I know it's a little premature to be talking baseball, especially with snow on the ground, but with the Major League Baseball winter meetings in full swing, I suppose it's appropriate.

With several moves imminent, I want to look at one that didn't involve making a big splash in free agency, but one that happened back in October.

I'm talking about the Oakland Athletics deciding to kiss and make up with Monroeville native Ken Macha.

It was originally reported that Macha and the Athletics were parting ways because they couldn't reach an agreement on a new contract.

Oakland even had a list prepared to replace him, but it couldn't let him get away.

The Athletics and Macha reached a three-year agreement.

In an age in sports where if you don't when championships you're out, the Athletics didn't play by these rules.

They appear to have been smart enough to realize that they had a good skipper.

Macha has been the manager since 2003, and the Athletics enjoyed instant success winning the American League Western Division in his first season.

The last two seasons, Oakland has finished in second, but with a combined record of 179-145 -- that's an average of 89.5 wins over the past two seasons.

And if you consider his first season in which the club won 96 games, he is averaging 92 wins per season.

You can't argue with results.

It's not like Oakland has a bunch of big-name players like the Yankees and Red Sox.

Actually the backbone of the team has been its pitching and it broke up the hurlers known as "the big three" (Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito) following the 2004 season.

Zito is the only one who remains and rumor is he is being shopped to other teams. Ken Macha appears to be a talented manager and it would have really blown up in Oakland's face had he gone somewhere else and been a success.

Even the greatest managers of all-time didn't win championships all the time. Just give him time -- with the development of younger players and a couple of offensive weapons,

Oakland could be ready to seriously contend for a World Series title in the near future.