Sean Manaea shares details on Oakland’s incredible golden trident, which is awarded to the player of the game after each A’s win.
- Programming note: Watch the full "All A's" interview with Sean Manaea on Saturday, June 26 after "A's Postgame Live" at approximately 10:30 p.m. on NBC Sports California.
The Athletics’ “Ride the Wave” mantra first was coined by pitchers Chris Bassitt and Jesús Luzardo as the team was riding their 13-game win streak at the beginning of the season, but they had to solidify it with a prop.
That’s when the life-sized trident was purchased on Amazon by starter Sean Manaea, and the timing of its delivery was just impeccable.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
“[Bassitt] kind of saw it -- I think we had talked about it as being, you know, the ‘rider of the wave’ back when we were on the winning streak when everything was just working,” A’s starter Sean Manaea said on the latest episode of "All A’s."
“I thought it would be cool to have something for player of the game and it shall be known as ‘Rider of the Wave.’”
It had been talked about for a bit, and the team wanted to dedicate it to the player of the game. After a little online searching, it was done.
“We started talking about tridents,” Manaea added. “We looked on eBay and found it on Amazon, and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is perfect,’ so I just typed in ‘medal trident,’ and that thing came up, and the next week it was there.”
Athletics
Find the latest Athletics news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
RELATED: Braden explains why MLB substance crackdown was poorly timed
The timing for delivery couldn’t have been better.
“It was just kind of perfect,” Manaea said. “I had just opened it on the day Bass threw his complete game so it was fitting that he got it the first night.”
Bassitt threw his first complete-game shutout on May 27. It was a tear-filled occasion as it sunk in for him what had just occurred across nine frames, but he evened it out posing with the trident during his postgame interview.
The trident set Manaea back about $400 and some change. Was it the best $400 he’s ever spent?
“Yeah, by far,” Manaea said. “You can’t put a price on fun.”