Oakland Athletics

The “Susan G. Komen for the Cure” breast cancer awareness organization condemned Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden for his perfect game in a press release issued Sunday night.

Continuing a tradition begun last year, Major League Baseball celebrated Mother’s Day by teaming up with the Komen Foundation for its “Going to Bat Against Cancer" Initiative, according to an article on MLB.com.

I heard it best on the A's post-game show with Chris Townsend. You could not have asked for a better script. Dallas Braden, surrounded by friends, family and his community of Stockton, Calif., pitched MLB's 19th perfect game ever on Sunday, May 9, 2010.

Well, Alex Rodriguez, it's time to remember the name of Dallas "Instant Hero" Braden, because in a few years, he might be on your team.

The Oakland Athletics pitcher tossed a 4-0 perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays, marking the first perfect game in Oakland in 42 years when Catfish Hunter achieved the feat.  Hunter would eventually sign a free-agent contract with the New York Yankees.

Written by Max Lush and Hunter McDowell

Give us credit. If you followed Man Cave Sports on Facebook or Twitter, you would have already known about Dallas Braden.

We wrote a feature article this week on Braden and how he could break out at any moment. I suggest you get on the ball if you haven't heard about Man Cave Sports yet.

For just the nineteenth time in MLB history, a perfect game was thrown Sunday, or better known as Mother’s Day.

Last month, Dallas Braden was the subject of headlines after calling out Alex Rodriguez for taking a shortcut, and that path led right through the pitching mound. Apparently, the feud is still going. 

On the May 8 episode of "Pardon the Interruption," Braden continued to bait A-Rod, because he felt slighted after the New York Yankees slugger tried to play down comments he made about the Oakland A's starter having not done much as a major leaguer yet. 

Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down.

Oakland Athletics pitcher lefty Dallas Braden threw the 17th ever perfect game (in the Modern Era) today against the Tampa Bay Rays, and the first one on Mother's Day.

It was the 2nd time the Rays had been thrown against a perfect game in less than a year. 

Braden, 26, was recently known for his comments on Yankee Alex Rodriguez stepping over the mound to get over to 1st base during a game.

Not anymore, as this game is added to history forever. 

One of my pet peeves with baseball analysis is when commentators discuss a team that just missed the playoffs and attribute their missing out on losing games in September.

Games count just as much now as they do in September, though.

Grade: A

Andrew Bailey (Athletics)

Bailey is one of only three closers (Broxton and Rivera) who have not given up a run yet.

He has just four saves on the year however, two of which came last week. Oakland’s closer gave up just one hit in 3.2 IP last week.

Heath Bell (Padres)

Bell has enjoyed the Padres success this year just as much as anyone else on the team.

During his pregame session with the media, before the Oakland Athletics took on the Texas Rangers, manager Bob Geren revealed that Justin Duchscherer "had an MRI and it said there's just some inflation" in his left hip.

So it goes in the mental and physical siege known as the Major League Baseball season.

You'll forgive Geren if one conversation bleeds into another, even if it is only May and the 162-game slate is less than 20 percent complete. I mean, can you really blame his subconscious for transposing the American economic plight with that of his charges?

Last year the Oakland A's made big noise in the acquisition of Matt Holliday. Unfortunately, it also meant that the A's gave up talent to the Colorado Rockies to get him and now that talent is doing so much more than Holliday did in an A's uniform.

This trade by far was the worst decision Beane has ever made for the A's. He gave up Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith, and Huston Street to bring Holliday over from the Rockies. Holliday didn't win many fans in Oakland with his lackadaisical play and his slow start to the season.

He eventually was traded on July 24th, 2009 to the St.