A's fans show up for preseason as team's long run in Oakland may be coming to an end
With the chances for the Oakland A's staying in the East Bay long gone, this year's pre-season feels like the beginning of the end for the team's Bay Area run.
"Dad, how long have we been coming out here," Aaron Hangman asked.
"I've been coming here since before you were even born," he replied.
For the Hangman family, the A's have been a generational affair. They went to kick off the season with some tailgating. But when they got there, the new hours took them by surprise.
"We were confused with the two hours," Aaron Hangman explained. "We thought we were able to get in four early. So we got here a little early and we just had to wait."
"Oh, God, so yeah, we had a feeling they were going to do something like this," laughed Bryan Johansen. "We anticipate their moves before they make them."
Johansen is one of the founders of Last Dive Bar, which has been fighting the A's departure for a couple years, which is now a full-scale boycott.
"Yeah, our intent is not to go to any games whatsoever," Johansen said. "Jon Fisher doesn't deserve the money. The A's, the front office, the organization does not deserve the love."
They will, however, show up with a message on Thursday night, by packing the parking lot for the regular season opener with a massive tailgate, juxtaposed with empty seats inside. He says the shortened lot hours are a response to that plan.
"It tells us that they're trying to thwart the efforts and the effect of the boycott will have," Johansen said. "They want less people in that parking lot for the least amount of hours possible."
So this is how the potential final chapter in Oakland begins for the A's, on ground that hosted another long goodbye not too many years ago.
"The Raiders wasn't as tough as this," Johansen said. "This is like a slow, drawn-out, vindictive relocation process. To where it almost seems the A's are doing everything they can to just hurt the fans that have supported them for years.'
"Yeah, I don't know about the boycotting.," Hangman said. "But, regardless, we're still here. Because we don't know if it's going to be the last season here or not. We don't know where we're going to be a year from now."
