The hare loses again

In early August of 2012, the Texas Rangers were leading the American League West by 10 games or so. At that time I told my friend Billy, an Athletics fan, "The A's are going to catch the Rangers. It will be like the tortoise and the hare."

The Oakland tortoises did exactly that, taking the West title of the final day.

Fast forward to just a little more than 2 years later. The A's were running away in the AL West race.

Something another friend -- Frank, one of the toughest fastasy competitors in Inner League Baseball -- said today applies to what happened next in July-August-September for Oakland. Frank was talking about his own fantasy teams and how he "got greedy" at our trade deadline and went for the kill instead of sticking with a winning lineup.

That's what happened with A's general manager Billy Beane in July. Instead of sticking with a winning formula that got Oakland into the playoffs in 2012 and '13 (but again not to the World Series), Beane got greedy and went for the kill.

He understood that his starting rotation was fragile. So Beane traded for three established starters -- Jeff Samardzija, Jason Hammel and Jon Lester.

Beane got greedy, and in so doing, hurt the chemistry of a team built with smoke, mirrors and chicken wire.

NEWS FLASH! Just sent this text to my daughter Diana at PNC Park: "When I saw the starting lineup I was thinking, 'Crawford could be a dangerous No. 7 batter.'" The Pirates will have to figure a way to get into the Giants' bullpen.

Back to Beane and the A's. In hindsight, it wasn't good to bring in a bunch of high-paid mercenaries to be the saviors for a team that was doing perfectly well with a bunch of guys whose salaries -- relatively speaking -- were the equivalent of guys being paid with lunch money and coins out of the couch cushions.

I spent some time with the A's in the visitors' clubhouse in Arlington this weekend -- waiting up with them until after midnight Saturday night in hopes that the Mariners would lose, and wading through puddles of champagne and beer Sunday afternoon when Oakland celebrated a win to take the AL's No. 2 wild card.

The old spirit of that clubhouse seemed to be there.

But then came Monday night, and the A's lost that wild card game in Kansas City. Jon Lester started for Oakland, but the bullpen blew a four-run lead. The winning hit came off Jason Hammel.

The game was the A's season in microcosm. And this time, the Athletics were the hares.