Athletics

Money might not be able to buy happiness, but it makes dealing with potential sadness a little easier.

Just ask Rickey Henderson.

"I can't be sad, I have too much money, and I did too much here, all these great things here," Henderson told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle when discussing the Oakland Athletics leaving Oakland. "I'm more happy than sad. Maybe later it will hit you when it's all said and done. But, honestly, today I'm going to have fun."

The Hall of Famer played for the A's during parts of 14 seasons, including when he won the American League MVP in 1990 and took home a World Series ring in 1989.

Baseball's all-time leader in runs scored (2,295) and stolen bases (1,406) is one of the franchise's all-time legends and will forever be associated with Oakland thanks to the dominance he showed on the field.

Only, that franchise isn't going to be in Oakland any longer after Thursday's game against the Texas Rangers. It is the team's final home game of the season before it moves, and Henderson threw out the first pitch alongside fellow A's legend Dave Stewart:

The A's will play in Sacramento for three seasons from 2025 through 2027 before a relocation to Las Vegas starting with the 2028 campaign. The 2024 season was the last on their lease at the Oakland Coliseum.

All those games in the Oakland Coliseum in front of the Northern California fans will only be memories at that point.

But plenty of those memories will feature Henderson.

Former Oakland Athletics pitcher Barry Zito returned to Oakland Coliseum on Thursday to sing the national anthem ahead of his former team's final game in the stadium.

Zito's anthem opened a home game against the Texas Rangers that will mark the end of the Athletics' 57-year tenure in Oakland.

The Athletics are set to drop the name "Oakland" next season as the team prepares for its eventual move to Las Vegas.

Zito pitched for the Athletics for the first seven seasons of his MLB career and won a Cy Young award with the team in 2002.

He wasn't the only former A's legend to attend the final MLB game at the Coliseum.

Former pitcher Dave "Smoke" Stewart, who was named World Series MVP after helping power the Athletics to the 1989 title, and Hall of Fame left fielder Rickey Henderson, star of the 1989 championship team and 1990 AL MVP, joined together to throw out the first pitch ahead of Thursday's final home game.

Stewart, Henderson and Zito returned to the Coliseum in front of a packed crowd, with the stadium expected to sell out to 46,000 fans for the final home game of the season.

Following the team's founding in Philadelphia and move to Kansas City, the Athletics have been located in Oakland and played at the Oakland Coliseum since 1968.

The Athletics won three straight titles between 1972 and 1974, claimed their most recent championship with Stewart and Henderson in 1989, and saw a resurgence in the early 2000s with the arrival of the star pitching trio of Zito, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.

After years of contention with the city of Oakland over proposals for a new ballpark to replace the Coliseum, the team announced ahead of the 2024 campaign that the A's would play one more season in the city before relocating to Las Vegas in 2028.

The Athletics are now projected to spend at least the next three seasons playing in a minor league stadium in West Sacramento, California while the long-awaited new ballpark is constructed in Nevada.

The A's entered Thursday's home finale against the Rangers with a 68-90 record. Their final season as an Oakland club will conclude with three road games against the Seattle Mariners, who were eliminated on Thursday from playoff contention.

A Bay Area news anchor had no interest in Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher's goodbye letter to fans as the team prepares for its final home series of the season before the franchise leaves the city after 56 years.

Larry Beil of KGO-TV called Fisher's letter a "great work of fiction," criticized him for surrounding himself with "incompetent yes men" and being "a serial penny-pincher"

Fisher's letter touched on the history of the franchise in Oakland before stating it "proposed and pursued five different locations" over the years to build a new stadium that would keep them in the Bay Area, but a binding agreement with MLB to find a new home by 2024 forced ownership to explore a move to Las Vegas.

Fisher closed the letter by saying he hoped A's fans would join them as they "move forward on this amazing journey."

It was the latest in a series of attempts at public relations spin for Fisher. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has spoken publicly about his bad-faith negotiating tactics to use the city as leverage to get a deal for a new ballpark from Las Vegas.

The city of Oakland had a full proposal made up for a new waterfront ballpark that also would have added up to 3,000 residential dwelling units and a hotel located at the Port of Oakland.

The A's wound up rejecting that plan and entered into agreement to purchase a 49-acre site near the Las Vegas strip in April 2023 with the intention of building a new stadium.

Per Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, construction on the stadium is expected to begin in the second quarter of next year with a completion date of 2028.

The Athletics are set to play the next three seasons in Sacramento at the home of their Triple-A affiliate.

This is the final week of the 2024 MLB regular season. The A's will host the Texas Rangers at the Coliseum on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in their final home games before wrapping up the year with three games in Seattle from Friday through Sunday.

Fisher has been the majority owner the A's since 2005. He took over full ownership of the franchise in 2016 when Lewis Wolff sold his 10 percent interest in the club.

The Oakland Athletics are set to begin their final series at Oakland Coliseum on Tuesday ahead of next year's move to Sacramento in preparation for the eventual move to Las Vegas, and principal owner John Fisher released a letter on Monday addressing the team's longtime fans.

Fisher included an apology in his letter, writing, "Staying in Oakland was our goal, it was our mission, and we failed to achieve it. And for that I am genuinely sorry."

Fisher, who purchased the team in 2005, also explained in the letter that he made an effort to keep the A's in California.

"We proposed and pursued five different locations in the Bay Area. And despite mutual and ongoing efforts to get a deal done for the Howard Terminal Project, we came up short," Fisher stated.

In April, the A's rejected an offer for a five-year extension on the lease for Oakland Coliseum. The team announced that it will play its home games for the 2025-27 seasons at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento until its stadium in Las Vegas is ready to open in 2028. The team's deal with Sutter Health Park includes an option for a fourth season.

The A's final season in Oakland will end in continued disappointment. At 67-89, the team ranks fourth in the AL West and will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. The New York Yankees swept the A's over the weekend, so they will be hoping for a better showing in front of their home fans in their three-game set against the Texas Rangers.

The move from Oakland will undoubtedly take some getting used to, but the A's are hoping to maintain their fanbase until they're able to establish roots in Las Vegas.

MLB affirmed its plans to have the Oakland Athletics play their home games in Sacramento, California, next season.

"It is a certainty that the A's will play their 2025 season in Sacramento as planned," the league said Thursday. "MLB is continuing to work productively with the MLBPA on the details of the transition."

This comes after Jensen Rader of KFBK in Sacramento reported the temporary relocation to the city "could be in jeopardy."

Rader spoke with longtime baseball agent Scott Boras, who raised concerns with the synthetic turf that will be installed. An artificial surface will be helpful in terms of maintenance with the A's sharing Sutter Health Park with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.

"We have no Major League fields that are AstroTurf that are outdoors, they are all indoors," Boras said. "When you have turf that is outdoors, I played on AstroTurf in the Minor Leagues, and that hot sun when it's not a domed stadium gets to 120-130 degrees."

Rader also confirmed with the MLB Players Association that the union hasn't yet given its formal approval for the Sacramento move.

On Tuesday, the Sacramento Bee's Chris Biderman reported on another facet of the A's relocation still to be solidified, namely playoff games might shift to a different venue.

"A team source confirmed to The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday that new ticket buyers in Sacramento have been told 'jewel events,' such as playoff games or All-Star games, are not guaranteed to occur in the capital region because of Major League Baseball's stadium requirements for premium events," Biderman reported.

Rader and Biderman's reports points to what has been a common theme amid the Athletics' relocation saga. MLB and its owners signed off on the move to Las Vegas despite many questions remaining unanswered.

Considering that, it's little surprise the league office remains steadfast in the current plan.

As the Oakland Athletics prepare for their final weeks in the city they have called home for 56 years, former owner Wally Haas has spoken out against John Fisher's decision to move the franchise.

Speaking to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Haas called it "unforgivable" and "indefensible" what Fisher has done with the club:

"I think what makes it so difficult for me and obviously a lot of others to watch is the fact that, unlike my father being the last hope at the time in Oakland, it sure sounds like John has had a number of groups—I know that he has—approach him to buy the team and keep it here, one in particular, which was pretty public and certainly viable, is, of course, Joe Lacob and his group.

"Here's a group that checked all the boxes already. He's proven he can build a privately funded facility in modern times here in Northern California. He had championship aspirations and results and, as importantly, would have made John a much more substantial profit on his investment than he or his father (Don) had contemplated when they decided to buy the team. And for those reasons, I think John's decision to move the team is frankly unforgivable."

The Haas family owned the A's from 1980 to '95 after purchasing the franchise from Charley Finley. Fisher became the majority owner of the club in 2005 with his business partner Lewis Wolff.

Wolff sold his share of the franchise in November 2016, making Fisher the sole owner and managing partner.

When the A's were looking at stadium options in 2015, Wolff said they were "not looking" at venues outside of the Bay Area. They ultimately signed a 10-year lease to remain at the Coliseum through the 2024 season.

Representatives from Oakland and the Athletics spent years negotiating for a new waterfront ballpark in the Bay Area, but the city ultimately withdrew from those talks in April 2023 with Fisher and the organization accused of acting in bad faith amid rumors they were trying to use Oakland only as leverage for a better deal from Las Vegas.

The A's announced on April 4 they will be moving to Vegas for the 2028 MLB season. The club will spend the next three years playing home games in Sacramento at Sutter Health Park—home of their Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League.

A new stadium in Las Vegas hasn't been officially approved, but Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, recently expressed optimism a deal would be done on Dec. 5.

The Athletics' hope is the new stadium in Vegas will be ready in time for the 2028 season. If it's not, the club has an option to play that season in Sacramento.

Under Fisher's ownership, the A's have made the playoffs seven times and finished last in the division six times.

The Oakland Athletics reportedly may not be big sellers prior to Tuesday's MLB trade deadline, meaning star outfielder Brent Rooker could be staying put.

According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the A's are "reluctant" to trade Rooker and outfielder JJ Bleday, and it doesn't look as though there will be a "huge sale" of the key players on their roster.

Heyman also noted that since Oakland's other major trade chip in All-Star closer Mason Miller is on the injured list with a fractured pinkie on his non-throwing hand, it lessens the chances of a significant trade being made.

Rooker was once a journeyman who appeared in 81 games over his first three MLB seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres, but he broke out in a big way last season.

In his first year in Oakland, Rooker appeared in 137 games and set career highs across the board with 30 home runs, 69 RBI and 61 runs scored, while slashing .246/.329/.488.

The 29-year-old earned a key spot in the Athletics' lineup this season as a result, and he has been even better than he was in his 2023 All-Star campaign.

Through 91 games, Rooker is batting .288/.365/.583 with 25 homers, 72 RBI and 50 runs. Although he somewhat controversially was not named an All-Star, Rooker has established himself as one of the top hitters in the American League this season.

Rooker is making just $750,000 this season and is arbitration-eligible through 2027, making him one of the best values in baseball.

While the A's are not playoff contenders, they have been better than most expected with a 43-63 record, and have won seven of their past nine games.

Rooker is arguably the biggest reason why, as he has hit a scorching .389 with 10 home runs and 25 RBI in July.

Bleday, 26, has also been a solid contributor this season, slashing .233/.314/.430 with 11 home runs, 36 RBI and an AL-leading 30 doubles in only his third Major League season.

With the A's set to move to Sacramento next season ahead of their permanent move to Las Vegas in 2028 or 2029, they have some incentive to field a competitive team capable of drawing fans.

The Athletics have been fun to watch lately with Rooker, Bleday and Miller leading the way, and it sounds as though management doesn't want to move on from that quite yet.