O.co Coliseum and the Oakland Athletics

O.co Coliseum Oakland, California

Everyone talks about how Oakland needs a new baseball stadium. The O.co Coliseum is used for Raider football and Athletic baseball. It is located in an industrial area, with no ambiance, no restaurants and leaves these tourists wondering whether their car will still be there when they come back to get it after the game. It is basically a cement fortress without the lid, like the Kingdome with nicer weather. But we found the fans to be terrific, passionate and friendly. All the folks working their were helpful and very nice. And, our car was right where we parked it when we left sitting on 4 tires, not 4 rims.

Now some facts about the A's history. In 1901, the Philadelphia A's joined the American League in their inaugural season. It was managed by Connie Mack. Mack managed for 50 years. The following year they won the American League and challenged the Senior Circuit to a “World Series”. John McGraw, the hot-blooded manager of the National League's New York Giants, dismissed the A's, calling them “white elephants”. Instead of being insulted, he used it as a badge of honor, he adopted it as a team's insignia. The A's still wear that white elephant on their left sleeve of their jerseys.

Tony La Rusa was the manager in the late 1980's and in 1988 he introduced the one inning closer, specifically Dennis Eckersley. Now it is common for each team to have a closer, a 8^th inning pitcher, a 7^th inning pitcher, and a lefty-specialist. We can thank the vision of Tony La Rusa.

Catfish Hunter pitched a perfect game against the Minnesota Twins in the Athletics first season in Oakland on May 8, 1968. It was the first perfect game in 46 years. He also knocked in all 3 runs, winning 3-0.

Rickey Henderson was added the A's roster in 1979. In 1982 he stole 130 bases and broke Ty Cobb's AL record in 1990 with 893 stolen bases and Lou Brock's all-time record by stealing his 939^th base in 1991. He also holds the record for most lead-off homeruns with 81.

“Mount Davis” rises from the outfield with 10,000 upper level seats tarped off during baseball season and untarped for football, blocking the views of the Oakland mountains. In the late 1970's when the A's were faltering and suffered low attendance, one day the scoreboard went black. Hence the nickname “the Mausoleum”. Fortunately the day we visited, their were over 32,000 fans creating a vibrant atmosphere.

In the 1970's a local kid named Stanley Burrell got his first break in show business hanging around outside the Coliseum. People found him dancing for ticket money. He was eventually hired by the team as a bat boy and one day became known to the world as the famous MC Hammer. In 2011, they actually had a MC Hammer bobblehead giveaway.

On our way down from Santa Rosa, we were listening to the Giants sports radio 680AM. Even they were talking about how badly the A's need a new stadium. Unfortunately for the A's, the Giants have the rights Santa Clara County. The announcer said the A's won't get a stadium in Santa Clara County until the Easter Bunny throws out the first pitch.

Facts came from The Ultimate Baseball Road Trip by Josh Pahigian and Kevin O'Connell