Dying at the hands of corporate greed, Oakland has finally lost the three teams that defined a half-century of dominance in both sport and culture.
As Athletics fans filed out of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum following a season-ending American League Wild Card loss on Oct. 2, 2019, the near-annual feelings of dread that their team’s season was over filled their hearts.
Disappointment is often a product of loving something deeply, and baseball fans know this more than anyone else. Season-ending losses happen for 29 teams yearly, and there has not been a repeat World Series Champion in this millennium. Failure encapsulates the experience of both the baseball fan and player — a player that records an out 55 percent of the time they are at bat is considered an MVP-level talent.
As those fans left the stadium that the A’s have called home since 1968, they had no idea that they would be the last people to ever watch playoff baseball in Oakland.
Five years after that playoff loss, the A’s have done what was previously thought impossible: they have officially deserted what used to be one of the most vibrant baseball towns in the nation. Despite the unique circumstances that allowed Oakland to lose their beloved team, the immense failures of the Athletics’ front office are not to be downplayed as a necessary evil or just another failure in a cruel baseball world.
Baseball’s complicated relationship with capitalism runs deep, from the average salary of a Minor League (MiLB) player being one percent of the average salary of a Major League (MLB) player to multiple labor disputes between owners and MLB players. Baseball is a business that often creates victims of all kinds in the name of capitalist profit. Fans, players and employees have all felt this at some point in their baseball-related lives.
Baseball has also seen its fair share of relocations in the name of better business opportunities — even the A’s once called Philadelphia and Kansas City home in the early to mid-1900’s. Using baseball as an investment to grow the game and reach fans across the country and world is an admirable venture. However, it should not be at the cost of ripping the sacred experience of sport away from fans who have made it clear they deserve that same experience.
Make no mistake: the A’s planned relocation to Las Vegas symbolizes a shift in the paradigm of what fans and players have come to know about relocation, and it is the product of capitalism’s always-expanding greed.
Ever a sport with a sizable conservative player and fan base, baseball enjoyers are often the first to come to the defense of the free market and the supposed freedoms that it allows us as Americans. Despite this freedom, just like any other capitalist-led mode of production, the MLB and MiLB scenes are littered with classic cases of wage theft amongst other violations of workers’ rights.
Now, in the days following the final Major League Baseball game ever played at the Coliseum, fans are finally soaking in the reality of the situation. Oakland A’s owner John Fisher, alongside other greedy corporate executives in charge of the business, has effectively pinched every penny out of fans, players, employees and every person who has ever come across their dumpster fire of a corporation. Leaving Oakland and having the nerve to give away a poorly made replica of the stadium that housed the A’s for 57 years was the final middle finger to fans who have spent generations supporting a front office that clearly couldn’t care less about them.
Blame is to be spread widely here — the MLB Players’ Association (MLBPA), all 30 MLB teams, Fisher and his front office are to be crucified for what has happened in Oakland. The A’s are headed east to play in the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate stadium at Sutter Health Park, where Sacramento’s summer heat can easily exceed 110 degrees. As part of their plan to share the 14,000-capacity stadium with the Sacramento River Cats, artificial turf is being installed amongst other renovations in progress.
It is the MLBPA’s responsibility to protect their players. With not so much as a statement opposing the move that will put every single player who is unfortunate enough to place a spike in 110-degree astroturf in jeopardy, the union has failed both its players and the fans who cheer them on.
The move to Vegas was backed unanimously by all 30 MLB team owners, including the former rival San Francisco Giants who will greedily seize control of the entire Bay Area baseball territory. This is just another example of class solidarity among those whose interests lie in crushing the common fan and worker. Not a single one of those 30 owners cares about the multiple Athletics and Coliseum employees who will have their healthcare cut and severance package rescinded once the A’s pack up and leave. Not a single one of those 30 owners cares about the fans who have been clamoring for the sale of their team for over a decade. Not a single one of those owners cares about anything but lining their own pockets with the dirtiest money acquired in Major League Baseball history.
Not a single one of those 30 owners should ever get to claim they love the game that they have the ungodly privilege of policing.
After Oakland’s closing pitcher Mason Miller induced a groundout to end the A’s 57-year stay in the Coliseum, he turned to cameras and signaled towards the Oakland logo on his chest. Players spent nearly half an hour on the field following the conclusion of the last game they would ever play in Oakland. Fans held signs begging for the sale of the team to a competent owner, reminiscing about past generations’ visits to the mecca of baseball in the East Bay, and thanking the players and employees who allowed them to feel the full range of emotions that baseball is supposed to induce in fans.
This time, on Sept. 26, 2024, as fans left the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, they knew it would be the last time they’d do so.
Jacob Ramos is a 2024-2025 Managing Editor. He can be reached at jacobtr@uci.edu or manager@newuniversity.org.
Edited by Trista Lara and Jaheem Conley.
