I was "eight in '72" as well! Jumped on the bandwagon with ya.

I, too, caught the 57C (from 40th and Broadway) in the early 70's and we'd always sit up in front to hear the pre- and post-game shows playing on the bus drivers' radios.

On my first trip to Fremont, im gonna start a "Lets go Oakland chant" that will be heard all the way back to the parking lot at the Coliseum....

and that's why it's going to be so disappointing to me when they leave, even if I recognize that it's going to be good for the organization. It's a bitch, quite frankly.

If you think about it the A's have always acted like they were one foot out the door...and on their way to somewhere else. Haas was an owner who tried to make a lasting imprint on the community but those that came after him kinda erased all of that. The remodel of the park for the Raiders destroyed the attempt to make it a great game experience for the fans. Maybe at Cisco they will work on linking the past to the present. I saw on another thread people lamenting Rickey and Carney working for other organizations. Now maybe they can work on keeping our players here and our retired players in the org. That's the positive about Cisco.
The negative is that we lose the easy access to the park and we have to take on the Yuppie casual fan types only there for the fun day and not there as avid fans. That's going to suck.

when my friends ask me why i don't want a new park, i give the same reasons you do. i know people who are huge giants fans but only end up going to a few games each year (esp. when that team is half decent) because it takes so much effort and money to get tickets. where else but oakland would i have been able to go to so many weekday afternoon games with my dad in the summers growing up, and then with my friends through jr. high and highschool, while still finding time to take in a few with my dad. when the a's leave behind the coliseum, they will leave with them my memories of joy, dissapointment, friends, and family. one of my most cherished memories to this day is myself and several friends scoring tickets to the 20th consecutive victory in 2002 when we were in 7th grade, convincing one of our dads to come with us, and experiencing that moment with some great friends i will keep for life. I hope the team never leaves the coliseum, let alone oakland, but i'm afraid in this era, with even the yankees moving, fans must grow accustomed to holding their memories within themselves without the physical reminder.

so I don't have much of a connection to Oakland, outside of the A's (and a great band called Machine Head). But when I was 11, my dad got season tickets (with friends) and we made 15 to 20 games a year with the family. Playoffs and World Series games. I never got out of school unless I was on my deathbed, but I did get pulled out of class so we could catch Game 3 in '88.

And now I live in LA, so my connection to the Coli is really far. But if it means the A's are gonna have a little more scratch to pay some guys, how can you complain, you know? I mean, I get it. It's your town, your team, and now they're gonna go play for a new city. But it's still close (and a helluva lot closer than me anyway) and if we actually get to see Beane run a team with a little more money, who knows? Maybe we get to keep some of the guys we see walk away.

Of course, as PT put, if it just goes to line the owner's pockets...

and, we don't blame you any more for them (probably less) than we do for Lew's profit motive. We get it. But, your reasons for being "sickened" and assuming we're "rooting" against our self-interests are wrong:

I won’t buy into the "carpetbagger" phraseology of the OAFC, but these are some of the reasons why the "A’s to Fremont" sickens me. It’s completely rational for Wolff and Baby Gap to want to add to their fortunes. I get that, and can’t knock them for it. What I don’t get, is why so many fans are rooting for the owners pocketbooks instead of their own.

As it is now, it’s easy to park, tickets are cheap and available, concession lines are short, and the team is just coming off a great run. For a baseball fan, what’s not to like? High prices and crowds are great for the owners pockets, but not so great for the fans pockets – so why are folks so eager to pay more?

Wolff will move the team out of Oakland regardless of whether it is Fremont. There will be high prices and crowds at the new stadium even if they built it in Oakland, which they won't. So, I just want them to stay in the Bay Area. The fact that it'll be a 15 minute walk for me through a nice neighborhood has very little to do with my support for them moving to Fremont.

You never disappoint BD, thanks for the riffs.

These are good arguments for Fremont:

1. The market inefficiencies which allowed Beane’s A’s to compete without payroll are ending, other GMs are getting smarter, and absent a revenue boost the A’s won’t ever see another era of sustained success like 2000-05.
2. The City of Oakland’s efforts to keep the A’s over the last 10 years have been woefully inadequate.

These are bad arguments for Fremont:

1. It’s either that or the A’s move out of state. Sure, they’ll move to a smaller market with equal or worse stadium obstacles (and/or gambling ones re LV). Classic owner guilt trip from the Stadia Extortatus manual, a scare tactic aimed at Barnum-fodder.
2. A new park in Oakland is impossible. Difficult perhaps, but not impossible. Broadway Auto Row, the Oakland Army Base, Oak-to-Ninth, and the existing Coliseum parking lot are all locations where something could happen. Harder to do and less lucrative for Wolffish, but not impossible.
3. I don’t care about the venue, I never go to games. This just makes me sad.

These are the $64,000 questions about Fremont:

1. If it happens, and if it boosts team revenue substantially, will ownership in fact translate that into payroll?
2. Should they? (see: poor player retention/FA signings by moneyed teams)

I don't read Ray Ratto often. The truth is, in my opinion, the Coliseum is an inferior facility to watch baseball games in. Compared to itself pre mid 90's redo and compared to many other facilities I have been too. Raley FIeld in Sacramento, the Phone Booth in SF. It isn't just the view of the hills and quarry.

It is the disappearing center fielder on a fly ball to the warning track from many vantage points, for example.

I am rooting for a cool experience in a new venue. Oakland, Fremont, San Jose, Gilroy, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Concord, Martinez, Santa Rosa, Petaluma etc. It doesn't matter much to me where it is as long as it is in the Bay Area.

I miss my baseball family too...I can't wait to get back out there this year!!!

Cheers,

Saint

You're a cult hero of a few buddies of mine. We have a ceremony every time you come on Robert's show...and yes I've heard you a few times on 680. Keep up the solid work, I like what I read.

I have you waving the flag in one of my baseball mags from last year. Hope to run into you on opening night.

Go A's !