Two shots from last night’s A’s game. The local nine was overwhelmed by the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander, a pitcher who seemed completely in command of the game–though the fans had several little two-out-type rallies to get excited over. I’m in the habit of counting the outs a team has left in a game: 12 when they go to bat in the sixth, nine in the seventh, and so on. I took these shots when the A’s were down to their last four or five outs and trailing 6-0. Most of the crowd seemed to accept that the miracle of the night before, when the Athletics ripped the game away from the Tigers in their very last at bat, probably wasn’t going to be repeated.
After the final out, the crowd booed the Tigers briefly as they began their celebration for the cameras on the infield. But after a few seconds, the whole place started to cheer and chant “Let’s Go Oakland!” That’s what’s happening in the shot below. The players hung out near the home dugout for five, maybe even 10 minutes. I hoped they’d take a lap around the Coliseum, but maybe that would be seen as showing up the Tigers and maybe they were dealing with a disappointment that was much bigger than the fans were going through. One by one, they walked off the field. When we made our way out of the stadium about 20 minutes after the game, a lot of people were still lingering, apparently trying to hang on to the last glimmer of a season that surprised and pleased just about every fan who made it to the ballpark this year. As we left, a couple of the A’s drummers were giving a final spirited performance before the Coliseum is locked to baseball for the winter, the infield is sodded over, and football takes over for the rest of the year.
