As the A's leave Oakland, Tom Hanks reflects on memories of the team: "I'll be shedding a little bit of a tear"
The last home game of the Oakland A's at the Coliseum is triggering a flood of fan memories and tears, even for actor Tom Hanks, who famously uttered the line "There's no crying in baseball" in the 1992 film "A League of Their Own."
Hanks, a Bay Area native who spent his formative years in Oakland, admitted there may indeed be crying in baseball as the team he rooted for played a final game in Oakland Thursday. The A's will relocates next season to Sacramento for at least the next three seasons, where they'll be waiting for a ballpark they hope to open in Las Vegas.
The Oscar winner recently spoke to CBS News Bay Area about his fond memories of growing up near the Oakland Coliseum, recalling his first time at the newly constructed stadium where he would eventually land his first job.
"I think I was in fifth or sixth grade," he recalled. "It was a palace. It was a world-renowned place where so much was going to be happening and I happened to live in the slightly elevated part of the city and I could see the lights of the Oakland Coliseum whenever there was an event down there. It was a big deal there."
Hanks was attending Oakland's Skyline High School when he applied for his first job as a vendor at the ballpark.
"We had to wait for a very long time for all of the big-time vendors to line up before us and then we had to pay $15 in order to join the union and get our junior work card, and then I believe that first day I sold soda," Hanks said. "Every cup spilled all over me and I was coated in hard sugary water in my pants the rest of the day."
He said he later sold peanuts and then popcorn before moving onto other career aspirations. His work at the Coliseum was noted by the team during the COVID pandemic — his likeness as a young concessions vendor was among the cardboard images of fans that filled the empty stadium.
Hanks referred to "A League of Their Own" when describing his feelings about the Athletics leaving Oakland.
"You know the saying there is no crying in baseball," Hanks said. "I'll be shedding a little bit of a tear when it comes down to the final lap of the final game of the Oakland A's in the Oakland Coliseum."
"The Oakland A's have been a part of my life"
"Look, I am 68 years old. The Oakland A's have been a part of my life and people I paid attention to all through the Bash Brothers days and certainly the glory days of their world championship games," Hanks said. "I saw San Francisco legend Willie Mays play his last professional baseball game in the World Series [as a member of the New York Mets] against the Oakland A's. Oakland A's won that day, by the way."
Every game made an impression, Hanks said.
"I always saw something memorable at every single Oakland A's game like Campy [Campaneris] turning the perfect double play, Sal Bando handling the hot corner and Joe Rudy going deep holding tight onto the ball as he crashed into the wall."
And there were games he may never forget for other reasons.
"Well, let me tell ya," Hanks said. "I went along with my friend Allen and his older brother and we were at Hot Pants Day. I don't know if you can remember Hot Pants Day, but every woman who was wearing hot pants, I believe, got in free and you wanna talk about a sell-out crowd."
But there is one player Hanks says will always be a standout to him.
"The guy I really loved the most was Mudcat [Grant]. He was a pitcher and he was a wonderful Interviewer," Hanks said. "Just the idea we could root for a guy named "Mudcat"! When you are a kid and baseball fan, you get attached to that and really can't let go."
Letting go of something you love from childhood isn't easy, but Hanks offers this advice: "Even though the Athletics look as though they are moving on, that doesn't take away from the grand history of the word 'Athletics' on somebody's chest," he said.
"Let's play ball."