Say It Ain't So, Joe. Loyal A's Fans Bid Farewell To Oakland In Final Homestand

OAKLAND — The father was taking his 14-year-old son to his first ever baseball game at the Oakland Coliseum in April of 1968 and he wanted to film it with his 8 mm camera while driving his car. The dad, who had retired from the U.S. Navy at Treasure Island and moved his family from Lemoore to Oakland, had the day all planned out for his son and, to document it, he wanted his home movie to begin with footage of the brand new “Oakland Alameda County Coliseum” highway sign.

Unfortunately, he realized he had just passed it. The green Ford Maverick he was driving had gone too far on the 66th Avenue exit ramp off southbound Interstate 880 to capture the moment.

“What happened next defied logic,” his son, Joe Wolfcale, recalled, “We backed up on the off ramp until the sign came into view and my dad recorded it for posterity … That was my introduction to the ballpark and the Oakland Athletics.”

Joe will always remember his first A’s game in the team’s first season in Oakland because it began with him going in reverse. If only he could turn back time now.

This coming Thursday, September 26, will be the last A’s game — and Joe’s last day now as a  21-year A’s employee — at the Oakland Coliseum. It will be a day he will want to forget. There’s no going back.

A sellout crowd is expected for that final game and the A’s organization, led by team majority owner Darth Fisher, likely will beef up security so A’s fans won’t break or steal anything during or after the A’s 4,493rd and last game in the Oakland Coliseum. If only the organization paid more attention to their fans for breaking their hearts and stealing their team.

While the New York Yankees are in Oaktown this weekend and their fans are counting down the Magic Number for winning another division title, Oakland A’s fans are dreading their Tragic Number. This is the A’s farewell homestand and their fans are getting their last look at a franchise that won four World Series in their time playing in this ballpark.

Joe Wolfcale will be watching from his work day location in the luxury field box next to the visitor’s dugout. To his right stands the so-called Mt. Davis — the monstrosity of the steel-and-concrete grandstand that the City of Oakland and County of Alameda built for Raiders owner Al Davis to lure him back from LA and lead them into debt. The erection of Mt. Davis signaled the beginning of the end of the Oakland A’s.  When Joe first became an A’s fan he sat in the wooden bleachers in the right field with a view of the Oakland hills.

“It was Dodgers Stadium without the palm trees,” he fondly says.

Joe sat in the Oakland Coliseum with his family and friends, wishing for the best. They waited for Reggie Jackson to hit a home run in their direction.

“He never did, but we always had the hope that he might,” Joe muses.

It was easy to like the A’s back then. They had white cleats and colorful uniforms and they were on the verge of winning three consecutive World Series with an owner who made demands, but never gave ultimatums. 

“I just liked the team and the story about the team,” Joe says, “I liked the characters they had.”

One of them was Vida Blue. He was a left-handed pitcher and Joe, also a left-handed pitcher, idolized him. Joe would always get his dad to come outside and play ball with him. Joe’s dad hit him flyballs until it was dark and he would crouch down like a catcher when Joe pitched.

“He sacrificed his knees to catch me,” Joe says.

Joe eventually came to cover the A’s. When he worked as sportswriter at the Contra Costa Times, Joe wrote about the 1987 All-Star Game in the Oakland Coliseum. Joe later became the assistant sports editor at the Marin Independent Journal where he worked with me from 2002-2008.

At the same time, Joe worked as an attendant at A’s games in the Oakland Coliseum. He started in 2003 when a friend, Earl Patrick Nichols — a.k.a. Nick — told him there was a job opening in the ballpark. Joe turned it into an ambassadorship.

“It’s called `Field Box Attendant’ but I tell people I’m a glorified usher. I make 10-year-old boys’ and 40-year-old women’s dreams come true. Take that how you want. Sometimes. Not all the times.”

From his workplace in the luxury field box next to the visiting team’s dugout, Joe will do his best to please A’s fans, be it passing out bubble gum or helping position fans for a possible autograph or a selfie next to the field.  One time he helped local TV weather forecaster Roberta Gonzales and a girlfriend get on the field after a Sunday game to run the bases. He held their high heels for them at home plate as they circled the bases barefoot.

Not all is rainbows and unicorns in the field box, though. Joe one time was verbally assaulted by an obnoxious fouled-mouthed drunk who was holding a sign blocking the view of fans behind him. Joe asked that he be ejected from the ballpark.

The A’s, as it turns out, were not far behind him. Joe held out hope the A’s and Darth Fisher would find a new home in Oakland. The plan in 2019 for waterfront ballpark in Jack London Square piqued his interest until he learned the plan included building a gondola to transport A’s fans from downtown Oakland to the new ballpark, a gondola that would literally fly over the I-880 freeway.

“This ain’t fuckin’ Disneyland,” Joe snarled.

Reality hit the fan earlier this year when the A’s could not reach an agreement with city and county officials to extend the team’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum. The next day the A’s announced they were moving to Las Vegas to a new ballpark that has yet to break ground with a layover in Sacramento to share a minor league Sutter Field with the San Francisco Giant's AAA team for an undetermined period of time.

That announcement became an anchor for attendance at A’s games in the Oakland Coliseum. They sank as low as they could. Going into Friday night’s game against the Yankees, the A’s were last in the major leagues in home attendance with an average of 9,843 fans per game. Joe says the crowds have been so small and quiet that there have been times from the first base field box he could hear the leftfielder calling off the shortstop on shallow flyballs to left.

The sad part is the young A’s have developed this season into a competitive and exciting bunch. They have the third best record in the American League since July 1 and they are seventh overall in the major leagues in home runs, not far behind Shohei Ohtani and the moneybag Dodgers.

“We’re right behind the Dodgers with a McDonald’s Big Mac budget,” Joe says.“It’s really fun. We used to have Matt Chapman. We had Matt Olson. We had Marcus Semien. We had Liam Hendriks. Now we’ve got Brett Rooker, Shea Langeliers, Lawrence Butler, Mason Miller. We’ve got the next row of stars.”

Unfortunately they will be stars in Las Vegas or Sacramento. For Joe, all he can do is sit by and do his job until they leave.

“I still live by my motto: If there is a some way I can enhance a game day experience for one of our fans I’ll do it, as long as it’s not illegal," Joe says with a laugh.

This is not the happily-ever-after ending Joe envisioned when he became an A’s fan. His favorite moment in the Oakland Coliseum occurred in Game 162 of the 2012 season when the A’s swept a season-ending series against the Rangers to win the division. The A’s, who trailed the Rangers by 13 games on June 30, overtook them on the final day of the regular season.

“I still have video of that. It was nuts,” Joe says, “I’ve never seen the stadium like that. People running down the aisles high-fiving each other.”

Not so much these days. A’s fans are raising their hands now to wave goodbye.

On Wednesday, the day before the A’s final game in the Oakland Coliseum, Joe will be honored as the A’s Employer of the Month for the third time in a pregame ceremony. He first won the award in 2016 and gave it to Bruce Kalfus, now an executive at ESPN in Marketing and Sales. Bruce was the longest tenure fan in Joe’s field box so Joe passed the award to him.

That’s a testament to Joe’s job and character. Always looking out for the A’s fan. His employee of the month award on Wednesday will be the last one the A’s will hand out in Oakland.

My A’s memories in the Oakland Coliseum are professional. I was there for an All-Star Game. I was there when Rickey Henderson set the all-time record for stolen bases. I was there when Jose Canseco became baseball’s first 40/40 player. I was there when Mark McGwire hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 3 of the 1988 World Series and when the A’s won Game 2 of the World Series the next year which turned out to be the last World Series game they won in Oakland. I was there during the record 20-game winning streak when Moneyball  happened.

Joe Wolfcale’s memories in Oakland Coliseum are personal. The 8 mm film his father took that day 56 years ago has disappeared, and it’s too bad. It’s the proverbial fairy tale of a father taking his son to his very first baseball game that won’t go away.

“He was my Little League coach and best friend,” Joe says. “He died of a massive heart attack in 1971, one month shy of his 50th birthday. He introduced me to baseball and what would begin my more than 55 year-old fandom of the green and gold.”

On September 26 the Oakland Coliseum will fade to black for the Oakland A’s. Joe will take one last look around. He will think of his dad and the first game he attended.

“I’ll probably cry. In fact I will shed a tear,” Joe said. “The thing I always regretted was that he didn’t see what I became. He would have been right here with me.”

Joe Wolfcale’s dad, unlike the A’s, will forever be rooted in Oakland.

Why English Premier League Football Is Better Than NFL Football

The start of the 2024 National Football League season has been a come-to-“Jesus” moment for me. The last straw.

I have decided to take a leap of faith from the NFL’s new hideous Landing Zone and jump with both feet into the English Premier League. I have committed my weekends to watching Arsenal and Gabriel Jesus play football — you call it soccer — because I have come to the conclusion that English football is better than NFL football. My reasoning is plain and simple. I like English Premier League football because it’s plain and simple.

I hear you. There’s not enough scoring in soccer. Blah. Blah.Blah. Well, hear me out. Scoring goals in soccer is not a problem. It’s a premium. Soccer, or football as the rest of the world knows it, is the beautiful game and its beauty is in the eye of the beholder who see soccer as a science. I wasn’t very good in science in school, but on weekends I’m now deep into formations, build ups, counters, transfer windows, and tables and I don’t mean I’m going to Ikea.

Why do I think English Premier League football is better than NFL football? Let me count the ways on game day. 

Pre Game

Getting tickets to the game. Last year Arsenal and the English Premier League implemented a new ticket policy designed to get affordable tickets directly into the hands of their passionate fans and out of the hands of StubHub and other third party ticket distributors. By registering online for a ticket ballot, I was able to win a lottery of sorts and purchase a seat in the fourth row of Block 26 in the Clock End of an Arsenal-Tottenham North London Derby rivals match in Emirates Stadium (think Yankees vs. Red Sox in Fenway Park on steroids) for 30 GBP or roughly $39. Yes, $39 for a fourth row seat. No StubHub. No problem. Feel blessed.

Emirates and most EPL stadiums are located in the middle of neighborhoods, like Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. No need for tailgate parties because there are few if any parking lots and there is a pub at practically every corner. I struck up a conversation over pints with a couple of Arsenal fans in The Twelve Pins on my first trip to Emirates and they were stunned I was an Arsenal fan. I explained that the 2005 Boston Red Sox movie Fever Pitch was inspired and adapted from a best-selling book about the Arsenal fandom. 

My newfound Twelve Pins drinking pals were bewildered by our American football.

“I don’t get it. They huddle, run a play, stop, regroup, huddle, and do it all over again,” quipped one Arsenal fan who flew in from Dublin for the game.

As I left the pub and headed to the stadium, fans were converging in all streets leading to the stadium like the march of the Winkies to the Land of Oz. Some stranger pulled up aside me in the middle of a street and offered me beer from a six pack cooler pack he was hauling like a flask.

Inside the stadium, I was consumed by an atmosphere of anticipation. The most emotional moment of my first Arsenal match was the crowd in unison singing the refrain from Louis Dunford’s The Angel (North London Forever) after the announcement of the starting lineups and the start of the game.

Chills.

For my second Arsenal match last season vs Wolverhampton in December, my buddy and fellow Gooner Lee and I walked off a street into the Arsenal Society Club. It’s basically a rectangular garage with a bar in the corner jam packed with Arsenal fans. It’s not a man cave. It’s a man haven. There are no high society dues or TVs or music blaring. Just fans drinking and talking with other fans about the match. Music to my ears.

To watch a Premier League match on TV, one tunes into Premier League Mornings Live and, for me, that means sometimes getting up at 4 a.m. Premier League Mornings airs from a normalTV studio with one host — the impeccable Rebecca Howe — and two analysts who answer simple questions with longer unscripted answers. It’s not complicated. It’s informative. No overanalyzing. They breakdown matches better than Nick Saban on a game film bender.

Tune into a souped up NFL pregame show today and there are at least four or five commentators in a studio that looks as big as a shopping mall ready to smile and look pretty and deliver funny one-liners between puff interviews and comedy skits. It’s not analysis. It’s pure entertainment and it’s all rehearsed. My goodness, Sunday Night Football has more commentators in pregame than Carrie Underwood has sequins. The most hyped match-up of the day was Tom "Let's Go!" Brady vs. The Broadcast Booth. Let's not go there ...

Then there is the betting element of the NFL that has inundated game day coverage. Beer and car commercials have been surplaced by DraftKings and FanDuel, giving fans the opportunity to win — but mostly lose — money betting on teams, players, and practically any statistical category. There is more over/unders than a pole vault competition. Each ad comes with a disclaimer in fine print that is harder to read than the bottom line on the eye chart in my optometrist’s office.

 In Game

Once a Premier League match starts there are two 45-minute halves of continuous action (not counting Extra Time) with no TV commercial interruption, no fantasy football or betting statistics scrolling across the bottom of the screen and no sideline reporters primed to ask the usual assortment of softball questions that provide no redeeming value to the broadcast. I’ll take Peter Drury describing the sole focus of the match which is the action on the field.

In Emirates Stadium during matches, I did not see fans with their noses aimed at their cell phones or flaunting face make-up or wearing chains around their necks or any silly head gear. They did not call attention to themselves and they were not distracted because they were acutely engrossed by the play on the pitch. There were no concession people hawking beer and souvenirs the stands. No fans mocking for cameras because all eyes and cameras were pointed at the managers, the players and the one referee.

NFL games now start with the so-called Landing Zone, a designated area where a kicker can kick the ball so the kick returner can return it. Otherwise the NFL has turned the Opening Kickoff — one of the most exciting plays in the game — into Touchback Mania. What a waste of time! Can’t wait for one of the NFL networks to replace the Landing Zone graphic with WTF. Landing Zone? It’s Line Dancing!

I get it. It’s a new rule with player safety in mind, but if it’s so dangerous why are they still doing it the old fashion way in college? What’s the point — the excitement — of watching the opening kickoff or any kickoff end with the most action being an official waving his arms, blowing his whistle, and placing the ball at the 30-yard line. Just bring the offenses and defenses on the field and get on with it.

By the way: Are they changing the onside kick to the odd side kick?

In the English Premier League, they win coin tosses and don’t defer. There is rarely a time when the ball is not moving. Coaches or managers can throw fits but they can’t throw flags to challenge plays. Instead, there is a VAR (Video Assistant Referee) who has access to all TV angles of the match who, if there is a “clear and obvious” error, will review it while action continues. The VAR will contact the referee of the match through his headset device if something warrants another look. The ref will then stop play and sprint off the pitch, and review the play for himself. It takes a minute. 

In the NFL, a disputed call inevitably leads to a coach’s challenge, a referees huddle, the crew chief going to the sideline to review every conceivable angle of the disputed play, the referee announcing his decision to  both sidelines. Essentially too much confusion and too much time. This process takes at least one beer commercial, one car commercial, one insurance commercial and one betting commercial to complete.

One of the best things about the in-game atmosphere at an English Premier match is opposing fans are segregated. Visiting fans can purchase a small allotment of tickets to sit in a designated seating section that is shielded by security personal on each side and step bordering the sections for home fans. It’s like a slice of hell. Rather than see visiting fans sprinkled throughout stadiums at NFL games, visiting fans at EPL matches sit together in a block that adds to the drama and intensity of the match. There are plenty of insults thrown back and forth, but no punches. At the Arsenal-Tottenham match I attended, home and visiting fans taunted each other with profane chants filled with X-rated words and hand gestures that would make a Taylor Swift blush. It was Monty Python’s Flying Circus with bleeps and blurs.

The action on the pitch is just as rough and raw. Critics of soccer will point to the “acting” of players who react to a potential foul as if they had been run down by bulls in the streets of Spain. Sort of like LeBron James’ reaction when he goes up for a driving layup and, to get a referee’s attention, emits a loud groan or cry as if he has been fouled by a tractor trailer. The referees in the English Premier League are not easily fooled by this act unless there is excessive contact. In fact, the referee might even issue a yellow card if some player flops for flops sake. The referee controls the match with the help of yellow and red cards. A red card not only ejects a player from the current match and leaves your team a player short on the field, but penalizes you by not being able to play in the next match.

In the NFL, you get fined, but usually you are fine to play the next game. 

In the NFL, your goal is to get to the playoffs. If you can’t, your team may be inclined to “tank” its games to get a better position in the next league player draft.

In the English Premier League, the season is seven months long and you compete hard to the bitter end. Last season, the champion was not determined until the final day of the season when Manchester City and Arsenal went down to the wire to see who would finish at the top of the table (English speak for standings). Arsenal needed a win (worth three points) in its final match and needed for Man City to draw (worth one point) in order to win its first English Premier League title since 2004 (when, ironically, the Red Sox ended an 86-year drought and won the World Series). Arsenal would have won the tiebreaker because the Gunners had a better goal differential than Man City. As it was, Man City won its last match and scored a record fourth consecutive EPL championship. Erling Haaland is the Patrick Mahomes of English Premier League.

The bottom three teams in the 20-team English Premier League were relegated or demoted to the Championship League this year, the AAA of the EPL. That is an embarrassment so the weaker teams in the EPL have to compete at their best to the end to avoid being shamed into the Championship League. They and their fans would rather Cowboy up than give up. 

Post Game

When English Premier League matches end, the manager and players actually circle the pitch and acknowledge and applaud their loyal and passionate fans for their undying support win, lose, or draw. They thank the fans. Cameras catch this exchange of joy and genuine respect and share it for minutes on end with TV viewers.

In the NFL when games end, the coaches shake hands at midfield and the players are beset with interview requests as all the competitors try to get off the field and into the locker room in hurry. The longest they stop is to take a minute to pray in a circle. They thank God. The lucky fans might get a chin strap or wrist band tossed their way. There is no organized salute between the teams and their fans. The networks break to commercial as soon as they can.

Back at the post game TV studio, Rebecca Lowe goes right to the two analysts who both provide their instant analysis over a series of highlights. They expertly break down each clip by telling viewers what went right and what went wrong and why a team scored a goal or a goalie made a save on a particular play. It is a thoughtful  and detailed explanation.

In the NFL game TV studios, they either go right to the next game or to lightning fast post-game highlights. One of the commentators reads from a script in one or two quick highlights of each game played while the other commentators chit chat and joke. All the while the bottom of the TV screen scrolls all the individual stats that fantasy team owners and bettors galore crave. In all likelihood you will know how many touchdown catches a particular tight end had before you find out the final or updated scores of the other key games.

Call me Old School — but not Frank “The Tank” Ricard Old School — but I used to love the NFL when the game was the real entertainment and the final score was all that mattered. That’s what the English Premier League has become to me. No talking heads with cute banter trying to upstage the other. No betting odds for the oddest of things that have nothing or little to do with the outcome. No gimmicks or graphics or gee-golly interviews before, during or after the game. 

Give me the grit and energy of captain Martin Odegaard. Give me the footwork and speed of Bukayo Saka. Give me the creativity of Declan Rice. Give me the steadiness and calmness of William Saliva. Give me the finesse of Leandro Trossard. Go Gunners!

Just give me plain and simple. It still works.