some archived audio clips featuring:

● jason kendall
● barry zito
● nick swisher
● eric byrnes; x2

just in case you're living in a cave ...macha is officially gone. that blog cracks me up, by the way. and this one is just as good of a read:

what can $120 million buy?

1. a 3rd place finish (behind a mediocre team)
2. AIDS
3. the most overrated prospects in the history of this universe
4. a bunch of loud mouthed bitches who don't own up to their own worthlessness (you know who you are curt schilling, varitek, jon lester and peter gammons).

The one of Barry is the most depressing for obvious reasons.

pre-game and game pictures for alcs games two, three and four. these are my favorite set so far, despite the sweep. there are a few really nice pre-game candids and i love the batting helmet picture. be honest, how many of you were absolutely cringing when they brought street in? so depressing. ah well, there's always next year i suppose =) i have some more from other sources to post and i'll get to them in a little while.

includes oakland rally day, alds pre-game one, alds game one, alds pre-game two, alds game two, alds pre-game three, game three, oakland workout day, alcs pre-game one, alcs game one - in that order.

break out the champagne, kids ...we're going to the alcs! i have a paper to write, but as soon as i get done with it, i'm going to take plenty of screen caps of the game and edit them into this post.

by the way, i rescind my comment to cookie2697 ...i'm so bummed you didn't get to see the game four though!

edit at 6:05 a.m.: okay, all done, finally. i hope you guys enjoy them =) they certainly took long enough and i'm hoping this will make up for the lack of material i normally have to contribute lol this is a huge post and is not dial-up friendly whatsoever. if that's a problem for anyone, let me know and i'll split them into two separate posts. and for the love of god, please, please, please ask me before re-distributing these anywhere. they took forever to make and i'd really rather not see them popping up all over the place.

• Cover story on Swish. I thought this piece was kind of a snore, but YMMV.
  
• Indepth piece on Kirk Saarloos: "My personality fits in great here...I love my job and I enjoy what I do, but I like to have fun doing it. And in this organization, they don't try and cookie-cut you; they allow you to be what you are."
  
• Leading Off: randomness on Blanton, Harden, Big Frank, and Bradley. A thing on where the guys like to hang out when they're home. Jay Witasick's answer slays me.
  
• He Said/She Said/He Said with Bobby Crosby, his girlfriend, and Adam Melhuse. Is it me or does Bobby's girl kinda look like Tinkerbell?
  
• Cool piece on Kendall and the mechanics of calling an inning. I really recommend this.
  
• Neat piece on the A's audio engineer and the relationship between the A's clubhouse and music.
  
• Dinner on the Diamond photos: notable because we finally see what Dan's Jess looks like. Also, I continue to have a crush on Jamie Kotsay, for no conceivable reason.

in honor of the alds, there's a new layout in the community. speaking of which, how many of you lucky bastards are going to attend/have attended a playoff game? also, for those that aren't aware yet, barry zito is maintaining a post-season blog over here.

i know everyone has already seen these, but i have a terrible time loading mlb.com photo galleries (yay for dial-up), so i'm going to archive them in here. besides, clubhouse celebration photos never get old.