After 57 seasons in Oakland, the Athletics played their final home game at the Oakland Coliseum Thursday. All the emotions one could imagine—anger, frustration, sadness, nostalgia—were shared at the stadium and on social media.
National media cast a more critical eye at the situation, and a common theme emerged. Team owner John Fisher isn’t the only villain in the Athletics’ story.
The A’s will play at least the next three seasons in a minor league stadium in Sacramento as they await construction of a new facility in Las Vegas. Fans have blamed Fisher for several years for his decision to move the team. Chants of “Sell the team!” became common at A’s games.
But many in the national media pointed out that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and the other team owners were equally complicit in the situation. Owners voted unanimously last year to approve the relocation.
NBA insider Marc J. Spears posted a touching photo of a fan at the final game. The fan held a poster showing a photo of him at the A’s first Oakland game in 1968.
“Shame on you MLB, all the owners, the Athletics and most of all John Fisher and Rob Manfred,” Spears wrote. “Just ripped the heart out of an entire loyal to a countless fault fanbase. Despite all the hurdles placed in front of Oakland, a new stadium was ready to be built.”
ESPN MLB insiders Jeff Passan and Buster Olney likewise blamed other owners for what Olney called a “debacle.”
“The Oakland A’s were killed by greed,” Passan posted on X. “Do not allow the people responsible for this to spin it any other way. John Fisher did not have to move this team. Major League Baseball and its owners did not need to be complicit in it. This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.”
“What remains a total mystery is why the other owners in baseball stand by as the A’s debacle plays out, and they don’t do anything,” Olney wrote .
Other writers and analysts poured their efforts into eulogizing the historic nature of Thursday’s finale, which included appearances by many past Oakland stars, along with celebrations of past World Series championships. Anthony Recker, a former MLB catcher who grew up an A’s fan before playing two seasons in Oakland, reminisced about his time there.
“I got to play in front of the most passionate fans in the game,” Recker, now an MLB Network analyst, posted on X.
The Athletic’s Daniel Brown paid tribute to some of those past A’s greats, who will forever live on in Athletics lore … no matter where the team plays.
“No novelist would be audacious enough to give their characters names like Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Campy Campaneris, Blue Moon Odom, Shooty Babitt, Coco Crisp, Skye Bolt or Sonny Gray,” Brown wrote. “But it happened, even if there’s no happily ever after.”
[ The Athletic ]
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