It’s not over ‘til it’s over, but the owners voted unanimously to move the team to Las Vegas, so it’s highly likely we’ll be watching the Mariners play the A’s on the road in some low places (as in minor league stadiums, not what Garth was singing about)
Hello and welcome back to FanPost Friday. Watching the Mariners play the A’s at the Oakland Coliseum has two murky modes in mind. It’s either way darker (and later) in the stadium than you’d expect a modern baseball game to be played in, or it’s a sun-drenched playing field with fuzzed-out football field hashmarks with odd shadows falling over parts of the field. As of yesterday, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see the Mariners play the A’s in that bizarrely massive, empty, and unstuck-in-time concrete monolith anymore. I highly recommend reading this whether or not you’ve been following the saga in Oakland closely or not:
Read every word. @espn's Tim Keown distills the Oakland sports trials and tribulations better than anyone. https://t.co/uWAO9WeIaj
— Casey Pratt (@CaseyPrattABC7) November 17, 2023
As you might have already known, there is no MLB-sized stadium in Las Vega, nor are there any confirmed plans to build one yet. This means that the A’s will likely be playing in at least one minor league stadium or multiple stadiums for the foreseeable future, all without roofs. Mariners road games versus the A’s could be a downright heatstroke risk if they’re playing there in the Nevada summer June through September, not to mention the questionable quality of minor league playing fields even compared to the Oakland Coliseum. These are all hypothetical problems right now, but I think there is a high potential for lots of Weird Baseball in the AL West right now due to this move.
Losing a sports team sucks. It’s a “first world” problem, sure, but it’s a unique pain and grief all the same. Those of us who remember the Sonics leaving town know this, as do the stalwart remaining few who actually attended Pilots games at Sicks Stadium. The Seahawks nearly bailed to California in the early 90’s and we all know part of the Mariners’ wacky history is that time they almost moved to Tampa right before they finally made the playoffs for the first time. (Friendly and timely reminder in the Times today that we did buy your dumbasses a stadium, so the least y’all could do is spend enough to field a winning team <3)
Even though the A’s have been a heated divisional rival at times, it’s hard to feel anything but sympathy and sadness for A’s fans and the greater Oakland area, who are also no stranger to losing sports teams as mentioned in the ESPN piece above.
So the prompt today is simple. In the comments, please share your most prominent or oddest memory of watching the Seattle Mariners play in Oakland and also share any condolences or thoughts you may have for A’s fans.
Everyone have a great weekend, be safe and kind, and let’s go Kraken (they won last night yay!),
