The last time that happened (2014), the Royals went to the World Series.
I’m not hopeful of that happening this season.
And, oh, by the way, today’s game between the Rangers and the Athletics will be the A’s last game at the Oakland Coliseum.
The teams with the longest post-season droughts are the Los Angeles Angels and the Detroit Tigers, who both last saw the playoffs in 2014.
The Tigers are in the thick of a playoff race, and get to finish their season with 3 games against the White Sox. The Angels are about to get swept by those same White Sox to finish as the 2nd worst team in the AL.
I feel so bad for Oakland fans. They have put up with so much, especially their gross stadium. I wish the game was today’s MLB TV free game. I am thinking the MLB doesn’t want to bring too much attention to it…
I was just reading an article in The Athletic. In the article, I learned that Tony La Russa appeared in the first game ever played at the Oakland Coliseum. He hit a pinch-hit single in the ninth, his only hit of the season.
I’m not sure why not, as they’re likely making the playoffs.
So I’m sure this topic has been hashed to death but I’m only dipping my toes into it for the first time: The A’s aren’t the first pro sports team to move out of Oakland (the Raiders left too.) Is it simply because the Bay Area only has enough fandom to accommodate San Francisco’s teams?
My personal belief is that the fans that did attend Oakland games at the coliseum were so obnoxious with their drum beating and horn honking that most fans stayed away. I couldn’t even watch on TV without muting the sound. But I think the more serious answer is bad venue and bad ownership.
The A’s and Raiders moved for the same reasons. No modern stadium that would maximize revenue. The A’s were also always in the shadow of the Giants, even during their championship years, but the Raiders had (and have) a devoted fan base that is very separate from the 49ers. The saga of the Raiders moves would fill a book (and probably has), but the stadium was always the issue. It’s a baseball stadium that converts to a football stadium, but not particularly well.
I should point out that the Giants got a nice, upgraded stadium (from Candlestick) in the heart of the city in 2000, but the 49ers play in Santa Clara, 50 miles south of San Francisco, so, in a sense, they’ve fled the city as well.
I thought Oakland had a football stadium that didn’t convert to baseball very well 
Well, it was originally designed as “multi-purpose”, but from these two pictures (from te 70’s), you can see how football ends up being the one shoehorned in,
Baseball
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Football
Maybe the fact that, a current 3-game winning streak notwithstanding, they’ve lost 16 of their last 26 games, including two 7-game losing streaks. They went through a stretch where they scored 4 runs in 54 innings.
Believe it or not, one of my sons has seen two game ending triple plays. One in Montreal in late 1991 (a 5-4-3, like this one) and one in NY (U4) in 2009. I was also at the latter.
I’m going to guess that it was a hit-and-run play, and a line drive was hit up the middle, right at the second baseman?
ETA: found the video!
Things I did not expect to be thinking about at this point:
Detroit Tigers, who were 8(I think?) games under .500 at one point are in the playoffs if they win tonight.
They are playing the White Sox, which would be pretty funny to lose to in such a key situation, but is obviously quite possible.
I mean, the White Sox are 5-5 in their past 10 games despite being so bad. Tigers, however, have been the best team in baseball over the past 5 weeks. I believe they are about 33-11 or so over that time, saving their entire season.
I’m stunned. I had zero expectations for my Tigers to do well.
This year also marks 40 years since they won a World Series. I was in 1st grade and it is my earliest clear sports memory.
It’d be kind of amazing if they did it again on the 40th anniversary.
Heck, if they win the World Series and the Lions somehow fulfill their potential to win the Super Bowl…it would pretty much be the greatest year in Michigan sports history. U of Michigan football just won the national championship 8 months ago, too.
Anyway, go Tigers!!!
Yanks clinched AL east last night over Baltimore with a 10-1 win. Judge hit #58. Cole went 6.2 with only 2 hits and a walk. No runs.
Yanks have a 1 game lead over Cleveland for the AL best.
Tigers just need to win one of three this weekend, or have the Twins lose one of three.
The Royals, who are tied with Detroit, are in the same boat: win one of three (at Atlanta), or hope the Twinkies lose one against Baltimore.
No matter what happens, the AL Central will have two wild-card teams, one of the benefits of playing in the same division as the White Sox. Last year, the division had only one team (Twins) above .500. Detroit lost 84 games last year, while KC lost 106.
Thanks, I don’t follow baseball and am only aware that the TIgers have kicked butt for about the past month or so.
Did anything particular change for the Tigers or did their players just starting reaching their untapped potential? They were bouncing around .500 for awhile and dipped pretty low at one point.
Now if the Pistons have a good season…I mean, come on.
Right. The real point was that if it hadn’t been for the double steal attempt, Bruntlett would not have been at second base and it would have been a single to center, likely scoring a run. The Phillies were up by only two runs and there were no outs, so it is quite likely the Mets would have tied or won. I heard at least one Mets fan say, “Why did they have to try a double steal just then?” The answer is of course that with runners on 2nd and 3rd, a hit would likely have tied the game.
In both the other walk-off TP my son saw and the one the other day, the 3rd baseman was out of normal position guarding the line against a game tying double and therefore was in a position to catch the ball while standing on 3rd.
I thought that perhaps it was a full count, which is a situation where managers often start the runners, even with less than two outs. But in looking at the play-by-play, the count was 2-2. So it was certainly a play that could have been questioned, and certainly was!