Athletics Earn Emotional Victory Over Rangers in Farewell to Oakland
The Oakland Athletics have officially said goodbye to a place they’ve called home for 57 years.
Before they did, the team gave their loyal fan base one final celebration at the Coliseum on Thursday, winning their final home game in Oakland, 3-2, over the Texas Rangers to take the three-game series.
The A’s played in front of a sellout crowd of 46,889 fans, many of whom camped outside the stadium for hours ahead of the 12:37 p.m. local start time. Once they entered, the energy mirrored a playoff atmosphere from start to finish, creating an electrifying environment in the lead up to the first pitch.
Prior to the game, the franchise honoured a legacy that dates back to 1968, as Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart threw out ceremonial first pitches while former ace Barry Zito sang the national anthem.
Once the final contest in Oakland began, the A’s jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the third inning following JJ Bleday’s RBI on a fielder’s choice, followed by Shea Langeliers’ sac-fly. They added another run in the fifth courtesy of Bleday’s run-scoring single, taking a 3-0 advantage.
In support of that offence, right-handed starter J.T. Ginn stymied the Rangers’ lineup across five scoreless innings, retiring 15 of the first 19 batters he faced. He ran into a bit of trouble in the sixth, allowing a pair of runs on two singles and a walk, but T.J. McFarland extinguished the fire in relief to preserve their lead – one they wouldn’t surrender.
“I’ve never been to a World Series before, but I feel like today is one of those days that you can kind of experience the emotion of that,” manager Mark Kotsay told reporters Thursday, including MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos. “The magnitude of it, driving in today and seeing the fullness of a parking lot and feeling the energy and emotion, that’s something I’ll treasure for the rest of my life.”
A’s closer Mason Miller recorded the final four outs without allowing a base runner to reach, unloading consecutive fastballs – one at 103.8 mph and the other at 103.5 – to strikeout Travis Jankowski to secure a heartfelt victory.
Heavy emotions quickly set in for everyone in attendance after that final strike, especially for Kotsay, who first arrived in Oakland as a player in 2004 – playing four seasons with the franchise – and is wrapping up his third year as the club’s manager.
“It was difficult,” Kotsay said. “Today was an emotional day all around, from the time I drove in to right now. I’m still kind of reeling right now. … The speech comes from the heart. I’m as much an Oakland A as a Major League player and manager, because this is where home began and this is, hopefully, where home finishes.”
“I couldn’t be more proud to represent this organization on this day and being able to honour it in the way that we did with a win.”
A’s players and coaches poured onto Rickey Henderson Field once the final out was recorded, tipping their caps to the crowd to express appreciation for their support. Shortly afterwards, everyone joined in on a “Let’s go Oakland” chant, followed by an emotional speech from Kotsay.
After the season concludes, the A’s will play every home game for at least the next three seasons in Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, the home ballpark of the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. From there, the franchise hopes to eventually move into a newly built stadium in Las Vegas ahead of the 2028 campaign.
But, the team has yet to break ground on a 35-acre site that once was home to the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel and casino, which is scheduled for demolition next month.
The A’s will wrap a bow on this season following a three-game series versus the Seattle Mariners, beginning Friday at T-Mobile Park.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @Hall_Thomas_
Photo: Quintin Soloviev. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.