The Outstanding A's Are Lacking In Both Payroll & Fan Support

Entering Tuesday, the no-name Oakland Athletics are a very surprising 80-60, while competing in a key series against the Los Angeles Angels. Amazingly, the A's are only three games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West and are currently atop the American League Wild Card race.

On opening day of the 2012 season, the A's possessed the lowest payroll in baseball, coming in at around $49 million. Compare that to the New York Yankees, who owned the highest MLB payroll, tallying a whopping $195 million.

In their own division, Oakland is competing with the bigger market Angels ($154 million payroll) and the Texas Rangers ($120 million payroll).

The A's run is even more remarkable, when considering that Oakland plays in one of the worst stadiums in professional sports, in front of generally low attendance. In fact, the A's are second to last in baseball, drawing only about 20,000 fans a game.

Someone should tell the people of Oakland how good of a story their team is putting together this season.