Apparently, nobody votes in Canada.

Jays re-sign Encarnacion to a 3 year deal worth 27 million! There's an option for 2016 worth 10 million as well! Glad he's gonna be part of the team for the next few years!

The never-say-die Oakland A's are 14-2 in July, and just swept the Bronx Bombers in 4 games in Oakland. Who woulda thunk this of a team that traded away 3 starting pitchers in the off-season and lost its starting third baseman for the year to injury? Definitely not me!

If the season ended right now there would be an outside chance of an SF-Oakland Bay Bridge series (due to the extra playoff spot). The last time that matchup happened was what, in 1989? That was infamous for the Loma Prieta earthquake which hit during the game warm-up.

I remember that clearly, and will never forget it. When the quake hit I was at work and my feet felt like they were moving up and down opposite each other. It was totally weird. One guy I worked with at that time was at Candlestick Park that day, and after the quake he swore he'd never go to The 'Stick ever again. Most of the people in the stadium roared with approval after the rocking and rolling stopped, because that's how we are out here in California. At the time, the crowd of course had no idea what sort of damage the quake caused, and how many lives it took.

Angels get Zach Greinke from the Brewers for prospects.

The Rangers will most likely counter with a deal of their own. Possibly for James Shields, Ryan Dempster or Josh Johnson.

1989 was the last time the A's won the World Series, many forget they made the World Series three years in a row, 88, 89, 90.

I remember those years. In fact, I remember when Charlie Finley's A's and their white shoes came to Oakland not much later than when the Oakland Coliseum was built for the Oakland Raiders. I'm "old" so I watched that stadium be built.

I also remember the Oakland A's chesty ball girls (google it), and the "rabbit" basket that came out from near home plate that had balls in it for the home plate umpire. I also remember the big deal they made when Finley made Rick Monday the first $100,000 player in MLB.

The Oakland Coliseum was a much nicer place to play baseball back then. It's totally ugly now, no thanks to the late Al Davis.

Oh, come on. Mount Davis isn't an eyesore, or anything.

Heh. Well, I've been inside for Raider games and it doesn't look bad then, but when you're passing the stadium on BART (our mass transit "subway") the thing is godawful ugly.

It's the last multipurpose major league stadium in the USA now that the almost-as-shitty Candlestick Park is only used for football (and not for long now that the 49ers are moving to Santa Clara). "O.co" needs to go. Hell, Miami got a real baseball stadium so now how about the A's?

The A's certainly deserve one. Playing on a chewed up football field towards the end of the season can be a possible competitive disadvantage.

I guess they should just bend, break, circumvent, and finagle the local laws, and bribe folks of influence like the Marlins did.

It's no secret that Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff (he's actually sort of a managing partner) wants to move the team to downtown San Jose, where the city has been buying up property near HP Pavilion for a baseball stadium. It's a totally viable location. But as we know, the San Francisco Giants consider San Jose their "territory" from a deal with MLB when they almost moved to Florida.

Bud Selig's "blue ribbon commission" on the issue has taken 40+ months now to study it even though Bud says it's on the front burner. If that's the front burner, I'd hate to be on the back burner!

For its part, the City of Oakland keeps dragging its feet. Or so it seems to me. They now think they can build a new stadium next to the current one. They should have made something happen near the downtown core probably at least 5 years ago.

I think San Jose -- or any city for that matter -- would be totally pleased to have the A's. They've got a team that is all of a sudden watchable and right now would make the playoffs. But would any Oakland fans turn out for playoffs games? Bandwagon jumpers perhaps.

Of course the other story here in the SF Bay Area is that the Golden State Warriors ae going to build a new arena in San Francisco on a trio of unused piers just blocks north of AT&T Park. That's going to leave the Oakland Coliseum complex with one major league team -- the Raiders -- if the A's also leave.

On KNBR sports talk radio several weeks ago, some caller suggested swapping the A's with their AAA team, the Sacramento Rivercats. That was a really stupid idea.