Phillies Welcome A's Home to Philly, Announce Bevy of Roster Moves

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Remember that time there were two baseball teams in the city of Philadelphia? Yeah, me neither, that was a really long time ago.

The Philadelphia Phillies (47-29) will resume interleague play when they host the Oakland Ahtletics (34-42) for a weekend set at Citizens Bank Park. Tonight's first pitch is set for 7:05 p.m and will feature Vance Worley squaring off against Oakland's Guillero Moscoso.
The Phillies are coming off a tough loss last night to the Cardinals despite taking two of three at Busch Stadium and a very impressive ten of their last thirteen played. The A's, on the other hand, have been a bit more erratic. Though their record would seem to indicate they're struggling to tread water in the AL West, the A's have won six of their last eight, with victories including a sweep of the San Francisco Giants and the two losses coming in the form of back-to-back drops to the New York Mets over their last two games. Despite residing at the bottom of their division and below .500, they remain only six games back of the West-leading Texas Rangers.

For the Phillies, Roy Oswalt's back troubles have generated roster moves aplenty. The Phillies announced a handful of roster moves this afternoon, most notably placing starter Roy Oswalt on the DL after last night's back scare. It's being called lower back inflammation for now, and we don't know how confident anyone is that Oswalt will be back anytime soon, including Oswalt himself.

As such, Scott Mathieson has been recalled from Lehigh Valley, and Brian Schneider  activated from the DL, sending Dane Sardinha will back to the Iron Pigs.

Finally, JC Romero has been officially released. Hopefully a fresh start is in the cards soon, as there should be a few clubs interested in adding a lefty specialist.

Switching gears to address some of the local history mentioned at the top, though it's obviously been a while since the A's could be called "home town," we were able to dig up a few fun links for your amusement (one's from Wikipedia!). This link, for example, provides a bit of background on the former "City Series" played between the two clubs from 1903 to 1953, one year before the A's eventually departed for Kansas City before settling in Oakland. And here you'll find a history of Shibe Park, featuring a few pictures, a youtube video and some relevant statistics from the old "Connie Mack" (field dimensions, capacity, building costs, etc), while this final blue underline will take you to the official web page of the Philadelphia Atheltics Historical Society, a detailed site packed with all sorts of information historical junkees of our city and its relationship to baseball.

Pay no attention to those fools who claim "the wrong team left town all those years ago." Last time I checked, we don't share a building with Al Davis. On the other hand, I can't say I foresee Brad Pitt playing the role of a Phillies' general manager on the big screen any time soon. Come to think of it, who would play Ruben Amaro in a film? My vote is for this guy. Any other suggestions?

This Weekend's Pitching Matchups:
6/24  Vance Worley (2-1, 3.41) vs. Guillermo Moscoso (2-3, 3.30)
6/25  Cole Hamels (9-3, 2.51)  vs. Trevor Cahill (7-5, 3.24)
6/26  Roy Halladay (9-3, 2.51) vs. Josh Outman (3-1, 2.86)

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