Baseball in the Bay

I'm in San Francisco attending both a conference and class this week.  Conference begins Sunday evening.  After sitting and passing a two hour certification exam Sunday morning, I ventured out on BART at noon to watch the Oakland A's host the Baltimore Orioles.  The sun was out in full force and an afternoon spent basking in the sun was quite enjoyable.  My seat was close to the field and I withstood all temptations to try any of the potentially heart stopping fare.

Oakland beat Baltimore in a very exciting game 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth.  Tomorrow night, Oakland hosts the Angels.  Hard to believe it has been 40 years since the A's dominant run in '72-'74.  I remember those years quite well.

Even though the conference is focused on a particular software product, Billy Beane (GM for Oakland) is giving one of the keynotes at the conference.  I imagine he'll be discussing the power of data mining in the context of "Moneyball."