Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all the readers and writers of SOS.

I’ve got a Christmas wish list for a few Bay Area teams, and for MLB and the NFL as well. It’s an ambitious list, but if you don’t ask, you don’t receive. If Santa can’t come up with the items on my list this year, then I’ll have to patiently wait for some of the items next year. I can’t imagine even finding one tenth of this list under the tree this year. In this economy, even Santa can’t afford all the items I’m hoping for.

My list spills over into the NFL because my sports needs exceed just baseball. All hungry sports fans have more than one team and one sport. Here’s what I sent to the Santa of sports:

1.  A true power hitter for the Oakland A’s

(The team didn’t re-sign their leading hitter Jack Cust: 25HR in ‘09)

2.  A proven starting shortstop in Oakland

(2004 ROY Bobby Crosby finally got out and landed in Pittsburgh.)

3.  A new baseball stadium in Oakland by 2014

(The city of Oakland presented three new options to the team in early December. Two of the three                sites have promise and make sense.)

4.  A new head physical trainer for the Oakland A’s

(Players on the DL for a record number of times in three consecutive seasons?)

5.  Another Cy Young year for Tim “The Freak” Lincecum

(Watching that kind of talent in any sport is a real treat.)

6.  A World Series in October, not November

(Or is this an excuse to sell those hats with the pull-down flaps?)

7.  Earlier start times for west coast MLB play-off games

(No one watches baseball at 1:00 a.m. EST on a school night.)

8.  A playoff appearance from either the A’s, the 49ers, the Giants, or the Raiders

(In that order. I’m starved for local post-season action.)

Now for the NFL, I’d like…

9. A bona fide starting quarterback who can continue with the legacy of             past 49er legends

(Alex Smith is now officially a dud. Please don’t pick a QB in the                      first-round.)

10. A real starting quarterback for the Raiders who takes it seriously

(Those #2 jerseys look awfully silly now, don’t they?)

11.  New ownership for the Raiders who is aware of today’s date

(Dramatically younger but with the same visionary attitude as the old              man had 40 years ago.)

12.  One more Bay Area “dynasty” team

(The Bill Walsh era was so long ago it’s hard to remember, and John Madden just retired for good.)

13.  The NFL to stop the ridiculous practice of blacking out home games in local markets—like Oakland

(Since when was alienating your fan base and denying your product to the public a good thing?)

And last, but not least…

14.  Another year of success and growth with StudyofSports.com

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm and is filed under AL, AL-West, Baseball, Oakland Athletics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.