The A’s win the West. AGAIN!

Posted on September 23, 2013

Kurt Suzuki #22 and Jarrod Parker #11 of the Oakland Athletics celebrate with champagne in the clubhouse after the A’s defeated the Minnesota Twins 11-7 to clinch the American League Western Division title at O.co Coliseum on Sunday, September 22, 2013 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Yesterday afternoon’s baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum was what fall baseball is all about. Bright sunshine, long shadows, big crowds and flowing champagne ruled the day as the A’s pounded the truly awful Twins 11-7 and clinched their second straight American League West title. Although there wasn’t as much drama and excitement at the Coliseum as last year when the A’s beat Texas in game #162 to clinch the title, it was a great day for the A’s organization and their loyal fans.

The A’s have been running away with the division for a few weeks now, so it was only a matter of when they would clinch. Since Yesterday was the last home game of the regular season everyone was hoping they would do it by then, and thanks to several A’s wins, and multiple Rangers losses everything came together yesterday afternoon at 4:11pm PDT in Oakland.

The Magic Number yesterday was 1, meaning the A’s would clinch if they won, or if the Rangers lost their game in Kansas City against the Royals. The Rangers game started two hours earlier at 11:05am PDT, and by the time the A’s and Twins got going under gorgeous blue skies the game in Kansas City was knotted up 0-0 in the late innings. Our game was in the third inning when the A’s fans let out a roar that had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. The out-of-town hand-operated scoreboard in left field said the Rangers were tied 0-0 in the 10th inning, but that roar only meant one thing. The Royals had won, the Rangers had lost, and the A’s were division champs.

The Coliseum really went nuts when the JumboTron showed the highlights of the Royals win in the middle of the third inning and the scoreboard posted the 4-0 final score in the Royals favor. It was a strange moment at the ballpark. The A’s congratulated each other in their dugout, but there was still a game to play- and they did not want to show up their opponent in the middle of the contest. I have covered dozens of clinches over the years but this is the first one I have shot that was decided before the game was over. I was hoping this would not happen. I wanted the Rangers to win so the A’s would not officially be champs till they beat the Twins. I had no doubt the A’s would win- the Twins have been mailing it in for the past few weeks and look dreadful.

The remainder of the game became two hours of garbage time in pretty light as the A’s pounded the ball against awful Twins pitching and held on with Evan Scribner pitching the top of the 9th inning. My worst fears materialized when the game ended and the on field celebration looked just a few notches more exciting than a regular season win on a Tuesday night in June. I knew the post-game jubilation stuff on the field would not be as good as what we got from Grant Balfour last season, but I hoped it would be decent. I put myself inside first base looking up the third base line right at the A’s terrific third baseman Josh Donaldson. I was hoping he would go nuts and jump in the air. I was wrong. The A’s ball club quickly became a scrum of gold jerseys on the infield being covered up by officially licensed MLB t-shirts. This was my cue to get my special champagne-proof camera ready and head inside the A’s clubhouse to try and get some good stuff in there.

Once I got in the cramped clubhouse I waited for all the players to come up the stairs from the field. Then it hit me. There was no veteran to tell the young kids how to celebrate! Last year it was Jonny Gomes who took charge and organized all the fun for his teammates- both in the clubhouse and on the field. This years version of the A’s stood around holding full bottles of bubbly not sure what to do. Some went outside to celebrate with fans and others stayed in. It took several moments of awkward standing around before some of the guys started popping corks and spraying each other. This is what I needed. After several miserable attempts at making good champagne pictures years ago I have finally become comfortable in situations like this. I am the worlds worst flash photographer and only use my strobe when I am shooting locker room mob scenes like this- but I have finally got my exposures and everything dialed in. My main goal is to protect my cameras. I gave up on trying to keep myself dry. I always get soaked!

By the time I left the ballpark I felt good about my pictures and good about Bay Area baseball. The Giants season will be over in a few days, but thanks to the A’s I will have a few home playoff games to shoot. Hopefully more than a few!