Hello, Oakland Athletics fans! I know it's been hard trying to get pumped about the 2005 season, what with the major offseason losses of Hudson and Mulder and especially considering the way the A's have played of late, but I'm hoping to help out in at least a small way.

Welcome to the Athletics Fan Podcast. What qualifies me to do a podcast, you ask? Well, I'm an Athletics fan and I have a microphone. That's about it. I have no formal training in communications, I'm not big stats guy, I just love the A's and baseball, in general. Maybe the A's just need a bit of a boost from the fans to get things turned around, and maybe this show will be just the shot in the arm the A's need.

I have no intention of turning this site or this podcast into a bitch session. There are plenty of other sites that will do that for us, none of which will be given free publicity here. I just want to talk about being a big fan of a small market team (now, with Deep Pocketsÿ) in a small, northern California city with a bad rap, who no one ever wants to truly believe in but has still managed to succeed for many, many years against all odds.

So, keep watching this space. There's lots more to come and I think you'll like what you see.