Athletics, fans say goodbye with honors and memories of the last game at the Oakland Coliseum

After nearly six decades, the Oakland Athletics will play their final game in Oakland. The storied franchise ends its run in Oakland in front of a sellout crowd.

In an emotional game on Thursday afternoon, the A’s ended their recent home series against the Texas Rangers. The team will play in Sacramento for the next three seasons before permanently moving to Las Vegas in 2028.

Oakland, which hasn’t seen packed stadiums in many years, had a capacity crowd for Thursday’s game. Thousands of fans lined up as early as 8 a.m. for the 12:30 p.m. game to pay their respects to the team.

The emotional evening started strong: former A’s pitcher Barry Zito sang the national anthem and A’s legends Dave Stewart and Ricky Henderson threw out the first pitch.

The game also featured a fitting appearance by Krazy George, the former Oakland cheerleader who invented the wave at the Coliseum in 1979.

Although the game started slowly, the Oakland Coliseum crowd was loud and lively. Chants of “Let’s go to Oakland” echoed through the stadium, as did chants of “Sell the team” — a phrase that has been repeated by fans since owner John Fisher announced the move to Las Vegas in 2023. Many fans consistently wore green t-shirts with the word “SELL,” repeating the idea.

Oakland opened the scoring in the third inning by loading the bases before scoring two runs. Second baseman Zach Gelof then had a diving catch in the fourth to maintain the 2-0 lead.

During this final series, which began on Tuesday, fans took the opportunity to take parts of the stadium with them. The Oakland grounds crew helped fans collect some dirt from the Colossus area as a souvenir.

According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, A’s manager Mark Kotsay plans to take home three bases after the game. Oakland groundskeeper Clay Wood will take the bases from the first inning as his souvenir.

On Tuesday, some fans even went so far as to sit in the Colosseum.

Fisher, who became owner of the A’s in 2005, wrote a little-received statement Monday saying the franchise had “done our best” to keep the team in Oakland. According to multiple reports, Athletics players and coaches were advised to leave the stadium immediately after the game ended Thursday because the team is unsure how fans will react once the game ends.

Before he threw the pitch, Stewart, who won two World Series as a pitcher with the A’s, said it felt like a funeral.

“It’s like going to the wake, looking at the body, and then after you see the body, you say your kind words, and people have their good sayings and talk about memories,” Stewart told NBC.