c x a's

nobody will be watching tonite's mulder-hudson matchup w greater interest - or heart - than the posters at athletics nation. palpable buzz at that url for a week-plus; loyalties divided roughly 50-50 between the two exes, near as i can tell. anyway, AN sure to be watching (and posting) so check it out. (oakland's own game tonight, btw, to be started by, who else, dan haren . . .)

add'l reading on the oakland rotation diaspora at cnnsi, where mulder is quoted thus: "I would not be the pitcher I am today without pitching with those guys. We pushed each other, in nothing but a good way, to be better. Nobody wanted to be the weak link, you might say. We all had our years when the other two outshined one of us. I became better because of it."

add'l quotes from both huddy and mulder in derrick goold's filing today at the p-d. and joe strauss examines the matchup of 2,000-win managers - a more historically significant showdown (1st since 1950), but overshadowed by the storybook pitching pairing.

redbird reasoning's series mini-preview also merits a look.