A’s Clinch Second Consecutive AL West Title

A combination of beards, booze, and “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang being played over the speakers blanketed O.co Coliseum Sunday.  The Oakland Athletics won their second AL West title in two consecutive seasons.



via sports.yahoo.com

“Pure joy and happiness,” said Will MacNeil, A’s season ticket holder, and famous Section 149er.  “For me personally having Dan Straily point up to me and go ‘Hell yeah Will!’ felt pretty cool and special.”

Oakland was playing the Minnesota twins when talk got around The Coli of Kansas City Royal’s Justin Maxwell’s grand slam against the Rangers that resulted in a Texas loss.  This meant the A’s can officially call themselves the American League West champions.

Following the news, Evan Scribner struck out Josmil Pinto for the final out in the ninth inning.  A sea of gold uniforms swarmed the field from the Oakland dugout.

 “The atmosphere yesterday was different than it was when they clinched against the Rangers in the final games of the season last year,” said Brandon Plotz, Oakland A’s fan who was at the game Sunday. “Last year us fans were on cloud nine and yesterday it was more of a ‘yeah this was supposed to happen’ type of feeling.”

 With his now famous gold robe on, outfielder Josh Reddick ran around the Oakland clubhouse drinking beer.  And when he wasn’t drinking it, he was pouring it on the heads of anyone he spotted.  AJ Griffin danced around while sipping on a bottle of champagne, and Ray Fosse and Grant Balfour received a beer shower from Reddick. 

“It was insane,” says Taylor Fernandez, long time Oakland A’s fan.  “Everyone was giving each other high fives, hugs everywhere, and of course the ‘Let’s Go Oakland!’ chants started right away.”  “Tears were shed and then as soon as the scoreboard was changed (after the Royals win) the entire stadium stood up and cheered for the team while the team gave handshakes to each other in the dugout.”

 The A’s have won 20 of their last 26 games to go from 2.5 games back in the AL West to eight games ahead.

They clinch their 16^th division title and 25^th postseason appearance. Only the Yankees (51) and the Dodgers (27) have more postseason appearances than the A’s.