OAKLAND – Mark Kotsay, the Oakland A’s manager, called dibs on the bases used for the final game at the Oakland Coliseum. Miguel Tejada, who won an MVP award on this turf, visited recently and snatched a few blades of grass. As for the dirt, so many players, including A’s opponents, wanted a handful of soil over the past few weeks that it was a wonder there was still enough to play on.
The dirt here was in such high demand that a dutiful groundskeeper swung past the A’s dugout before a recent game with a shovelful of the stuff for the taking. “Anyone else?” he said. Advertisement But leave it to Dallas Braden, the left-hander who threw a perfect game on these grounds, to have the perfect approach to the end of baseball in Oakland.
“I have been afforded so many memories that I don’t know that there’s anything physical that I need from this place to make me whole,’’ said Braden, who threw his perfecto against the New York Yankees in 2010. “I don’t know if any grain of dirt satiates what the heart wants. “I have friends now, right? Guys named Dave Stewart.
Guys named Rickey Henderson. Guys named Dennis Eckersley. Like, I got to hang out with guys like Vida Blue.
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And I am forever grateful that this place allowed that to happen. I don’t know what physical form you put that in.” The tumultuous ride of the Oakland A’s came to a full-and-complete stop with the final out of a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers .
Because the A’s last three games of t.