Chronicle of my life as an A's fan

Since I've been old enough to go to games on my own I've tried to save all my ticket stubs, though I've certainly lost a few. Below is an incomplete list of games I've seen live

2000

This was the summer I turned 16 and thus the first summer my friends and I could go to games on our own. It was also a renaissance year for the A's, going 91-70 and winning the AL West for the first time since 1992, and Jason Giambi won MVP. Alas, they lost in the playoffs to the Yankees on the infamous Terrence Long misplayed flyball.

Players Added:

Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Scott Service, Jeff Tam, Jim Mecir, Mike Magnante

Terrence Long, Jeremy Giambi, Adam Piatt, Sal Fasano

Players Lost:

Kenny Rogers, Tom Candiotti, Mike Oquist, Jimmy Haynes, Billy Taylor, Buddy Groom, Tim Worrell, Brad Rigby

Scott Spiezio, Tim Raines, Mike Macfarlane, Tony Phillips

Games:

2001

I was gone for much of 2001 but I did catch at least four games. It was a strange season in retrospect, Johnny Damon was on the team, Jermaine Dye was acquired at the deadline, and Jose Ortiz was one of the hottest prospects in baseball. The A's went 102-60, which was only good enough for the wild card behind Seattle's 116 wins. Of course, September 11 overshadowed the end of the season, and the Giants got a lot more press that year as their steriod-laden leftfielder hit 73 HR. The season ended disastrously as the A's blew a 2-0 series lead against the Yankees with Dye breaking his fibula. Giambi then lost MVP to Ichiro and left for the Yankees.

Players Added:

Cory Lidle, Chad Bradford, Erik Hiljus, Mark Guthrie, Mike Fyhrie

Johnny Damon, Jermaine Dye, F.P. Santangelo, Greg Myers, Jose Ortiz, Ron Gant, Billy McMillon

Players Lost:

Kevin Appier, Ariel Prieto, Scott Service, T.J. Mathews, Doug Jones

Ben Grieve, Jose Ortiz, Mike Stanley, Ryan Christenson, Sal Fasano, A.J. Hinch, Ron Gant

Games:

2002

This was the year we graduated from high school so things were in transition, but the A's had the best regular season I've seen, going 103-59. Giambi left but Miguel Tejada won MVP and Barry Zito won the Cy Young. In August they had the 20 game winning streak which was the longest in about 80 years. College started around the time of the playoffs, though, and the A's played the Twins in the ALDS. In Game 5 Billy Koch gave up 3 runs in the 9th and the A's lost again.

Players Added:

Billy Koch, Ted Lilly, Aaron Harang, Ricardo Rincon, Mike Venafro, Mike Holtz, Micah Bowie

Mark Ellis, Scott Hatteberg, David Justice, Ray Durham, Eric Byrnes, John Mabry, Esteban German, Carlos Pena

Players Lost:

Jason Isringhausen, Gil Heredia, Luiz Vizcaino, Mark Guthrie

Jason Giambi, Johnny Damon, Jeremy Giambi, John Jaha, F.P. Santangelo, Carlos Pena

Games:

2003

I went to two games in the spring with friends from college who weren't previously A's fans. During the summer, the first after college, my high school friends and I worked at Big 5 Sporting Goods so we had lots of free time. The team had a somewhat disappointing season after 2002, but still finished 96-66 and won the AL West. After going up 2-0 on Boston in the playoffs though, the A's tragically collapsed again, thanks in part to Keith Foulke, who left for Boston after the season anyway. Miguel Tejada left as well, for what I still think is an amount the A's could have paid to keep him. The A's went 6-1 in the games I attended in 2003.

Players Added:

Rich Harden, Keith Foulke, Mike Neu, John Halama, Steve Sparks, Mike Wood, Jeremy Fikac

Jose Guillen, Erubiel Durazo, Adam Melhuse, Chris Singleton

Players Lost:

Cory Lidle, Billy Koch, Aaron Harang, Mike Magnante, Mike Venafro, Jeff Tam, Erik Hiljus, Mike Fyhrie, Mike Holtz

David Justice, Ray Durham, John Mabry, Greg Myers, Olmedo Saenz, Randy Velarde

Games:

2004

I spent this summer working at Tsunami Software (now IntApp). Since I was away from most of my friends during the week we did make it to a good number of games. This was the first year of no playoffs after 4 straight, the A's had a shot going into a final weekend series against Anaheim and couldn't get it done. Bobby Crosby did win Rookie of the Year, but it was a disappointing finish and in the offseason Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder were traded. The Mulder trade was definitely for the best, we got Dan Haren back and Mulder got shelled in three of the four games I saw him pitch in 2004.

Players Added:

Justin Duchsherer, Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes, Chris Hammond, Mark Redman, Justin Lehr

Mark Kotsay, Bobby Crosby, Marco Scutaro, Bobby Kielty, Damian Miller, Mark McLemore, Eric Karros, Ramon Castro, Mike Rose

Players Lost:

Keith Foulke, Ted Lilly, Mike Neu, John Halama, Micah Bowie, Chad Harville, Steve Sparks, Mike Wood, Jeremy Fikac

Miguel Tejada, Ramon Hernandez, Terrence Long, Jose Guillen, Chris Singleton, Frank Menechino

2005

Most of this summer was working with the FBI in Washington D.C. so I was gone for a while, but still caught a good number of games. I went to spring training, and also somewhat painfully organized a group of about 20 people in my dorm to go to a game. Expectations weren't as high for the team this year with Hudson and Mulder gone, and the team was 11 games behind the "Los Angeles" Angels in June, but the team still turned it around thanks to four rookies- Huston Street, Dan Johnson, Nick Swisher, Joe Blanton- all of whom could have been Rookie of the Year. Street won the award. They finished 7 games out at 88-74, though they were in it in the last week, 4 games out entering a four game homes series with the Angels. Unfortunately they lost three of those games, eerily similar to the year before.

Players Added:

Dan Haren, Huston Street, Joe Blanton, Kiko Calero, Kirk Saarloos, Jay Witasick, Juan Cruz, Keiichi Yabu, Seth Etherton, Ryan Glynn, Ron Flores

Nick Swisher, Jason Kendall, Dan Johnson, Jay Payton, Charles Thomas, Keith Ginter

Players Lost:

Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Chad Bradford, Jim Mecir, Arthur Rhodes, Chris Hammond, Mark Redman, Justin Lehr

Jermaine Dye, Eric Byrnes, Damian Miller, Billy McMillon, Esteban German, Mark McLemore, Eric Karros, Ramon Castro, Mike Rose

Games:

2006

I spent this summer in Seattle working for Microsoft, where I saw the A's come to town once. This was a good year for the A's, they rebounded from two seasons missing the playoffs to make them again, this time not choking down the stretch. The team was looking great when they swept Minnesota in the ALDS, I went to Game 3 and it was the most exciting sporting event I've seen. I was in Japan for most of the ALCS though, which may have cursed things (although I ended my research talk to about 200 foreigners with "Go A's"). Needless to say, a few pine tar enhanced pitches later and the A's were out of the playoffs, but it was still a good year.

Players Added:

Esteban Loaiza, Brad Halsey, Chad Gaudin

Frank Thomas, Milton Bradley, Antonio Perez, D'Angelo Jimenez, Mike Rouse

Players Lost:

Octavio Dotel, Ricardo Rincon, Juan Cruz, Keiichi Yabu, Seth Etherton, Ryan Glynn

Scott Hatteberg, Erubiel Durazo, Charles Thomas, Keith Ginter

Games:

2007

First summer of being "in the real world" at least to a certain extent. This was an incredibly disappointing year, in which almost the entire team was injured. Oh well, I got some good games in living in San Francisco.

Players Added:

Jay Marshall, Alan Embree, Santiago Casilla

Mike Piazza, Jack Cust, Shannon Stewart, Travis Buck, Kurt Suzuki, Todd Walker

Players Lost:

Barry Zito, Kirk Saarloos, Ron Flores, Esteban Loaiza, Joe Kennedy, Jay Witasick

Jason Kendall, Frank Thomas, Milton Bradley, Bobby Kielty, D'Angelo Jimenez, Mike Rouse, Shannon Stewart, Mike Piazza, Todd Walker

Games:

2008

Had no hopes for the team this year after all the trade, but they played above and beyond expectations and delivered some great moments early in the year. Then, I went to Senegal for the summer and they promptly tanked and traded the whole team, and I didn't really follow them after June which was a big change.

Players Added:

Dana Eveland, Greg Smith, Brad Ziegler, Keith Foulke, Joey Devine

Emil Brown, Frank Thomas, Jack Hannahan, Daric Barton, Ryan Sweeney, Carlos Gonzalez, Mike Sweeney, Rajai Davis, Gregorio Petit

Players Lost:

Dan Haren, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, Chad Gaudin

Nick Swisher, Marco Scutaro

Games: