on magic.

It’s still hard not to be romantic about baseball.

The most magical season of baseball that I have witnessed has come to a close, and the pain is still so searing that I don’t know if I can root for another team for the World Series this year. I won’t lie, I definitely cried my eyes out like a baby last night after the A’s went down 6-0 to Justin Verlander. However, despite my sadness, I am overflowing with gushing pride for the guys in green and gold.

photo via the sf chronicle

Seven months ago, I sat in the sweltering Arizona heat to watch the Oakland A’s warm-up for their game against the Cubs. It was Spring Training, and I couldn’t have known then that I was watching the 2012 AL West Champs playing practice ball.

On Opening Day, the lineup was nearly unrecognizable to the one just a few months prior, and the rest were very familiar faces only because they were River Cats last season, and I spent my summer fully invested in the Sacramento organization.

We weren’t supposed to be here in the first place. We proved to everyone that a little ball club with a low payroll can make big noise. The A’s held the AL West title for exactly one day, coming from being behind the big boys in Arlington who thought they had secured their place in the World Series for the third year in a row. This team, who has had trouble filling seats for years now, recorded four sellout crowds.

This team, MY team became the ones that even other team fans couldn’t help but tip their caps to.So thank you to the 2012 Athletics for this season, a season filled with pie, Bernie leaning and a whole lot of walk-off wins.

It’s hard to sum it up, so I’ll just leave it at: pure magic

– earthtocassie