A’s Aren’t Pretty, But They’re Good

I hate the white shoes.

They make the Oakland A's look ridiculous. If they wore overall tops and had orange skin, they'd look like oompa-loompas.

I've never understood why the A's insist on wearing bright white shoes to accompany their bright white pants. Those shoes are one of the great mistakes in sports fashion land. Yet, year after year, the A's keep slipping them on.

I read the book "Moneyball," which chronicled a season with the A's front office, in hopes of finding out a reason for the whites shoes. No dice.

I asked a friend who has a friend who knows a guy who knows Bobby Crosby to have said guy ask Crosby why they wear the white shoes. No dice.

I've done exhaustive Internet research and still I come up with nothing.

But if I had to guess, I'd say it's part tradition and part strategy. As in, if we wear white shoes we'll look unathletic and teams will underestimate us. I'm not sure anybody but me thinks that way, but you never know.

The more important thing, though, is that those shoes are a pretty good metaphor for the A's themselves. Especially this year.

Three adjectives to describe the shoes: ugly and plain, but probably good quality.

Three adjectives to describe the A's: ugly and plain, but definitely good quality.

Now, I don't mean the players themselves are ugly. I am in no position to make those sorts of claims. I just mean that the A's don't have the beautiful swing of a Ken Griffey, Jr., or the smooth outfield movements of a Torii Hunter or the nifty glovework of an Omar Vizquel. They have baseball players, the kind who don't always look graceful.

In terms of plainness, the A's just aren't flashy. They have guys who get on base a lot, per the front office's philosophy, and they have starting pitchers who throw strikes. There's no superstar, and there's not even a big story angle now that the Big Three of Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, and Tim Hudson is down to the Big One.

But as the A's are proving, none of that matters. Sure, they started the year slow, but they've made a tremendous run and are now in the hunt for the American League West crown.

Early this season, when Eric Chavez was struggling, when Crosby was on the DL, and when the young rotation was sputtering, there was some talk that Billy Beane's philosophy was finally showing its holes. And after the furor that surrounded "Moneyball," it was no surprise that many were quick to criticize.

But as we're finding out, it wasn't Beane's philosophy that wasn't working, it was a simple case of a team not performing up to its abilities. Beane still had the kind of team he wanted, with good on-base percentage guys and a solid rotation. He just had to wait for things to click.

And it took awhile. The A's were 15 games under .500 at one point, but are now deadlocked with the Angels for first place. The lineup is working the way it always has during Beane's tenure. If you get guys on base, you'll score runs. And the pitching has caught up to that lineup with the emergence of Joe Blanton and Danny Haren in the rotation and Huston Street out of the bullpen.

Of course, even if the A's make the playoffs, questions will still abound. The A's of recent years have folded in the playoffs. Only time will tell if this year will be different.

But for now, don't knock the A's. Or the white shoes.