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Remembering the Streak…True Fans Come Out in Oakland

I would just like to take a moment to appreciate all the real A’s fans out there. It was great being with you last night as we stood 30,000+ to join together and remember the legendary 20 Game Winning Streak, the longest winning streak in the American League history and no doubt the greatest achievement of the franchise.

And Oakland did the pre-game ceremony right. The O.Co Coliseum swelled with energy as we re-lived the exciting winning moments of each game of the streak. Many of the members of the 2002 team, including Scott Hatterberg, Chad Bradford, Terrence Long and Art Howe were welcomed with thunderous applause as they walked the long red carpet that stretched from Center Field wall to 2nd base. A’s fans also watched video messages from David Justice, Barry Zito, and Eric Chavez, who were not able to attend the festivities, but just the same conveyed how magical it was to be apart of that 2002 team. And the unveiling of the number 20 banner, hung from the center of Mount Davis warmed our hearts to the core, just like it did 10 years ago. Perhaps the most moving moment was when the widow and son of late A’s pitcher, Corey Lidle, walked on to the field. There was not a dry eye in the house. After the game, the festivities continued with a special on-field screening of Moneyball, the Hollywood Movie about A’s General Manager Billy Beane and his idea of how a small market, small salaried team can be successful even against the $175+ million payroll of teams like New York, Boston, and Texas. No doubt it was a great day to be an A’s fan.

And let’s face it, being an A’s fan is tough, especially during the past few seasons when the A’s haven’t had a winning record since 2006.

Not only do A’s fans have to re-learn the names on the roster year after year, but we have to constantly deal with the utter frustration of hearing about the success of former A’s players and now Major League Stars on other teams such as Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Nick Swisher, Danny Haren, Andrew Bailey, and Gio Gonzalez, to name a few. Of course, while we all now appreciate Billy Beane’s tact in finding diamond-in-the-rough players, at times we have absolutely hated him for not having a token “franchise” player that could hit home runs, drive in RBIs and win games consistently year after year. I’ll be the first to admit, there have been many years, I wanted Billy Beane gone and a new GM to come in and shake things up and get us back in the playoffs.

It is fitting this year, that now 10 years after The Streak, Oakland is finally fielding a team we can get excited about. This past July was the hottest July ever, where the A’s went 19-5, and managed a winning percentage not seen in the MLB since 1956 Yankees went 23-6. And while the A’s have cooled off in August, they are still 10 games over .500, smack dab in the middle of the wild card race and only 5 games behind Texas in the AL West. This is in large thanks the Bob Melvin, who has managed this team beautifully this season and should be voted Manager of the Year. As A’s fans, we are all holding our breath and hoping that the A’s manage to continue their momentum into the post season. It’s hard, we’ve been burnt many times. But the die-hard fans will always hold on to hope that the A’s can return to greatness.

Of course, the national sports East Coast biased media doesn’t help. Sheer laughter was the only way to blow off boiling hot steam of frustration as the ESPN barely covered the A’s four-game sweep of the Yankees in mid-July, a feat not accomplished against the Bombers ever in Oakland Coliseum and in the league since Toronto did it in 2003. Instead, the Sportscenter headlines read out “What’s wrong with the Yankees?” As if the A’s did not all out beat the Yankees, but rather New York just gave it up and lost. A’s fans even suffer from a San Francisco-biased Bay Area Media (yes I’m calling you out Giants fans) as we constantly have to contend with always being second in the sports-wrap report on NBC Bay Area. It’s certainly easy and sexy to be a Giants fan, with your sparkling bay side stadium and your recent World Series ring. But it is NOT easy to be an A’s fan, even when the team is doing well. We have to deal with a dump of a stadium that feels empty because of the Mount Davis monstrosity, even when it’s a sell-out crowd (sorry Raider fans, my loyalty to Oakland stops when the baseball season ends.) And even when we look at options to build a new beautiful ballpark of our own in San Jose, we are told, “no, sorry, the Oakland franchise can’t move there. That’s Giants marketing territory.”

But all the frustration aside, you still can’t stop me and a large East Bay contingent from continuing to support the Green and Gold. While we may support a team that is the perennial underdog, the happiness and joy we feel when the A’s win is the epitome of the magic of the sport. As Billy Beane’s character said in Moneyball, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?” We cannot help but feel romance and nostalgia as we remember the 2002 Streak, and just what a remarkable accomplishment that it was. Only the baseball trivia masters and sports buffs will remember who won the World Series that year, but everyone remembers that the A’s won 20 in a row. And that is something that true A’s fans will hold on to for a long time to come.

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