No Joy In Mudville

It’s fair to say that I am a fan of baseball.

Living south of San Francisco for seven years, it was inevitable that the Giants would be my team of choice growing up there. How could it not be else with the glory days of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry, and so many more? Even managed to enjoy a few games at Candlestick Park then. From the upper deck on the third base side as the afternoon fog rolled in from Daly City.

In the summer of 1969, a bunch of us from our neighborhood organized into a team that had more in common with Charlie Brown than the Giants. We did manage one win, on a walk off walk, of all things. We may have been short of talent, but we all loved to play the game.

But moving to the East Bay in June of 1970 was much more than just relocation. It brought a new fandom, for the Oakland Athletics baseball team. The A’s were a different bunch. Their owner, Charlie Finley, set the pace as he was different from many team owners of the era. Much more a hands on guy than many others, always looking for something to differentiate his team from the rest of the league. In the Kelly Green and Gold uniforms, with white shoes, this was indeed different than the standard home whites or road grays worn by other teams. Even to the point of orange baseballs tossed around the field between innings, and girls in hot pants to retrieve errant foul balls. What was not to like? I gained an interest listening to games on a small transistor radio, listening to Monte Moore, with commercials for such local businesses as Fitzpatrick Chevrolet in Concord as sponsors of the broadcasts.

I don’t specifically recall my first game at the Oakland Coliseum. A notable exception was a pair of Saturday and Sunday games, where the first was a Boy Scout Day with seats in a second deck box behind the third base foul pole. The second was Bat Day, where kids got their choice of baseball bats dyed a deep green. Somewhere I still have mine, stored away.

The addition of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) trains from the Diablo Valley into Oakland and the Coliseum Station meant easy access to the Oakland Coliseum complex. When service opened in 1973, it meant a relatively short ride from home in Walnut Creek to the ball park. I managed to catch the second to the last home game that year with a friend, riding the train there and back. We even stayed after the game and got some autographs from several of the A’s players.

Over the years that followed, I took in a fair number of games. And to be fair, the Giants were not abandoned in my baseball fandom. The highlight of the summer of 1976 saw me take in a game as Candlestick from the radio broadcast booth, as Lon Simmons and Al Michaels called a game one afternoon. All part of my internship at KSFO (560 on your AM dial), one of Gene Autry’s Golden West Broadcasting stations.

Through the 80’s and 90’s, I managed to take in games from time to time on both sides of the Bay. Good times with great people. Things took a turn in a great direction as friend Ken Mitchroney took on the role of cartoonist, drawing the A’s mascot Stomper. Often Ken would have extra tickets and offered the opportunity to enjoy an afternoon or evening at the ballpark. Frequently, those games started with a meal and beverages in the West Side Club before we would head down to our seats for the rest of the game. Another tradition was the 7th Inning chocolate ice cream frozen malt, purchased rock hard in the 5th Inning, to defrost and become edible by the 7th. I had enjoyed these malts, ever since the days of football at Stanford Stadium starting in the late 60’s. The best were produced by Carnation, but even other purveyors were always enjoyed.

Ken had previously been the cartoonist for the Baltimore Orioles, and invited me to join him one year for the home opener in Baltimore, complete with his artwork of the Oriole’s Fun Bird projected giant size on the Camden Yard Warehouse. A truly memorable time with great baseball and even better food.

Thanks to Ken, I have managed to enjoy baseball from seats all over the Coliseum. Not to mention visits on field before a game, the press box, the third base field box, even the Diamond Level behind home plate, one Easter Sunday evening. Ken even managed to get seats fro much of the 2002 20-game win streak. I enjoyed that 20th win from a team box on the third base side. (Which will lead to another part of the story…)

There were plenty of other games as well with family, friends and co-workers where we sat all over the place. Plenty of third deck seats competing with the seagulls. Even a game viewed from a top Mount Davis. (The so-called addition to the outfield side of the Coliseum to placate Raiders owner Al Davis with more capacity and more luxury boxes to sell to happy fans at inflated prices. It ruined a great view of the Oakland hills in the process.)

Thanks to Ken, I got to bring my wife, Michele, to games and she became a fan as well. She adopted a favorite player, third baseman Eric Chavez, and even added a few shirts and a copy of one of his jerseys. When the opportunity to spend a night as an extra at the Coliseum during the filming of “Moneyball”, we both took advantage of it. We sat in five different locations that long cold night all around the stadium including the Diamond Level. The real reward came when we saw the film in the theater and appeared on screen briefly, directly next to co-star Jonah Hill during the 20th Game sequence. Immortalized as true Oakland A’s fans.

For the sake of disclosure, I spent the 2005 Major League Baseball season as a contracted employee of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. I provided technical support for their new MLB TV product, which allowed fans to watch all out of market games from their computers. It was a new thing with live games being streamed over the Internet. And no surprise either that the fans of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were the most vocal and numerous among subscribers. Before that season, I was more of a fan the game. Afterwards, I understood better how MLB was a business and that profit was what it was really al about. Fans were less important than the revenue they generated. If a subscriber canceled due to dissatisfaction with the product. there were three new subscribers to replace them. To be honest, MLB TV was a big step forward in streaming content online, complete with all of the stumbles along the way. But the way in which customers were handled, it wasn’t a shining moment.

Fast forward to 2024.

The ownership of the Oakland A’s has for some time been more concerned with real estate development rather than baseball. It has not fielded a competitive team in years, and has sold off any talent the organization has acquired rather than pay salaries worthy of good ball players. When the announcement came that the A’s were leaving Oakland for elsewhere, it really was no surprise. Through all the schemes advanced for a new stadium location, the real estate development component was what ownership most wanted. The fan base has always been tight in and around Oakland. They have stuck with it, showing their support. But when it became obvious that that support mattered less to ownership than real estate, things changed. In a story right out of another baseball film, “Major League”, ownership raised prices and lowered quality all over the Coliseum to alientate fans and drive them away from attending games.

That made it all the easier for MLB owners to grant the team’s request to relocate.

It’s been a few years since I have been to a game of baseball at the Oakland Coliseum. I could go into why not, but safe to say, I just don’t want to support an organization that has no respect for the folks who provide revenue by filling seats.

Ken Mitchroney offered one last chance to take in a game at the Coliseum. He had been given tickets for the game against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, July 5th. Seats close behind the home team dugout. And close to seats I had previously enjoyed with another close friend. Whose employer had season tickets for years. To the point we had been questioned by the other fans sitting there about who were we and where was their friend?

I took up the offer and headed out to the game. It was a much quieter adventure getting there than in the past. A Friday night game like this would have seen 30,000 fans or better once upon a time. Much less tonight. In another time, Ken would have gone to the West Side Club, been greeted like an old friend and gotten a table to start the night. The West Side Club, rebranded as the Shire Park Tavern (in homage to the days of the Philadelphia A’s) did not survive Covid and is now little more than group function space. Even the choice of food at various concession stands has declined with fewer options available. Maybe more beer and alcohol available. It was just another sign of things to come (as opposed to the choices at a Giants game across the Bay.) And those frozen chocolate malts? Gone, too. The Oakland Coliseum isn’t a bad stadium, but it shows how it has suffered from indifference on the part of ownership.

It’s said that you can’t go home again.

I hate to admit it but that was indeed the case here. While it was great to enjoy the game with friends, it wasn’t what it once was. Only a few names I recognized on the field and nothing really to stand out when it came to the game. Knowing this ship is about to sail, it was a fond farewell to good times with good folks. The attendance for last night’s game was 9,654. Baltimore defeated Oakland, 3 to 2.

I’m glad I did it.

But, there is no joy in Mudville.