Aug. 24

It's a play with some of the elements of 1967, entitled "The Impossible Dream," in which four American League teams went into the final week in serious contention, only to have the Pygmalion Red Sox steal it away. We have the three AL West teams -- the Athletics, Mariners and Angels -- zig-zagging through crosstown traffic, with the Red Sox back East gearing up to play only sub-.500 teams after Sept. 4.

Obviously, this season is different from '67. These are four teams vying for two postseason positions, not an entrée to the World Series. And there is a cloud hovering over everything and everybody in the business, a cloud no one would have fathomed 35 years ago before former players' union chief Marvin Miller brought the owners out of their towers of arrogance.

	Barry Zito and the A's are rolling up the victories.

"You can sit here and think, 'the strike could kill this all,' " says Anaheim's Darin Erstad. "But I prefer to think about how great these last five weeks are going to be. This is a great race, and it's fun to be part of it. We know what it's like to play when it doesn't really matter, so we appreciate it all the more."

For those who deduced that the wild card would spell the end of pennant races, by 11 p.m. Tuesday night, Aug. 20, the Athletics Mariners and Angels were in a virtual tie for first place in the AL West and the wild card -- the third time that there has ever been a three-way tie after July, following in the September footsteps of the 1967 (Red Sox, Twins, Tigers) and 1948 (Indians, Red Sox, Yankees) races.

"Every day I have a different feeling about who's going to make it and who isn't," says Mariners manager Lou Piniella. "That's the day-to-day beauty of baseball: up, down, up, down, we're in, we're out ... it tears you apart, but you love every moment of it. Oakland's pitching gives them a huge leg up. But so does Boston's schedule, not to mention Pedro (Martinez) and (Derek) Lowe. But we're a lot better than what we've shown been here for a while, and I know the Angels aren't going away. Hold on and pray there isn't a strike."

One major factor in the race may well turn out to be that the Red Sox could afford to acquire Cliff Floyd, Alan Embree and Bob Howry and eat $18 million worth of dead contracts (Jose Offerman, Darren Oliver and Rich Garces). Oakland, meanwhile, shuffled money from underneath one shell to another shell and added Ray Durham, Ricardo Rincon, Ted Lilly and John (Babe) Mabry. In contrast, Anaheim's ownership predicts more than $20 million in losses and allowed GM Bill Stoneman only the wiggle room to add Alex Ochoa, while the Mariners' ownership, despite the second highest revenues in the business, restricted GM Pat Gillick and only this week allowed him to take on some of a minor contract in Ismael Valdes.

"We know what we can and can't do and we don't sit around feeling sorry for ourselves," said Angels manager Mike Scioscia. "We're a better team than we were the last couple of years. More talented. Different. We're going to be fine. We strongly believe it."

Seattle, of course, is coming off a 116-win season in 2001. But the Mariners have struggled of late and through Friday sit a game behind the front-running Athletics.

"We're a little thin," says Piniella. "And other than Freddy (Garcia), who hasn't pitched well the last month, and Joel Pineiro, we're a finesse staff, and in the hot-weather stretch in late July and August, finesse staffs usually have problems. Two years ago we went through the same thing, but as soon as Labor Day (oops, he said it again) came around, we were fine and made it to the playoffs. Oakland's great in August because they're a power staff."

In 2000, Seattle pitching was 11-12, 5.85 in August. After losing Friday night, they are 11-11, 5.48. Oakland last August was 22-7, 2.87 and this August is 18-4, 1.86.

"Ismael Valdes is going to help us, because we really needed another starter, and when our owners saw what the Yankees did to our fourth and fifth guys, they knew we needed some help," says Piniella. "If we can get Garcia straightened out -- get his delivery where he can get the ball back down in the zone and use his heavy sinker rather than giving up so many fly balls as he has recently -- we'll be all right, especially if all the innings don't take a toll on Pineiro. If we get to our bullpen, especially with Jeff Nelson back, we're fine."

But Piniella worries that his offense is too thin. "We're not a deep team, and we're not a power team," he says. "Look, we need a bat. I know Pat is trying, but I don't know what there is, or what we can take on. But we need a bat in left field that allows me to move Mark McLemore around."

All season, Piniella has been operating with a bench that has two players who have homered for the M's -- Desi Relaford (four homers) and Ben Davis (three homers). He has had to carry a Rule V draftee (utility infielder Luis Ugueto) and an outfield defensive replacement (Charles Gipson), and recently picked up the released Offerman, whose bat appears to have slowed to a hospital zone. Now Relaford is playing right field a lot. The entire outfield has totaled 39 homers for the season, and the on-base percentages from the sixth, eighth and ninth holes are .311, .316 and .317 respectively, all of which screams for Floyd. Or someone. Third baseman Jeff Cirillo has produced six homers and a .633 OPS; the entire left side of the infield (Carlos Guillen plays shortstop) has produced 14 total homers. When first baseman John Olerud hurt his groin this week, it meant Offerman had to play first, with Relaford in right.

"We could use a little help right now," says Piniella. "But with Valdes and Garcia pitching the way he has in the past, we're going to be there the whole time. We can win this thing."

The Angels have suffered two speed-bump hits. The first was Tim Salmon's injured left wrist, which has landed him on the disabled list. Not only is he expected to be out past Labor Day, but Salmon is traditionally someone who takes a while to refind his groove.

"Taking our No. 3 hitter -- and a No. 3 hitter having a very good season -- out of our lineup is a big loss," says Scioscia. "But we'll play our way through it. Having him out on this trip to New York and Boston is bad timing, but that's all part of playing a long season. There's a lot to battle through, and if we're one thing as a team, we're battlers."

"Everyone," says Angels outfielder Garret Anderson, "has injuries and slumps and adversity. You battle through it." Anderson personifies that spirit, as he's battled through the naysayers to lead the AL in games played the last six seasons and hits the last seven.

The second was Aaron Sele's sore shoulder, which landed him on the DL after his Monday start in New York. For the time being, former Devil Ray Mickey Callaway will take Sele's place in the rotation. "We could take Scott Schoeneweis out of the bullpen," said pitching coach Bud Black. "But he's too valuable there. Our bullpen has been terrific, and he's been a big part of it. We can't afford to take him out right now."

"I look back at last year at this time and we were starting Lou Pote, Ben Weber and Derek Turnbow," says Scioscia. "Now, with Kevin Appier, Jarrod Washburn, Ramon Ortiz and John Lackey, we're fine."

And everything about the way this staff is prepared and handled is admired by opponents, right down to the manner in which pitchers run to the mound between innings to begin warmups and set their tempo for the game.

"Their entire team plays at a pace that's different than anyone else," says an opposing AL GM. "Part of it is the way (Angels pitching coach) Bud Black runs that staff. But part of it is David Eckstein. He sets the pace for the entire team. He's one of the most valuable players in the entire league."

This is Eckstein: he was the first player up taking early batting practice at 2 p.m. Friday at Fenway Park, and when he'd finished, he went to the outfield to shag for the next two groups of hitters. When the third session was over, he sprinted at full speed off the field. What a lot of people want to know was what it was like when he and Mark Ellis were rooming together at the University of Florida.

First baseman Scott Spiezio's improvement batting right-handed has picked up some of the slack with Salmon out of the lineup, and Spiezio has become one of the best defensive first baseman in the league. Next, they expect that Troy Glaus will take off, again.

"He was in a tremendous zone early in the season and took right off to 14 homers," Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher said of Glaus. "Then he got stuck on 14 homers for a while, he kept being asked why he wasn't hitting homers and started trying to hit them. Which got him a little messed up. But he'll be fine."

"The way both Anaheim and us look at the A's is that of the four teams, they may be the best because of their pitching," says Piniella. "But they're really good outside our division. In the division, they have more trouble."

The A's begin home-and-homes with the Royals and Twins beginning on Monday, then finish the season with two series each with Anaheim, Seattle and Texas, which could be where their runaway truck pulls off.

"We have to make changes each offseason, so it takes some time for us to know what we have and who we are," says Oakland GM Billy Beane. "Of course, the pitching is our biggest weapon. But we had to re-invent ourselves after losing (Jason) Giambi, (Johnny) Damon and (Jason) Isringhausen."

This is not the bang 'em A's of last season; they are eighth in the AL in runs scored through Friday and sometimes struggle in weeklong slumps. But the pitching now leads the league in ERA, and Beane can give daily thanks that he did not trade closer Billy Koch and Jermaine Dye for Gary Sheffield, because Koch not only has 32 saves, but has also become a major presence on the team. On the field, Koch not only has great stuff, but he is durable and can pitch two-inning (or, in the case of their 16-inning win against the Yankees on Aug. 9, three-inning) stints. Off the field, he is the first player to the park, and his zaniness (such as hiring a plane to circle the park with a sign that read, "Brandon Buckley Fan Club," for the popular bullpen catcher) is a big part of the A's fraternity-house atmosphere.

This year, Oakland is 57-25 since being six games under .500 (20-26) on May 23. Last season, they finished 65-19 to end up 102-60. In 2000, they finished 64-44, and even in their transition season in 1999, they finished 44-31 after being 34-44.

The A's have had to do all this on the second lowest payroll in the game. This season, they acquired Durham, Rincon, Lilly and two excellent prospects (right-hander Jason Arnold is 4-0 and part of a four prospect rotation at Double-A Midland), while during the winter they lost the three big free agents, but added Carlos Pena (who was spun for Lilly), Scott Hatteberg and David Justice. During last season, Beane made the Dye trade and acquired Eric Hinske from the Cubs for the right to keep Rule V right-hander Scott Chiasson, and Hinske was spun into Koch. The previous winter, Beane not only acquired Damon, but got Cory Lidle and a minor-league infielder named Mark Ellis.

"They're good," Scioscia said of the A's, "but it's all about their pitching, and their pitching is great."

	Pedro Martinez is 6-1 with a 1.04 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break.

Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, the winningest pitcher in the AL over the 2001-2002 seasons, have already been Cy Young runners-up, and Barry Zito, who has been in the big leagues for two seasons and a month, is 42-17 in that time; combined, the three are 146-68, at the ages of 27, 25 and 24 respectively.

Oh yes and take a look at Lidle's last four starts: 4-0, 16 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 23 K.

Oh yes, II. Since the arrival of Rincon, Oakland's bullpen ERA has been scraping right above the 1.10 level.

But stalking, 3,000 miles away, are the Red Sox. Granted, they are a .500 team since the weekend before the All-Star break, but after they finish with the Angels and two series with the Yankees, have only the Indians, Blue Jays, Devil Rays, Orioles and White Sox for the remainder of the stretch run.

This week there were good signs for the Sox: a rare come-from-behind victory against Texas, followed by their first win to start a series in more than a month (beating the Angels on Friday). Boston, like Seattle, has been worn down in the dog days, and part of that is its roster is also very thin. The Red Sox have what the Diamondbacks have -- their league's two best pitchers in Martinez and Lowe -- and both Tim Wakefield and Casey Fossum have pitched representatively in the No. 3 and 4 holes, even if Fossum has had little good fortune. Interestingly, Fossum, not John Burkett, will face the Yankees at Yankee Stadium during the first week of September.

As they appeared stuck in neutral for five weeks, the Sox's bullpen cost them seven games in which they led as late as the seventh inning.

"It looks like we're finally getting that straight," says Red Sox manager Grady Little. "Embree and Howry are really throwing the ball well and give us the best situation in the seventh and eighth innings we've had all season. The way Dustin Hermanson threw Thursday (in an emergency start against Texas) shows that he can join Embree and Howry and really give us some depth out there, which we're going to need."

Embree and Howry combined have thrown 27 1/3 innings, allowed 18 hits, and fanned 32 for the Red Sox.

Boston is a peculiar team, and with Damon having an injured knee along with a dislocated right ring finger, has taken the generator element out of the offense. Nomar Garciaparra went through a recent .150 road trip, but Manny Ramirez has started to get on fire. Floyd, slowed by hip, Achilles and hamstring injuries (some of which are related to the concrete turf in Montreal), has struggled to adjust to DH, but soon should be back in an outfield rotation.

"We're going to be fine as long as we win the games we're supposed to win," says Little. Part of that comes back to the schedule. "There's nothing we can do about it," says Scioscia, "but they have a big advantage playing whom they play while we're beating up on one another out West. And remember, because we're a four-team division, we play one another more often than they play the Yankees."

So, it has all the makings of wonderful September theatre, if the lawyers allow it to be.

"What makes this doubly interesting," says one scout, "is that with Martinez, Lowe and Wakefield and that great Oakland pitching, either one of those teams can win any postseason series. The way the Yankees starters have struggled and with the question about Mariano Rivera, this season -- more than any in the last couple of years -- there is a sense that anyone could come out of the American League and make the World Series.

Can you imagine a first round, five-game series between Oakland and Boston? There are a lot of people who say the A's are the team that can beat the Yankees in the postseason, but what about Boston against Oakland? Pedro is 5-1 against the A's over the last four years. Lowe is 3-0 in three starts this season against the A's and Oakland has had five fly ball outs combined in the three starts by Lowe.

This is what we have to look forward to the rest of the 2002 season, one in which the Atlanta Braves have been a monumental story and the way Tony La Russa has held together the Cardinals in the face of death. Add to that the Curt Schilling/Randy Johnson excellence, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano ...

All great theatre ...

If they continue to play the games.