Major League Baseball
With the tarps removed from the Third Deck, the largest crowd in nine years packed the Oakland Coliseum Friday night. But there was little to cheer about. The A’s fell to the Detroit Tigers 3 to 2 in Game One of the best of five series.
With 48,401 fans chanting, “Let’s go Oakland!” things got off to a raucous start at the Oakland Coliseum Friday night in Game One of the American League Playoffs.
But three Detroit runs in the first inning quieted the crowd, which enveloped all three decks of the stadium in a sea of Green and Gold.
The A’s only had three hits all night, including a two-run homer in the Seventh Inning. But it was too little, too late. The A’s fell to the Detroit Tigers by a score of 3 to 2.
Game Two will be played Saturday night at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s and Tigers will then travel to Detroit, Michigan, where they will play Game Three.
If it’s not a sweep, Game Four will be played in Detroit. If necessary, the two teams will fly back to Oakland for Game Five of the best of five series. Â
Let’s Scrap the Tarps!
It was great to see all three decks of the Oakland Coliseum stuffed with fans dressed in Green and Gold.
I have never understood the logic of closing off the third deck of the Oakland Coliseum. It seems like a deliberate attempt by the team’s owners to drive down attendance figures to justify moving the team out of town.
Why not do what the A’s did when they first moved to Oakland? Only sell tickets on the first two decks, throwing open the third deck when demand warrants.
This would create the same “intimate atmosphere” that closing off the third deck is supposed to achieve while allowing for larger crowds when demand is strong.
Before this policy was adopted, the A’s would sometimes draw crowds of more than 40,000 – occasionally more than 50,000 – especially if they were playing the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox, which have large fan bases in California.
These large turnouts balanced the small turnouts to create a respectable average for the season.