Last season, one of the better guys to talk to after a game was always Tommy Everidge. The guy has a great sense of humor, and though he keeps his cards mostly close to his chest, when he decides to play up, he’s hysterical. The Canadians DJ used to play the Mario Brothers theme song whenever Everidge got a hit, because Tommy had a tendency to run like the Super Mario character on the Nintendo video game system, and rather than get rattled by that, he’d play up to it and do a little Mario dance, which is the sign of a class act, in my opinion.

And he can hit the ball too.

Tommy has struggled early this season with the Kane County Cougars in high-A ball, which may be down to the Oakland coaches talking of putting him in the outfield eventually. Higher-ups in the Oakland organization told me last season that they had other 1B prospects in the rookie ball system that they rated higher than Everidge, but those guys will have to be something to match the fight evident in “T-Mobile”, who could always be counted on to battle to the final pitch.

Anyhow, this past week, “Mario” has been heating up in Kane County, and he actually hit for the cycle in a game, driving in the winning run with his cycle-completing triple in a 10-9 victory for the Cougs. You can read what Scout.com had to say about it here.

In the same passage, Vancouver Canadians player Haas Pratt got a nod for his first week in a C’s uniform:

Haas Pratt : The A’s 30th round 2004 draft pick got his 2005 season off to a good start this week. He hit .347 and he scored nine runs, but what was most impressive about his week of work was the three homeruns he hit and the seven runs he drove in for a Vancouver team that got off to a solid 5-1 start. Pratt spent the 2004 season with the A’s Arizona Rookie League team and hit only one homerun in 35 games, so he is already well on his way to a career season.

It’s good to be a C’s fan right now. Here’s hoping it continues!

PS: The scoop on this information was found at AthleticsNation.com, the first place to look for info about the A’s organization.