This past August I went to the Coliseum , the home of the Oakland Athletics. This stadium was the 29th stadium that I visited. It reminded me of Veterans stadium in Philly, for it too was a multi-purpose stadium of concrete and steel. The problem with Oakland was that the management has totally given up on this team, which is reflected by the product on the baseball field. At the game that I attended, the Baltimore Orioles smoked the A’s. The Orioles won easily (9-4). 70 percent of the people around me wore orange and black, rather than the home team. I sat in the front section. Barely 3500 people were at the Friday night game. I have seen more people at Double AA baseball game in Reading.
I did like the nods to the past successful Athletics teams, when I looked at old pictures, murals, and memorials to past greats. Oakland A’s have won 4 World Series titles; as Philadelphia Athletics, the team (founded in 1901) won 5. That is a grand total of 9 championships. The history highlighted at park was interesting to a baseball fan and reminds those of what once was.
Once upon a time the A’s were a force to be reckoned with. Nowadays, it is a shadow of what it was. The fans left had “Sell” tshirts on and even chanted Sell the team by the 8th inning, for they are sick of Oakland’s management, especially their unwillingness to spend money while still thinking Oakland tax payers will foot the bill for a state of the art stadium. The Oakland A’s will move once the stadium is built in Vegas in 2028 (if MLB approves the move). I am saddened by the state of baseball in Oakland. Oakland fans deserve a good competitive team, rather than one in the basement of baseball.
I did see fans in green, but it looked like they were there for the promotion (eg. Free Tshirts) rather than rooting for the team. It seems to me the San Francisco Giants (across the Bay) will rule the area in terms of baseball until things turn around in Oakland.
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