Tommy Everidge is an instant fan favorite. First, there's the whole "never even been to big league camp" thing. He hadn't even been added to the 40-man roster until yesterday. And then there he is, in Fenway, playing in a win against the Red Sox. Second, he didn't just play in a win, he was instrumental in it. Yes, he started his day with some mediocre ground outs and awkward swings, but he finished it in spectacular fashion, ripping a double off the Green Monster with two outs in the ninth against Jonathan Papelbon to continue an A's rally that eventually led to tying the game and then winning it in extra innings. The double, by the way, was maybe a foot shy of being a two-run homer. He ripped it.

Third, he's got the classic A's physique (think back to those glorious beer-league softball days, before the A's were actually good, but right when they were starting to make some noise: Jason Giambi, John Jaha, Matt Stairs). Susan Slusser's game story hilariously quotes Dallas Braden: "He looks like someone trying to smuggle the two largest kegs into a building under his T-shirt. He's a house. A one-story house, maybe, but a house." (Link.) I love Braden's specificity there: not just two kegs, but the two largest kegs.