In June of 1973, I graduated from the eighth grade leaving Walnut Creek Intermediate School behind me. Personal mobility wasn’t much of a problem as I was already used to riding my bicycle all over the place. While my Disney and railroad interests had not become obsessions just yet, baseball had.
Now when I lived in Mountain View (on the other side of the San Francisco Bay), I was definitely a Giants baseball fan. I had been to several games at Candlestick Park with my maternal grandfather, and one really memorable game with a local summer school group. That featured a true Candlestick experience as the fog rolled in on the third deck. Those were the glory days of the Giants with greats such as Mays, McCovey, Bonds (Bobby, not Barry), Marichal, Perry and a whole lot more! Throw in games on the radio (KSFO, thank you!) with Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, and it was “Bye, bye baby”! Since coming west from New York in 1960, the Giants were Major League Baseball for Northern California. Always a contender, they made for exciting games including a 1962 World Series “By-The-Bay” (as Herb Caen happily announced). And with a rivalry of legendary proportions as the Dodgers also came west, you could always count for a great day of baseball as long as the Giants took the field.
That all changed when real estate mogul turned team owner Charlie Finley brought his Athletics from Kansas City to Oakland for the 1968 season. Major League Baseball would never be the same.
To start with, there were the uniforms of green and gold. And bright green and gold at that. Finley was going to do what he needed to. He wanted the seats at the new Oakland Alameda County Coliseum stadium to be filled. If that meant playing baseball with a flair, then that is what they would do. With a group of young exciting prospects, the A’s went from a proverbial last place joke to the league champions in only five years after their arrival in Oakland. How could you not love this team?
So, with a World Series victory in 1972, they were playing exciting baseball again that summer. And I was following the games in the local newspaper, on radio and television. Excitement was hard to contain, and I wasn’t alone in my fandom for the A’s. I had friends who shared that passion. At the age of 14, we were decidedly hooked.
However, even with expanded mobility thanks to the old Schwinn Varsity ten-speed, the Coliseum was over 25 miles away. Riding from suburban Walnut Creek wasn’t impossible, just impractical.
There was an alternative to the bicycle, but for a 14-year old kid from the burbs, it was definitely intimidating. Rapid transit was a term that was all the rage with urban planners at the time. Before we all were lured from the trains onto the highways, they were just commuter trains, call ’em what you will.
Back in 1939, there was a fair network of rail lines about the East Bay and even out to the Diablo Valley and beyond. Folks rode trains from home into downtown San Francisco for those nine to five, Monday through Friday jobs. But the call of the open road and the seduction of personal mobility through your own automobile proved too great. One by one, the rail lines from the East Bay ended passenger service. In 1958, the last of the trains rolled across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge into the City, as victims of corporate greed.
Amusingly enough, at almost the same times as the last trains rolled, plans were well underway for a county transit system including busses and new trains to replace the old. In 1972, the first of the new trains of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system ran through the East Bay (especially a station for the new Oakland Alameda County Coliseum complex!). Those trains and busses got a real test as capacity crowds for the 1972 World Series used them to travel to and from the games.
1973 saw the opening of BART’s Concord line to connect with the Richmond-Fremont line. So now, what had been a 25 mile plus bicycle ride would be a quick train ride from the Diablo Valley. That summer I was fortunate enough to go to a number of A’s games including one outstanding three-game series (which if memory serves the A’s won two out of three) including Bat Day. I still have the green baseball bat (albeit somewhat worse for wear) from that game. For another game, my dad got tickets from a sale rep for the Western Pacific Railroad (whose Sacramento Northern railroad served his company’s West Pittsburg plant). That day, we sat down behind the A’s dugout on the third base side along with my maternal grandmother (down from Reno just for baseball). All I can remember is one fan (who had obviously had way too much Budweiser) ripping into Reggie Jackson at ever opportunity. He used some very colorful language that afternoon, much the amusement of many folks sitting next to him. Reggie got his revenge, as he became the World Series Most Valuable Player that year.
But the most memorable of the 1973 season was the last regular game. With the division pennant won, it seemed that the team was headed for a second straight World Series appearance. I enjoyed that day with a friend, riding by ourselves on BART (quite the unsupervised adventure) in from Walnut Creek. We managed to get a couple of autographs including the team’s pitching ace, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, and snuck down from the cheap seats to get a better view of the game.
Oakland went on to defeat the Baltimore Orioles to take the American League championship. In the series that followed, they played hard against the New York Mets, with MVP Reggie Jackson earning his nickname “Mister October”. It was the second of a series of back to back to back World Championships for Oakland, and maybe the sweetest of the bunch.
It’s been a while since those days when life seemed less complicated. Maybe we were trying to be ignorant of many of the issues around us or had other things to concentrate on. For one teenager in that summer before high school, baseball as played by the Swingin’ A’s was one such priority.
The A’s have gone on to greater glory since then with another World Series victory in 1974 over the Dodgers; another World Series appearance in 1988 with a loss to the Dodgers; then the 1989 Bay Bridge Series against the Giants and the Loma Prieta earthquake to really put it all into a proper perspective (Michele still says that can’t happen again as we don’t need any more earthquakes).
The A’s have been in the “Hunt for a Green October” for the last three years. 2000 the A’s took the Western Division title only to be defeated in a tough series against the Yankees. In 2001, saw them as the American League Wild Card team only to once again go down to the Yankees. In 2002 the A’s again took the Western Division title (after a record breaking 20-game win streak) only to lose to the Minnesota Twins, who themselves were defeated by the Wild Card Anaheim Angels!
2003? Well, we hope for good things! As of the All-Star Break, the team has the same record as they did at this time last year with 54 wins and 39 losses, and are four games behind the Seattle Mariners — right where they were at the same time last year. While no one is forecasting a repeat of the 20-game streak, it seems that we are in for another exciting finish to the season.
With the 30th Anniversary of that 1973 season, it’s natural to remember that team of long ago. And that’s just what will happen before and after the game with the Yankees on Saturday, August 2. In ceremonies before and after the game, members of that team will be recognized. Among those scheduled to appear are Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi, Ken Holtzman, Ray Fosse, *** Green, Dave Hamilton, Bill North, John “Blue Moon” Odom, coaches Irv Noren and Wes Stock and manager *** Williams. Check out the A’s web pages for more information.
While I usually don’t go to Yankee games (sorry folks, Yankee fans are only exceeded in rudeness by Giants fans — at least that’s the way they are at the Coliseum), this might just be the exception. If nothing else, it’s worth a chance to add to those autographs from that afternoon a world away.
So, while we’re on the subject of baseball, let me introduce you to another facet of the game — minor league baseball. It’s exciting and often one heck of a lot of fun for both fans and players. And it’s being played at small (and not so small) towns across North America.
Out here in California, we have two different classes of minor league teams. First is the AAA or Triple A class (that’s the one just below the Major League teams). The Pacific Coast League is a direct descendant of the old PCL which had teams up and down the west coast in the days before teams like the Dodgers and Giants came west. Players such as Joe Dimaggio came from the old PCL teams (the San Francisco Seals to be exact) to the big leagues. Today it is comprised of AAA teams from all over the western U.S. and Canada. Here in California, we have the Sacramento Rivercats (the Oakland A’s AAA affiliate) and the Fresno Grizzlies (the San Francisco Giants AAA affiliate) and in Nevada, there is the Las Vegas 51’s (the Los Angeles Dodgers AAA affiliate).
The other league here in California is Class A or Single A. Oddly enough, it’s called the California League with the North and South Divisions. Until recent changes in affiliations, both the A’s and the Giants had two Single A farm teams in this league. Now there are the Modesto (Remember where this town got it’s name? Think back to that Billy Ralston column. And what a great town motto! “Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health! Modesto!” Okay, so it was a toast at my wedding…) A’s and the San Jose Giants to keep fans interested.
Another personal favorite team is the Visalia Oaks — now affiliated with the Colorado Rockies. Fans of the classic baseball movie “Bull Durham” will recall that this was the team Kevin Costner’s character (“Crash” Davis” was planning to work for as a coach after the end of his minor league playing days. And what’s not to love about a squirrel named “Chatter” as a mascot?
And while on the subject of “Bull Durham” (a real classic with some great dialogue despite all the nonsense over political views of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins in the days since they made this movie), how about the Durham Bulls? They are the AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and yes, they still play their games in Durham, in a stadium “designed by HOK Sport + Venue + Event, architects of Camden Yards in Baltimore, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Coors Field in Colorado along with many other new stadiums opened in the past 10 years. The $16-million brick ballpark opened in 1995 and was expanded to a 10,000-seat capacity for the 1998 season, the year the Bulls began playing in the Triple-A International League.”
There are a lot of great Minor League teams with great names and logos. If you’re looking for hats, jerseys, shirts and other gear from one of them, I can recommend two places. First up is the official Minor League Baseball Store, and then Star Struck. Both have great selections to choose from and will have almost everything you could be looking for. Don’t overlook the team websites either as most of them have souvenirs for sale through their own shops. Some of the logo’s are pretty good. The Lansing Lugnuts and the Albuquerque Isotopes (Okay Simpson’s fans… Remember when Homer exposed the fact that the Springfield Isotopes were moving to Alberquerque? Well they did!) get my vote for some of the more unique teams…
So there you have it. So there you have it! A look at baseball. There is a lot left to the 2003 season, and here’s hoping you get a chance to enjoy something of the Great American Pastime…
Roger’s hard at work on another effort in his “Things You Didn’t Think You Could Do” series and will be back next week with a medieval tale. And thanks again to everyone who has made use of his Amazon Honor System Paybox. If you’ve enjoyed a column now and then, why not show your appreciation by sharing a buck or two? It doesn’t hurt a bit!