Oh A's! A's Oh!

What in God's Great Dominion in happening with the OAKLAND A's these days? A spirited and longer-than-usual run through the playoffs notwithstanding, their behavior has been very erratic of late.

First they allow Ron Washington, their infield instructor and third-base coach of 11 years, to take a managerial job elswhere in baseball. And not just in the National League or another AL division, but with the young and dangerous AL West rival Texas Rangers! Players have expressed their happiness that Wash will have the opportunity to pass his knowledge on to a whole new set of players, but how happy will they be when Texas is heading to the playoffs in a few years and the A's are spending October trying to ascertain whether there is any kind of nightlife in Fremont? (Hint: There's not.)

That brings me to the second piece of news. Rumors abound that the A's have finalized plans to move 25 miles to the south of Oakland and very likely will change their name (currently The OAKLAND Athletics) to correspond with their new home city, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

What will they think of next? It's a scary proposition, because they have several other big decisions to make this off-season, including whether to resign Frank Thomas and Barry Zito, not to mention naming a replacement for outgoing manager Ken Macha. The way things have been developing lately, I fully expect their choice to be Dusty Baker...or maybe Ken Mehlman.