NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.
September 26, 2024: The Oakland Athletics play their final home game. They beat the Texas Rangers, 3-2 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Former A's pitcher Barry Zito sang the National Anthem, and Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson, both Oakland natives and A's legends, threw out the cereominal first balls.
All game long, there were chants of "Sell the team!" and vulgar chants directed at team owner John Fisher. In the 9th inning, 2 fans ran onto the field, and were tackled by security. The game was delayed again by a smoke bomb thrown onto the field.
J.T. Ginn was the winning pitcher. The last play was Travis Jankowski, batting against Mason Miller, grounding out to 3rd baseman Max Scheumann.
The day before, Adolis García of the Rangers hit the Coliseum's last home run. The 1st game was on April 17, 1968, a 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Boog Powell hit the 1st home run, and Rick Monday hit the 1st for the A's.
Attendance at the finale was 46,889, pretty much every seat that was open to the public, without a tarp being put over a section. It was the largest crowd ever for a team moving away, although not the largest for a stadium finale: The Cleveland Indians got 72,390 for their last game at Municipal Stadium in 1993, before the now-Guardians moved to Jacobs Field, now Progressive Field.
Because the A's were a "lame duck" franchise, and had a 69-93 finish, attendance for the season was just 922,286, an average of just 11,386, worst in the major leagues.
Over 57 seasons, the A's
played home games in Oakland. In that time, they reached the Playoffs 21 times,
won the AL West 17 times, won the American League Pennant 6 times, and won 4
World Series: 3 straight, 1972, 1973 and 1974; and 1989.
They produced Hall of Fame players Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Rollie
Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson and Dennis Eckersley; and many other baseball
legends, including Sal Bando, Joe Rudi, Vida Blue, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Dave
Stewart, Jason Giambi, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.
But cheap ownership broke up good or even great A's teams in
1976, 1982, 1993, 2007, 2015 and 2022. Deals to build a new stadium at the Oakland Coliseum complex, at Howard Terminal closer to downtown Oakland, near the campus of Laney College (where the Raiders played from 1962 to 1965, before the Coliseum opened in 1966), in suburban Fremont, and in San Jose all fell apart.
After previous owner Charlie Finley threatened
to move them to Denver in 1978 and New Orleans in 1979, current owner Fisher, who had no respect for the City of Oakland or for baseball, decided
to move the team to Sacramento for the next 3 or 4 seasons, while a new
ballpark was built in Las Vegas.
The "Swingin' A's" were dead. Cause of death:
Greed. Fisher released an open letter, saying to fans, "We tried." Former A's pitcher Trevor May called him on his lie: "You love owning stuff, just not your actions."
Oakland has now lost teams in all 4 sports. The Oakland Seals, a.k.a. the California Golden Seals, only lasted from 1967 to 1976. Finley owned them for a while, too, dooming them. The Oakland Raiders played in Oakland from 1962 to 1981, moved to Los Angeles, moved back in 1995, and moved again, to Las Vegas, after the 2019 season. And the Golden State Warriors, who arrived in San Francisco in 1962, and moved to Oakland in 1971, moved back across the Bay in 2019.
The A's will spend the 2025, 2026 and 2027 seasons -- and possibly also 2028, depending on how the building of their Las Vegas stadium goes -- at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, across the Sacramento River from downtown, before joining their fellow former Coliseum renters, the Raiders, in Vegas.
It took until 2018 for the A's to start a team Hall of Fame, and they continued to induct players until 2024, their last season in Oakland.
From their 1972, 1973 and 1974 World Champions, they've inducted right fielder Reggie Jackson, left fielder Joe Rudi, 1st baseman Gene Tenace, shortstop Bert Campaneris, 3rd baseman Sal Bando, catcher Ray Fosse; pitchers Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Vida Blue and Rollie Fingers; and manager Dick Williams.
From their 1989 World Champions, they've inducted left fielder Rickey Henderson (who remains the only player elected from their 1981 American League Western Division title), right fielder Jose Canseco, 1st baseman Mark McGwire, 3rd baseman Carney Lansford, catcher Terry Steinbach; pitchers Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley; and manager Tony La Russa.
From their Playoff teams of the early 2000s, they've inducted 1st baseman Jason Giambi, shortstop Miguel Tejada and 3rd baseman Eric Chavez. Had they lasted longer in Oakland, I suspect they would have inducted each of that team's "Big Three" pitchers: Barry Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.
In addition, they've inducted Charlie Finley; Walter Haas, owner from 1980 to 1995; Roy Steele, public address announcer from 1968 to 2008; Steve Vucinich, the clubhouse manager for their entire tenure in Oakland; Keith Lieppman, director of player development from 1971 to 2024; and Bill King, broadcaster from 1981 to 2005. Fosse was also an A's broadcaster, from 1986 to 2021.
Jackson, Hunter, Blue, Fingers, Campaneris, Henderson, Stewart, Eckersley, La Russa and Haas have been inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF). So has Billy Martin, the Berkeley native who managed the "Billy Ball" A's from 1980 to 1982, including the 1981 Division title.
*
September 26, 2024 was a Thursday. These 8 other games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 10-1 at Yankee Stadium II. This game clinched the American League Eastern Division for the Bronx Bombers. It was a battle of aces: Gerrit Cole beat Corbin Burnes. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Alex Verdugo each hit home runs -- their 58th, 27th and 13th, respectively, on the season.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Washington Nationals, 7-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.
* The Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 7-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. The South Siders scored all 7 runs in the 5th inning. Chris Flexen (5 hits over 6 1/3rd innings), Gus Varland (2/3rds without a baserunner) and Jairo Tirarte (1 hit over 2) combined on a 6-hit shutout.
It was the Pale Hose's 39th win of the season, against 120 losses. They had already broken the American League record for losses in a season, and would finish 41-121, setting a new standard for the most losses by a major league team since 1899.
* The Miami Marlins beat the Minnesota Twins, 8-6 at Target Field in Minneapolis. In the top of the 13th inning, a double by Otto Lopez and a 2-run single by Griffin Conine gave the Marlins the lead. The Twins could only get 1 run back in the bottom of the 13th.
* The Colorado Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-8 at Coors Field in Denver.
* And the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
There was 1 college football game: Army beat Temple University, 42-14 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, where Temple groundshares with the Philadelphia Eagles.
And there was 1 NFL game: The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants, 20-15 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.
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