Furious Oakland Athletics fans on Tuesday came en masse with a single message to owner John Fisher: “Sell.”
“Sell the team,” they chanted thousands of times during the A’s 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays, which gave Oakland a season-best seven-game winning streak.
Buddies Brian Guido and Scott Finney of Sacramento, California, each took off early from work because there was no way they were going to miss the festivities a couple of hours away in Oakland.
Photo: AP
“I’ve been to only one game this year. I saw this game and I knew I had to come because I knew it was going to be very monumental and would send a message to the owner that this is what the fan base wants,” Finney said. “They want the ownership to sell the team so they can remain in Oakland.”
Thousands of frustrated, heartbroken A’s fans arrived early for tailgating and solidarity at the Oakland Coliseum ahead of a Rays-A’s matchup to celebrate their team and protest a planned relocation to Las Vegas.
They called it a reverse boycott aimed at bringing as many people as possible to the ballpark, complete with bright green “sell” T-shirts made by local company Oaklandish going to the first 7,000 to claim the fan-planned giveaway.
A season-best crowd of 27,759 was the largest for an A’s game on a Tuesday since they drew 33,654 against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 7, 2018. They jumped up and danced in their seats when Trevor May finished for the save.
Moments later, garbage was thrown on the field from every which way and it did not immediately stop as fans stayed put and police and security took the field. The grounds crew kept watering and working.
A “We Are Here” poster provided specific instructions for every inning such as chants of “sell the team” for the first Tampa Bay batter in the top of the inning and “stay in Oakland” followed by five claps for the first hitter in the bottom half.
The drummers in right field made a rare return, too. The wave went on for nearly 10 minutes.
Siblings Leslie Pelon and Clark Keele played the cowbell and drum out in the constant action of right field.
They used to come to US$2 Tuesdays as kids, what their family could afford as their dad studied at University of California, Berkeley. Now in Porterville, California, they trekked four hours on Tuesday.
“If the Coliseum’s going to be rocking one more time I just had to be here,” Keele said.
They were there for Eric Chavez hitting for the cycle almost 23 years ago on June 21, 2000.
“I always say I was born to be an A’s fan, I was born during the ’89 World Series,” Pelon said.
The A’s announced a couple of hours before first pitch that they would donate all ticket revenue from the game to charity, the Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Oakland Public Education Fund — a total of US$811,107.
Mother and son Leslie and Justin Lopez walked together in their “sell” T-shirts reflecting on how much the A’s have meant in their lives.
Twenty-seven-year-old Justin has been coming to games since he was eight months old. He is devastated every year watching All-Stars depart to bigger markets in free agency or all the other stars get traded away.
“It’s been so sad to witness. We feel like the historically disenfranchised,” Justin Lopez said, embracing his mom.
Toddler Pepito Mendez, 3, of Pittsburg, California, entertained himself through the action tossing a beanbag (featuring an emoji of feces) into the boards covered in facial images of Fisher and team president Dave Kaval.
His father, Paco Mendez, said he is considering canceling his season tickets for next year.
“We’re thinking of not re-signing next year because of this,” he said. “Hopefully he sells locally. I wish I had the money for it. It doesn’t look good for us.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash appreciated the passion of Oakland’s fan base.
“A’s fans are good fans. We played here, I think it was in ’19, in the wild-card game and that was one of the best atmospheres I’ve ever witnessed in an opposing stadium,” he said. “So if it’s like that, it should be loud and it should be fun.”
There was even a sign-painting station in the southeast parking lot, where 13-year-old Hunter Martini of Rohnert Park painted “Stay and sell.”
“I’ve been an A’s fan since I was three years old,” the teen said.
For Mark Maier, it has been more than five decades.
The 70-year-old San Rafael, California, resident has been attending A’s games since the club moved West in 1968. Maier held a green-and-gold painted sign in Spanish that read: “Vende,” with the V an upside down A’s logo.
“So sad,” said his wife, Hallie.
“It is sad,” he replied.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to
RSS