My Collaborative Article with John Flesta on VAVEL.com for an A's 2014 Season Preview

I was asked to assist on an A's preview by John Flesta (you can follow him on Twitter @jflesta). You may or may not like what I have to say but I would love to hear your opinion so please check it out! I think John's preview of the 2014 Oakland Athletics is great! I hope you enjoy reading it and any feedback is welcome!

Here's the link to the interview on VAVEL.com: 

Oakland A's 2014 Season Preview

Bold Prediction: Billy Burns Makes Oakland's Opening Day Roster

Lance Iversen, Reuters

It’s a bold prediction, what can I say? How can a 24-year old kid, whose never played above Double-A ball (only did for half a season), make the Opening Day roster of the back-to-back reigning American League Western Division Champions? It may take lightening speed, sadly maybe someone else’s injury, an incredible spring performance and a lot of luck but Oakland A’s outfield prospect Billy Burns may just be able to do it.

Burns was acquired by the Oakland Athletics in a trade with the Washington Nationals in December. The Nationals got fan favorite, lefty middle reliever Jerry Blevins for Burns, a small outfielder with insane speed. He is so fast that he already has seven stolen bases this spring which is more than some teams even have combined. He’s always on the move and his speed has been compared to not only the Reds’ speedy center fielder Billy Hamilton but some scouts have said he might be the fastest baseball player since the great Rickey Henderson.

 To Read the Rest of the Story on the MLBAM Affiliated Pro-Blog Outside Pitch Sports Network LLC ....  click here!!

2014: Life as a MLB Season Ticket Holder: Cactus League Spring Training

Hello from, a not so sunny, Phoenix Arizona! This week on 2014 Oakland Athletics: Life as a Major League Baseball Season Ticket Holder I am coming to you straight from Cactus League Spring Training, as opposed to Grapefruit League Spring Training.

Image courtesy of Jen Rainwater

Here’s a short history lesson before I get to my experience so far this year in Arizona. Spring Training has been around since the 1890′s but it was not organized into leagues until the 1940′s as the league expanded and more teams joined in pre-season training. It originated in Florida and all but six ball clubs have held their spring training camps there at one time or another. The Cleveland Indians were the first team to move to Arizona in the 1940′s. Their owner convinced the New York Giants to move their spring training there and thus the Grapefruit (FL) and the Cactus Leagues (AZ) were born.

My boys, the A’s, train in what is usually a very sunny and warm Phoenix. This year I’m going to go with “uh, yeah, not so much.” When we, my mom and I, arrived here on Saturday afternoon it was pouring rain with thunder and lightening. We had to miss the first two games we had planned to attend. The plan was to make it a double header day, fly into Phoenix stop by Phoenix Municipal Stadium to see the A’s play the Texas Rangers and then head over to Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, home of both the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The stadium there is beautiful and I have a friend who currently plays for the DBacks. This is a definite perk to being a STH. Often times you become friendly with the players. If you are around the ballpark enough they recognize you and remember you, knowing that you are there to support them through the good times and the bad. Then over the years you become friends. Sometimes even if they are traded you stay in touch. This doesn’t always happen of course but it’s not uncommon.

Read More on Sports Unbiased - Your Alternative Source For Sports!

Say goodbye to the Bernie Lean and Hello to the Ed Lover Dance

You guys do realize that when he does this that there will be an entire stadium of people doing this all summer ... But hey, I guess if he dances too then we can all look silly together! Knowing A's fans this could all get pretty interesting!! LOL! #AsFansRule #EdLoverDance


Check out Oakland Athletics's post on Vine! Coco Crisp does the new 2014 Ed Lover Dance!

2014 Oakland Athletics: Life of a MLB Season Ticket Holder

So this column is going to appear on Sports Unbiased every Monday at 12pm Eastern Time! I hope you guys will take a minute to read it and once it gets going, really enjoy it!! :-)

xx ~ Jen

Welcome to the first edition of 2014 Oakland A’s: Life of a MLB Season Ticket Holder. I’m Jen aka the original “Oakland A’s Socks Girl.” I’ve also had season tickets for well over a decade now. I sit down the third base line in Section 128, row two, seat eight, directly behind the Athletics’ bullpen. That’s my seat. I LOVE that seat. I could be buried with that seat and know that I died happy! My mom sits in seat nine and my dad in ten. Seat seven also belongs to the Rainwater family but being that my brother lives in Merced, CA, we usually have a guest. Technically we only have our season tickets for every weekend home stand. But lucky for my mom and me, the A’s have a great policy where you can turn in tickets that you aren’t going to use or that you didn’t use to be able to go to weekday games. So in essence, I usually make four to five games every home stand, which equals out to about 60 games per season....

Wanna Read More? Click here .... Sports Unbiased - Life of a MLB Season Ticket Holder