After all, “Celebration” by Kool & The Gang boomed through the old, no longer venerable Coliseum for the last time. As always after a win for the Athletics, the A’s. But none of the 46,889 followers felt like celebrating.
Oakland, the supposedly ugly yet proud sister of San Francisco, is actually deserted by every major sports team after the beloved baseball club’s final game.
“I’ll probably shed a tear,” speculated Tom Hanks before saying goodbye in front of an emotionally moving backdrop. The Oscar winner, a son of the city, once earned a little pocket money selling popcorn at A’s games. When the illustrious franchise moved from Kansas City to California 57 years ago, “the world came to us in Oakland,” said the 68-year-old actor.
Now the world is gone and the humiliated Oakland is a diaspora after the Golden State Warriors basketball players moved to San Francisco (2019) and the Raiders football players moved to Las Vegas (2020). The impassioned Hanks summed it up in a scathing comment aimed at the club’s greedy owners, but especially at John Fisher, the billionaire but stingy owner of the A’s: “To hell with them.”
