Oakland drags ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ dance into A’s recent run of success

If you had told me the Oakland Athletics were channeling a so-bad-it's-good '80s movie that I watched way too many times as a kid on HBO, I would've immediately started on a photoshop of Yoenis Cespedes having a catch with Howard the Duck. But yes, this will also do. As our pal Casey Pratt of CSN Bay area reports, the A's have been doing a dance called the "Bernie" during a recent run that has vaulted the young team into the thick of the American League wild-cards chase. Based on a rap song that's based on the classic Andrew McCarthy-Jonathan Silverman vehicles "Weekend at Bernie's" and "Weekend at Bernie's II," the moves have, uh, helped revive an A's team that seemed destined for another year of doing its best corpse impression in the second half. Watch as the A's do the Bernie during a weekend win over the Yankees:

From CSN Bay Area:

It sure looks like it. And in a sign that my pop culture sensibilities probably need to move past 1989, it appears that a lot of kids have been doing the Bernie voodoo dance for the past few years (despite the fact that I'd never heard of it before Monday). Here's the Bonita High baseball squad doing it in its locker room back in 2011. And here's the Wofford men's basketball team celebrating its 2011 NCAA tournament berth with the Bernie. At any rate, now it has spread to Oakland where the A's have a chance to make it 2012's version of Milwaukee's Beast Mode or Texas' Claws and Antlers. But lest this go too far, let it be known that dragging the body of Charlie O. Finley back into the Coliseum for the playoff run would be in violation of several laws and local statutes. Locating a Howard the Duck costume for Tommy Milone to wear during his rookie hazing, however, is still perfectly legal (though perhaps it's still in similar bad taste).

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