Everbody Was Working for Last Weekend

And it wasn't too good to us, was it?

Actually, if you don't care about the Giants or Golden Bears, it wasn't half bad.

The Niners played an amazing defensive game to win in Cincinnati. The Raiders defense looked better than the Jets as they won at home. AND, most importantly, the A's took two of three from the Angels. One win even included a 4 run ninth inning rally off of Jordan Walden.

I'm sure Frankie will soon write a novel on how the Giants let this season slip away, so I won't touch upon their series down in the Desert. However, here's a snippet of what I believe was said in the dugout on Friday.

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Bochy: OK, so we have to sweep this series to have any hope of postseason play.

Assistant Coach #1: Right, so let's make sure we put our best team out there on the field.

Bochy, as eyelids start to droop: Right, Rags, who's throwing for us?

Rags: Cain, so we got a good shot at winning this one.

Bochy: Good. YAWN. Muellins, let's get our best lineup on the field.

Muellins: Look, Cain will only get 1 run of support no matter who we put out there, so let's go ragtag, it will look more awesome when we write the script for Moneyball 2: Sabey Sabes Strikes Back.

Bochy: (Grumbles as he starts crawling back into his cave for hibernation) We'll make everyone remember how we are still better than the A's.... So who we got?

Muellins: I thought we'd play three rookies, bat the two September callups leadoff and cleanup, and start a guy at third who hasn't played a full season since 2009.

Bochy: Gwarrrf.

...After the game...

Cain and Lincecum: Man, screw this, let's sign with Texas.

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And so it goes for the defending champions.

The A's, on the other hand, have indeed been on the upswing, and though it feels like they've been effectively out of the race since July first, at least they were able to play spoiler for the Angels.

The A's also got something of a lift from the release of the movie Moneyball. If you have not seen it yet, you should. It's the story of how Billy Beane was able to compete in 2002 with a payroll about 1/4 of the teams he needed to beat. It's more about him than the team, but it is a great movie, and captures so many baseball feelings. That feeling when you don't win the final game of the season. That emptiness of loss. That thrill of when you achieve something great. Watching it, I felt like I was 14 again, and listening to Bill King was the icing on the cake.

The thing the movie did best? It romanticized Oakland. I did not know that was possible. I am always proud to be an Oakland Athletics fan and a resident of Oakland, but the movie figured out a way to make those cranes beautiful, that monstrosity of a ballpark a gem, and Oakland's quest to win it all as noble as the Cubs. Well done Brad Pitt. Well done.

Hatteberg's HR to win the 20th

The Golden Bears also lost a tough one on Saturday. It was a tossup game, and I've replayed so many different things trying to figure out what went wrong. I thought Desmod Trufant was given way too much leeway with his hands on our receivers, but I bet that went both ways. I think the roughing the passer call in the 4th quarter was the the nail in the coffin. I think that if we're going to pound it up the middle from the two Anderson has to be the ball carrier. I think that if we're going to have a mobile quarterback it seems silly to not use those legs at the goal line.

I think that the Bears played a solid game, and really, it could have been a lot worse. There were too many mental errors to win that game on the road, and Washington is, no doubt, a good team. I think we can beat USC at home next Thursday, So I hope the team doesn't dwell on this loss too long, and instead prepares for what should be a very exciting Thursday night matchup.

Song: In 2002, this was the big hit, just like the A's were. Also, it is happening. Legends are made in October, so which will get hot and own the month?