Last month, the Oakland A’s played their final game. As other teams returned home to their families from the long season or began to fight their way through the playoffs, the Athletics and the city of Oakland said their permanent goodbyes. At the end of their farewell season, the A’s finish with a record of 69-93, consistent with their struggles over the last several years. For the city of Oakland, the A’s departure is a painfully familiar feeling with the Warriors moving across the bay, and the Raiders having left for the second time, now for Las Vegas. These 3 teams have all been taken from Oakland in the last 5 years. Time and again, Oakland sports fans have shown up and demonstrated their loyalty, just to be left behind by the teams they’ve supported for generations. The A’s leaving Oakland isn’t just about a city losing its team, it’s about saying goodbye to a piece of the city’s heart.
The Philadelphia Athletics were founded in 1901 by owner and manager Connie Mack, as one of the 8 American League charter franchises. They would go on to win 5 championships: Back to back in 1910 and 1911, 1913, and then again back to back in 1929, and 1930. The team would leave for Kansas City in 1955 with nothing too notable to add about their time there (except for the fact that the one and only Satchel Paige was on their 1965 team), before moving to Oakland in 1968. They became known as the “Swingin’ A’s” under new owner Charlie O. Finley and won three consecutive World Series titles in 1972, ‘73, and ‘74. This era of Athletics baseball was led by many legendary players including Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter, and Reggie Jackson. When Finley sold the team to Walter Haas Jr, they would bring home three consecutive pennants, and the 1989 World Series. During this time, the A’s were driven by more legends including the “Bash Brothers”, Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire, as well as Hall of Famers Dennis Eckersley and Ricky Henderson, manager Tony LaRussa, and World Series MVP Dave “Smoke” Stewart. During the 2002 season, the Athletics set the record for most consecutive wins with 20. From World Series championships to iconic players, the A’s have a rich history that has cemented them as one of the most successful MLB franchises. Decades of milestones and unforgettable moments kept the fans hopeful and loyal, but this golden age of A’s baseball would soon end.
In 1995, Walter Haas Jr sold the team as he was in poor health, and what followed the sale was a slow decline which ultimately set the stage for the team’s departure from Oakland. For the next 10 years, the A’s belonged to Ken Hofmann and Steve Schott, the owner portrayed in the movie Moneyball. The two of them spent their decade of ownership making questionable comments to the media and consistently seeking opportunities to move the team. They cared more about the numbers on the back of baseball cards than the players on their field. The Kezar Stadium to Candlestick Park and Frank Youell Field, before finding their home in 1966 at the brand new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, or as we call it, The Coliseum. Two years later the A’s would join the Raiders in renting the Coliseum as their stadium. Sharing the stadium worked fine up until 1981 when Al Davis, the general manager of the Raiders moved his team to Los Angeles after unsuccessful attempts to improve the Coliseum. This move was very messy and chaotic, but the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995 with a promise from the city of Oakland and Alameda County that they would add luxury suites, and increase club seating which led to the controversial construction of Mount Davis, a steep section of seats added above the outfield, blocking the Oakland Hills, and creating a monstrous way to pay premium prices for nosebleeds. When Al Davis died in 2011, his son Mark took over and searched for a way to move the Raiders for real. In 2019, the same year the Warriors would move across the Bay Bridge, the Raiders moved to Las Vegas. Both teams have beautiful new stadiums, leaving the A’s as Oakland’s only professional sports team.
Remember earlier when I mentioned I would circle back to the 1989 World Series? It wasn’t until 1997 when the MLB implemented interleague play that the A’s and the Giants would meet in a regular season game. They would first meet in the 1989 World Series. It was the pair made claims that they couldn’t afford to sign players, and they didn’t. As the number in the wins column got smaller, so did attendance numbers. Joe Lacob (an absolute legend in the world of sports ownership) had a verbal agreement in 2005 to buy the A’s for $180 Million, but the team was instead sold for the same price to John Fisher and Lew Wolff. Wolff ended up selling his team shares to Fisher in 2016, giving him full ownership of the A’s
To fully understand the story, we have to talk about the Raiders. Today’s NFL’s Oakland Raiders started in 1960, as a charter member of the American Football League. Over the next 6 years, the Raiders would jump around from only time in history our Bay Area teams were playing for the World Championship, but during game 3, the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck San Francisco. On top of the destruction and disaster, a section of the Bay Bridge collapsed. The baseball world paused as the cities tended to their wounds. Ten days later the series would resume with the A’s sweeping all four games, and bringing home their last championship to Oakland. This legendary matchup would be the first of many in the Bay. Every year the series brings the most excited and passionate fans to the Battle of the Bay, and I was lucky enough to attend the last ever game with our (step?) sister team in Oakland. As a Giants fan, it was very bittersweet to say goodbye to such a legendary rivalry, and a special part of Bay Area culture. In the parking lot, Oakland brought the party as always, and once we were in the Ballpark, fans of both teams took the time to soak up the rivalry and celebrate our teams. As many people have experienced throughout this season, it was the hardest for me to drive away from the stadium. When former A’s broadcaster and current KNBR host Greg Papa talked about his experience on air the morning after his final game in Oakland he was very choked up “When I got in the car and drove away, it felt more like a funeral…Like closing a casket on your mom or dad,” he said as he bid his farewells.
Not just of the A’s, but fans all across baseball have joined the latest wave of fan activism in protest of John Fisher, and his move to Las Vegas. The day before the final series started in Oakland, Fisher released a letter to the fans. It stated that they had tried everything they could to stay in Oakland. He has been waiting for Oakland to build the A’s a new stadium so they can stay, but as a billionaire, he chose to stay behind the scenes and not take action himself. In 2006 he covered the entirety of the Coliseam’s 3rd deck, drastically reducing the capacity. Whenever a contract is due to a young player, Fisher trades them to get more money for himself and keep the A’s unsuccessful. Even if an MLB team in Oakland isn’t sustainable, the fans deserve better. And more, the players deserved better. In the two decades he has owned this team, he has spoken to the media once. Not even the local media, but Las Vegas media. During this press conference, he announced he would move the team there to a new stadium which will be built by 2028. This stadium will use $380 million in taxpayer dollars. Because no ground has even been broken on the site of the new ballpark, the A’s are forced to play in Sacramento, at the Giants AAA ballpark. If the team ever makes it to Vegas, they will be subjected to another soulless stadium, a tourist attraction, just like the Raiders.
Fisher has forced many of the food stands to close, taking jobs away from Oakland citizens. Head groundskeeper Clay Woods who was with the A’s for 31 years brought home from the final game the first-inning bats and a container of dirt as souvenirs of his life’s work. The hundreds of employees who have devoted decades of their lives to working in the Colesium and with this team are now out of jobs. After 16 years covering the A’s, Brodie Brazil was fired from hosting the pre and post-game show. So the final ever post-game show on Sept. 29 was prerecorded where Brodie and Dave Stewart attempted to cover a game whose outcome they didn’t know. Presumably, this was because the A’s feared they would call out the ownership, but instead, it was one final blow to the fans in Oakland trying to savor final moments with their team.
It’s been nearly 6 decades of A’s baseball in Oakland. It’s true for all sports fans that their team is a form of identity. In his letter, Fisher wrote that he wished he could speak to every single A’s fan. That is a big statement from a man who won’t come to a game. The final game played in Oakland was September 26, in front of a sell-out crowd. Fisher refused to take the tarps off of Mount Davis, so technically 20,000 more fans could have come. Instead, the tarps were removed the following morning. The game was called by Jenny Cavnar, the first female play-by-play announcer in MLB history, who in her first season learned to love Oakland and its team through the eyes of her partner Dallas. Dallas Braden, who grew up a lifelong A’s fan and got to play for his favorite team. He threw a perfect game on Mother’s Day in his beloved green and gold. After the A’s secured the win, Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” echoed one last time through the coliseum, Dallas was left speechless. The team took the field one final time to salute the fans with a heartfelt hat-tip. In one last moment of unity for the fanbase, Manager Mark Kotsay addressed the crowd in a stirring speech, leading the fans in one last emotional “Let’s Go Oakland” chant, a tribute to the city, to the team, and to the community who has shared this journey.
With all of the unknown for the future of the A’s, at least we know Oakland won’t be completely forgotten. The Oakland Ballers were added to the Pioneer Baseball League by two fans with a dream to keep baseball alive in Oakland. They are an exciting new addition to the city, and they are built off the idea that the fans come first. The Oakland Roots are a soccer team started in 2018 by Oakland Natives. They recently signed a deal to call the Colesium home starting next year, giving the fans of Oakland something to celebrate and cheer for. When the A’s played their last game with Oakland on their jerseys, fans traveled to Seattle to support their beloved team. When the team bus left T-Mobile Park that Sunday afternoon, a crowd of Oakland fans of all generations lined the sidewalk with green and gold, sold flags, and sent their team off with one final chant. As the bus disappeared into the distance, the last flicker of Oakland’s connection to the A’s faded, leaving behind only the memories of their team that will last a lifetime, and the loyal fans who stayed until the very end.
