OAKLAND — This season obviously has been a trying one for the A’s, but they’re finding creative ways to cope with it.
There’s a Zen-like theme permeating the clubhouse, from the incense that’s occasionally burning, to a locker that temporarily housed bamboo and a Japanese rock garden, to the bonsai tree that now sits by the dugout during batting practice.
A baseball clubhouse isn’t the first place that springs to mind when one thinks of Eastern philosophy. But the A’s have a group of players who have spent large chunks of time on the disabled list, rehabbing together and trying to keep the inactivity from driving them batty.