There was nowhere left to go but home, but still we stood and cheered.
The players gathered on the field one last time and tipped their caps to the staccato claps between chants of “Let’s go Oakland!” Then, in single file, the A’s streamed from their dugout to the clubhouse behind home plate.
Their movements resembled a stunned shuffle. A season-ending loss in game 5 will do that to you, especially coming off the extreme high of a comeback win in game 4. But where the players seemed subdued, the fans appeared imbued with their most intense and emotional energy since the first pitch nine innings earlier.
They began the game inspired by two straight wins, including the epic, walk-off three-run rally the night before. As Jarrod Parker struck out Austin Jackson on three straight pitches, anything seemed possible amid the sea of yellow towels. The Coliseum, so often an echoing cavern of empty seats, shook with the passion of 36,000 people.
But as Justin Verlander mowed down batters from the get-go and the Tigers tacked on more runs than he would ever need for the win, the crowd’s tone changed from exhilarated cheering to desperate pleading.
But still we stayed.
I can’t pretend to claim any longstanding ownership of Athletics fandom. The last time I went to the Oakland Coliseum — excuse me, O.co Coliseum — I served as an object of ridicule in the right field bleachers as former Boston players torched the Red Sox in a 20-2 loss.
But since coming to school out here, I’ve adopted a certain fondness for the A’s, especially this year (despite the aforementioned humiliation of my team). So when a good friend offered a ticket to Game 5 and an old Mark McGwire jersey to go along with it, who was I to say no?
The team on the field deserved nothing less than that impassioned post-game standing ovation. With the lowest payroll in baseball, the A’s clawed away a 13-game deficit to the Texas Rangers to win the AL West on the season’s final day. They took the Tigers — whose three star players combine to make more than the entire Oakland team — to the limit.
But though the fans matched that fight and passion on the night of game 5, I can’t help but wonder where those same fans were two weeks ago as the A’s fought toward that playoff berth. The A’s mustered just eight sellouts this year, and only two of them occurred during that stretch. This was the first game I had attended where the crowd was decidedly pro-Oakland, instead of home supporters fighting away fans for off-the-field supremacy.
As the A’s future in Oakland continues to be up in the air, I hope this incredible season galvanizes the fan base to keep the team here. The A’s deserve fans, but the fans need to show they deserve a team year-round. They did this last Thursday night, but showing up in September and for Bay Area clashes isn’t enough.
The A’s fans ranked second-to-last in attendance this season, which is unsustainable. Drawing less than 15,000 people per game — which happened in almost a third of the A’s home contests this year — can’t go on, especially when almost all of the upper deck seats live under a tarp all season. Moneyball, the Oakland mantra, entails getting by on less, not on nothing.
My A’s fan friend, the one I went to the game with, sat next to me as I finished writing this, and he smiled as he told me that Billy Beane said he would keep this team together next year. But as he pondered the coming season, he added, “I hope the owners increase payroll, too.”
He gets it, I know. But do the rest of Oakland fans understand that that increase, that sustained excellence — and continued residence in the Coliseum — depends on them, too?
Contact Jordan Bach-Lombardo at [email protected]
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