It’s that time of year again, folks. It’s early October, MLB playoffs have just started, and the Oakland Athletics make their annual early postseason exit. Last night, the A’s hosted the wild card game against the shoestring budget Tampa Bay Rays, which meant that they could disappoint their fans in their own stadium. A barrage of Tampa Bay home runs combined with an anemic A’s offense meant that the Bay Area can look forward to another upcoming season full of undeserved hype AND yet another early playoff exit.
I loved reading that. The A’s have gotten so much press the past 20 years as the sexy AL team. First they started with the Moneyball Era – Hudson, Zito, Mulder. Giambi, Jermaine Dye, Eric Chavez. What did they accomplish? 4 straight Division Series losses.
And how have they finished out the 2010 decade? 3 straight wild card game losses.
Let’s take a look at their playoff chronicles since the year 2000:
2000 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the two time defending champion NY Yankees. No shame in this as this was the A’s first trip to the playoffs in the beginning of their Moneyball era.
2001 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the three time defending champion NY Yankees. This time, however, the A’s had a 2-0 lead going BACK to Oakland. As much as you could talk about never counting a champion out, the A’s thoroughly choked this one away.
2002 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the Minnesota Twins, the other AL playoff cannon fodder team of this century.
2003 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the Boston Red Sox in which AGAIN the A’s held a 2-0 lead and choked it all away.
2006 – Win Division Series, 3-0, against the Minnesota Twins. Lose ALCS 4-0 against the Detroit Tigers. If you look at the Twins playoff track record of this century, you’ll basically see the same thing: disappointment. This is like the recent Monday Night Football game between the 0-3 Bengals and the 0-3 Steelers. Somebody had to win.
2012 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the Detroit Tigers.
2013 – Lose Division Series, 3-2, against the Detroit Tigers. I just cut and pasted that last sentence.
2015 – Lose Wild Card Game, 9-8, against the Kansas City Royals in the 12th inning. Excruciating loss.
2018 – Lose Wild Card Game, 7-2, against the New York Yankees.
2019 – Lose Wild Card Game, 5-1, against the Tampa Bay Rays.
So there you have it. They lose to everybody in the playoffs except the Twins, and they’re 1-1 against them! And if you look at the Twins’ playoff record, you’ll see that they haven’t beaten anyone in the playoffs aside from the A’s!
No more undeserved accolades for the A’s, please. Do something in the playoffs one year besides disappointing your fans, before we waste another paragraph on how great they are, please. These guys are the TapA’s of the playoffs and it’s already time for them to tap out.
mruvula 