Photos: Fans Flood Coliseum to Bid Emotional Farewell to A's at Last Game in Oakland

Updated 5:20 p.m. Thursday

Follow live fan coverage from KQED reporters and photographers of the A’s final game at the Oakland Coliseum. 

“No matter where they go, they’re still Oakland to me.”

So said diehard A’s fan Debra Piper as she arrived at the Coliseum on Thursday morning, hours before the team took the field for their final home game in Oakland.

“I’m going to really start to tear up now. There is so much history, love and support for the community and the players and this stadium,” said Piper, who left her home in Auburn at 3 a.m. to get here early enough for an extended farewell tailgate party. “It doesn’t matter how many times you come to see them play; when you go out and see the stadium and smell the grass, it’s just that ‘ahh’ feeling. It’s tingly. And now we don’t have that. There’s nothing like baseball to bring people together.”

Thursday’s game against the Texas Rangers marks a solemn end to the storied team’s 57-year run in Oakland, one that brought the city four World Series championships.

The team is slated to move temporarily to a minor league stadium in West Sacramento next year, with plans to move permanently to a proposed ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028.

Fans lined up at the break of dawn for the Oakland Coliseum gates to open for the sold-out game, and for some, it was a long journey back to the bay.

A’s fan Lester Hernandez brought his son and two daughters from Miami for the final home game. They arrived at the stadium Thursday at 5:30 a.m., waiting nearly four hours for the stadium’s gates to open at 9:37 a.m.

“I’ve been a fan of the Oakland Athletics for more than 50 years, you know, since they got the championships in 1972, 1973 and 1974,” Hernandez said while waiting in line.

Saddled with a green and gold bagpipe, Andrew Johnstone played an ode to his favorite baseball team with “Take Me Out To the Ball Game” at a parking lot tailgate at the Coliseum.

“We always play the bagpipes going into battle and at funerals, and it’s a bit of a battle and a funeral today, you know?” said Johnstone, who moved to the Bay Area more than 30 years ago.

The Scottish-born A’s fan shared how his family’s tartan colors are green and gold, “perfect for the A’s,” he said. Cheers and tears erupted as he asked fans around him to sing along for another round.

As for the rest of his plans for the day? “Enjoy the game and try to stay sober,” Johnstone laughed. “Let’s get in there and win this bloody thing.”

The Coliseum’s famous Brutalist facade became the backdrop for the A’s fashion-obsessed on Thursday. Crocheted hats, handmade jewelry, autographed sneakers made the stadium sparkle with Oakland flair.

“My whole wardrobe is green and gold. I don’t know what to do!” lifelong A’s fan Jules Hanson said. “This has been such a huge part of my life. I’ve met lifelong friends, and we’ve been through so much together.”

Dressed to the nines in a yellow suit, Todd Schwenk handed out yellow roses to his fellow A’s fans before entering the Coliseum on Thursday morning. It’s a regular tradition for Schwenk, who said he’s handed out more than 500 roses at A’s home games this week alone.

He’s been an A’s fan since 1972 and has been dubbed by some of the stadium ushers as the ‘mayor’ of the Coliseum, where he’s known to wander around throughout games spreading the A’s gospel. “I feel like a walking history book of the Coliseum, and I just love that,” Schwenk said. “I work the room. It’s full of love.”

Nearly 47,000 fans packed into the stadium on Thursday, the largest crowd for a final home game in Major League Baseball history, according to the Mercury News. The mood was at once jubilant and plaintive, as the team took the field for the very last time.

The A’s gained an early lead, driving in two runs in the bottom of the third inning, and adding another run in the fifth. The Rangers clamored back with two runs to close out the sixth inning 3–2. JJ Bleday helped the A’s hold onto their lead at the top of the seventh with a diving catch in the outfield. After the seventh-inning stretch and one last rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” chants of “Sell the Team” filled the stadium, along with profanity-laced reprimands directed at A’s owner John Fisher.

An A’s fan tips his hat during the A’s final home game at the Coliseum on Thursday.

The departure of the team is also a huge blow to the hundreds of food vendors, ushers, security guards and other workers at the stadium who stand to lose their jobs. Karm Henry, who has worked as a food vendor at the Coliseum for the last seven seasons, was overcome by emotion Thursday as the traversed the stands, hoisting a poll over his shoulder with bags of cotton candy hanging from the end. Henry said he cried on his way to the stadium this morning.

Emotions — and sometimes tensions — ran high as the game neared its end. Two people who ran onto the field during the top of the ninth inning were taken away by security. A smoke bomb was also thrown onto the field and removed.

In the end, the crowd exploded as the A’s clinched a 3–2 win against the Rangers. Players took to the field to wave at fans, as A’s manager Mark Kotsay addressed the crowd:

“Thank you for your lifelong support of the Oakland A’s,” Kotsay said. “We’ve played our asses off this year. We still got three left, gentlemen. I think we all should pay homage to this amazing stadium that we have had the privilege to enjoy for the last 57 years. And I ask you for one more time to start the greatest cheer in baseball. Let’s Go, Oakland!”

As tens of thousands of fans made their way back to the parking lot and BART station, many stayed behind to take in one last moment at the Coliseum.

With tears in his eyes, Gilbert Bañuelos III recalled being an Oakland sports fan his entire life.

“It’s a lot of emotions right now because I was fortunate to be here for the last Raiders game at the Coliseum, and now I’m here for the last Oakland A’s game,” Bañuelos said. “It just sucks, you know, this is it for here. I could travel to go see them, but this is home. And now it’s just a memory and a legend, a legacy that will never be forgotten.”

For Bañuelos and other fans clinging to the final minute, ties to the A’s are about much more than home runs and strikeouts; it’s a family and a community of friends.

“My uncle was a huge A’s fan. He’s the one that really got me attached to them,” Bañuelos said. “I want to make a big shout out to my uncle Sal, may he rest in peace. I wish you were here. I’m just glad I had the opportunity to see it. This one’s for you, uncle — they won.”

Jim and Gayle Burleigh were lingering after the game to savor the last time at the stadium also.

“It’s very emotional, it’s very sad. We took our boys here as they grew up,” Jim said.

“The characters that made this team and made our memories, I am gutted right now,” Gayle mustered through tears. “I wish we could have figured out a way to have them stay.”

Jenneane Rocha, 44, remembers coming to games at the Coliseum as young as age 6.

“I came here with my dad all the time and he passed away, so I went with a friend and her dad, and he also passed away,” she said of her emotional ties to the team. “If you just want to see good baseball, Oakland fans are the kindest and the sweetest.”