OAKLAND — Only a few stragglers remained of fans who made their way to the field to circle the bases one last time.
Included was a group in the familiar green “Sell” T-shirts beating their drums and getting high-fives from security guards while chanting “Sell The Team!” following a 2-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers Sunday at the Coliseum.
The defeat dropped the A’s record to 48-108. One more loss on their six-game road trip to close out the season and it will be the most of their 55 years in Oakland. The 55 home losses are the most since the A’s came to Oakland in 1968 and equals the franchise record set in 1956 and 1964 in Kansas City.
The A’s departed afterward for a six-game road trip to Minnesota and Anaheim to face the Twins and Angels, playing out the string of season in which ownership gave them no legitimate chance to field a contending team or even one that could approach .500.
But rather than get booed off the field, A’s fans chose to cheer, displaying the same kind of positive vibe in the face of adversity that the players showed all season long. They flooded the dugout area to say their goodbyes while many players made their way to the rail to do the same.
Players want no part of discussions of owner John Fisher, mouthpiece Dave Kaval or their potential future in Las Vegas. They’re focused on making it back to Oakland for the 2024 season.
Left-handed starter J.P. Sears, who saw his record fall to 5-13 giving up just a two-run bloop single to Spencer Torkelson in five innings, is thinking that way.
“We want to provide the fan base with a winning team, a competitive team, something they’ll come out and cheer for,” Sears said. “We appreciate those that come out and want to increase that next year.”
The A’s attendance of 13,102 was bigger than their average crowd of 10,240 coming in, although not to up to the Giants-infused home dates of 37,553 and 27,381 on Aug. 5-6 or the “reverse boycott” night of 27,759 against Tampa Bay on June 13.
The season attendance of 832,342 is last in the major leagues but more than the 787,902 during last year’s 102-loss season
It turns out the largest home date of the year that didn’t get a boost from the Giants or a boycott was Opening Night on March 30, when 26,805 saw the A’s beat the Los Angeles Angels 2-1.
A’s fans have not only made themselves heard on a national scale, but among the team as well.
“The fans supported this group even though the record isn’t great,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “They showed up today with the type of support they’ve always had. These fans are the best in baseball. Can’t say enough about ’em. You can really feel the energy for the team that’s out there even after the last out of the game.”
Detroit manager A.J. Hinch, whose team dropped the first two games of the series to the A’s, was impressed with the resolve of the home crowd. Hinch was an A’s player from 1998 through 2000.
“I played here so I have a good memory of this place,” Hinch said. “This is a passionate fan base and they deserve their voices to be heard. When you hear the chants for three straight days you realize how passionate they are and how much they care about their A’s.”
The crowd in the right field bleachers but had its usual assortment of handmade signs flapping in the breeze urging Fisher to sell the team. The first “Sell the Team” chant came in the fifth inning, and broke out sporadically throughout the rest of the game.
In the eighth, an oversized yellow Oakland flag was unfurled by fans along with a banner stretching an entire section which said “Oakland will never quit.”
Fans who show up again in 2024 will continue to carry the fight.
“They’re here for at least one more year, and who’s to say the whole Las Vegas deal will even happen?,” Jaimie Rodriguez of San Leandro said while waiting in line for a hot dog. “I get that people don’t want to give A’s ownership their money. But I’ll keep coming because if they do ever leave I’ll be sorry I didn’t take advantage of every last chance to see them.”
One fan who walked the concourse hung a banner on his back with a picture of Raiders owner Mark Davis and the message “Hey Fisher: For future generations, your name will forever be synonymous with Mark Davis. So you’ve got that going for you.”
About an hour before the game, a plane circled the Coliseum referencing Fisher’s mother:
“Doris get ur kid. Sell the team.”
Kotsay, whose team bottomed out at 12-50 on June 5 and got better in stages, was heartened by a mostly positive vibe throughout.
“This is my 27th year at the big league level and I’ve had seasons that felt longer and I’ve had seasons that felt a lot shorter,” Kotsay said.
The A’s roster Sunday had just 13 players who were on the team on Opening Night, only catcher Shea Langeliers, Sears, infielder Aledmys Diaz and outfielder Brent Rooker going wire to wire without so much as a stint on the injured list.
With projected staff ace Paul Blackburn starting the season on the injured list, the A’s turned to Kyle Muller, a left-hander acquired in the deal that sent catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta. Muller has bounced between the big club and Triple-A Las Vegas.
Muller pitched an inning of scoreless relief Sunday.
“I was talking to my fiancée about it and I remember conversations the first day of spring training and that seems like yesterday and now we’re here it’s kind of wild,” Muller said. “A lot’s happened between then and and now. It got here really fast, to be honest with you.”
Langeliers, who came to the A’s in the Matt Olson trade and has been a longtime teammate of Muller, wasn’t so sure.
“It seems like a long time ago,” Langeliers said. “But the last half of the season has been about growing as a team, getting better and building momentum in a positive direction.”
Ryan Noda, a Rule 5 acquisition from the Dodgers who won the Catfish Hunter Award for “courageous and inspirational spirit”, has been pulled in both directions.
“You know, some days it feels like it was yesterday,” Noda said. “Some days it feels like it was a couple of years ago.”
To the A’s young players, many of whom made their big league debuts at the Coliseum, the venerable facility carries with it memories that will last a lifetime. It’s also the place the A’s will play next season and maybe even longer.
“There’s a lot of history here, a lot of good history,” Noda said. “We saw glimpses of it. When this place is packed, it’s the loudest place in baseball — like playoff baseball. Hopefully we can make that happen next year, get people in the stands and have a winning season.”
NOTABLE
— Sears was 3-2 in September with a 2.93 earned run average after getting just two wins in his first 26 starts. He’ll get one more start against the Angels.
“I would have told me I’d get (32) starts, I’d say sign me up,” Sears said. “I didn’t know what my role would be but I was ready to throw 100-plus innings.”
— Center fielder Esteury Ruiz had two hits and two steals (giving him 65 for the season). But he was also caught stealing third with no one out and thrown out the plate by Javier Baez when he should have stayed at third. On the double that got Ruiz to second, he coasted into second when the ball got past left fielder Andy Ibanez and could have been at third had he ran at top speed.
— The A’s were 2-8 on their final homestand.