Yeah, the A's got swept. It was more weird than stinging. The Angels are good. Some Angel hits a home run, or you make an error (Bobby Crosby's defense has been missed), and then you're behind and have to face K-Rod, who is just unhittable right now.

And then there was the absence of Roy Steele, the A's PA announcer, who was out this weekend with hernia surgery. Steele had only missed one previous Oakland A's game ever. Dick Callahan filled in, and he's a competent and familiar voice, having been the PA announcer for the Golden State Warriors and Cal football, but it wasn't the same. Steele's deep voice is so entwined in my mind with the Coliseum that hearing someone else's voice there made it seem like I was living inside a badly dubbed foreign film. The stadium felt disembodied.

So it was a weird weekend, in many ways. Hopefully, Steele will be back soon, as will Crosby, and things will get back to normal.

The A's are headed to New York to play the Yankees now, and that suddenly seems like an easier task that what the A's have been up against recently.

I'm tired of facing the same three teams. I'm VERY curious to see how the rest of the AL compares to the AL West, which looks really tough this year. We'll start finding out this week.