The Coliseum Across the Bay
The Oakland A's were really bad during my first three years at the University of San Francisco. This was circa 1977-79 when Charlie Finley had sold, lost or traded away all the great players from the dynasty and we were left with the likes of Wayne Gross, Mitchell Page, Mike Edwards and Jim Essian.
They weren't very good and by 1979 they lost 108 games. One night they had an official attendance of 564 fans for a game with the equally bad Seattle Mariners.
But it was Major League Baseball and you could do it all for $8.50. It was $1 for bridge toll, $2.50 for parking and $5 was the most expensive ticket. Most of my friends were Giants fans and had no interest in Oakland, so if you were by yourself, you could always buy a single ticket no more than 4-5 rows behind the visitors dugout.
I remember in 1978 they had an eight-game homestand with the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. Best I can remember is I went to seven of those games, which included complete game shutouts by Jim Palmer and Ron Guidry. Also got to see Catfish Hunter pitch for the Yankees.
Still can't understand why my friends didn't want to go. Yes, the Athletics were bad but Palmer, Hunter, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, Jim Rice, Thurman Munson.
Think I went and saw every American League team except the Rangers. Seriously. Not sure why I didn't see the Rangers.
Those same tickets now cost $44 and it's $15 for parking and $4 to get across the Bay Bridge. The Coliseum is different.
They call it MacAfee Coliseum instead of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum, which I thought was always a great name even when they put 50,000 people in there to watch the Bay City Bombers and Charlie O'Connell, the greatest roller derby star of all-time.
Now they have Mount Davis, which is the huge football structure in center field that they constructed to get the Raiders back. Now there are no more views of the Oakland hills beyond, just big green tarps over the football seats.
Remember going to an afternoon game at the Coliseum on a typically gorgeous Bay Area day and sitting in the bleachers. The Athletics were playing the Boston Red Sox and Carlton Fisk hit a long drive to left.
Rickey Henderson went back to the wall and disappeared from our view. At the last moment all we saw was his glove rise above the wall - remember Thing from the Addams Family? - and snatch the home run away. One of my all-time favorite catches.
Then there was Dwayne Murphy, who was a Gold Glove center field. Twice he went to the wall and went up to make a leaping catch. He would come down, hang his head dejectedly and walk back toward his position in mock disgust. Everybody thought it was a home run, then he would suddenly take the ball out of his glove and throw it back to the infield.
The great baseball announcer Lon Simmons was taken in both times and loved it.
The Athletics were bad and the Giants weren't much better. But it was Major League Baseball and aren't the college years supposed to prepare you for life?
I remember Billy Martin, taking virtually that same team and getting them to play fundamental baseball, Billy Ball it was called. Thurman Munson was my favorite player when i was growing up. I was a Yankee fan as they were always on TV. Usually on Monday Night on ABC and on Saturday on NBC Game of the Week. The Yankees are such a great organization. Eventhough they are struggling this year, they always aim high and have a tradition of winning. Eventhough most of you don't like Steinbrenner, no one can question his committment to winning. He does what it takes, pulls the trigger and isn't like the guy we have here. The Yankee Mystique. What do we have? Well we descend from the Washington Senators and have a long history of losing. Congratulations to us we are now officially the worst team in baseball. At least we are first in something. If Martin were still alive and were coaching the Rangers what do you think his response would be to the mess he would be in? In other words what would be his approach to managing this team? Besides, going to the bar and getting drunk.
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TR: while I love reading a nice literate blog like yours I admit to being occassionally unfaithful. I've discovered (with joy) Eleanor and today I read CJ Wilson's last missive. What a huge generation gap! Maybe that's illustrative of the problem between me and the young players of today.
My best friend runs an American Legion team up in Washington and has had a couple of pros come out of his program. We consistantly talk about how the kids have no idea of baseball history and do things that we would have labeled "bush" when we were young. The point is...how can we expect them to share our values on and off the field?
Well CJ if you're reading TR today...I think you're just "ballin" (I hope that means you're like cool baby.
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TR - Thanks for the memories. When the Rangers are going badly, it's fun to remember baseball things from the past. It helps me remember that it's baseball I love - and no matter how my team is doing, baseball is such a beautiful sport. Some of my favorite memories are from 1972. We went to see the All-Stars from the other teams. If the Rangers happened to win, it was all the better. I went to more major league games that year than any season before or since. Often a buddy of mine and I would be high up in the leftfield bleachers "broadcasting" the game into a cassette recorder. We sure were bad, but we had a fabulous time. These players today aren't this bad. Things will get better.
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TR, love the story about cheap baseball in oakland...it's amazing you were able to finish college with all of the distractions of the bay area. and as much as we ranger fans hate billy beane and his ilk, macafee coliseum is the only place i've seen a couple of fans dress in huge cardboard cut-outs, cartoonishly mocking the opposition from the nose bleed section...and also the only stadium where a random oakland fan i was sitting next to came back from the concession stand with an extra $8 beer for me...knowing i was a texas fan....as long as you don't sit near jennifer bueno's husband, it's a great afternoon game experience. and when the attendance is closer to that of a rough riders' game, you can sit almost anywhere you like...regardless of how much you really paid to get in.
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