As someone not only drafted and developed by the A’s, but who grew up attending games at the Coliseum, it bothers Paul Blackburn that Oakland is losing its beloved MLB franchise. The A’s are headed out of town this winter, relocating to Sacramento for three or four seasons until a new ballpark can be constructed for the team in Las Vegas. A franchise that began in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City and then Oakland will be the Las Vegas A’s no later than 2029.
It’s been a messy situation in Oakland , where attendance this season has dwindled to 9,087 fans per game, by far the lowest figure in the major leagues. Fans are angry at ownership after years of political volleyball that failed to produce a stadium solution in or near Oakland. Blackburn, who arrived to the Mets at the trade deadline , spent parts of eight seasons pitching for Oakland.
The good times, he said, were 2017-19, when the team was competitive and fans still held out hope for a ballpark resolution. But after the pandemic began in 2020, the climate around the A’s changed. “I think a lot of the fans and community was over getting dragged along,” Blackburn told Sports+ this week.
“I grew up in that area, too, so I remember when the A’s were looking at Fremont and maybe San Jose. And when I first showed up in Oakland, there was the idea of building [a stadium] in Oakland and they had a site, so I think the fans were just tired of feeling like they were getting strung along.” Blackburn grew up a Giants fan, but attended many A’s games because tickets were less expensive and the Coliseum was closer to his family’s home in Brentwood, Calif.
. Among the thrills for Blackburn after arriving to the Mets was meeting hitting coach Eric Chavez, who starred for the A’s teams of the early 2000s. Blackburn recalled that he often imitated Chavez’s stance and swing in the backyard.
Through all the animosity A’s fans have held toward ownership, Blackburn was grateful none of it extended to the players. “The people that do show up, there’s not many of them, but they’re very pro-player,” Blackburn said. “They love that any time you stop and talk to them.
...
They feel like they’re a part of the team a little bit and you just stop and build those connections with them, and it’s different there.” But it also could be a lonely feeling. Blackburn said in most ballparks he hears “white noise” — the buzz of the crowd — during the game.
At the Coliseum, he would hear the opposing dugout. The times he would most realize how desolate the Coliseum had become were following road trips to cities such as New York, Baltimore and Boston. “You play on the road and get used to that setting and environment on the road and no one’s cheering for you, but at least there’s energy in the stadium,” Blackburn said.
“You come back to Oakland after that, it’s a little different. Especially if you’re starting that first game back at home, you walk out there and look around and there’s a lot of empty seats.” Blackburn isn’t about to point fingers at ownership or the community for the failure to work out a stadium deal.
“I don’t know if you can put it all on one party,” he said. “The attendance is what it is for A’s games, and I’m not saying that ownership tried to bring the community back to the team and bring that buzz back around, but also I feel that if you can’t get butts in the seats, it’s tough from their standpoint, so I kind of see both sides.” This week would have been the ideal spot for the Mets to deploy a sixth starting pitcher, allowing extra rest for some of the veterans, but manager Carlos Mendoza didn’t really have that luxury.
Much of that falls on Tylor Megill, who ranks among the Mets’ biggest disappointments this season. There was plenty of hope among Mets officials as spring training concluded that Megill, after a strong winter developing his splitter and cutter, would blossom into a dependable starter for the club. But Megill has fizzled, and only added to that slump by struggling in his first start back at Triple-A Syracuse.
Megill is still under club control for next season, but it might behoove the Mets to move on from him. Megill was at his best for the Mets in 2021 and the first month of the 2022 season. Since then, it’s been a roller-coaster ride for him with mostly underwhelming results.
It’s nice that the Mets are visiting Seattle this weekend for the first time in seven years, but is there anybody really excited about these interleague series in the heat of the playoff races? The beauty of the Mets’ makeup game in St. Louis on Monday was two teams competing for a wild card got to meet. But last weekend was Mets-Angels, these next three games are Mets-Mariners and then it’s back to the East Coast for Mets-A’s.
That is way too much interleague condensed. As much as the Mets’ next road trip is another doozy — Padres, Diamondbacks and White Sox — at least they will be facing two teams in competition with them for a wild card. Those games in San Diego and Arizona should be fun.
.
