Barber: A’s are Bay Area’s no-drama team

OAKLAND - The A's lost 4-1 on Sunday afternoon. They failed to complete a sweep of the Houston Astros, leaders in the American League Western Division. But they didn't embarrass themselves, either. The Athletics kept fighting against crafty pitcher Zack Greinke, kept throwing sliders against one of the best lineups in Major League Baseball.

In other words, the A's did what they do. They went about their business and played competitive ball.

Fifty miles northeast, in Napa, Oakland's other professional sports team (for at least a few months) was ears-deep in controversy. The Great Antonio Brown Helmet Saga, an entertaining sequel to the Great Antonio Brown Frostbite Saga, was like a compost fire that looked to have been tamped down, only to reignite on an otherwise normal afternoon at training camp.

This, of course, is the Raiders' new normal. They have attained soap opera status since the arrival of Jon Gruden. Last year, he traded the best player on the team and hired an offensive line coach with a history of violence. This year he has gone full Father Gruden's Reform School, signing Vontaze Burfict, perhaps the most penalized player in the NFL; Richie Incognito, and I don't even know where to begin here; and of course Brown, one of the top 10 players in football and one of the top 10 narcissists on the planet.

Gruden's message seemed to be: Controversy? Who cares? If we can go 10-6, it doesn't matter if our starting halfback is a chupacabra.

Other Bay Area sports teams haven't courted conflict quite like the Raiders, but the tabloids have found them anyway.

The Giants have been undermined by their management - principal owner Charles Johnson's donations to hatemongering political candidates, and team president Larry Baer's all-too-public altercation with his wife, Pamela. The 49ers have become a never-ending perp walk. Aldon Smith preceded Bruce Miller, who preceded Tramaine Brock, who preceded Reuben Foster, whose toxic relationship and bad decisions presented John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan with their first crisis in Santa Clara.

And the Warriors? Hoo boy. Coach Steve Kerr and general manager Bob Myers might be saints by professional sports standards, but the melodrama that followed Kevin Durant to Oakland, and achieved warp speed last season, might have justified its own TMZ spinoff.

Through all of it, the A's just keep plugging away. The closest they've come to a full-blown kerfuffle was 16 months ago, when catcher Bruce Maxwell allegedly pulled a gun on a pizza deliverywoman. He later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. I don't mean to minimize this incident, at all. It sounds weird and scary. But Maxwell was a marginal player in Oakland, and his transgression wasn't part of a pattern.

Beyond the Maxwell thing, what have the A's done to make the fan base cringe? A Mark Canha bat flip? Frankie Montas' PED suspension? Drawing up plans for a downtown gondola? It's all pretty tepid.

“I think I can speak for everyone in here, we appreciate coming to a clubhouse where there's not one guy that, you know, we don't get along with,” said Chad Pinder, who played right field for the A's Sunday. “It's a group. It's a team. And that's the God's honest truth. Like, there's not a guy on this team that everyone doesn't love.”

The question is how it happened. Certainly, it's a little easier to fly under the radar when you're not, say, the three-time NBA champion Warriors and everyone is picking through your business like stadium seagulls. And yeah, there's some luck to it. When you have a roster of 15, or 25, or 53 young men, it's probably only a matter of time before someone does something stupid.

But there is no denying that the A's organization has created a strong clubhouse atmosphere. The 49ers and Raiders have allowed raw talent to outweigh risk. The A's apparently have not.

“Part of what we do here, too, is we're trying to identify some guys that are gonna get along as a team,” manager Bob Melvin said. “And you know, it hasn't always been the case here. We had an incident a few years back where we had an altercation in the clubhouse.”

Ah, yes. Danny Valencia vs. Billy Butler. That was in August 2016. The A's seem much more cohesive now.

Every team I've ever covered talks about building a high-character environment. Doing it is harder, especially in the face of mounting pressure to win, and win right away. Pinder thinks the A's reputation helps them, though.

“Baseball's a fraternity,” he said. “People talk. Everybody knows everybody. If you have a reputation of not being a clubhouse guy, that will get out. I would think that may play a part in them signing people, for sure. The people who come to us, they go through our visiting clubhouse, you know? So they deal with people on our staff, just small things like that people may not think about.”

Team chemistry is a fickle pursuit, and not just in sports. But I'll say this, based on prior experience: When you are surrounded with responsible people, there's a greater likelihood that you, too, will act responsibly. I guess it's simple peer pressure. And it would seem to be especially powerful among wealthy young men.

“I think the biggest thing is just create an environment that you want to be part of,” A's relief pitcher Blake Treinen said. “Like, be the example that you want the environment to be. If you're gonna be a selfish teammate, then it's going to be a pretty nasty season. If you're gonna be a selfless teammate, then it'll be a lot better.”

Treinen doesn't put responsibility for this on the A's organization, or on Melvin. For him, it's about personal responsibility. If you're a professional athlete, handle your business.

“I think it just comes down to your core values,” Treinen said. “People change, but it takes a lot to change on the fly. If you're like a trade acquisition or even if you're a new sign in the offseason, it takes a little bit of time for the whole clubhouse to mesh around you.”

The interesting thing about the A's is that they are not a boring team, on or off the field. Ramon Laureano has enough flair for three men. Canha is fiery. Liam Hendriks and Khris Davis are clubhouse cut-ups. Brett Anderson, Sunday's losing pitcher, has a dry, acerbic sense of humor. The Athletics manage to tread the narrow path between staying loose and being dumb.

“I mean, you're not gonna have all choirboys,” Melvin said. “At the end of the day, you're playing as a team. And when the game starts, you might not like a guy. But when the game starts, you have to play as a team. We try to identify guys that play as a team.”

Even after Sunday's loss, the A's are 71-53 and 1½ games out of an AL wild-card spot. And they have had many days on the job since their last public humiliation. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sordid entertainment. But there's something to be said for the A's low-maintenance approach.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.