Saying Goodbye to the Coliseum

The city of Oakland has suffered three major losses over the past five years, with the Warriors moving to San Francisco in 2019, the Raiders to Las Vegas the following year, and now the Athletics, who will spend three years in Sacramento before joining the Raiders in Sin City in 2028. As such, I thought it worth a trip to the West Coast to say goodbye to the Oakland Coliseum, a stadium I have visited many times over the years. I flew to SFO from JFK (more on that in a separate post) and took BART to the Coliseum. I was happy to see a free bag claim so I didn't have to carry my backpack into the ballpark.

Since moving stateside, I have become friends with Tike, a season-ticket holder who has introduced me to many of his buddies who sit in the rightfield bleachers. It is fun to sit with them during the game, though all I can do is empathize with their unfortunate situation. Banners, t-shirts, hats, and other paraphernalia with SELL on them were found throughout the ballpark. 

The A's are still trying to make the ballpark a fun experience for those that do attend, maintaining the amenities such as the Treehouse and Stomping Ground in the outfield and the Shibe Park Tavern on the main concourse. Ushers and staff are very friendly, though you can sense the underlying sadness that this part of their livelihood will be gone in a few months.

The Athletics have a proud history, not only here in Oakland, but also in Philadelphia and Kansas City. So I suppose that having the franchise move yet again is not a complete surprise. 

To be fair, the area around the Coliseum has really gone downhill lately; I stayed nearby and the short walk over has become very unpleasant. There is no doubt that the Coliseum is no longer a major league stadium, but the options to build elsewhere in Oakland were reasonable, but ultimately failed. I haven't followed the saga closely, but most A's fans blame owner John Fisher, who seemed to use Oakland as a bargaining chip and nothing more, with the tacit backing of MLB.

For this farewell tour, I saw four games: two against Seattle and two against Toronto. The A's won the over the Mariners 2-1 as I sat with Tike and his friends, and then they were shutout 3-0 on Thursday afternoon as I wandered the stadium from section to section.

On Friday evening, clad in my Blue Jays gear, I again sat in the bleachers and watched as Chad Green gave up a first-pitch bomb to JJ Bleday in the bottom of the ninth as the A's won 2-1. Tike even requested a first-pitch bomb and Chad Green delivered. 

Realizing that my presence in the outfield was a good sign for Oakland, I spent Saturday afternoon in the other seats and enjoyed the game as the Blue Jays won 7-0 behind a CG shutout for Kevin Gausman. Not only was it his first shutout in 272 starts, but his first 9-inning complete game! Glad I was there to see it.

In the end, the A's scored four runs in four games and managed to win two of them. The game times were 2:14, 2:35, 2:07, and 2:27, which made the trip all the more enjoyable. Oh, and there are few pictures because my phone died on the first night and I didn't bother finding a replacement until I got home.

Best,

Sean