Wednesday, May 29, 2013

My Response to Jon Heyman

During the Battle of the Bay Series Tuesday evening, CBS Reporter Jon Heyman tweeted about the Oakland Coliseum...
Before you continue reading, let the statement sink in for a moment.  Whether you are a fan of an opposing team or a fan of the Oakland Athletics, this tweet did one thing and one thing only; they insulted a fan base and as predicted, many A's fans are not happy about it including myself.  Though, I am very disappointed for what Heyman said, he continues to go on and take the low road and decline and interview with the A's "flagship" station KGMZ.

To educate Heyman, I would like to first off and say that his mention about our team and ownership prefer a new stadium. I agree with him that the A's need a new yard, but in my opinion, I want the stadium to be in Oakland and NOT San Jose as current owner Lew Wolff wants.  There is also a sticky situation that has been going on for 3+ years because the Giants do not want to give up Santa Clara County territorial rights that the A's gave up to the Giants in the 1990's as a "gentleman's agreement" so they would not move to Tampa Bay.  Even though the territorial rights have prevented the A's from moving to San Jose, I am thankful the Giants are doing this because this pretty much forces Wolff to try and build a stadium in Oakland or perhaps sell the team to someone who will.

Die Hard Fans as you can get
(Photo courtesy of Spencer Mills)
Throughout my lifetime, I have lived and breathed the Oakland Athletics, while practically calling the Coliseum a second home.  I love the place.  My second home might be out of date, but it is still my home.  I could be anywhere in the world, close my eyes and I am able to paint a photo in my head walking through the Coliseum seeing the myriad of fans, smelling the hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, and seeing the beer flow like water.  My parents have been taking me to A's games for so long, I don't even remember when my first game was.  I do know that I had my first baseball emotion at 6 years old when Kirk Gibson hit the home run off Dennis Eckersley in 1988; I cried.  My parents were season ticket holders in the early 1990's and then stopped because they got divorced and could not afford them anymore.  I still tried to get out to as many games as I could and dad/mom would take us.  I was afraid the Angels moved to Oakland when the entire Coliseum started to change to a blueish color, but luckily I found out they were just filming a movie (Angels In The Outfield).  I was depressed in 1994, when I watched Ray Fosse talk about the players strike and ended baseball way too early than I wanted it to.  I danced to Icebox and the Hard Hat Construction Crew "YMCA" when Mt. Davis was being built.  I caught my first baseball from Section 216 from Jim Edmonds with help from my uncle. I lived through the teams of the 1990's that were just terrible with Ariel Prieto and Todd Van Poppel not turning out to be what we all thought.  1999 gave me a glimmer of hope where the A's contended until late September.  In my first year at UC Riverside, I sat in my dorm room watching the A's win the West on the last day of the season.  I sat through the 20 game winning streak and remember Game 18 specifically thinking the game was over, until the Los Angeles station broke in during their sports programming saying that Tejada hit the walk-off.  I remember the Giambi non slide, the Lowe crotch chop as Terrence Long went down looking.  Loved Jason Kendall for his grit even though he never could hit a home run.  I loved it when watching the College World Series, seeing two future drafted teammates square off (Huston Street and Kurt Suzuki, the latter whom I followed in college).  After finally securing a full time job after school and going to so many games, my parents thought I should become a season ticket holder, which I finally did in 2011, which has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have met a whole bunch of awesome people just like me that live at the Coliseum.  If I go and see someone I don't see someone I know, I am in shock.  It's not just a home, its a beautiful home where the "fanily" lives. I met an awesome group in the Right Field bleachers through a mutual friend during that time and it's been awesome fun.  I am privileged to call these people I have met friends as there has been a bond that has been created outside of the Coliseum as well.  I hung out with a lot of these same folks at an Oakland hotel at 3am watching our team play Opening Day in Japan in what turned out to be one of the most improbable years in team history.

Jeff Francoeur called us some of the best fans in baseball.  Justin Verlander called the Coliseum the loudest place he has ever played in.  Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, MC Hammer, Adrien Brody, Danny Glover, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson stepped foot into the Coliseum field and that's just for baseball.

After sleeping on the comments, I have the following message for Jon Heyman...

Thank you for what you said about the Coliseum and their fans.  You just made us love the Coliseum even more, while you gave the A's and their fans/players no respect.  The team that was supposed to win it all because their offense was superior?  They are sitting 5.5 games behind us right now because you can't admit their pitching staff sucks.  The defending World Series Champs have lost two straight to us.  Want to say the A's are "padding their record" against divisional doormat, Houston?  That's cool, but 9 other teams have done to Houston, which Boston and Oakland hasn't done.  Keep on doubting us! That's fine by me, because when the A's "shock the world" once again in 2013, what is going to be your response this time?

"Not too bad for a dump..." is what I am pretty much expecting...
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