The A’s will always belong to Oakland
As a longtime Oakland A’s fan (who worked for the A’s for several years) yesterday’s game—the last they will play in Oakland—was especially hard. Here’s my piece in today’s San Francisco Chronicle.
The A’s will always belong to Oakland
This season the Athletics didn’t just play their last baseball game in Oakland. They played their last baseball game — period.
The players who will play in Sacramento and then in Las Vegas won’t be the A’s. That might be what the name on the jersey says. That might be how the box score reads. And that might be what club owner John Fisher wants to have happen. But Fisher owns only the rights to the logo. The soul of the A’s belongs to Oakland.
It belongs to the people who’ve rooted for the A’s their whole lives. It belongs to the fans.
It belongs to us.
And now all we have is memories. Memories of first dates, fireworks nights and parking-lot parties. Memories of Coliseum dogs, chocolate malts and bobbleheads. Memories of Rickey sliding into second headfirst, of the Bash Brothers belting grand slams. Memories of Stew’s alpha stare, of Eck’s victorious finger pointing, of Giambi’s rock-star hair. Memories of the Big Three — Hudson, Mulder, Zito — dominating as rookies. Memories of Bill King’s voice, of Ray Fosse’s passion, of Bob Melvin’s calming presence. Memories of Grant Balfour rocking out to Metallica, of “Let’s Go Oakland!” chants, of Stomper flopping around the field, of winning a ton of baseball games.
The Coliseum has been our oasis, our playground, our home. It’s now abandoned.
Orphaned.
Just like us.
Like all sports fans, we thought our future would be filled with the same Coliseum joys and pastimes as our past. We thought our kids, and our grandkids, would grow up there like we did — would learn the euphoria of winning and the sting of losing, just like we did. We thought, eventually, there would be more championships, more celebration parades through downtown Oakland. We thought we’d grow old with the A’s, with our team, with each other.
We thought it would never end. How could something so beautiful come to an end?
But it did. None of those things are going to happen. We get the past, not the future. We get only the memories.
And baseball will soon be a new, dazzling attraction on the Las Vegas Strip. But, again, it won’t be the A’s playing there, even if the uniforms happen to be green and gold. No, it won’t be the A’s playing in Vegas. It will be something else entirely. The A’s played their last game this season. In Oakland.
Mr. Fisher gets to keep the logo. It’s his. But the A’s will always belong to Oakland.
—William Cooper worked in the A’s locker room from 1998 to 2003. He is the author of “How America Works… and Why It Doesn’t.”