Tag: Oakland Athletics

A’s broadcaster Brodie Brazil heartbreakingly choked up trying to discuss the team’s importance to Oakland

What a gut-wrenching speech.

Despite their ownership actively trying to push fans away, the Oakland Athletics are clearly a beloved sports institution in the Bay Area. That makes every successive step the organization takes toward a move to Las Vegas in the future all the more heartbreaking.

Especially to the broadcasters who love the team, the fans, and the area.

During a Wednesday night studio broadcast on NBC Sports California, host Brodie Brazil discussed the fallout of the Athletics taking a major legal step toward moving to Nevada. After Brazil finished sharing the news with viewers, he couldn’t help but cry and choke up about what losing the Athletics will eventually mean to fans in Oakland who just love baseball.

Every second of this speech is gutting. Kudos to Brazil for dropping the “serious” analyzing pretense and just speaking from the heart about something that matters so much to himself and his audience. You can tell the situation is just as frustrating for him as it is for any other Athletics fan, and that’s what makes it even more heartbreaking.

10 awesome moments (planned silence!) from the Oakland A’s ‘reverse boycott’

From planned silence to “STAY IN OAKLAND!”

For so long, Oakland A’s fans have mostly steered clear of attending games, a protest of sorts meant to show the displeasure they have with the team tanking and then potentially being moved to Las Vegas.

But on Tuesday, fans tried something different. They packed Oakland Coliseum for a planned “reverse boycott.”

It was pretty awesome. Nearly 28,000 Athletics die-hards were there, with planned chants, incredible signs and messages for ownership. Funny enough, they were there to see the a team that’s struggled mightily win its seventh (!) straight game.

Here are some of those awesome moments, in no particular order, including photos and videos:

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A’s fans are planning to pack the stadium in a reverse boycott to protest the team’s possible relocation

A’s fans plan to show that they’re NOT the problem.

The Oakland Athletics have been making history this season for all the wrong reasons. Before a recent five-game winning streak, the A’s were looking bound to have MLB’s worst 162-game season while attendance figures were reaching historic lows.

None of this was the fault of A’s fans, and on Tuesday, they intend to prove as much at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. They’re planning a reverse boycott.

A’s fans have largely avoided games this season in protest of owner John Fisher’s pursuit of a publicly funded stadium in Las Vegas. It’s been a rough situation for A’s fans, watching their beloved franchise desperately try to leave Oakland (and possibly failing in multiple attempts with Vegas).

So, for Tuesday’s game against the Rays, the fans hope to take a stand against Fisher and the possible relocation.

The plan is for A’s fans to try to pack the stadium, show the MLB world that they haven’t abandoned the team and loudly protest Fisher.

Right now, it’s unclear what impact a reverse boycott will have given Fisher’s shamelessness. But as a gesture, MLB fans will certainly take notice to a packed Coliseum.

A’s security made almost no effort to stop a fan from running around the field before a game

What’s worse? The A’s or their stadium security?

As an organization, the Oakland Athletics are a complete mess. Ownership has alienated the fanbase and appears set to relocate to Las Vegas. In turn, attendance has been awful, so we can’t really blame security at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum for not caring. After all, nobody associated with the team seems to care either.

But this was still wild to see.

Ahead of Sunday’s game between the Athletics and Astros, a fan ran onto the field from the left-field stands, ran towards second base, rounded first base, stomped on home plate and returned to the section without any member of stadium security posing much resistance.

The best effort was made by some member of the groundscrew who tried to trip him around third base. But for the most part, he was allowed to run around the field freely.

This wasn’t the first time A’s security had failed to stop a fan from running on the field and escaping either. It happened back in 2019 with a fan climbing over the right-field wall.

Yet, this lap around the field seemed different. Security had no interest in intervening at all.

No wonder fans had jokes about that pregame scene.

WATCH: Najee Harris has fun throwing first pitch for Oakland Athletics

Former Alabama football star Najee Harris has a lot of fun throwing out the first pitch for the Oakland Athletics on Friday night!

Throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game has become quite the tradition across the great United States of America. From presidents, gold medalists, actors, singers, and all other sorts of celebrities, the first pitch has become synonymous with America’s pastime.

On Friday night, a former Alabama football star was able to participate in the throwing of the first pitch, and I am not sure anyone has ever enjoyed their time on the mound as much as [autotag]Najee Harris[/autotag] did in Oakland.

In the video below you can see the Pittsburgh Steelers starting running back soak in the spotlight as he delivered a strike in front of his hometown crowd.

Take a look!

Harris’ infectious personality led to him being a fan-favorite in Tuscaloosa and that has certainly carried over into his NFL career!

Roll Tide Wire will continue to monitor Najee and all of the former Alabama football stars now in the NFL. 

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Stacey Blackwood on Twitter @Blackwood89.

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MLB fans crushed A’s ownership after attendance dropped to 2,500 in the saddest scene at Oakland Coliseum

Oakland deserves so much better.

Five years ago, the city of Oakland was the home for three major professional sports teams. And it’s becoming increasingly certain that the number will drop to zero in the near future.

After word that the Oakland Athletics and chairman John Fisher reached a binding agreement with Las Vegas to build a new MLB stadium, the long-suffering A’s fans had largely seen enough. While there have been calls to show up and protest in the stadium, most of the fanbase has seemingly opted to boycott games at the awful Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum instead.

That’s what brought us the scene for Tuesday night’s game between the A’s and Mariners. While A’s pitcher Mason Miller threw seven hitless innings, he did so in front of a listed attendance of 2,583.

Again, it’s important to note that these sad scenes aren’t the fault of the A’s fanbase. They’ve had to deal with the stingiest ownership, a torn-down roster and by far the worst stadium in baseball. Fisher has done nothing to deserve decent attendance, and his move to abandon Oakland was a breaking point for many.

A’s fans deserve better, and MLB Twitter certainly agreed.

Bryan Reynolds’ Pirates extension leaves just 3 MLB teams to never sign a player for $100M

The Pirates have broken the nine-figure seal, and only these squads remain.

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Pirates made it official.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, they extended former 2021 All-Star Bryan Reynolds to an eight-year, $106.75 million contract extension. The deal should ideally keep the 28-year-old in Pittsburgh until the 2030s.

But the prospects of Reynolds’ extension had the Pirates finally making some franchise history. He will be their first-ever player to sign a contract worth at least $100 million.

After Pittsburgh broke this new ground, that leaves just three squads who have never rostered a player of at least $100 million. Three squads who may have made the occasional offer but couldn’t quite seal the deal and who otherwise have perhaps never put themselves out there long enough.

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The Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and Kansas City Royals.

While I’d like to say it’s wholly unrelated, it might not be unrelated that the White Sox, Athletics, and Royals own three of the four worst records in all of baseball right now. From this respect, Kansas City and Oakland are more understandable — they have two of the lowest total payrolls in the MLB.

The White Sox, however, are in 14th, despite not having a player with a minimum $100 million contract.

Who’s going to break the $100 million seal next? Maybe it’s about the franchise that will first have a player actually worth that kind of money. On that note: Let’s not hold our breath.

The A’s are so bad that the Rangers unexpectedly needed to let a relief pitcher hit for himself

He got heckled by his own teammates.

The entire concept of pitchers hitting for themselves (aside from Shohei Ohtani) was supposed to end when Major League Baseball instituted the universal DH last season. But the Oakland Athletics are just so bad that the Rangers felt the need to briefly bring back pitchers hitting.

It’s been a rough week — and season, really — for the A’s. We learned this week that the A’s are set to relocate to Las Vegas, and on the field, they’re looking like one of the worst teams in MLB history.

Saturday’s game against the Rangers was especially sad with Oakland needing just three innings to trail by nine runs. That score eventually ballooned to 18-3 in the eighth inning. Now, the Rangers didn’t expect to keep scoring when they subbed for Nathaniel Lowe with DH Brad Miller — thus losing the DH. But the A’s were simply helpless out there with position player Jace Peterson on the mound.

That gave Josh Sborz the most unexpected at-bat of his career.

When Sborz stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, it was clear that he had zero intention of swinging. Now, this probably would have been more intimidating for Sborz had he needed to face an actual pitcher, but Peterson is a position player. Sborz saw four pitches — all under 60 mph — and struck out looking.

The best part had to be the bullpen’s reaction. They were so unimpressed and heckled him the whole time.

MLB fans also had thoughts about the whole scene. As funny as it was from the Rangers’ perspective, it had to be so embarrassing for the A’s.