The A’s said goodbye to their Coliseum home.
Thursday afternoon, the Oakland Athletics played their final game in Oakland, and it was the end of an era. The A’s have not always been an Oakland-based team (they started in Philadelphia before heading to Kansas City), but they’ve been in Oakland since 1968. Now, mismanagement and other frustrating motivations will see them move to Las Vegas… eventually. First, they’ll head to Sacramento.
A nice bonus, they won their final home game of the season.
The end of the Coliseum era has people sharing a lot of thoughts, so here’s a lengthy list of people putting in their two cents.
- The FanGraphs staff shared their memories of the now-retired stadium.
- Martin Gallegos looks at player reaction to the final win at home.
- Stephanie Apstein looks at how fans celebrated and grieved.
- Tom Dierberger shares Mark Kotsay’s farewell speech. And Barry Zito singing the national anthem.
- Karl Rasmussen looks at how the MLB world vilified John Fisher after the final game wrapped.
- Jane Lee shares her personal A’s story. (The Athletic subscription required)
- The Athletic Staff compiles a retrospective on how A’s fans are mourning. (The Athletic subscription required)
Now on to the rest of today’s links!
- Jay Jaffe offers up the strongest positions on AL postseason contenders. And the worst positions on NL contenders.
- Mark Feinsand looks at how Billy Bean’s legacy is striving to make baseball more inclusive.
- Not sure what the postseason picture looks like, this handy link will help.
- A young fan is filing suit to stop the sale of Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball. Story by Patrick Andres.
- Dan Hajducky reports that a judge denied the suit.
- Madison Williams shares how Charlie Blackmon celebrated with his parents following his retirement announcement.
- The White Sox might have overshadowed this other dismal season.
OFFICIAL: The 2024 Angels now have the most losses in franchise history.
In a week meant to highlight White Sox futility, it was the Angels that collapsed in front of a national audience.
They were swept, punctuated by a 7-0 defeat.
A terrible season has its defining moment.
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) September 26, 2024
- On that note, Ron Washington has clarified his comments about the quality of Angels’ players. Story by Patrick Andres.
- The White Sox also managed to temporarily delay loss 121 by sweeping the Angels at home. Story by Jesse Rogers.
- Dan Szymborski wonders which teams are best equipped for the postseason.
- Jason Beck looks at the mindset that is helping the Detroit Tigers become this postseason’s most unlikely underdog.
- And speaking of, Karl Rasmussen shares Jason Benetti’s incredible call of the Tigers’ Wednesday comeback win.
- Jason Foster looks at another incredible feat on the horizon for Shohei Ohtani.
- Ah yes, who could imagine a team in Oakland.
Major League Baseball is on record of saying it wants to expand to 32 teams at some point in the not-too-distant future. I’m not sure you can convince me that there are two other markets better than Oakland.
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) September 26, 2024
- Davy Andrews wonders how the Royals were cursed.
- Ben Clemens assesses the possible difference makers of the NL postseason.
- Ann Rogers looks at what is inching the Royals closer to the postseason.
- Wander Franco will be going to trial in the Dominican. Story by Patrick Andres.
- Ken Rosenthal looks at which managers are likely to be in the hot seat this offseason. (The Athletic subscription required.)
- What other teams should just add their City Connects to the regular rotation? (ahem, Nationals.)
Major Red Sox uniform news:
The Red Sox will unveil a City Connect 2.0 uniform in 2025 and will no longer wear their blue alternate jerseys.
Given the popularity of the yellow uniforms, they have elected to keep it as a core uniform offering for the foreseeable future.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) September 24, 2024
And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.