Former A's Coming to Alumni Games Before Team Leaves Oakland
When the Oakland A's announced that they would be leaving Oakland at the end of this season to play a three-year span as "The A's" in Sacramento's minor-league facility, the team also announced that there would be numerous ways that they'd be attempting to make some final memories at the Coliseum, their home since 1968. One of those efforts was to institute "Alumni Sundays" at home games beginning on Sunday, June 9 when the Toronto Blue Jays visit town.
The first four groups of alumni have been announced, per the A's site.
On June 9, it will be two-thirds of the Big Three, Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, who will be signing autographs for fans for roughly an hour, beginning at 11:35 a.m. with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 p.m. Autographs are free for the event, with one auto per person. Each of these signings will also include the former A's greats signing pre-produced 5 x 7 autograph cards. No personal items will be signed. This is likely to make it so that fans don't bring "SELL" merchandise to be signed by numerous A's greats over the span of the summer.
The next alumni event will be on June 23 with the Minnesota Twins in town. The site lists members of the 1974 World Series team, which includes Gene Tenace and John "Blue Moon" Odom by name, as well as "others." This is also the date of the 1974 team reunion ceremony, which will be the last such event in Oakland celebrating that team.
July 7, with the Baltimore Orioles in town, the alumni will be the two best closers in A's franchise history: Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers. Both are World Series champions with the team, and both are enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
The final listed event will be held on July 21 with the Los Angeles Angels in town, and it represents an interesting mix of players with Jose Canseco, Chad Pinder, and Khris Davis all on hand to sign some photos.
There are five more events without A's alumni announced just yet. Those dates are August 4 against the Dodgers, August 18 against the Giants, August 25 versus the Brewers, September 8 against Detroit, and September 22 against the Yankees for the final weekend at home in Oakland history.
One notable exception from this list is the greatest player of all time, Rickey Henderson, though with his ties to the team still alive and well, it's likely he'll be in that next batch of players. It'll also be interesting to see if players that came to Oakland later in their careers, like Frank Thomas, will be involved.
A's manager Mark Kotsay is another former player that would likely get fans pretty excited, but given his role with the club, it's unlikely that will happen. The same goes for the man who laid down the famous walk-off bunt, Ramón Hernández, who is a coach and interpreter, and Bobby Crosby, who is the A's first base coach.
Jason Giambi, Dave Stewart, Mark McGwire, Miguel Tejada, Eric Chávez, and Scott Hatteberg would all be nice additions to close out the season, though Chávez is the Mets hitting coach, so including him would be pretty tricky.
JASON BURKE
Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum.