Athletics

BBL Champions

AL East Champs

BBL Champions

NL West Champs

## Overview

The Oakland Athletics are an MLB team in the American League West. They are available to play in Backyard Baseball 2001 and 2003. The A's tenure in the BBL started out rocky, but has since improved drastically. They are one of two teams to win the World Series twice.

## Season 3

The A's were chosen for the first time in season 3 by coach alsi2843. However, at some point during the season, alsi stopped responding in the discord server and all but disappeared off the face of the earth. Alsi and his replacement coaches combined for a 3-11 record for the A's.

## Season 4

In a strange upkeep of tradition for the A's, coach ArGarBarGar started the season with the team, disappeared without a trace, and then replacement coaches helped the A's combine to another 3-11 record.

## Season 5

### Lulu League

The two-season A's curse was broken this season, as coach Nick Foles is my dad took control of the team and brought them back to their former location, in Philadelphia. The A's won their division with a 12-2 record, then blitzed the competition in the playoffs, beating the Marlins in a decisive game 3 in the ALDS, beating the Melonheads in a decisive game 3 in the ALCS, then beating the Red Sox in a decisive game 5 in the BBL World Series.

### Paste League

The Philadelphia Athletics were also chosen in the experimental Paste League, but this time by coach GSchlim. However, they did not fare as well as their Lulu League counterparts, finishing with a 5-7 record. Unfortunately, their stats were not very well kept.

## Season 6

Coach Nick Foles is my dad returned to guide the defending champion Athletics. The A's picked up right where they left off, going 11-3, including a perfect 7-0 record at their home park, Scrapco Field. The A's tied for the best record in the Backyard League with the Crazy Indians. However, the A's lost the tiebreaker for the #1 seed because they lost their head-to-head matchup against the Indians, which itself was decided via the tiebreaker.

The A's made it to the playoffs and faced off against the #3 seeded Blue Blue Jays. They were able to take care of the Blue Jays in a quick fashion, beating them 12-9 and 15-11 to advance to the ALCS. Here they faced off against the top seeded Indians. Unfortunately, the A's were not able to reach the World Series for a second straight after falling in two straight games at the hands of the Indians.

## Season 7

MelloMathTeacher controlled the Junior Athletics in Season 7. He named them this due to his fascination with the story of Moneyball, figuring he would try his hand at creating the "Junior" version of this. He wanted to optimize his draft carefully using the mechanics of the game to carefully piece together a very strong AI defense, and his draft strategy followed this philosophy. He consulted several veterans for questions, advice, and resources, most notably from Psanchez55 and crazyei8hts.

The Junior Athletics played in the Frontyard Conference, a conference full of teams headed by coaches with less experience and historical success. There were a ton of struggles for the Junior Athletics in preseason, which prompted MelloMathTeacher to practice with a lot of scrimmage games to learn his own team as well as play against teams with similar characteristics as his opponents to learn how to exploit their weaknesses. This practice has helped led the team to levels of success that even the coach could not anticipate.

They finished the regular season as Frontyard Conference champions with an 11-3 record, thanks in large part to their strong defense. Following this, they notched an upset over another strong defense in the Cubs in the quarterfinals. They then defeated the Rangers in the semifinals in Big City Stadium by stealing a ton of bases and taking advantage of errors from the opposing AI. Finally, they won the World Series against the Mariners in a five-game thriller that showcased just how far Mello's analytical skills as well as baseball skills had come.

## Season 8

In Season 8, coach crazyei8hts took over the team and named them the "Crazy A's", in a play on words with his username, since this was Season 8. They were placed in the National League West. The A's had a very drastic strategy of building around first round draft pick Chico Pappas. The roster was built to ensure that Chico was assigned to play first base for the AI before he was assigned to catcher. This defensive alignment had mixed results for other teams facing the A's defense, but it helped the A's construct a well-rounded AI offense.

The A's stormed out of the gates with a Week 1 win over the division rival Expos, 24-7. Another notable result for the A's was in Week 10, when on Match of the Week, the A's gave the undefeated Bombers their first loss, 32-24. The A's stayed on top of the NL West all season long, eventually winning the division with a 10-4 record, earning them the #3 seed in the National League.

Chico Pappas was the team's star slugger, leading the NL in batting average and finishing second in both RBI and runs created.

In the playoffs, the A's faced off against the #2 seeded Fishes in the NLDS. In a very exciting series, the Fishes beat the A's two games to one to advance to the next round. The series included two games that came down to the wire.

## Season 9

The A's returned in Season 9, this time under the guidance of rookie coach arcothunder, a real life A's fan. The A's played in the NL Central and had a home field of Playground Commons. After starting the season 2-4, the A's went on a four-game winning streak to zoom back into the playoff hunt at 6-4, including an upset win over the eventual #1 seeded Monsters. However, there was an equal and opposite reaction, as the A's lost their last four games to finish the season at 6-8, eliminated from the playoffs.

The A's accepted an invitation to the Consolation Tournament. They won three games and lost two games in a double elimination format. Both losses came at the hands of the Yankees, a team they lost to twice in the regular season as well. However, they did get one win against the Yankees in the Consolation Tournament.

## Season 11

### 2001

After a one season break, the Athletics returned under the guise of coach MartianMan, who brought back the Philadelphia Athletics moniker. The A's played their home games at Playground Commons in the National League Central. The Athletics built around top draft pick Jay Green and were also notable for drafting custom player Vinnie the Gooch. Unfortunately, the team was only able to manage a 2-12 record. In both wins, the Athletics' opponent was unable to beat the AI in 6 innings, scoring either 0 or a negative score.

The Athletics accepted an invitation to the Consolation Tournament.