When the A's left the Bay Area for nine games against Tampa Bay and Cleveland, we at A's Brand Baseball wrote:

Such a break from major league competition could be just what the doctor ordered . . .

We were right, too: those games against the A's really helped out the Devil Rays and Indians. Until Monday night's 11-inning comeback win over Tampa Bay, the A's had lost 9 games in a row; it was their second losing streak of at least 8 games this month. They've looked lost at the plate, bored in the field, disappointed on the mound and sad in the dugout.

A's Brand Baseball was preparing to propose, modestly, a cure for what ails the A's: bring back the 1971 yellow jerseys. We'd written a whole thing about Oakland in the 70s, about Reggie and Catfish, about Huey and Bobby, about Sugar Pie DeSanto and Tower of Power, even about Madden and Biletnikoff and Art Shell. About tearing down Mt. Davis, opening up the view of the hills and letting the sun cook some rowdy back into the bleachers. About more-or-less-police-sanctioned joint-smoking sections at Warrior games. The idea was, simply put, to import some of that era's funk, and see if any of it rubbed off on Chavez's bat or Blanton's arm.

Recent events have given us a better idea, though, which has the benefit of being nostalgic for stuff we can actually remember: Bring back Rickey.