So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen Aziz!

Kang Leads A's in Victorious Sendoff for the Puma; 3rd Win in 4 Games

And then there were five. Only five players are left from opening day, 2005. Last night marked the end of the road for one of the few remaining members of the innaugural A's team, as Aziz "The Puma" Ahmad took the field one last time. Though his last at-bat was a linedrive out to the pitcher, the Puma will be remembered more for his wit, style and team-first attitude than for any single play. Having been through the trying first season, he had to be happy to see this year's squad start to show signs of life and give him the farewell present of a victory. The A's handled the Charitable Rollovers 12-6, picking up their third victory in a bittersweet game for players, coaches and fans.
Going into the game Mitchell spoke to the team about focusing on the first and third innings. The A's are being outscored 94-34 in those two innings, but last night they allowed no runs in the first and third, and picked up one of their own. The game was shaping up as a low scoring affair, with the A's holding a tenuous 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the fourth before the bats came to life.
The A's 4th was a triple barrage. Triples in softball usually mean something went wrong, but we'll take them. After J-Loeb singled (part of his 3 hit night featuring his patented, leaping two-handed backhand), JoJoMoJo crushed one over the outfielders glove. She had caught up with him on the basepaths about halfway to second. With the whole team yelling at J-Loeb to run, Joanne was behind him, screaming "Hustle!". J-Loeb was talked out of his plan to "catch his breath at third base", mostly by the fact that JoJoMoJo was about a foot behind him. In the end, she settled for a triple. Matt quickly followed that up with a double, then Fight Club tripled, then after an RBI groundout from Mrs. Szak, Steve tripled. Quite a show.
With the A's cruising, Cruz was again talking victory party, but the Charitable Rollovers refused to. They loaded the bases with noone out in the fifth. They scored a couple on RBI groundouts (and scarily high-arcing rainbow tosses from Shin to Ian) and were looking for more when Steve relayed a ball to Matt, who threw to Mitchell at third to pick up the final out of the inning to snuff the rally. It was the second time in the game the opponents got a runner nailed going to third.
With the score now a too close 8-6,the A's got some insurance. Mitchell picked up the weakest homerun of the season on a grounder to short. J-Loeb and JoJoMoJo had another meeting on the basepaths, this time with Matt chasing them along into a three-way bunch up. Matt settled for the two-rbi triple. Rich knocked him home to make the score a comfortable 12-6 going inot the final inning.
Mitchell again turned to his closer, Mitchell, and he picked up the save with a zero run seventh featuring one at bat with a whopping 11 strikes (still short of Mrs. Szak's 2006 franchise record).
All in all, a happy day on the field, sad day off it. Sha-Ron the Librarian led the cheers, Caroline got her first game action of the year, Johnny Catastrophe returned, Time Out Mary and Kathleen drank, and Spar-A-Pan-I continued "to do whatever you need me to do, Coach". But saying goodbye to a founding member of the A's was hard. Good luck in Cali, Puma.