Bye Bye Oakland A’s

Faithful Oakland A's fans – I counted myself one of them — kept hoping until the bottom of the ninth inning that Andujar, Langeliers or someone else on the squad might hit a towering home run, tie the score and send the game into extra innings. Then perhaps the ghosts of Ricky Henderson, Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers might smile down on the Coliseum and on the beleaguered As who are bound for Las Vegas via Sacramento. The ghosts of the past might help them squeak out a win. But that was not to be.

I didn’t go to the baseball game on the first Saturday in July expecting the As to win. They were enjoying a losing season, though enjoying might not be the right word. They were at the bottom of the standings in the American League West, and the Baltimore Orioles, who they were battling, were at the top of the standings in the American League East, a few games ahead of the Yankees who were on a losing streak.

Sometimes you just have to go with a loser for sentimental reasons or because you root for the underdog and lump it. That’s the way it can be in sports and in politics and that’s the way it was at the battered Coliseum which looked like it had seen far better days. My pal Greg and I had good seats, right behind home plate. We paid $90 each, but the seats didn't afford us a good view of the batter’s box, perhaps because the seats weren’t sufficiently distanced apart from one another or because we just happened to be seated behind a few tall guys who wore goofy Orioles hats and jerseys.

The stands were packed with Orioles fans. The stadium has over 60,000 seats. Only about 9,000 were occupied. Oakland seems to have given up on the As. I enjoyed the game, though the As defeated themselves. As players committed three errors that led to Baltimore runs. Bad throwing, bad catching, perhaps bad coaching and lousy team spirit. It looked as though the As didn’t really care about the 2024 season, though their fans never gave up on them.

Still, by the end of the second inning there seemed to be little doubt that the As were going down to defeat. I had a hot dog with lots of mustard. Greg sipped a cola, fans next to me devoured fries buried in ketchup. Everyone in the stands stood for the seventh inning stretch, everyone stood for the national anthem and everyone sang, “Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd.” The patriotic fans, just a day after the Fourth of July, seemed to believe that “our flag was still there.”

It took me two hours to reach the ball park on public transportation and two hours to get home by public transportation. Just before I boarded a BART train for San Francisco, Greg asked, “Are you afraid to be out at night in your neighborhood?’ I said “No, but I’m not out after ten p.m.” I arrived at Ocean Beach after ten and I was a tad afraid; a couple of guys were going through garbage cans on my street. Not to worry. I turned the key in my gate, went inside my apartment and knew that the whole day had been well spent. Oh, yes, the final score was 3-2. Can't forget about that fact.