Yesterday was the season opener day for the Oakland A's, as most of
other teams, in the 2006 MLB. And it was also the day for NCAA
Basketball Championship game.

I stayed home for the day, trying to recover from my cold/allergy I
have been sufferring since my last business trip. But, it was more likely
to be my day off, good thing about working in this company, my
vacation days seem to reach the cap all the time, that 24 vacation
days per year are hard to take.

First, things do not go with plan. Ethan was supposed to go to school,
but I really felt that he would love to stay home, too. Also, I would like
to find out why he had been asking for not going to school in the past
few weeks. So, he was staying. That changed my plan. In that
regards, for a pre-schooler, he could enjoy the flexibility at this stage
of his life, which he is not going to enjoy after getting to the
kindergarten. That's as much as I would go into in that subject.

10:10am, the first game of the day was on. New York Mets v.s.
Washington Nationals. Tommy Glavine was piching the season
opener, just because Pedro Martinez injured his toe, for the Mets, and
Livan Hernandez was pitching for the Nationals. The game went
toe-to-toe through out the whole 9 innings, featuring good pitching,
good base-running, good fielding, especially the great relay by Jose
Reyes to the home plate, where Paul Lo Duca blocked the plate
perfectly and applied the perfect tag to get Soriano. It was also a
game that might have defined by the umpire. Lo Duca actually juggled
the ball, and might even dropped it after applying the tag. However, a
great player just know how to sell it to the umpire. It was a good
showing of the gamemanship in baseball. At the 9th inning, the score
was 3-2 Mets, and the new closer Billy Wagner entered the game, and
closed out the game. Mets might have found what they need for the
team, plus another new comer Xaview Nady went 4 for 4, providing
Mets' the depth they would need for contending.

Too many good games to talk about, but it was not the story. I played
with Ethan for a few hours, building his Lego airplane, playing the paper
airplane, and finally he was ready to play by himself. The sports
sessions on the newspaper was talking about how great this Oakland
A's is. How many analysists are talking about A's is going to win the
world championships. What need to go right for them and what could
go wrong for them. Good article. Checking the weather to see
whether I could take Ethan out to play in the park, I read that it would
be raining today. Hum, it could be the first rain out in the history for
the A's home opener, at least as far as I can recall.

Ethan and I went downstair when he finally complained about hungry.
Ethan helped me to cook a couple dishes and we had a great lunch.
He was in good mood, even using his milk to do finger painting on the
table. Luckily, we have a glass top table that could be cleaned up
easily. By the time we finished, Ehan was pretty much ready for his
nap.

Time to catch up with the NCAA reports. I saw a picture of Yannick
Noah on the newspaper today, sitting with the Florida fans. Question
mark raised in my mind. What did the tennis player, an ex-French
open champion, have anything to do with NCAA basketball game?
The title of that article "Apples Fall, Trees Remain; 3 Gators Have
Genes to Thank". After reading the article, I realized Noah's son was
that weird looking, out-spoken, Joakim Noah, the Florida star center.
Outside Noah, the fellow sophomores Taurean Green, and Al Horford,
both are son of ex-NBA players. The ESPN analysist on the TV was
saying that if Florida players start to make their three point shots, it is
going to be the end for the UCLA.

Time flies, after writting couple articles, or three on my blog, Mei-Mei's
voice showed up at home. It was 5:30pm. So much for my day off.
The game was almost on. I played with Mei-Mei, chatted with Tina and
Ethan woke up, after his long-long nap. After a normal chaos, we
ended up in the family, not in the playroom. I just ignored everything
and turned on the TV. The game was on. After exchanged couple
baskets, Florida started to show their range. A 6-6 game suddenly
was 11-6. Noah made a impressive block down low. He was
obvisouly stronger and more athletic than those UCLA players could
imagine. UCLA was no match to the Florida team. In my mind,
the game was over.

7:00pm, Tina asked me whether there was a game tonight? I looked
outside the window, and it was not raining! The rain dares not to drop.
First pitch of the New York Yankees v.s. Oakland A's.

I said to Tina that this was not going to be fun. With all the hypes
going to the season, and we are playing the rediculously loaded New
York Yankees, who just stole Johnny Damon, an ex-A's, from their
rival Red Soxs, to fill up their hole in lead-off spot and center field in the
first game of the season. We are very loyal to A's these years.
Living here in East Bay, A's is part of our lives. Back in 1991, A's payroll
was $33.6 million, among the top half of the major league teams,
which was the trend of the team in their 1989-1995 period. In
1996, the payroll dropped to $19.4 million, and stayed low, while
other teams' payroll kept going up with the explosion of the TV and
radio right. With the additions of Milton Bradley, Frank Thomas, and
Estenban Loaiza, plus the late comer last season Jay Payton, A's is
going to be a contender. I am going to write a lot of A's, at least in
one of my blog sites. So, today, I would like to bring up a different
angle.

The most important thing for me, as a A's fan, is not the outcome of
the season, but how to enjoy the game, from TV, even limited,
from Radio, which keeps my driving home fun, or from the newspaper.
There is almost nothing you can predict in baseball game. A's escaped
the first inning, thanks for Barry Zito's 90-mph fast ball, by striking out
the another ex-A's Jason Giambi. In the 2nd inning, Alex Rodriguez hit
a grand slam. And Zito, the ex-Cy Young winner, was out of the
game. I did not follow the game closely enough, but it was 15-2
Yankees at the end of the game. I believe in baseball as part of the
life, winning or losing a game is no big deal.

What caught my attention was how much the broadcasters were
talking about Bill King, the deceased Oakland A's broadcaster. For one,
the game was out of reach, with Randy Johnson pitching. For two,
for most A's fans, listening to the radio is a big thing for them. People
like me, tuning into A's game is a great treat sitting in the notorious
bay area traffic. King's voice has been our companion for all the time
A's has been in Oakland. Kings died last year after the complication
from his hip surgery. Bill was one of those people really enjoyed
being on the air. He talked seriously, he talked jokes. He traveled
with A's in every single game. In the A's seasoning opening, the team
dedicated the booth to King, by putting the sign hinged to the
stadium fascade featuriing a microphone and King's signature "Holy
Toledo". The booth is named "Bill King Radio Booth" after him. I
remember last year, when A's was trying to find another signature
personnel for their last bobble head day, and did a survey. The
outcome surprised many people. King was the top candidate, and
A's did honor the survey and made 10,000 Bill King bobbleheads and
gave them away as a promotional gift.

Bill King, a man who described himself as distinctive rapid-fire style,
has connected with generations of local sports fans. The bobblehead
featured his handlebar mustache, but it was just part of him. His wide
range of interests created his trademark "Holy Toledo" exclamation
that was used to punctuate exciting plays. He was linked to the
1974-1975 Golden State Warriors. His voice will be forever linked to
A's three straight World Series appearance, 1988-1990. I
remembered reading the newspaper which quoted his ex-partner's
comment to him. "He was the essence of what a sportscaster should
be," "He had the ability to capture what was happening and
enable listeners to see it as vividly as if they were in the arena
themselves." ken Korach, who took over King's job this year,
said "He meant more to the organization than anyone. He touched
so many lives - he was like a memeber of the family for millions of
people." In a 2003 SF Chronicle article, King was asked waht was
the greatest satisfaction he got from the job. He replied: "There's
no greater satisfaction that at a critical moment... you have the right
words, and you see it right, and you call it right, and that's when you
walk out of the booth feeling, Wow, it was a great day to be here."

King will never be here again, and there would probably be no matching
from any of the play-by-play guy available for ages. After going
through the whole spring training without King on his side, Korach
still got emotional. "I wanted to soak it all in," If Iget emotional, if I
start crying, so be it." I was not listening to the radio last night, with
the luxuary being watching the game on TV. But, "he would born to
be a great companion," said Joy Madden, son of hall of famer NFL
coach John Madden, in a kid's birthday party. "My father said, "He
was as well-versed a person as I've ever been around."" said Joy, who
himself now is the media coordinator on the A's media. King's death
was an unexpected accident, experience blood clot during his hip
replacement surgery. That's right, it does not go with the plan, just like
the outcome of the A's - Yankee's game. Yet, he still lives with us,
forever.