On Sunday, the Oakland A’s clinched a second consecutive division title, one marginally less improbable that last year’s last-day-of-the-season triumph. Yes, I’m enjoying this even while refraining from clogging my social media streams with annoying commentary.
In recent years there have been a couple of essays in this space referencing the only sports team of any sort that I regularly follow.
40 years on: 1973 and the world champion Oakland A’s.
ON THE AVENUES: It no longer keeps me waiting.
As for 2013, here’s an appropriate summary from USA Today.
17 awesome things about Oakland A’s; A’s clinch AL West with another strong September, by Ted Berg
15. Their incredible mustache history
This is almost impossible to believe and even more difficult to reconcile, but Major League Baseball went over 50 years without a single player fashioning any sort of facial hair. That embarrassing stretch ended when the 1972 A’s broke the mold and went on to win the World Series and usher in a league-wide facial-hair Renaissance.
