OAKLAND – Managers Mark Kotsay of the Oakland A’s and A.J. Hinch of the Detroit Tigers got a chance to sit down and talk inside the Coliseum on Sunday before their two clubs played each other. The two former Major Leaguers shared memories and told stories about the 57-year-old stadium that will host its final big league game later this month.
“It’s a special place, because it’s the first time I ever called myself a big leaguer,” said Hinch, who made his MLB debut in Oakland as the A’s catcher on April 1, 1998, “and there’s only one place that I’ll ever feel that way, and that’s here.”
The A’s concluded their penultimate homestand in Oakland on Sunday afternoon with a 9-1 loss to the Tigers before an announced crowd of 11,250 at the Coliseum. The loss clinched a third consecutive below-.500 season for the A’s (62-82), who now have won just one of their last five games.
Now only six games at the Coliseum remain after the A’s and the City of Oakland earlier this year were unable to reach an agreement on extending the team’s lease at the gray and aging facility beyond this season. The A’s have played in the city since 1968.
After the A’s upcoming road trip with three games in Houston, followed by six in Chicago — three against the White Sox and three against the Cubs — the A’s will return home, to Oakland, for presumably the final time.
The A’s host the New York Yankees from Sept. 20-22, and the Texas Rangers from Sept. 24-26.
Then it’s probably all over for MLB in the East Bay, with the A’s scheduled to play at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento from 2025 to 2027 while they wait for construction on their planned $1.5 billion ballpark next to the Strip in Las Vegas to be completed.
The A’s organization’s goal is to open the park by Opening Day in 2028, although questions about how owner John Fisher will fully finance the stadium’s cost remain.
For now, it’s hitting home for Kotsay and A’s fans that the team’s final games at the Coliseum are rapidly approaching.
“Definitely, the closer it gets, the more it comes to a realization,” Kotsay said. “As I’ve always said, you don’t know what kind of emotion you’re going to have when the final day comes.
“It’s going to be a tough homestead. I do. I think the weekend series will be a little bit easier, obviously, than the final series. And I still think that, as each day goes by, there’s probably more emotion that goes along with it.”
To mark their final year in Oakland, the A’s have been bringing in a handful former players for each Sunday home game. Before their series finale against the Tigers, the A’s hosted outfielder Eric Byrnes and infielder Adam Rosales, who were joined on the field for a ceremonial first pitch by Dallas Braden, now television color analyst for the team.
Byrnes, the Redwood City native who made his MLB debut with Oakland, played for …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
