Boys of Late Summer Are on Fire in Oakland

Yeah. It’s the A’s. Again.

Another second-half renaissance. Another dust-to-contender summer. Another Billy Beane triumph. Can you stand it?

Up in the city by the City by the Bay, the Oakland Athletics have just turned a mortifying first half into the best 40-game romp in Oakland franchise history (33-7), a piece of derring-do that has them tied for the lead in the American League West with the Angels.

They’ve gotten a little stronger, a little more experienced and a little more confident, but really now, from 17-32 to juggernaut? In two months?

“It’s been a pleasant surprise,” said Beane, the general manager.

“Back then, I thought I probably had a competitive club. But they really have exceeded anything I would have expected.”

Bobby Crosby, after an opening-day injury killed his first two months, has firmed the defense and contributed -- .288 average, .357 on-base percentage from the three-hole -- offensively. Eric Chavez, a habitual second-halfer, since June 1 has pushed his average from .218 to .275, his home runs from four to 18 and his runs batted in from 23 to 68.

Barry Zito has won eight consecutive starts, and Rich Harden, whose stuff suggests Pedro Martinez in his prime, has won seven of nine decisions. Together, they’ve given up 33 earned runs in their last 130 2/3 innings, and rookie closer Huston Street has given up two earned runs in his last 22 appearances, over 30 2/3 innings.

There’s more, much more -- the acquisition of Jay Payton, for one, Nick Swisher’s development, for another -- but thematically, the explanation for the A’s charge might be found on the calendar. If it’s August, those must be the A’s.

“We have so many changes every year,” Beane said. “Maybe it takes a while for a club to create its own self-esteem. At least that’s what I attribute it to.”

Since the summer of 2001, according to Steve Vanderpool of Stats, LLC, the A’s have the best second-half record in baseball, at 216-101. Over the last 2 1/2 months of every season since, the A’s rank first in ERA, 3.51; first in opponents’ batting average, .243, and third in runs scored, 5.33.

As a result, they lead the game in most post-All-Star-game winning streaks of five (15), six (12) and seven (eight) games.

“It’s fun to sit back and watch them,” Beane said. “The credit goes to the players. As a group, in terms of them getting along, they’re maybe as good as we’ve ever had. Our veterans are only 29 and our rookies are 22, so there’s no real generation gap.”

The Angels and A’s play a three-game series beginning Tuesday in Oakland, and the division championship may come down to four games in Oakland in the season’s final week.

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Bats and Pieces

The Baltimore Orioles intended to honor Rafael Palmeiro’s 3,000-plus hits with a pregame ceremony Aug. 14 at Camden Yards, even after the positive steroid test.

Bad idea, and everybody knew it, including Palmeiro, who saved them the collar-tugging few minutes of standing by their man and rolling the videotape.

The Texas Rangers were to have honored their beloved Raffy, who served a decade in Arlington over two separate Palm-eras, with a short video tribute this weekend. He wasn’t able to make it.

More than half of Palmeiro’s 3,018 hits were as a Ranger. Most of his first five seasons in Texas were spent before Jose Canseco arrived, all of the second five years post-Canseco, with five years in Baltimore in between.

In his first Texas go-round, Palmeiro hit 107 home runs. In his second, which began when he was 35 years old, he hit 214. The Rangers should honor the Orioles’ hitting coach instead.

Ranger management was spared having to have Raffy Appreciation Night, as the man of the hour is serving his suspension for falling face-first into baseball’s steroid mess.

The Orioles won’t get off as easy, unless Palmeiro makes the very wise decision to pull his cap down low, take his position and hope nobody notices.

Then again, the Rangers aren’t done with this, either. The Orioles return to Arlington in mid-September, presumably with Palmeiro in tow, and the Rangers already are in possession of a clip showing his 3,000th hit.

“We haven’t talked about that yet,” a team official said. “It depends. What more do we learn in a month?”

Whether the Colorado Rockies like it or not, they have Larry Bigbie in the middle of their order.

The 21st overall pick in the 1999 draft, Bigbie arrived in Baltimore two years later as the stud of the future, yet is just now working on his first full season in the big leagues.

The Orioles traded him late last week to the Rockies for outfielder Eric Byrnes, and considering Bigbie’s up-and-down time in Baltimore, he could be excused for believing he’d come to an organization that really believed in him.

Not so fast.

Turns out, the Rockies had made the trade with the Orioles only because they’d had a prior agreement to bounce him to the Boston Red Sox. Then, swamped by the Manny Ramirez circus, the Red Sox backed out on the deal, claiming they’d never received ownership approval to send outfielder Adam Stern and triple-A catcher Kelly Shoppach for Bigbie.

Leaving the Rockies with Bigbie and more than a little resentment.

Rocky owner Charlie Monfort threatened to go to Bud Selig, and the Red Sox offered to cover half the cash the Rockies sent to Baltimore in the Bigbie trade, or about $75,000.

The issue has quieted since, but Monfort told the Denver Post last week, “World champions? If that’s what it takes to be a world champion, then people are right, we may never be one, because we don’t operate and treat other organizations like that.”

Right. The Rockies finally have their excuse.

Pretty cool week if you like your pitchers young and strong.

Boston right-hander Jon Papelbon, 24, stepped into the Manny fray last weekend at Fenway Park, and the Nation swooned over his rising fastball and vague resemblance (6 feet 4, 230) to Roger Clemens.

And Seattle right-hander Felix Hernandez, at 19 the game’s youngest starter in 27 years, gave up one earned run in five innings against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. His fastball reached 97 mph.

If the hype wasn’t enough for you, Mariner catcher Wiki Gonzalez takes you the rest of the way. He called it “the first game of a possible future Hall of Famer.”

Adam Eaton returned to the San Diego Padre pitching staff last week, but as a reliever. Recovering from a finger injury that caused him to miss six weeks, Eaton, who was 9-2 after 14 starts, pitched in blowout wins over Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Thursday.

The Padres expect to have Eaton back in the rotation in the next week.

The Dodgers must find a way to post all of the out-of-town scores all the time at Dodger Stadium. As it is, during players’ at-bats, operators list the National League scores on the left-field scoreboard and that batter’s previous plate appearances on the right-field board. They flash the AL scores between at-bats, which isn’t very long.

Gary Sheffield, in a New York magazine article, on Derek Jeter’s leadership: “I know who the leader is on this team. I ain’t going to say who it is, but I know who it is. I know who the team feeds off. I know who the opposing team comes in knowing they have to defend to stop the Yankees.”

Uh, is it, wait, um, Gary Sheffield?

“Why shouldn’t I tell the truth?” he reportedly asks. “I ain’t trying to get no Pepsi commercial.”

Perfect timing for the Yankees, who awoke Friday morning 4 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the AL East, three behind the A’s in the wild-card standings, their pitching staff a shambles.

By Friday afternoon, Sheffield was claiming to have been misunderstood, something he’d perhaps covered in the magazine piece.

“It happens because you’re white and I’m black,” Sheffield told New York magazine. “My interpretation of things is different. You don’t see it the way I see it. You write how you understand it, how you would articulate it, not how I, as a black man, would articulate it.”

The first list of potential replacements for Dusty Baker, courtesy of Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune: Grady Little, Bob Brenly, Joe Girardi.

Little is a roving catching instructor in the Cub organization, Brenly is an analyst on Cub television, and Girardi is Joe Torre’s bench coach and, as believed in some circles, potentially the next Yankee manager.

By the way, the spittle had barely dried from Baker’s I-have-no-interest-in-L.A.-where-do-these-things-come-from rant when rumors surfaced that he also wouldn’t mind managing in Oakland, where Ken Macha is in the final year of his contract, or Washington, which the Washington Times reported Saturday.