Dallas Braden's Perfect Game: Are the Oakland A's Poised to Return to Greatness?

Dallas Braden's May 9 perfect game against the road-trip-dominating Tampa Bay Rays was much more than the 19th such game thrown in Major League Baseball's storied one hundred plus-year history. It was, of course, a salient validation of the once-troubled Dallas Braden himself, who most recently found himself embroiled in a public war of words with Yankee All Star Alex Rodriguez. More than just a testament to the pitcher, though, the first perfect game ever thrown on a Mother's Day is a big step in the right direction for the Oakland Athletics, a once-great franchise that's struggled to establish league legitimacy in recent years.

My husband and I began following the A's back in 2000, shortly after I relocated to the Bay Area from the East Coast. The process of transferring my loyalties from my hometown favorite Baltimore Orioles was a painful one; from the get-go, the A's were a superior team and it was hard to see my boys drop game after game to the likes of Eric Chavez.

But with the help of time, a few gameday giveaway Bobbleheads and lots of trips to the oft-name-changed Coliseum, it happened: I became a fan. We whooped and hollered our way through the greatness that was the early 2000s, which were headlined by Chavez, Miguel 'Miggi' Tejada, the Big Three - Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito, and a slew of other guys whose names still bring a nostalgic tear to my eye. The summer we got married was the summer of the famed 20-game win streak and we were lucky enough to be in the stands for more than a few of those historic match-ups. It was a magical time when everything seemed to go right for the young ball club. Sure, there was no perfect game thrown. But it was okay because they could deliver a great game, day in and day out.

And then somewhere along the way, everything went wrong. The Big Three went their separate ways. Eric Chavez stayed on, but struggled with one injury-plagued season after another. Attendance dropped. And life for the Oakland Athletics fan got sadly quiet.

Just this past week, a local cable affiliate aired a 2003 game that featured Tim Hudson, whom my better half and I affectionately called 'Bulldog' during his tenure with the A's in recognition of the pitcher's fierce and emotional approach to delivering the baseball. All of the emotion from that game - which we'd seen in person 7 years ago - came flooding back. As the last pitch was thrown and Hudson once again secured his two-hitter against the powerhouse Boston Red Sox, I sadly remarked to my husband "they just don't play like that anymore, do they?"

DO they?

But Dallas Braden's perfect game on Sunday changed things; granted maybe just a little, but enough to make me wonder if there's a revival coming in Athletics baseball. Are the scrappy A's we loved so much really back in new form? Will Alex Rodriguez be forced to swallow the biggest wad of pride in history before season's end? Probably not, to the latter, since the superstar's already-demonstrated level of class suggests he thinks himself above such an apology. After all, he had the perfect opportunity to extend an olive branch following the conclusion of Braden's gem, but chose to foul his statement with the snarky notion that the real achievement was beating the Yanks' division rival Rays.

Regardless of the standings by the end of the 2010 MLB season, Dallas Braden has put himself and his team of largely unknowns into the history books, and he's put the rest of the league on notice: The A's can pitch. And field. So don't count them out. Congratulations, 209. Well played.

Sources

Oakland Athletics v. Tampa Bay Rays broadcast, May 9, 2010, CSA