A Final Trip to the Coliseum

Farewell A’s; Thanks for the Memories

Unlike many of the great readers and fans of Athletics Nation, I am neither a Bay Area native nor am I a lifelong Oakland Athletics fan. I grew up in New Jersey and moved to South Florida as a teen with my parents. The A’s first seriously blipped my radar screen when they beat my Mets in the 1973 World Series. I was eleven and knew three things for sure; they were really good, they were fun to watch, and they had the coolest uniforms on the planet. The seed was planted. In 1999 I moved my young family to San Jose. That first year, I brought my daughter to her (and my) first A’s game. We were hooked.

Today I stepped foot in the Oakland Coliseum for the final time. And as it was so many times during these past twenty-five seasons it was with my daughter. She was seven the first time and turns 33 tomorrow. We’ve gone by ourselves. We’ve gone with friends. We’ve gone with family. We’ve gone with co-workers. She’s gone without me a few times and I’ve gone without her. But as we sat there today in a perfect day for baseball Bay Area Day, we decided that one thing remained the same each game. We had a wonderful time.

The fans there are kind, friendly and knowledgeable. There’s none of the pretense that goes with the beautiful stadium across the bay. This team has a young core that will be very good one day.

As I bit into my final coliseum dog my anger started to stir again (or was it indigestion). This team, as maddening as they can be, has become an important part of my life. I enjoy going to the games with family and friends. I love covering the games for the AN community. And I feel terribly for the fans that have a longer and deeper history with the A’s than I do. Greed is ripping the team away from this town. And that’s wrong.

I’ve been to better stadiums, but I don’t think I’ve had a better time.