The Oakland A's are easily my favorite team among the eight teams that qualified for the playoffs this season. The biggest reason is that Frank Thomas bats clean-up for the A's. I was so happy this afternoon as I followed along during Oakland's
3-2 win over the Twins. Thomas hit a pair of solo home runs, one in the second and one in the ninth, that proved the difference in the game. The ninth-inning home run gave the A's a 3-1 lead and provided the cushion that Oakland closer Huston Street needed in the bottom of the ninth.
I want Thomas to have a great time of it in the playoffs this year. He wasn't able to play for the White Sox last postseason, and too many people focus solely on his struggles in the 2000 American League Division Series loss to the Seattle Mariners (0-for-9 with four walks) and forget what he did in the 1993 AL Championship Series (.353/.593/.529 with 10 walks). I want him to have the chance to squelch the nonsense talk that the White Sox won last year becaue he wasn't playing. The 2005 Sox had their best offensive stretch of the season when Thomas played. As for the team's past failures, it sure as hell wasn't Frank Thomas's fault that the White Sox employed a manager like Terry Bevington during some of Thomas's most productive years in the mid-1990s or that the team ran through an awful collection of fifth starters in 2003 that killed their chances to overtake the Twins.
Speaking of Minnesota, that's another good reason to root for the A's. I liked the Twins fans that I met in Minneapolis when I went there in 2004, but the Twins fans who come to the Cell are a different breed: loud, obnoxious, cocky. I told a friend who grew up in the Boston area and loves the Red Sox that I would root for any team against the Twins, including the Yankees. I'm sure he wasn't too happy to read that in an email from me, but that's how much I dislike Twins fans. I have a fairly positive view of the Yankees, actually, as I really enjoyed the three games I saw at Yankee Stadium last year. The fans there were outstanding -- friendly, good baseball fans who were a lot more welcoming of a guy walking around in a White Sox jersey and cap than I expected. I probably would still root for the Tigers against the Yankees if I thought the Tigers had a prayer of winning that series. I found most of the Tigers fans who came to the Cell this year to be good fans, fun to be around and not obnoxious. I wish I had more optimism for their chances, but Tuesday night's
8-4 win by the Yankees is what I expect this series to look like.
In the National League, I'm rooting for the San Diego Padres. For one, the Padres have never won the World Series, while the other three NL playoff teams all won the Series in the 1980s. Two, I met some great Padres fans through Baseball Think Factory about a year and a half ago, and I'd love to see their team deliver for them the way the Sox delivered for us last year. Well, unless the Padres play Frank Thomas and the A's. The Padres
dropped the first game of their series against St. Louis, 5-1. I have nothing against the Los Angels Dodgers or Cardinals. I have nothing for them, either, although I do enjoy watching Greg Maddux and Albert Pujols. As for the New York Mets, I don't really have anything against them, either, and they even employ one of my favorite former White Sox, Orland "El Duque" Hernández (who
injured his calf Tuesday and may miss his expected start in Wednesday's series opener). The only thing is, I know a Mets fan who would never stop talking about it if the Mets won, so I'll be rooting against them. Unless they face the Twins.