Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (133 page)

Kevin:
They could have built a nice little park on the Bay for less.

Josh:
But then they wouldn’t have 125 luxury boxes in deep center field where corporate types are just clamoring to sit … during football season.

Kevin:
And they’d have nowhere to put their pretty green tarp.

We think the whole Davis saga left the City of Oakland and Alameda County gun-shy when it comes to providing funding for a new ballpark. Folks here just don’t believe the local sports owners will live up to their word, and it’s easy to see why, given their history with Davis. To say that Al Davis is to the NFL what George Steinbrenner was once to MLB may be an insult to the memory of Mr. Steinbrenner. Al Davis passed away in 2001, and leaves a legacy behind that is glorious to some and infamous to others.

What the new construction did, in essence, was transform the Oakland Coliseum from a relatively nice pitcher’s park into an oversized stadium that really shouldn’t be used for anything other than football and maybe soccer. While once fans could watch games for free from the concourse behind the field-level seats by peeking between slats in the fence and could sit in the left- or right-field bleachers with a grassy hill at their backs, or enjoy a view of the Oakland Hills, these aesthetically appealing ballpark accents gave way to Mount Davis, or the Death Star, as our friend Matthew calls the megalith. The price tag of Mount Davis also made it more difficult for the A’s to convince Oakland to build a new ballpark for them.

Though the A’s organization has traveled across the country in its history, casting off cities and ballparks the way most of us change batting gloves, it has been one of the most successful franchises in the game’s history when it comes to winning World Series. The A’s of Philadelphia collected nine American League pennants and five World Series trophies. The twelve years in Kansas City were not as productive, but since arriving in Oakland the A’s have won four World Series in six trips to the big dance. That’s fifteen trips to the October Classic and nine victories. Only the Yankees and Cardinals have more World Championships to their credit.

The Athletics were formed by a lanky Irishman named Cornelius McGillicuddy—better known in baseball lore as “Connie Mack”—whose Philadelphia A’s joined the American League in its inaugural season of 1901. When the A’s won the American League in 1902 and challenged the Senior Circuit to a “World Series,” another Irishman, John McGraw, the hot-blooded manager of the National League’s New York Giants, dismissed the American League’s best team, calling the A’s “white elephants.” While McGraw’s jab meant to imply that Mack should not be allowed to spend indiscriminately on players as coveted as albino pachyderms, the dual meaning of the metaphor is interesting. Calling something a “white elephant” is also a way of saying it’s more trouble than it is worth. And that’s pretty much the way McGraw felt about the American League. In any case, Mack decided to wear the insult as a badge of honor and adopted a white elephant as the team’s insignia. Posters and paraphernalia related to the team came to bear the white elephant with its raised trunk. Check out the left sleeve of today’s A’s uniform, and you’ll find an elephant there still. The A’s won the American League in 1902, but the NL winners wouldn’t play them. In 1905 the A’s won the Junior Circuit again and fell to McGraw’s Giants four games to one in the second World Series ever played. Christy Mathewson shut out the A’s in Games 1, 3, and 5, allowing only fourteen hits in the three contests. Mathewson and Joe McGinnity combined to pitch forty-four of the forty-five innings in the Series. But Mack would not be denied, nor would his Athletics. The man who managed the A’s for fifty seasons (1901–50) proceeded to assemble his legendary $100,000 infield of 1909.

Josh:
With today’s league minimum at $400,000, a rookie shortstop makes that in forty games.

Kevin:
Wow, that’s almost as much as we’ll make on the book.

Josh:
Umm, right.

For the record, Mack’s legendary infield had Stuffy McInnis at first, Eddie Collins at second, Jack Barry at short, and Frank “Home Run” Baker at third. Justifying the owner/manager’s investment, the quartet led the A’s to World Series wins in 1910, 1911, and 1913. Sweeter still, two of those October triumphs came against McGraw and the Giants. Baker earned his nickname by hitting an incredible eleven dingers during the 1911 season and two more in the World Series. Remember, this was before Babe Ruth. Freak pitches like the spitball had not yet been banned and the ball had not yet been made lively and white. It’s been said of Mack that he fielded two kinds of teams: either unbeatable or horrible. After assembling his first dynasty, he just as quickly disbanded it, selling the best players off to other teams. The A’s of the late 1910s and early 1920s wallowed in the cellar. Then Mack did it again, fielding what many argue was the greatest team ever in 1929. Led by Jimmie Foxx, known as the right-handed Babe Ruth or “Double X,” the A’s went 104-46 to win the pennant, and then defeated the Cubs in a five-game World Series. They repeated in 1930, downing the Cardinals in six. What was perhaps most impressive about that A’s edition was how deftly it handled the Yankees: Ruth, Gehrig, and all. While the 1931 team won 107 games, led by Foxx, Al Simmons, and Lefty Grove—who posted an incredible 31–4 record—this time the A’s were downed in the Series by the Cardinals.

The slide began for Mack’s club again as he auctioned off his stars. The players he had developed went on to win pennants in other cities. The distinguished old man, who wore a suit and tie in the dugout to the very end, was getting old and his teams suffered. In 1943 the Athletics lost twenty games in a row, tying the AL record set by the 1906 Red Sox. The mark stood until 1988, when the Baltimore Orioles lost their first twenty-one. But it was not until 1950 that Mack left the dugout. The A’s were eventually sold to Arnold Johnson in 1954 and moved to Kansas City the next year. Mack was the very soul of the Philadelphia A’s, and perhaps things had changed for Philadelphians with Mack no longer at the helm. Finley, the team’s second great owner, bought
the A’s while they were in KC, and tried to move them all over North America, but not before putting on a pretty good show in Kansas City.

In the A’s first season in Oakland, Catfish Hunter hurled a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins on May 9, 1968. Not only was it the first perfect game in the American League in forty-six years, but Hunter drove in all three runs for the A’s that day. Not a bad effort for the twenty-two-year-old right-hander who would one day see a plaque bearing his likeness raised in Cooperstown. As the A’s became competitive again, Finley kept the ballpark atmosphere lively with promotions galore at the Coliseum. To kick off the 1970 season, the A’s introduced gold-colored bases for their home games. Oh, that incorrigible Charlie O. Needless to say, bases colored anything but white were banned soon thereafter by the Rules Committee.

“Charlie O., the Mule” reappeared at the Coliseum, after first garnering fame in Kansas City. And video dot racing, where dots race around the scoreboard, debuted in Oakland under Finley. World-class sprinter Herb Washington served as Finley’s “designated runner” during the 1974 and 1975 seasons. Washington played in 105 games without recording a single at-bat or ever appearing in the field. On the base paths he stole thirty-one bases in forty-eight attempts, while scoring thirty-three runs. It seems that Finley was awaiting Rickey Henderson, who would burst onto the scene in 1979, stealing bases quicker than Josh pockets coupons to Arby’s. Rickey (we call him “Rickey” not out of disrespect, but because that is what he always called himself) went on to break the single-season steals mark in 1982 when he swiped 130 bags. Then he broke Ty Cobb’s AL career record, stealing his 893rd base in 1990, and Lou Brock’s all-time record by stealing his 939th in 1991. Then Rickey broke the only swipes record left, the world record of 1,065, held by Yutaka Fukumoto of Japan. There might have been a base stealer on Mars who stole more bases, but for our money Rickey is the greatest base stealer our universe has ever known. Rickey also holds the record for most homers to lead off a game with his eighty-one. His rare combination of power, speed, and charisma made him a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2009.

After falling to Kirk Gibson and Orel Hershiser’s Dodgers in the 1988 World Series, La Russa’s A’s won the “Bay Bridge Series” of 1989, but not before Game 3 at Candlestick Park was postponed by a massive earthquake that rocked the entire region. When the Series resumed twelve days later, the A’s picked up where they left off, taking the final two games to complete the sweep. Staff ace Dave Stewart took home the MVP honors, pitching a five-hit shutout in the first game and a three-run, five-hitter in the third. Stewart became the first pitcher in history to notch two wins in both the World Series and the ALCS. The next season the A’s lost the 1990 Series in a four-game sweep against the underdog Reds.

After the departure of La Russa, Canseco, and McGwire, Oakland’s solid player-development system continued to bring All-Star caliber talent to the bigs under Beane, whose economical approach to the game was chronicled in the book
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,
by Michael Lewis and the subsequent movie starring Brad Pitt. But the A’s haven’t won a World Series since 1989. And with their fan support trailing off each and every year, and even middle-tier free agents eschewing their entreaties due to the poor condition of their facility, the franchise’s days in Oakland appear numbered. It’s like Kevin’s friend Tim says, “It’s easy to be an A’s fan, but pretty difficult too.” We know what he means. Without a new park, it becomes more difficult every year.

Getting a ticket to the O.co is not a problem. The stadium is big enough for you plus every other A’s fan who decides to go to the game on the day you visit. The only time you might have difficulty getting inside is when the Giants are visiting for an interleague series or U2 is playing a stadium show. Why they don’t take the green tarp off the upper level and sell more seats when the Giants visit is beyond us. They could. Those games sell out. Whereas you can get serious discounts for Giants tickets on StubHub (especially on weeknights), you can’t really get lower than face value for A’s tickets. Our working theory is that since there are so few A’s season-ticket holders, no one has tickets to dump.

The design of the seating bowl provides a very gradual incline, which is something less than ideal for shorter fans like Josh who don’t like it when they have to peer through a sea of heads. In fact, even Kevin found the effect annoying on the first level behind the plate.

More than that, the bowl is rounded, which positions the seats behind the plate fairly close to the action, but leaves the seats down the lines—as the circle extends outward—farther and farther away. This especially becomes a factor on the third level, where the tarp permanently covers the seats, preventing anyone from viewing the game from up here anyway.

The first twenty rows around the plate and extending out to the corner bases are the MVP Box seats and are the best your game-day dollar will buy. The O.co boasts the cheapest sweet seats in the bigs, so take advantage. Rows 21 and higher—where the gradual incline is less annoying—are even cheaper. Just be sure to avoid Rows 33 and above. It’s not the overhang of the seating deck above that’s the problem, but the supporting concrete structures that detract from sight lines. There’s more trouble in Sections 122–123 and 111–113 where camera platforms hang down, further blocking views. Avoid all seats in these sections above Row 25.

Sections 101 and 102 have right-field foul-pole obstructions, but are otherwise decent. Sections 131 and 132 have left-field foul-pole obstructions and sit behind the BBQ Terrace so they’re a little worse. Sections 101 and 133 are beside the terraced steps that give the ballpark its “coliseum feel.” You can do better in this price tier, though, by aiming for Sections 107, 108, 126, and 127, which are practically on the infield.

While these are individual chairs, which is a good thing, they are raised pretty high up and feel far from the field. They’re not nearly as good as the old bleachers before Mount Davis was built. Nonetheless, this is where many of the more rabid rooters sit, especially in left field. Drums beat and green-and-gold flags fly freely in Sections 134–139. Unfortunately, these folks can’t see the warning track and many of the sections don’t provide a straight-on view of the field.

These Club Level seats hover over the visitors’ on-deck circle on the first-base side. That’s right, in a departure from tradition the A’s dugout is on the third-base line instead of the first.

Josh:
Do you suppose they put the ritzy seats here so fans can peer into the A’s dugout?