An Oakland lifeline?

Having attended these two A's games in the past two weeks -at top: the regular-season finale and American League West clincher; bottom: the final Athletics' stand in Game 5 of the American League Division Series- both atmospheres were among the most spirited and loud baseball games I've ever attended. That they happened in the same season where I was at a few Coliseum game nights with thousands of empty seats says a lot about not just fans reaching out for that lightning in a bottle this team concocted, but it also suggests how much this fan base wants to reach out and support the Athletics. Bandwagon, late to the party or not, these folks were willing to and made the Coliseum/Oakland an intimidating venue for visiting teams.

A friend and Giants fan texted me the day after the season ended: "Maybe this will save baseball in Oakland". I thought that too as Game 5 wore on and seconds after the final out when the "Let's Go Oakland" chants drowned out the ridiculous boos directed toward the Detroit players celebrating on the diamond.

Check out these quotes from Tigers' center fielder Austin Jackson and pitcher Justin Verlander, whose team basically was in command the entire length of Game 5 of Detroit's 6-0 win Thursday:

Q.  Could you sense as the game wore on, you took a 2‑0 lead and you were shutting the A's down, that the Coliseum crowd was becoming less and less of a factor, and that was a big deal for them.  Could you tell there was a difference tonight?

AUSTIN JACKSON:  Not really.  It seemed like every pitch, every play, they were into the game.  And it was fun.  It was definitely a competitive game.  And when the crowd is into it like that it just makes the game better.  You feed off the crowd.  You feed off the energy.  And we were fortunate enough to kind of quiet them down a couple of times.

JUSTIN VERLANDER:  I think playing here was the toughest I've ever played in.  I know Texas was tough last year.  These fans were unbelievable.  They were on their feet from out 1 to out 27.  And we got some good fans at home, too.  But they made it tough to come here and play.  And that's what home field is all about.

Of course, it's easy for those guys to be complimentary of the crowd: their team won and is moving onto the American League Championship series against the New York Yankees. But I believe Jackson and Verlander were being honest and candid. They easily could have used the standard player-speak of "We scored two runs early and [Verlander] was so locked in from the first inning and took them out of the game. We were never bothered by the crowd." But I was there and even as it became apparent the A's were toast, the fans tried to will their team back into the game and stayed engaged. They were loud, they were proud. They were uniquely Oakland.

Hey, I'm grew up on and currently live again on the Peninsula (unfortunately, clearly Giants' country. Yes Larry Baer, I live where the Giants have without a doubt territorial rights in San Mateo County. Happy?). As long as the Athletics remain in the Bay Area if they built a stadium in San Jose, Fremont, Sonoma, or on the slopes of Mount Diablo -beats Mount Davis right?- I'd be there watching the A's play. But it wouldn't be the same without the ballpark having an Oakland zip code. The Town will probably lose the Warriors (that's an argument for a different day, as Joe Lacob and Peter Guber disgusted me with that long-range vision to flee the East Bay. How about get to the playoffs first, fellas?), and who knows what the Raiders even in the post Al Davis era are capable of doing?

A strictly baseball-only facility in Oakland -Jack London Square or somewhere near the water- would  give the city that spawned four World Series titles, Rollie, Reggie, Billy, Rickey, Stewie, Carney, Miggy, Huddy, and now The Bernie, a new home of its own. Think the first time in almost 50 years a palace for Oakland civic pride and hope for a better future for your beaten down Town.

Unfortunately, that whimper I just heard was Lew Wolff crying poor, From Oct. 7: 

MLB.com: Is Oakland a dead issue?

Wolff: We don't have any real options to build a new stadium there.

And that's going to be an issue and the black hats fitted on Wolff's and John Fisher's heads for the foreseeable future no matter how many times their baseball team gets sellout crowds and calls to remove the tarp at the Coliseum.