Brian Leonard: Grieving the Oakland A’s

Grief has many stages. Brian Leonard is experiencing all of them after learning that the A’s will be building a new stadium in Las Vegas, not Oakland.

The first time I saw the Oakland A’s I was gobsmacked. I was a kid in Chicago and this was in the era of Vida Blue, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers. They were loud, bombastic. and those uniforms! Those names! My Schwinn banana-seat bike had nothing on Rollie Fingers’ mustache.

When I moved West years ago, it was easy for me to fall in love with the Oakland A’s. They were now my home team. My daughter grew up loving the green and gold.

When the news came down that the A’s were moving, it was a gut punch.

I was in the first stage of grief, denial. The A’s and I were breaking up. They were leaving me for sandier pastures. And they could not have handled it any worse.

Team ownership let the Coliseum go to seed, gutted the team, and then raised ticket prices. Seriously? Really?

It’s like a girlfriend who does everything they can to make you hate them, so you break up with them.

Like, if she knocked a hole in the in the wall of your apartment but never got it fixed. Then allowed feral cats to move in, sold off a bunch of your stuff, and jacked up your half of the rent.

“No, I’m not breaking up with you. I am moving to Vegas to live with a professional gambler. But I’m not breaking up with you…”

I continue to process the stages of grief.

There’s anger, and … Okay, I guess the only stage is anger.

I have made a playlist of break-up songs: lots of Taylor Swift, some Alanis Morrissette, and Beyoncé. I call it “Music to Eat Chunky Monkey By.”

The drums are silent, but, I am moving on. I’ve thrown out all my A’s shirts, my bobble heads. Huh, I wonder who gets custody of Stomper.

I may be stepping into the next stage of grief, because yesterday I caught my mind wandering, “Heyyy, the Giants are looking gooood.”

With a Perspective, I’m Brian Leonard.

Brian Leonard is a writer and video director for LinkedIn. He lives in Oakland with his wife and daughter.