Showing posts with label Oakland A's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oakland A's. Show all posts

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Remembering Loma Prieta Earthquake, October 17, 1989

Today is the 24th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area. Epicenter was in Santa Cruz, California. As I tweeted earlier this morning, my longtime and dear friend Jeff drove me to San Francisco International Airport on a flight to visit family and friends in Columbus.

I've copied from George Kelly (@allaboutgeorge on Twitter) a series of tweets from other Tweeters, including mine, of their memories on this date. I was fortunate not to have felt it, but will never forget the impact it had on everyone else living in the area.

As extensive as the damage was to much of the Bay Area, it could have been a lot worse. The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's were set to play in a first-ever Bay Bridge World Series and traffic was light that day because many were preparing to watch the game.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Moneyball


image source: imdb.com

Over the weekend, I finally got to see "Moneyball" online through my cable provider. As described in imdb.com's summary of the movie, "Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players." 

This analysis is the foundation of SABR, which stands for Society for American Baseball Research, or better known as sabermetrics. Until I saw this movie, I underestimated its impact on how today's baseball game is managed as a business. If you're a baseball fan and haven't seen the film, I strongly recommend it.

Here's a YouTube clip from the movie which summarizes what the Oakland A's achieved in the 2002 season.


(note: the actor portraying Boston Red Sox owner John W. Henry in this scene is Arliss Howard.  Mr. Howard is married to Debra Winger).