"Old School" Never Looked SO Good

Why this shot? What do we say? What's the caption? I don't know, this is right out of Boogie Nights! This could be Disco King (or Richard Simmons). I think the photo, the stance, the attitude, they say it all. I mean... talk about "turn back the clock"!

Here sitting in the video room where people come and go, you've got Alan Embree and Frank Thomas--two of the oldest veterans in terms of major league service, studying video and discussing opposing players and tendencies.

Everybody prepares for a game in their own way on different days. The hour before game time, some players are watching TV, some players are in the spread room having a protein shake, or at their locker contemplating, other players might be talking and horsing around. Here Emil Brown is taking a cap nap in his locker, catching 40 winks.

Here we have three of the big hitters on the club and they're all veterans, and at one time or another, also DHs. You can see the confidence and the camaraderie they're exuding there, while sporting those GREAT throwback uniforms...You've gotta love those socks.

You know, you're gonna see walk-offs from time to time--both with us and with other teams--but there is nothing like the jubilation and the celebration of somebody hitting a walk-off home run. And it's no different in the big leagues than it is in the little league...Just look at the faces, and how he's coming in and people are waiting...it's just amazing.

-z

Z shares a little artistic inspiration with Crosby for his big debut on the magazine cover...

It's a bird--it's a plane--no, it's "spidey" Z! In order to prep for the photo shoot with Crosby, Z made sure we had the light just right....

...for the man with real hops.

James Perez, lighting extraordinaire, is laughing with you Z, not at you.

Don't tell Z a white man can't jump - he had hops alright...in his head!!

-s

______________________________

These pictures concluded a successful homestand, and we're a quarter of the way through the season. We've got a young club that most people counted out before Spring Training even started. We're amazingly competitive. We've had some big ups. We had kind of a down road trip, but this is a long season, and I think the way it's started out gives us great hope not only for the future but for the rest of this season. These guys have come to play. Especially in this last sequence, you can tell the exuberance they bring not only as individuals but as a team. This is what winning baseball is all about.

Z & S