It seemed that Tam spent more time flying between Cleveland and New York then he did on the mound during his first years in the big leagues. The Cleveland Indians picked him off waivers from the New York Mets in June 1999, the Mets took him back two months later, but Tam finally got his break when he was invited to the Oakland Athletics spring training camp as a non-roster invitee in 2000. Finally given a chance to show off his accurate sinker and 90 MPH fastball, the groundball specialist proved to be an effective setup man, leading the club in appearances while posting an astonishing 2.63 ERA. In 2001 he continued to control the middle and late innings of games, keeping his ERA near 3.00.
