"On his first night in the East Bay as a member of the A's, Ben Sheets enjoyed dinner and a show. The A's sprung for the former. He supplied the latter.

"Before dinner, he said he wanted to throw," A's manager Bob Geren said Tuesday, shortly after Sheets had been introduced to the local media. "I asked him, 'Before or after dinner?' He said after."

At some point between the appetizer and the dessert, it began to rain in Danville - hard enough to put a damper on the prospect of any kind of baseball activity.

"I said, 'You all right throwing in the rain?' " Geren said. "He said, 'Heck yeah. Are you all right catching in the rain?' "

If you happened to drive past Sycamore Valley Park on Monday evening, you know the answer to that question. There was Sheets, the A's free-agent trophy signing, engaged in a 15-minute workout with his new manager.

Pretty surprising stuff."