A recent piece in the New York Times, called the Oakland A’s “the loneliest team in baseball.” Though the Coliseum where they play can hold 57,000 fans, on average only 6,000 show up for home games. What happened to the glorious days of the A’s when manager Billy Beane was acclaimed for his savvy in managing the roster and payroll to get the most out of bench players? Has the management of the A’s turned off fans with their threats to move to Las Vegas if they don’t get a new stadium? And can Bay Area fans sustain two major league baseball teams? We’ll look at the state of the Oakland A’s, their future, and the hard economics of major league baseball.
For Oakland A’s Fans, It’s Not Been A Field of Dreams
The Oakland Athletics play the Texas Rangers at a nearly empty RingCentral Coliseum on May 26, 2022 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Guests:
Alan Chazaro, food reporter, KQED - also a lifelong Oakland A's fan, poet and educator and author of the recent SF Gate piece, "In defense of East Oakland's Coliseum and its diehard A's fans"
David Feldman, TV sports producer, Oakland Athletics and baseball historian; MLB official scorer; co-host of the Green & Bold Podcast
Hal Gordon, PhD student at UC Berkeley and hot dog vendor at the Oakland A's
Chelsea Janes, national baseball writer, Washington Post
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