At long last, this Oakland professional sports fan is in the midst of growing up and not getting too caught up in the fantasy world of pro sports.
When the Golden State Warriors lost in the NBA finals earlier this year in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers, I was devastated. For days, even weeks, I convinced myself that the NBA Finals were fixed and Lebron James was the reason for the fix. Upon listening to others talk about the Finals and re watching the highlights, it became clear to me that the series was not fixed.
The Cavilers, despite being down 3-1 and facing back to back championship loses to the Warriors, James and company got into the Warriors heads and won the final three games to seize the NBA championship. Draymond Green foolishly got himself suspended for game five, a massively needed defensive presence the Warriors, and then Stephen Curry stupidly got himself suspended for Game six. Back to back games in which the Warriors did not have their dynamic dual in the biggest series of their illustrious record breaking season.
This years NBA Finals made me much more of a sports fan, as opposed to just liking or watching only three teams, in my case the teams being the Oakland Raiders, Warriors and the Oakland Athletics. The colossal collapse of the Warriors in the NBA Finals showed me the light, expect nothing and just enjoy the competitiveness of each game.
My favorite baseball team, the Athletics are the worst team in professional sports, many experts claim it's the 1-10 San Francisco 49ers, but I say it's the A's. Billy Beane once the greatest General Manager in all of professional sports is complete joke now.
The Athletics most recent path to patheticism was getting rid of their two best offensive players, if not the teams best players in the last two years, Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes.
In 2015 Josh Donaldson was the American League MVP, and this year batted over .400 in the playoffs with a HR and amassed five RBIs. Last baseball season Donaldson batted .297 with 41 home runs and a 123 RBIs. In return, Brett Lawrie, who the A's got for Donaldson batted .260 last season with 16 HR and 60 RBIs. The A's also got right handed pitcher Kendall Graveman, lefty Sean Nolin and minor league shortstop Franklin Barreto for Donaldson
Right handed pitcher Graveman has given the A's two complete games in a little over 300 innings of work and an ERA of over .405. http://m.mlb.com/player/608665/kendall-graveman, Mean while lefty Nolin is no longer with the A's and when he was, he gave them a whopping 29 innings of work with a losing record and an ERA of .528. Short stop Barreto has yet to pitch in the majors, http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=620439#/career/R/hitting/2016/ALL so the Blue Jays are currently laughing at and thanking the A's immensely is my guess.
For Yoenis Cespedes, the A's got star pitcher Jon Lester from the Boston Red Sox,but because he remained awesome, the A's got rid of Lester after only ten games. In the ten games he played for the A's, Lester had a lofty .235 ERA and a winning record.
This year Lester pitched for the World Series champion Chicago Cubs. His ERA for the Cubs was .244 and he was 14 games over .500. http://m.mlb.com/player/452657/jon-lester Lester was 2-1 for the Cubs in the World Series, including the game seven winner with 2.02 ERA, great job dumping this pitcher Oakland! http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?id=lestejo01&t=p&post=1
In essence the A's got nothing for star player Cespedes, Jonny Gomes is no longer with the A's. When Gomes played for the A's in 2014, via the Cespedes trade, he played in 34 games with 0 HR, five RBIs, and batted .234. http://m.mlb.com/player/430404/jonny-gomes
Mean while Cespedes has 48 HR for the Mets since last season and batted .280 for the Mets this year with 31 dingers. The A's are clearly on a path to patheticism and at least with their current management, I know the team will continue to disappoint, no nail biting playoff games for the A's in the near future, that's for certain.
For us football and basketball Oak town fans, the future looks very bright. The Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals in 2015 and currently have the best record in the league. Next door to them is the Raiders who are 5-0 on the road, and currently leading their division with a 9-2 record.
I still expect nothing in the playoffs, if either the Warriors or Raiders win a championship this year, fantastic, but if not, so what, life goes on, but I really hope neither team gets blown out in the post season, that's all I demand from my emotions when it comes to sports.
I should take my own advice and follow more local youth sports. ysn365.com is the web place to go if your a Nor Cal person for local high school and college sports.
