Oakland Athletics Fans Reverse Boycott
FeaturedMLBBy Arthur Weinstein on

The Oakland Athletics have been the butt of many jokes this season. That’s no surprise given they are threatening to set baseball records for ineptitude dating to the 1890s.

Yet this is a once-proud franchise, with four World Series titles in Oakland and several generations of loyal fans.

While those fans love their Athletics, they overwhelmingly loathe team owner John Fisher.

So Tuesday, with the Athletics on the verge of relocating to Las Vegas, A’s fans turned out for an emotional and boisterous “reverse boycott” to show support for the team … and their dislike for Fisher.

As the name suggests, fans were urged to attend the reverse boycott, and they did just that. Traffic was gridlocked outside the stadium well before game time. That’s something A’s fans haven’t had to worry about this year; one game in early May drew only 2,500 fans.

The Athletics had a good crowd against the Tampa Bay Rays, and the fans made their message clear to Fisher with signs, posters, sheets, T-shirts, and chants bearing an unmistakable three-word message: “Sell the team!”

The announced attendance of 27,759 seemed on the low side considering the intensity of the crowd.

Many of these fans have followed the A’s for years. Some remember the glory days of the Oakland teams that won three straight World Series from 1972-1974 behind legends such as Reggie Jackson and Jim “Catfish” Hunter.

Other A’s fans remember the late 1980s heyday of the Bash Brothers or the surprising success of the Billy Beane “Moneyball” era.

It’s a strange coincidence that this emotional outpouring came on the same day the Nevada state senate approved $380 million in public funding for a proposed $1.5 billion Athletics stadium off the Las Vegas Strip. That was considered the biggest remaining hurdle to the team’s relocation, which now basically only requires approval by the Nevada assembly. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo is expected to sign the funding bill. MLB owners are also expected to approve the relocation.

The A’s proposed move to Sin City seems all but a done deal at this point, and the end result will be many unhappy, hurt fans in Oakland. It’s not their fault the Athletics were not competitive in recent years, or that the team failed in several bids to build a new stadium. Yet they still love their A’s, as they showed Tuesday night at the ballpark and on Twitter.

By the way, the Athletics won the game, 2-1, for their seventh consecutive victory, their longest winning streak since August 2021.

[Photo Credit: Michael Dixon]

About Arthur Weinstein

Arthur spends his free time traveling around the U.S. to sporting events, state and national parks, and in search of great restaurants off the beaten path.

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