Billy Burns’ Triple

I watched television and waited for my parents to phone me.  They didn’t talk about money.  I walked out to Trader Joe’s to shop for groceries.  I took the bus out to the Fruitvale BART station.  A lot of parents and their children were lined up outside the Coliseum, getting ready for their parade around the field.  The day’s giveaway was a pair of striped socks.  I noticed that three of the players out on the field warming up were wearing Saturday’s Stephen Vogt jersey.  The Black Bear Diner bear was on the field posing for photos, and he appeared to have a problem with his head.  He would eventually go back out to throw out the first pitch.  Just as I did on Saturday, I fell asleep before the game.  I’m turning into a very old person.  On the scoreboard, I saw that the Angels were ahead of the Twins, 2-0.  Chris Bassitt was the A’s starting pitcher, and he had a clean first inning.  He allowed the game’s first run in the second inning on two hits.  He allowed the game’s second run in the third inning on a home run with two outs.  Bassitt had a clean fourth inning, although Coco Crisp made a miraculous catch as he was falling down.  Bassitt allowed two hits in the fifth inning, but a double play helped him out.  An error extended his sixth inning, and the runner reached third base after a walk and a fly ball, but Bassitt got a big strikeout.  He went on to have a clean seventh inning.  He had thrown 114 pitches, just as Sonny Gray did on Saturday, and he also hit 95.7 on a pitch he made at two o’clock.  The radio announcers took note of this, because their station is 95.7 FM.  Meanwhile, the A’s on off didn’t do anything until the second inning, when they got walks from Stephen Vogt and Chris Coghlan.  They didn’t score, though, until the third inning.  Coco Crisp walked, went to second base on Danny Valencia’s hit, and went to third on a fly ball from Vogt.  Crisp scored when Coghlan struck out on a passed ball.  Somehow, it wasn’t too shocking that the A’s first run didn’t score on an impressive hit.  What we saw in the Big Head race was Dennis Eckersley’s first win of the season, although it again looked like Rollie Fingers purposely slowed down just before reaching the finish line.  During the seventh inning stretch, we heard “Paradise City.”  In the bottom of the inning, the A’s did something.  With one out, Coghlan finally got a hit, a double that bounced over the outfield fence.  Jed Lowrie replaced Billy Butler, and he got the team’s first pinch hit of the season, and it tied the score at 2-2.  John Axford came into the game in the top of the eighth, and he continued to pitch well, turning in a clean inning.  Fans like me would prefer seeing the home team score in the eighth inning than the ninth inning.  It seemed like this would happen after Billy Burns hit the ball past the Royals’ first baseman, and turning on the speed, made it to third base.  Coco Crisp was unable to bring in the run, as his ground ball was hit to third base.  However, Josh Reddick would get the count to 3-1 before hitting a fly ball to center that made the score 3-2.  I think many of us wondered why the Royals didn’t give Reddick an intentional walk.  Ryan Madson went out to the mound in the top of the ninth inning.  Valencia caught a ball for the first out.  Madson struck the next batter out, but then   allowed a single. A stolen base from a pinch-runner made things a little uncomfortable.  The next batter hit a line drive, but it went directly to Alonso at first base for the last out of the game.  The game began at 1:07 with a game time temperature of 70 degrees and ended at 3:44.  The attendance was 29,668.  The A’s would not return to the Coliseum until April 29, so I thought about my plans for next weekend that did not include baseball.  I had gone to the Coliseum 11 times from April 2 to April 17, so it would be a return to sanity to do something else for a change.  I walked rather slowly to the exit near the left field foul pole.  It was good to hear the sound of “Celebration” one more time.  The A’s are the first team this year to get two wins against the Royals.  I hurried to catch my train.  I heard on the radio postgame show that it was Jed Lowrie’s 32^nd birthday, and he had a special cake.  I stopped to buy a beef taco and a chicken taco before I went home.  As I emerged with my food, someone from work spotted me and said hello.  I didn’t really want to be reminded of work before Monday morning.  The food made me feel better.  I listened to Robert Hilburn’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Times radio program on KCSN.  He played songs by Aretha Franklin, Patsy Cline, Emmylou Harris, Dusty Springfield, and Lucinda Williams.  One song I enjoyed hearing again was “So Much Love.”  I don’t know if no one noticed the lyrics to “Those Three Days,” but it does have one of George Carlin’s seven forbidden words.  The Tonight Show rerun from May 10, 1974 featured Orson Bean, Joanna Cassidy, and Jack Palance.  Orson Bean talked about “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”  Joanna Cassidy was very different from my memory of her in “Blade Runner.”  The Columbo episode of the night was “Candidate for Crime” with Jackie Cooper. Ken Swofford was in the cast, along with the familiar Vito Scotti, and Katey Sagal was a secretary.  A Get Smart marathon was on one of the television channels.  The show makes me think of the Ramones song “Danny Says.”  It’s hard for me to believe that Joey Ramone is dead.  A movie that was on another channel was “The Italian Job” with Michael Caine, Noel Coward, and Benny Hill.  I didn’t want to watch “Murphy’s Romance” again.  I should have read more of my novel as I sat around waiting at the Coliseum.  I read that “The Jungle Book” took in a lot of money at the box office over the weekend.  The sports reporters are all talking about Stephen Curry’s ankle.  They don’t think that he should play in Game 2 against the Rockets.  I am not much of a hockey fan, so I am not following the San Jose Sharks.  Some of the people who died on April 18 include Albert Einstein (1955), Thor Heyerdahl (2002), and Dick Clark (2012).  Today is a birthday for Conan O’Brien (53), Eric Roberts (60), Rick Moranis (63), James Woods (69), and Hayley Mills (70).  According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for April 18, “Real People” made its debut on NBC in 1979.  In 1983, the Disney Channel was launched.  In 1989, “Rescue 911,” hosted by William Shatner, had its premiere on CBS.  In 1997, “McHale’s Navy,” starring Tom Arnold, Dean Stockwell, and Debra Messing, was released.  In 2012, Dick Clark died of a heart attack at age 82.