Athletics leave Oakland with an emotional win

The Athletics time in Oakland is officially over and for one day, there was crying in baseball. For thousands of Oaklanders, Thursday was the final time they would go to work or make core memories at the Oakland Coliseum and the last time a baseball game would be played on the Bright Side of the Bay.
With the A’s looming move to Vegas, they will make their way to their temporary home in Sacramento next season. Their final home series of 2024 against the Texas Rangers would serve as the goodbye to their home for almost six decades.
Club legends like Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart threw out the ceremonial first pitch to current stars Mason Miller and Lawrence Butler, followed by, none other than the last pitcher to Cy Young winner in organization history, Barry Zito, as he sang the final national anthem. The fans made the most of the bittersweet day as Krazy George banged his drum up and down the Coliseum, inflatable baseballs floated around the stands, security pump faking the fans when the ball made its way onto the outfield, generational photos recreated by families and friends, it was a poignant day for an entire community.
The bats were hot early for the A’s, cranking out five hits in the first three innings and cashing in two runs. Oakland would tack on an extra run two innings later but allowed the Rangers to get back into it in the top of the sixth with an RBI single from Adolis Garcia and a fielder’s choice from Nathaniel Lowe brought Texas within one. The Athletics bullpen would take over the rest with Mason Miller sealing the final game at Oakland Coliseum with a win.
Miller was aware of the situation and really basked in it all. From his appreciation for catching the ceremonial first pitch from franchise heroes to displaying the ‘Oakland’ on his jersey after the final pitch, Mason Miller was a true professional throughout the day.
“It’s probably the coolest moment of my life, baseball-wise,” said Miller post-game. “Being an Oakland A for the past two seasons has really just been an honour for me.”
Oh, and did I mention that Miller’s final pitch at Oakland Coliseum hit 103.5 mph on the radar gun?
However, the entire celebration still had that dark cloud sitting overhead… John Fisher. Just ahead of the final series, Fisher sent out a letter to the fans. In the letter, Fisher said, “We tried. Staying in Oakland was our goal, it was our mission, and we failed to achieve it.” But did they?
According to Wayne Coy from Locked on A’s, prior to his untimely death, Padres owner Peter Seidler had “managed to get seven or eight owners to vote against the A’s move.” Seidler was decidedly against the move of the Athletics from Oakland. Unfortunately, after Seidler passed away, Manfred “strong armed” the owners to vote in favour of the move to Las Vegas eventually coming to fruition as the owner unanimously approved the relocation.
But it wasn’t just A’s and baseball fans that were fed up and calling out John Fisher. ESPN insider Jeff Passan didn’t hold back after the game either, ripping apart the true intentions of Fisher and his ownership group.
“The Oakland A’s were killed by greed. Do not allow the people responsible for this to spin it any other way. John Fisher did not have to move this team. Major League Baseball and its owners did not need to be complicit in it. This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.”
I love the passion from Passan, but I think it was San Francisco Chronicle’s columnist Ann Killion who put it best: “Nobody wants to hear from the murderer at the funeral.” That’s you, John, read the room.
You can’t fake the emotion and support displayed by Athletics fans on Thursday. With waves of t-shirts reading “sell the team” and the lack of dry eyes across the stadium, the Athletics were the fabric of the East Bay. Plus, with the Golden State Warriors jumping ship to San Fran and the Raiders also heading to Vegas, the A’s were all Oakland had left, and John Fisher took that too.
On a personal note, I am sorry to the Oakland Athletics fans and the sports fanatics in Oakland. Losing your team is not easy, but losing every team is truly heartbreaking. Sports are the culture and, in most cases, one of the few things that truly brings together a community nowadays.
I hope baseball returns to Oakland, for the people of the city to have something to root for, to give all those people who lost their jobs – from Gus Dobbins, the 93-year-old security guard, to Mikey Thalblum who went from working for five dollars a day with the A’s to becoming clubhouse manager throughout his 44 years at the coliseum, and so many others, I am sorry it ended like this.
The most gut-wrenching and surreal image of the entire thing is the pit left at home after the plate was removed following the game. The irony of the homeless A’s becoming borderline nomads in 2025 and the emptiness of the Oakland area is impossible to avoid.
Thank you, Oakland. See you soon.

Controversy over Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 ball

When there are potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake, there will always be controversy and that is exactly the case with the Shohei Ohtani 50/50 ball.
In the midst of the single greatest regular season game in MLB history, Shohei finally reached the 50/50 mark in Miami, Florida. With his drive to deep left field a struggle in the stands for the record-breaking ball. With bodies hitting the floor and bar seats tipped over, the battle for history, (and money), came down to a Marlins fan celebrating his 18th birthday named Max Matus, and a man in a black shirt, Chris Belanski. Belanksi would win the contest as he wrapped his body around the ball with Matus’ hand grasping the other half before eventually succumbing to defeat and letting go of the money maker. Belanski got to his feet and raised the ball as Matus lethargically attempted to snake the ball out of his hand before finally admitting defeat with a good ol’ “F**K.”
However, it seems like Matus has not yet admitted his defeat. Instead, he has decided to file a lawsuit against Belanski, Kelvin Ramirez the man who attended the game with Belanski, and the company auctioning off the ball, Goldin Auctions. Matus claims Belanski won the ball by wrapping his arms and legs around Max’s arm and using his hands to remove the ball from his hand.
The lawsuit aims to delay the auction by Ken Goldin’s company Goldin Auctions. Matus says through the lawsuit that if Goldin and Belanski are allowed to sell the ball, Matus will be “irreparably harmed as the 50/50 Ball is a unique one-of-a-kind item that cannot be replaced.”
Despite the lawsuit, Ken Goldin and Goldin Auctions have gone ahead with the auction, posting the ball at a minimum bid of $500,000.
“Our attorneys have reviewed everything including publically available, and have told us to proceed with the auction as planned.”
The current bid, at the time of writing this article, is now at $600,000.
Now, this whole situation mirrors what happened in 2001 with Barry Bonds’ 73rd home run ball in 2001. However, unlike the Ohtani ball, the two involved in this lawsuit, Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi, did not get into a scuffle to try and claim possession of the ball. In the case of the Bonds ball, Popov initially caught the ball off the bat of Barry Bonds. Amid the insanity for the ball, a group of people knocked Popov over and the ball out of his glove. Amongst the mob was Hayashi, who had also hit the ground in the frenzy. As Hayashi was on the ground, the ball rolled to him and claimed possession of the piece of history. The court eventually ruled that the ball would be granted possession to both Hayashi and Popov and split the proceeds from the auction of the ball evenly.
But this isn’t the same case. Both men had even possession of the ball until Matus decided to concede his custody of the ball to Belanski. As of Friday, a judge has denied Matus’ efforts to delay the auction but has barred Goldin and Belanski from selling the ball before October 10th which is when the evidentiary hearing is scheduled.