The Athletics win their final game in Oakland in front of a sellout crowd

OAKLAND, Calif. – Everyone said goodbye to Oakland Athletics baseball in their own way on Thursday afternoon.

After 57 seasons at the Coliseum – and decades of indecision and hatred swirling around the team's future – the A's played their final game in Oakland before a huge crowd on a bright and beautiful Bay Area afternoon.

The crowd was loud, the mood was festive, and fans were engaged from the first pitch. The afternoon started early. The parking lot that was supposed to open at 8 a.m. – more than 4 1/2 hours before first pitch – instead opened at 7 a.m. after the line of cars waiting to enter the stadium blocked traffic on the I- 880 jammed.

Fans gathered in the parking lots to cook breakfast, drink beer and take turns singing “Sell The Team” and “Let's Go Oakland.” A man who also played the role of A-President Dave Kaval strolled through the parking lot in a suit and tie without losing his character. Fans could have, if they wanted, purchased a margarita or psychedelic mushrooms from the small business owners on the pedestrian bridge that connects BART to the Coliseum.

“People who have never been here are going to look at this scene and be surprised,” said longtime A's fan Jorge Leon, president of the Oakland 68s, a community-based fans group. “For those of us who have been coming here since we were kids, it’s exactly what it always was, before everyone got tired of being lied to.”

The A's announced a deal to move to Las Vegas in April 2023, and last April they announced a three- to four-year stay at a minor league stadium – Sutter Health Park – in West Sacramento starting next year. The team's lease at the Coliseum ended after Thursday's finals, and negotiations between the city and the A's over an extension collapsed shortly before they began.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao told ESPN, watching the game from a suite at third base. “The people of Oakland deserve better.”

If the agreement doesn't work out in Sacramento, Thao said, the city would be willing to reconsider the team's return.

The team's departure was marked by low spirits. Owner John Fisher's letter to fans before the finals series, in which he said he wished he could thank each fan individually despite years of gutting the team and ignoring the fan base, was felt by fans as particularly tone-deaf. But on the final day, the team hit some of the right notes: Former A's pitcher Barry Zito sang the national anthem while Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson, both Oakland natives and A's legends, threw out the first pitches.

The A's took several impromptu team photos outside their dugout before the game, and the starting lineup was greeted with a standing ovation as they walked onto the field. Members of the A's field team picked up dirt for fans along the left field line, and many A's players did the same.

An hour before first pitch, Stewart stood next to the Rickey Henderson Field logo behind home plate, wearing dark sunglasses that shielded the world from the tears in his eyes.

“It’s a tough morning,” Stewart said. “I can’t imagine how we are in this situation.”

Security was beefed up, with 140 Oakland police officers on site, just like at a Raiders playoff game, but the only real excitement came in the bottom of the ninth, when two fans ran onto the field before quickly and unceremoniously running through Stadium escorted stairwell in left field.

After they left the field, some objects were thrown onto the field, including some smoke bombs from Kelly Green, which landed on the warning track in right field. The game was repeatedly interrupted at the end of the ninth period.

The sold-out crowd of 46,889 spectators largely expressed their voice through chants and signs. “Let's Go Oakland” morphed slightly into “Sell The Team,” but even those seemed relatively half-hearted. On the railing of the stands were the usual signs – “Goodbye MLB” and “Las Vegas Beware” – with a new addition behind the left-center wall: “It's Not Us, It's You.”

“There’s no better city to play baseball in than Oakland,” Stewart said. “I witnessed it. I was there in the great days and this is a great baseball town. No one can ever say this isn't a great baseball town. The time of the Coliseum has passed, but this is a great baseball town.” “

A's manager Mark Kotsay has a habit of writing out his lineup card in his office before passing it to an assistant coach, who fills out the official card that hangs in the dugout. Kotsay then tears his original card in half lengthwise and places it on his desk.

After Tuesday's game, a 3-2 win against the Texas Rangers, a thought occurred to him: What if this was the A's last win in Oakland?

His solution: If so, he would still frame it in two parts.

After the win, which ended with All-Star closer Mason Miller forcing the Rangers' Travis Jankowski to end the game, that was no longer a cause for concern.

Kotsay then addressed the fans surrounded by his team as the crowd remained almost silent as the manager spoke about getting back on the pitch after Wednesday night's game and taking in the moment.

In an emotional voice, he thanked the stadium staff – “especially those who didn't come with us” – and concluded by giving a heartfelt tribute to the fans and, as he called it, “this fantastic stadium”.

“I ask you one last time to give us the biggest celebration in baseball.”

With that, Kotsay raised his hands as “Let's Go Oakland” rained down on him.