As the Oakland A’s final home game played itself out, Rickey Henderson observed with profound sentiment in the Oakland A’s hall this weekend. Rickey is the only player who speaks sports more about Oakland. He grew away around. played his high school game around. Started for the A’s in this dated structure numerous times throughout his distinguished job.
His resigned No. The blanket covering the top balcony of Mt. 24 is etched on. Davis along with five other popular A’s numbers—those of Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers, Catfish Hunter and Dave Stewart. Stew alone is not a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Barring any sort of last-gasp alterations, the A’s did play their final home game in this dying, 58-year-old building Thursday against the Texas Rangers. Finally it moves on to Sacramento, where it resides, before ending up in Las Vegas.

” It’s a damn shame”, Henderson said. ” Heartbreaking. I’m a tribal of Oakland and we’ve lost anything. It’s almost like it’s going to be a ghost area. That’s the unfortunate point about it”.
Henderson is currently the A’s ‘ traveling trainer, and he stated that he will continue doing so when the team relocates 90 miles to the east to a minor league ballpark where the River Cats, the Triple-A affiliates of the San Francisco Giants, play.
” Yeah, I’m going with them”, said Henderson, then 65. ” I’ll also be doing the similar item. I roam through the small club program, and I come here. I’ll continue to do that until I’ve decided enough is enough.
The winter looms as even more turbulent despite a public apology from A’s user John Fisher on Monday as if the A’s last year in the Coliseum was n’t daunting sufficiently for fans and players.
” Staying in Oakland was our goal”, he wrote in part. ” It was our vision, and we failed to achieve it. And I’m so sad for it.
Fisher even wrote,” we tried”. Tried, and failed.
And now the A’s may reveal a field with their original cross-Bay rivals ‘ minor leaguers.
The A’s are expected to play in Sacramento next year and for at least two more times before finding a rough in Las Vegas. Last year, Sportico traveled to Sutter Health Park to view the center.
What we found was a clear, comfortable 14-seat estimate with great compromises and a field with a view of Sacramento’s historic downtown and the historic golden bridge crossing the Sacramento River.
We also discovered a minor-league estimate that requires millions of dollars in modifications to be ready for the A’s ‘ primary home game there against the Chicago Cubs on March 31.
The dugouts, hall, lighting, hit box and field carpet are all limited for Major League games and a plan that will include 81 A’s and 75 River Cats games. The rising summertime temperature complicates all of those things. Sacramento experienced the hottest day ever on history, with an average daily high temperatures of 95 degrees, from late June to the end of July.

Major League Baseball is considering building an artificial turf area with a heating system beneath it to handle all those games in all that temperature. During this time of year, there wo n’t be any day games.
Between the existing buildings that house the River Cats and visiting small league team, a new A’s hall is now beginning to appear in remaining field.
It is still in its early stages of construction and needs to be concreted. Visiting MLB teams could use the existing out-of-town pavilion. That’s still to be determined.
The region around those clubhouses is congested and has little space for buses. The key bit is on the home plate and first bottom side of the ballpark, so it’s possible that visiting players and even some of the A’s did climb or bring golf carts to the clubhouse because there are only 38 parking spaces it. Like the old Polo Grounds in New York, players have access from center field to their dugouts, which will be upgraded. That will add a further lengthy walk in the summer.
Minor league lighting needs to be upgraded to major league standards for field lighting. A new and updated video board is planned. To use Statcast’s advanced tracking and metrics to chart all the statistical data collected at each of the 30 big-league ballparks, including the Oakland Coliseum, a computer system will need to be installed.
The ballpark itself has 10, 624 permanent seats and a tree-shaded grassy berm in right field to accommodate another 3, 500 fans. A’s game tickets are significantly higher than those for the River Cats, who had an average of 5, 177 per game in 2023. This year’s minor league games had a ticket price of$ 48.29 on average for the season. A’s tickets are projected at between$ 183 and$ 244 a game next season. Big league prices in a minor-league facility.
The writing media can access eight seats in the press box next to home plate, as well as two small radio booths that are adjacent to it. The front row has five seats, and the second row has three. River Cats and minor league players use the five in the front row. The head of baseball operations and a team photographer were seated in two of the three second row seats the day of our visit.
The room with the current video scoreboard is directly across the hallway. A wall will be built to construct some TV booths and extend the current press box as a result of that facility being moved. But that’s in the planning stages.
Where large traveling media teams like the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Giants, and Cubs will be seated must be taken into account. The Sacramento Bee’s editorial does not regularly feature the River Cats.
The cost of all of this has not yet been determined, but it is currently being split between the A’s and MLB, according to commissioner Rob Manfred’s statement in July after his annual media conference with the baseball writers.
When the Arizona Coyotes of the NHL played Mullett Arena, a 5, 000-seat college facility in Tempe, Arizona, for the final two seasons, the team spent more than$ 10 million to build separate locker room facilities and raise the building to league standards. Since then, the team has relocated to Utah.
The minor league baseball season ended this past weekend, and the River Cats did n’t make the playoffs. Five months until the home opener are finished with all of this work.
The A’s have a busy offseason in store.
Manager Mark Kotsay is approaching the end of his contract. This year, his team did surprisingly well, notching a 67-89 record despite playing in front of a league-low 10, 515 average home attendance.
In his first three seasons, he has a.369 winning percentage, all of which have been overshadowed by the move and the field’s deterioration. He hopes that any gains made this year wo n’t be offset by a widespread relocation of all the players and on-field personnel.
” Obviously, change is difficult for everyone in any aspect of life”, he said this past weekend. ” These players will go through more,” they say.
The plan now is for the A’s to gather again in Mesa, Ariz., next February. The group will leave camp and travel to Sacramento together for the first time in late March, gathered at Sutter Health Park on Tuesday before Seattle’s 2025 regular season begins. They’ll make it their first home series against the Cubs. Kotsay said he’s already seen the schedule.
In the meantime, and in between time, the players will have to find new places to live. It’s a nomadic way of life that most people are familiar with. Kotsay played for seven teams during his 17 big-league seasons, including four in Oakland. Every one of those moves was an upheaval.
” That’s the thing about baseball and the baseball life”, he said. ” You’re never really rooted”.
Uprooted from Oakland. Rooted in Sacramento. At least for the time being.