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You know, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It certainly wasn't nice. But I liked it better than Miami. So that's something.
We decided to drive to the game from San Francisco. The BART would have been a shorter ride, and it takes you directly to the game, but my kids were wiped out from sightseeing and I figured they could use the nap in the car. Turned out ok. The mid-week crowd was pretty small, and it took less than 40 minutes from downtown SF to the Coliseum.
We sat along the third base line, 10th row. Tickets were really cheap on StubHub. Food was your average stadium fare. I tried to check out what the locals were drinking, but everyone had plastic cups. Seems like there was no local beer of choice. Lots of Bud, Coors, Stellas for the fancy ones. It seems like much more of a blue-collar crowd.
There was no big, central team store. Just a bunch of smaller stores scattered around the stadium, and the selection was small. We were looking around to see if maybe we could get a Familia shirsey for the kids, but they had nothing available. No Rickey shirseys either, just autographed game-worn jerseys for several hundred dollars.
The crowd was great. Even though the A's fell behind early, most of them stayed and cheered. The guys sitting around us were lifers, and come to about 10 games each year. Great conversation. We exchanged Rickey stories and bonded over our hatred of the Yankees.
It seems like the temperature in Oakland is typically a bit warmer than it is in SF. So overall it was a nice, pleasant night. I wrote on FaceBook that the Coliseum hosts MLB and serves beer, which makes it one of the top 30 places on Earth. I'll add that it's also an outdoor stadium, and everyone there hates the Yankees. So in my book, it moves up a few notches.
The fans there seem not at all bitter about their small payroll, or their crumbling home field. They do seem excited when you talk about the new stadium, but not in a "it's about time" way, but more of a "it'll be great if it happens" type of attitude.
Overall, it was a fun time. I'll go back to Oakland any day.
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