Ah, I've never been so happy to hear the oh-so-80s sounds of Kool & the Gang's, "Celebration". For those of you who have never been to an A's game at the Coliseum, or haven't been since before Celebration was released in 1980, the song is played at the end of any game where the A's come out as the victors, and this day was no different.

Not only did the A's beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-4 last night in extra innings, they won again tonight 10-1. Though tonight was a good sign that the A's appear to be making progress towards crawling out of their hitting slump, I actually believe that the extra inning win was the more impressive of the two.

Monday night, the A's didn't exactly do EVERYTHING right, but they definitely showed that just because they're down by a run in the bottom of the ninth, against a team that never should've been given a lead in the first place, is no reason they can't grind out a hard-fought win.

The A's won by doing precisely the things that have not come easily for them the entire season -- getting timely hits and getting hits with runners in scoring position. What was even better was that they did this in not just one, but two separate innings! It first occurred when, in the bottom of the 9th and only one strike left to work with, Nick Swisher singled. Charles Thomas was brought in to run for Swisher, then Adam Melhuse was subbed in and also singled, moving Thomas to 3rd. It was then that the A's best hitter with runners in scoring position, Jason Kendall stepped to plate and did exactly what he does best -- singling in the tying run. So good substitutions, good baserunning and 3 straight hits knotted the game at 4 runs apiece giving the A's a new lease on life.

The second time was what finally gave the A's their much-needed win, when Mark Kotsay drove in Marco Scutaro in the bottom of the 11th, also with two outs, ending their 8 game slide.

So, regardless of what happens in tomorrow's series/season finale against the Devil Rays, it sure looks like the A's are starting to wake up and are beginning to believe that they can win... and yes, I know that it was "only" the Devil Rays, but those same Devil Rays have taken series from the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox. The D-Rays may still end up losing a tons of games this year, but they are definitely a force to be reckoned with and shouldn't be underestimated. Either way, the past two nights have been very encouraging.

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.