Nostalgia and gratitude, farewell to the Oakland Coliseum

Corey Costelloe.

Another building near and dear to my heart closed last week as the Oakland Athletics played their final game at the Oakland Coliseum. I am one that is all for nostalgia, but unlike most fans, I do not let that blind me to the reality of life, and the reality of the business that is Major League Baseball and professional sports in general.

Since the late 1960s the Coliseum has been relatively untouched, except for the renovation in the mid 1990s that added "Mount Davis," the extra seating and luxury suites structure in the outfield to convince the Raiders to come back from Los Angeles. Mount Davis added to a myriad of reasons that the Coliseum just did not work for professional baseball anymore. Both the Raiders and A's realized they needed new facilities. The Raiders ultimately left for Las Vegas, and after playing three seasons in Sacramento, the A's will be following them to Sin City.

The City of Oakland and Alameda County let the place fall into disrepair, and that is a whole separate topic. For now, I would like to share a few memories, good and bad, of the home of my Athletics for the last five-plus decades.

I first had the chance to get to the Coliseum in 1992, a few months after the franchise had traded my favorite childhood player, Jose Canseco, to the Texas Rangers. It was fitting that my first A's game was against Canseco and the Rangers. It was odd seeing number 33 wearing blue and red. I remember how excited I was on the drive from my brother's house in Fairfield, California to Oakland. I finally got to see the place I had watched on television for years, to see the ground on which my heroes would compete. That night, nothing could have gone wrong and the visit was memorable.

The next year I returned with my brother and a few friends to catch a doubleheader, A's vs. Twins. I remember Dave Winfield, playing for the Twins at the time, hitting a foul ball behind the screen that a young fan in the second deck reached up and caught. We had upper deck seats and the place pretty much emptied prior to the second game. We stayed in the upper deck, throwing peanuts at the scavenging sea gulls, and politely declining invitations from stadium ushers to move down to the lower decks free of charge. Ultimately that upper deck was tarped off by the A's and not used much in the last decade or so. We did take a few innings in from down below, because why not? It was free.

I returned in 1994 and was involved in one of the most infamous games in baseball history. We sat in the outfield before the aforementioned Mount Davis ruined that seating. But, it was the final game of the strike-shorted 1994 season featuring the A's and Mariners. We were interviewed in the parking lot about our feelings regarding the strike, and we watched the last active MLB game come to an end, and thus, the 1994 season, in August, not October as was the norm. It was heartbreaking, but on the bright side I witnessed Ken Griffey Jr. hitting a grand slam for the Mariners. I also saw the reality of business coming to the forefront of the game.

It would be years before I returned, but somewhere around 2005 or so my wife and I returned for a Red Sox-A's game. At that point the deterioration of the Coliseum was noticeable. I remember warning my wife, who to that point had only been to nice ballparks, places like Petco Park in San Diego and Oracle Park in San Francisco. Even she was shocked at the condition. I remember the A's losing that game and nearly having to send a five-knuckle message to a drunk fan who decided to scream at her on our way to the BART train since she was wearing a Red Sox shirt. Ah memories. Then we got on the wrong train and once we realized the mistake, we were told by the station attendant after we suggested we just get a cab "you don't want to go outside at night in this neighborhood." Welcome to Oakland.

We returned once more in 2012, I was calling some baseball games for CSUB at Sacramento State and since they played day games and the A's played at night, we took in what would prove to be our last game at the Coliseum. The upper deck was completely closed, the fans all crowded into one concourse, leaking pipes everywhere, broken seats and just a disregard for the fan experience. But, they were my team, so through thick and thin I continued.

I had hoped to maybe take my own kids there one time this season before the A's moved, but I decided against that. Oakland just isn't worth visiting anymore and the rapid transit system is far from family-friendly. The city, like the stadium, leaves much to be desired. Why remember a place at its worst when I had great memories of its best?

There's something about grimy old stadiums that tend to pull at the heart strings, and the death of the Coliseum is the official end to the old multiuse stadiums constructed in a bygone era where two teams shared the same venue. Ever since the Raiders moved a few seasons ago that model was gone, but now it is officially over as the A's played their final inning.

The Coliseum joins those other special places in my life such as Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield and Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego as former greats now reduced to rubble. It's just a part of the reality of sports, life and the game, goes on.

Thanks Oakland Coliseum for the memories (good and bad), thanks for the great times shared with my brother as we bonded over baseball, even though his favorite team was across the Bay. Thanks for bringing those larger-than-life television heroes into one place, so young fans like me could feel immortal for nine innings, rise when a ball was hit deep, cheer when my team rounded third base and take in the sights and sounds with smiles on our faces.

To quote former A's pitcher and broadcaster Dallas Braden, who started this final Athletics season in Oakland with these poetic words, "don't be sad that is it over, be grateful that it happened."

Despite all of its flaws and its whimpering demise, the Oakland Coliseum meant something to me, and for that, I am forever grateful.

Corey Costelloe has covered NCAA, professional and local sports for more than 20 years as a reporter, broadcaster and athletics administrator. He advocates for the value of athletic competition and serves as the President of the Tehachapi Warriors Booster Club. He can be reached at [email protected].