A’s have long had an ace up sleeve in Gray

Oakland A’s pitcher Sonny Gray is one of those pitchers. In addition to having superb numbers, he also has the mentality to want to dominate when he is on the mound. I have to admit, my Gray knowledge is limited, but Sunday morning, as I drove home from visiting my mom in the Reno area, I managed to get the A’s-Cleveland Indians game on the radio as I drove through the mountains. I listened as Gray validated his All-Star selection from earlier in the week as he “shoved” against the Indians, holding them to just two hits and three base runners total as he made a Stephen Vogt two-run bomb stand up in a 2-0 Oakland victory.

Going into Tuesday’s All-Star Game, Gray was among the American League leaders in nearly every pitching category. His ERA of 2.04 is first in the AL, his 10 wins puts him in a tie for third, one win behind the leaders. His 108 strikeouts is good for 10th in the league and his record of 10-3 gives him the fourth-best win-loss percentage in the junior circuit.

Not bad for a guy one national talking head believed was no better than a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher. When Gray was called up early in the 2013 season and got off to a good start, ESPN’s Keith Law went on one of the local radio stations to talk about Gray. At the time, Law — who is in the “new school” camp of sabermetrics — said Gray could be a nice little player, but no better than a No. 2 or No. 3 starter.

What Law’s numbers fail to take into account is Gray’s will to win. This guy has been a winner at every level. You want to know what kind of baseball player Gray is? Look what he did for the Smyrna High-Tennessee football team in 2006 and 2007. As the starting quarterback, Gray led his team to back-to-back state titles. Certainly no easy feat, but one that certainly factored into his abilities on the mound.

Gray simply knows how to compete. When he is on the mound, he will do whatever it takes to get the out. Granted, having dynamite stuff certainly helps — he was still hitting 92-93 on the radar gun in the ninth inning Sunday — but so does having a tenacious mindset. The greats don’t like to be beaten — on a day, in game or on a pitch.

Gray still has a long way to go to be great, but he is certainly on the right path. It also looks like he could be a mainstay atop the Oakland rotation for years to come.

In an era where pitching wins have been pooh-poohed and winning an offensive Triple Crown is downplayed, it’s nice to see that the numbers don’t tell the entire story.

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While I may not be an expert in every sport, I do believe I have seen enough during my lifetime to make more than informed opinion on nearly any sports-related topic.

Such as this one: With her win of the Wimbledon championship Saturday, Serena Williams is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time. Granted, I don’t go back to the pre-Open days, when the major tennis championships were only filled with amateur players.

But I did come up during the Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert era, which transitioned into the Steffi Graf-Monica Seles rivalry and now on to Williams. Saturday, Williams, at the age of 33, won her fourth straight major championship — she won the 2014 U.S. Open and has since added the 2015 Australian, French and now Wimbledon titles to give her the “Serena Slam” — the term coined for holding all four titles over a two-year period.

But a win at the U.S. Open in late August-early September would give Williams the actual Grand Slam — winning all four major titles in one calendar year. Graf was the last to do it in 1988. A win at the U.S. Open would also pull Williams into a tie with Graf for most career major titles — and only two behind the legendary Margaret Court.

Right now, when most players are thinking retirement, Williams is at the top of her game. Her power in unmatched. She simply bludgeons opponents into submission.

I remember when Venus Williams, Serena’s older sister, was rocketing up the tennis ladder. After winning one of her early major titles, a reporter asked her father, Richard, about his eldest daughter.

Richard Williams went on to say, essentially, wait until Serena gets rolling, she’ll be better than Venus — and just about every other player.

Turns out father knows best.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com. You can follow him on Twitter@CheckkThissOutt.