A Fitting Tribute

Hey A’s,

It’s a sad morning in A-ville today. We just played our last full-squad game of the season,
sending our summer law clerks off in dramatic fashion with a narrow victory over V.A. is for
Lovers (Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs). It was a beautiful night for a game that turned out to be
one of the closest and most fun contests we’ve had all year. Playing in the imposing shadow
of the giant white obelisk, the A’s looked strong right from the start. Scott led us off with a
single that turned into a RBI for Justin Casson on his first homer of the day. Two more batters
followed suit, as Thomas and Alex Moore promptly got themselves on base and were driven in
by “Mr. Base Hit” Bhargav. The A’s were up four going into the bottom half of the first inning,
when the Lovers started to get some action. But the defense held them scoreless behind Lucas
Strasburg’s strong start. Our small-ball game was in full swing in the second inning, which saw
five consecutive singles, netting us another run. One more shut-down performance by Strasburg
preceded Thomas’s final and most epic home run of the season, and the A’s were sitting pretty
with a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the third. Then things started to get a bit dicey.

Our defense was moderately respectable in the 3rd, only allowing two runs on a few hits given
up by MVP Dan “Jim Abbott Jr.” LaSalle. As the air started to cool with the submission of the
sun, Bhargav and Lucas scored for us in the top of the 4th and by this point, with the game at 8-
2 we thought we had a victory in hand. But we were really getting ahead of ourselves because
the Lovers finally found a few holes in the formidable A’s defense and plated a whopping 8
runs in the bottom frame to take the lead. All the hitting practice the bottom half of the order
had been taking began to pay off in the 5th as we were able to produce four more runs, two
on Justin’s second homerun of the day, to recapture the lead at 12-10. From then on, it was
lights-out pitching from both our MVP, who had the first-ever 3-pitch inning in league history
(featuring a line drive that nearly decapitated your beloved skip) and Lucas “I’m my own best
reliever” Tanglen who held the Lovers scoreless for the last few frames to allow the A’s to leave
victorious. But it definitely came right down to the wire, as the game’s only double play was
made on the last two outs, in a ridiculous catch-and-throw across the entire field by Justin to save
the day. It was a great game all-around though and if I had 15 MVP beers you all would have
gotten one.

I want to again thank the law clerks, and really everyone, who have come out this season and
made it the blast that it’s been. I really truly enjoyed every minute of playing with you all this
season, in leading the A’s to what is undoubtedly their best record ever. We made it to 9-4 so far
(with a few games to go), a full 5 games above .500, for a .692 winning percentage. You have
all played spectacularly this season and you will be dearly missed. We are actually #19 overall
in the standings right now out of 98 teams. There aren’t twenty teams in this town that could
beat us, Nats included. We far surpassed my expectations, and I can only hope that we have half
as much fun next season as we did this year.

I will wrap it up on that note. We’ve got a game next Thursday against the DOJ, so as always,
shoot me an email if you’re in. Have a nice weekend, A’s.

Effing A,

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