Usually, sports analogies are used to explain life's lessons. So what do baseball managers use to explain sports lessons? They make an odd analogy to high school:

"It's like having calculus first period," (A's manager Billy) Beane said. "You are not real happy when the alarm goes off, but by second period it's already over and you are running off to wood shop."

So, for the Oakland A's, the Yankees are to calculus as the Mariners are to wood shop.