A's boycott at Coliseum features barbecue, beer, plenty of beef
OAKLAND >> While many fans bunkered in the parking lot to protest the A's planned relocation to Las Vegas, some still made it into the Coliseum on Thursday night.
But the announced crowd of 13,522 was one of the smallest Opening Day crowds in the franchise's 57-year history in Oakland, and there wasn't much for the home fans to cheer about in an 8-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in what might have been the A's final season debut at the Coliseum.
“I would have liked to seen all those guys inside the stadium tonight. But they're fighting for something they believe in,” A's starting pitcher Alex Wood said after the game. “As long as they're supporting us, whether it's inside the stadium or watching the game outside, Oakland has such a rich history of baseball and you see how much it means to people.”
Before the game, A's manager Mark Kotsay said, “My heart is with the fans.” He added, “Their emotion and passion to want to keep this team here, and the way they express it, is with passion. I wouldn't express anything less from Oakland A's fans. When they come out, they come out with support and love, and they do it full force.”
Echoing those words in the opposing dugout was Kotsay's counterpart, Stephen Vogt, who made his managerial debut in front of some 30 friends and family from his native Visalia. Vogt played for the A's from 2013-17 before returning two years ago to make a storybook exit -- hitting a home run in his final plate appearance in a 3-2 win over the Angels at the Coliseum.
During Vogt's farewell in the 2022 finale, a scoreboard showed some of his Oakland highlights, including a walk-off single in Game 2 of the 2013 American League Divisional Series against the Detroit Tigers when he was a 28-yearold rookie.
“The playoff atmosphere here is better than any in baseball,” Vogt said. “I've experienced a number of different playoff atmospheres, but the Oakland Coliseum packed at playoff time, it's tough to beat.
“Just those memories of those teams and what we went through together -from being one of the best teams in baseball, to going through a rebuild, to seeing people go to seeing people come -- you become a family here in Oakland,” Vogt added. “That includes the fans and the stadium workers. All the people here in this organization mean the world to me.”
• Thursday was officially the seventh-smallest attendance in the A's Opening Day history, although that includes debuts limited by the COVID
pandemic in 2020 (no fans) and 2021 (10,436). Ironically, the A's record for lowest attendance of a season opener came in 1996 when 7,294 showed in Las Vegas, where that series against Toronto got moved because of the Coliseum's “Mt. Davis” construction for the Raiders.
• Wood, formerly of the cross-bay Giants, threw a 1-2-3 first inning. A fiverun rally in the fourth inning ended his debut, however, and the crowd was large enough to serenade Wood with boos after a tworun double by No. 9 hitter Brayan Rocchio, for a 6-0 deficit.
“It was one of those games you leave and feel your stuff was good and should have had a better result,” Wood said. “… It was super cool and it's a big honor to take the ball on Opening Day. You wish you could win at home on Opening Day. But baseball's back and I'm excited for the year.”
• Chants of “Sell-TheTeam” rumbled faintly in the fifth inning, just over
an hour into the season. The occasional “Let's-GoA's” chant proved just as futile. Some of those fans presumably ditched the outside gathering to fill pockets of seats around the Coliseum's first and second decks.
“It was pretty awesome for what we were told was going on, to still see the Oakland faithful come out and support us inside the stadium,” first baseman Ryan Noda said, who further complemented the outfield fans who are “always going to show up and we love that from them.”
“Good for them. Good for them,” Noda added of those who left the boycott. “We just want the fans in the stadium cheering for us, pushing one way with us. That's all we care about. Anything else is out of our control.”
• Only two players return from last year's Opening Day lineup (Seth Brown, Shea Langeliers), and that matches the fewest in Oakland history (1977, `98, 2015, 2023).