here are my pictures from last night's event! :)

- waiting in line outside pyramid brewery. luckily it wasn't raining!

- the strikeout for troops banner hanging outside.

- a quick glimpse of swisher signing autographs.

- a quick glimpse of zito (with scary red eyes). darnit, i forgot to turn on the red eye reducer!

- look, it's eric byrnes!

- cc sabathia serving up some beer.

- swish and coco crisp serving some beer. well, swish was doing more drinking than serving.

- tony larussa!!

- zito making his thanks-for-coming-to-this-event and also his thanks-to-the-oakland-fans farewell speech. :(

- cc sabathia with his big smile! yay for bay area natives!

- look who showed up! i was surprised haren wasn't scheduled to appear since he lives in walnut creek but it was great he ended up stopping by!

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- while waiting in line for autographs, swisher caught my friend and i trying to take a picture of him. we were allowed to get one autograph per player.

- swisher is chatting with jerry rice!!

- barry sims of the oakland raiders!

- haren!

- cc sabathia!

- zito!

- tony la russa!

- a drunken swisher!

- jerry rice!

- coco crisp!

- byrnesie!

- i had the players autograph the thing they handed out when we got there. since haren was an unexpected guest and he was also at the autograph table, i added in a haren picture for him to sign next to. :)

- coco calling out the winning raffle numbers.

- swisher drinking some more.

- first live auction prize was an autographed guitar by the celebs at the event and four free lessons.

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- next auctioned prize was an autographed zito jersey off his back ... after he put it on. the female host was saying things like "this will be the last time you'll see zito in this jersey blah blah blah" and zito said he was feeling nostalgic. i wanted to cry. :(

- next auctioned prize was the strikeout for troops t-shirt off zito's back.

- guess who decided to replace the auctioneer at that point?

- drunken swish did a great job as auctioneer!

- next item auctioned off was an autographed jerry rice football.

- next item was a (BIG) shoe autographed by cc sabathia!

- the last item auctioned off was the sweaty strikeout for troops t-shirt off swisher's back!

- and yes, the shirt was really off swisher's back. =)

edit: my friend wanted me to add that she was the one who won the bid for the swisher shirt! $450!! (crazy!) she's broke now but very happy. :)

the event was a lot of fun and i'm glad all the money made is going to such a great cause. it was really cool seeing the non-A's players come out to support also! i think i'll have to cheer for coco crisp the next time he comes to oakland even though he's a red sock and i'll have to cheer for CC even though i can't stand that tilted cap thing he does!

the event also made me realize how much i'm going to miss zito. like every player, he's had his ups and downs throughout the six years with the A's but he, along with the other homegrown guys, always have a special place in my heart and it's going to be really tough seeing him in a different uniform. i wish him the best wherever he goes (hopefully not to a division rival OR across the bridge!) and i thank him for everything he's done for the A's.

happy holidays, AN!