It isn't any accident that the Oakland Athletics have failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs the past four years. As Michael Lewis reveals in a lost chapter of his bestseller, "Moneyball," Oakland scrupulously works on developing groundbreaking methods for losing each October. How? Read this excerpt from Chapter 13: "Moneyball: The Art of Losing a Postseason Game,'' which may be added for the paperback edition.

	Eric Byrnes, right, didn't realize he hadn't touched home plate -- until Jason Varitek tagged him out.

Back in 1999, just a couple weeks after Billy Beane developed the technology for TiVO, the Oakland general manager realized that as innovative as he had been with building a great team on a non-existent budget, his Athletics still were missing an elusive ingredient they needed to become a true championship team. Duct tape might have solved the problem, but Beane wouldn't invent that product for two more years. So another solution was needed.

Thus, Oakland's player development department came up with "The Athletics Way to Play Baseball," modeled after the old Baltimore Orioles player manual. Under this system, every Oakland player from rookie ball to the majors underwent rigorous training every spring so that they would all react to every game situation in exactly the same way.

"It's grueling but necessary,'' third baseman Eric Chavez said. "After a lifetime of baseball games, you would think all this should be instinctive; but it's amazing how many fundamentals you forget every winter. Heck, I know I forget most of it by Memorial Day."

While other teams spend much of spring training stubbornly working on the same tired fundamental drills that were originated a century ago by John McGraw and Connie Mack, the Athletics realized through elaborate sabermetric models that new drills for the modern game would give them a substantial advantage over their richer rivals who were still rooted in the past.

"Other teams repeatedly drill infielders on how to properly execute a rundown,'' first baseman Scott Hatteberg said. "That's a waste of time. Everyone should already know how to do that at the major league level. So we don't worry about that here. Instead, we tell players exactly where they should stand in the middle of the basepath when they stop to argue with the umpire. I mean, Miguel Tejada didn't just choose to randomly stop 18 feet from home plate in Game 3 -- we work on that play over and over until we get it wrong."

Most teams work on sliding drills and think that's sufficient preparation for the season. The Athletics have an extensive series of Not Sliding Drills.

"They're real sticklers for this stuff,'' outfielder Eric Byrnes said. "We spend five-to-10 minutes on our fundamental drills at least once a week during spring training, unless something important comes up, like drawing teams for the NCAA tournament pool. In that case, we'll postpone the drills, but we always get to them later. Well, we usually do.

"Anyway, if you screw up a drill, boy, you hear about it. I remember messing up the 'Forgetting to Touch Home Plate' drill one day -- Yeah, I had made sure I didn't touch home plate, but I messed up and forgot to also tackle the catcher when his back was turned. Boy, was Macha pissed. The whole team paid the price for my screw-up. They shortened batting practice by three minutes and we weren't allowed to play our music very loud in the clubhouse that whole afternoon."

The Athletics aren't the only team that stresses taking pitches and emphasizing walks as a crucial part of on-base percentage -- Boston and Toronto also do that. But Oakland is the only team that takes that strategy to a whole new level with a batting-practice drill called "Taking a Called Third Strike."

"It's all part of the overall strategy of working the count," outfielder Terence Long said. "Yeah, you'll occasionally wind up striking out in a crucial, season-ending situation. But over the course of the season, your walk total is going to really be high."

The Athletics also aren't above stealing signs. Naturally, they aren't concerned with the traditional signs exchanged between a catcher and a pitcher. Instead, they study all their opponents for any evidence of disrespect. It was such tactics that allowed Tejada to realize that Nomar Garciaparra had insulted his sister during Game 4.

"It wasn't anything he said or did in particular; it was more like his whole body language," Tejada said after he pulled up short on a possible infield single to shout at Garciaparra. "Just the way he was carrying himself that at-bat screamed disrespect. And I won't tolerate that. I got thrown out, but I made my point. Trust me, he won't stand like that again."

"I know all this sounds like it's pretty far out there, but we have the statistical analysis that shows it will eventually pay off in the postseason," Beane said. "Besides, we don't have any choice with our budget. But give me another $50 million, and we could afford the Tom Emanski defensive videos."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.