anti-climatic way to end a season that was full of so many magical moments. Little did we know that one of the most meaningful moments would take shape after that painful loss when the sell-out Coliseum crowd slowly rose together and showered our team with chants of “Lets Go Oakland.” That moment, combined with Coco Crisp’s walk-off base hit the night before, were two of the greatest baseball moments I ever have been apart of. But enough of the magic that we had last year, lets see what our current A’s have in store for us this year.
To start we have an epic beard (Reddick), the Bernie is back (Coco and co.), and we might possibly have a Harry Potter look-a-like playing second base (Sogard). While we lost emotional team leaders in Johnny Gomes and Brandon Inge, we gained some valuable contributors such as Chris Young and Jed Lowrie. According to the experts, we were supposed to lose 100 games last year. And yet somehow we managed to build an young under dog squad that never quit. This year it appears that we’re better on paper, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into better results. With a good number of new pieces on the team, it will be up to some of the veterans to make sure everyone has their marching orders.
So with that, here is the starting lineup for tonight as well as a few videos below to get you juiced for the season. And you already know 38thNotes will be holding it down in the bleachers tonight, so grab a brew, hit the Bernie, and lets enjoy another amazing season.
- Coco Crisp CF
- John Jaso C
- Josh Reddick RF
- Yoenis Cespedes LF
- Jed Lowrie SS
- Brandon Moss 1B
- Josh Donaldson 3B
- Seth Smith DH
- Eric Sogard 2B
