Good News and Bad News

Catherine Goldberg, born March 9, 1928, died December 21, 2024.

She survived the Great Depression, the Nazi occupation of her homeland,

and 70 years of living in New York City.

I have good news and bad news. The good news is, 2024 is over. The year we lost:

* From acting: David Soul of Starsky & Hutch, Joyce Randolph of The Honeymooners, Carl Weathers, Louis Gossett Jr., Dabney Coleman, Donald Sutherland, Martin Mull, Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith. Also, talk-show hosts Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Phil Donahue, exercise expert Richard Simmons, game show host Peter Marshall.

* From music: Shangri-Las singer Mary Weiss, folksinger Melanie Safka, Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts, guitarist Duane Eddy, Four Tops singer Duke Fakir, singer James Darren, singer Tito Jackson, songwriter J.D. Souther, Kris Kristofferson and Quincy Jones.

* From politics: President Jimmy Carter; Senators Jean Carnahan, Fred Harris, Bob Graham, David Pryor, Jim Sasser and Tim Johnson; Representative Sheila Jackson Lee; Russian dissident Alexei Navalny; political matriarch Ethel Kennedy; and civil rights figures Dexter Scott King and Thelma Mothershed Wair.

* From journalism: Charles Osgood of CBS, Robert MacNeil of PBS, and Aaron Brown of ABC and CNN.

* From sports: Baseball players Willie Mays, Carl Erskine, Rocky Colavito, Orlando Cepeda, Luis Tiant, Fernando Valenzuela and Rickey Henderson, and manager Whitey Herzog; football players Jimmy Johnson, Jim Otto, Larry Allen, Joe Schmidt and Billy Shaw; basketball players Jerry West, Bill Walton and Dikembe Mutombo, and coach Lou Carnesecca; hockey star Johnny Gaudreau; soccer legends Mário Zagallo, Gigi Riva, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Neeskens, Karl-Heinz Schnellinger and George Eastham, and managers César Luis Menotti and Sven-Göran Eriksson; broadcaster Chris Mortensen. (But also sports pariahs Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson.) 

And, in my own family, a beloved dog, Carly the Hug-a-Pug, age 12; and my great aunt, Catherine Goldberg, 96, the last surviving family member from my grandparents' generation. (For perspective: The last survivor from my great-grandparents' generation passed away in 1966, 58 years ago, before I was even born.)

And we lost the White House to Donald Trump again. 

And I had two nasty colds this year.

And, while the New York Liberty won their sport's final, the New York Yankees and the New York Red Bulls lost theirs.

So, yes, 2024 is over. That's the good news.

The bad news is, 2025 isn't looking much better.

As an old Christmas song put it, we'll have to muddle through somehow.

Rickey Henderson, 1958-2024

When Willie Mays died earlier this year, I wrote a post on who had succeeded him as baseball's greatest living player. I made 4 nominations, one of whom was Rickey Henderson.

The others were Mike Schmidt, Ken Griffey Jr. and Albert Pujols. I said at the time that, of the 4, only Rickey would tell you that he was the greatest living player, although he never publicly said that he was.

Now, I have to take Rickey off that list. Not because of anything he's done to disgrace the game, like another man who died earlier this year, Pete Rose, did. But for a sad reason.

Rickey Nelson Henley was born on a Christmas Day, December 25, 1958, in Chicago. His mother, Bobbie Henley, delivered him in the back seat of an Oldsmobile on the way to the hospital. Rickey later said, "I was already fast. I couldn't wait." He was named after singer Ricky Nelson. Within a few years, the singer preferred to be called "Rick." But the ballplayer was "Rickey" forever.

When he was 2 years old, his father, John L. Henley, left the family, and went to Oakland, California. From then until age 7, Rickey lived with his grandmother, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, then rejoined his father in Oakland. John died in a car accident when Rickey was 10. During Rickey's junior year of high school, his mother married a man named Paul Henderson, and Rickey took the Henderson name.

Unusually, especially for a non-pitcher, Rickey learned how to bat righthanded despite being a lefthanded thrower. He later said, "All my friends were right-handed and swung from the right side, so I thought that's the way it was supposed to be done."

In 1976, he graduated from Oakland Technical High School, where he was also an All-American running back on their football team. Other notable Oakland Tech athletes: Baseball players Taylor Douthit '19, Bernie DeViveiros '20, John Gillespie '20, Joe Mellana '22, Bruce Cunningham '23, Les Powers '27, Cookie Lavagetto '31, Linc Blakely '31, Tom Hafey '31, Len Gabrielson Sr. '33 and Jr. '57, Bob Greenwood '46, Jay Porter '50, Joe Gaines '55, Curt Flood '56, Terrell Lowery '88; pro quarterbacks John Brodie and Josh Johnson, and other football players Bill McKalip, Proverb Jacobs, Ray Norton, Roy Shivers and Marshawn Lynch; and basketball stars Jim Pollard, Leon Powe and Alexis Gray-Lawson.

Actor Clint Eastwood is probably the most famous Oakland Tech graduate, whose ranks also include actors Jack Soo, Robert Webber, Bernie Hamilton and Ted Lange; singers Tony Martin, and all of the Pointer Sisters; Muppets operator Frank Oz (Bert, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear); poet Rod McKuen; engineer Stephen Bechtel; Congressman Ron Dellums; and Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. (Webber was the only actor to be one of the 12 Angry Men and one of The Dirty Dozen.)

Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, loved, in his own words, "Speed, speed, speed." And he loved players with lots of self-confidence. He would have loved to have Rickey Henderson on the Raiders. Rickey wanted it, too. But his mother told him that football players had considerably shorter careers, so he should play baseball instead. Good choice: After all, he seemed to play baseball forever -- and then, at least, tried to.

Shortly after graduating from Oakland Tech, Rickey was signed by his hometown Oakland Athletics, or the A's for short. In 1978, he played for their farm team, the Jersey City A's, who played their home games at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City. They moved after that season, and professional baseball did not return to New Jersey until 1994.

Rickey made his major league debut on June 24, 1979, against the Texas Rangers at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. He played left field, led off the A's lineup, and wore Number 35. Batting against pitcher John Henry Johnson, he hit a double to right field in his 1st major league at-bat. He singled to left in the 3rd inning, flew out to right field in the 5th, and flew out to right again in the 7th. The Rangers won, 5-1.

The A's were at a low ebb, as their cheap owner, Charlie Finley, had broken up their 1971-75 dynasty, and they lost 108 games in 1979. He sold the team in 1980, and Billy Martin was hired as manager. Rickey fit "Billy Ball" perfectly, as a contact hitter with speed. After stealing 33 bases as a rookie, Rickey stole 100 in 1980, batting .303 for the 1st of his 7 .300+ seasons, and making the 1st of his 10 All-Star Games.

In 1981, he stole far fewer bases, 56, but it was still enough to repeat as American League leader, and he won his only Gold Glove, leading the A's to the AL Western Division title. He finished 2nd in the AL Most Valuable Player voting, behind relief pitcher Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The A's fell apart again in 1982, but Rickey had a season like no other. The existing Oakland Athletics record for stolen bases in a season was 75, by Billy North in 1975; for the A's franchise, 81, by Eddie Collins in Philadelphia in 1910; for the American League, 96, by Ty Cobb with the Detroit Tigers in 1915; and for the major leagues, 118, by Lou Brock with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974. Rickey blew past them all, finishing with 130, a record that has never seriously been approached -- not even by himself, as his 108 the next season would be his last time topping 100. He also set a record by being caught stealing 42 times.

Basically, if you put Rickey Henderson on 1st base, it meant that he was going to get to 2nd base, and there was a good chance he would end up scoring. He became, beyond any doubt, the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history.

*

In 1983, he married his high-school sweetheart, Pamela. They have three children: Angela, Alexis, and Adrianna. After the 1984 season, the Yankees sent outfielder Stan Javier and pitchers José Rijo, Jay Howell, Eric Plunk and Tim Birtsas to the A's for Rickey and pitcher Bert Bradley.

Bradley was a throw-in, who appeared in 3 games for the A's in 1983, and that was it for him in the majors. The A's got 5 serviceable players, although they ended up trading Rijo and Birtsas to the Cincinnati Reds for Dave Parker. That trade worked out well for both teams: Parker helped the A's win the 1989 World Series, but Rijo was the MVP of the 1990 World Series, in which the Reds beat the A's.

But Yankee Fans were thrilled to add Rickey to a team that already had Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly. Playing left field, and switching to the Number 24 that he wore for most of the rest of his career, Rickey thrilled fans with a "snatch catch": He would catch the ball, then whip his left down to his leg. I was always worried that he would drop it. A couple of times, he did, and got booed.

He was with the Yankees for 4 full seasons: They came within 2 1/2 games of the AL Eastern Division title in 1985, within 5 1/2 in 1986, were in 1st place at the All-Star Break in 1987, and got within 3 1/2 in 1988. Three times, Rickey raised the team record for stolen bases, to 80 in 1985, to 87 in 1986, and to 93 in 1988. None of those totals has been seriously challenged since. But the Yankees always seemed to be one starting pitcher short, and there would be no Playoff run in Pinstripes.

On June 21, 1989, tired of his ego and not willing to sign him to a new contract after the season, and wanting to get something for him, the Yankees traded Rickey back to the A's, regaining Plunk, and also getting pitcher Greg Cadaret and outfielder Luis Polonia.

Shortly after his return to Oakland, on July 29, Rickey had one of the strangest statistical lines in baseball history: No hits, no at-bats, but drew 4 walks, stole 5 bases, and scored 4 runs. None of it did much good, as the A's lost to the Seattle Mariners, 14-6 at the Oakland Coliseum.

The trade worked out a lot better for the A's, as Rickey helped them win the 1989 World Series, the 1990 AL Pennant, and the 1992 AL West title. On May 1, 1991, during a 7-4 A's win over the Yankees at the Coliseum, Rickey stole 3rd base in the 3rd inning. It was the 939th stolen base of his career, breaking the record held by Brock, who was on hand for the occasion.

A microphone was set up, and Henderson thanked, in turn, God, the Haas family (owners of the A's), the A's organization, the City of Oakland, the fans in the Coliseum, his mother, his friends, his loved ones, and former managers Tom Trebelhorn and Billy Martin (who had died in 1989).

Then he said, in words that another of his heroes, Muhammad Ali, might have appreciated, "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing. But, today, I'm the greatest of all time. Thank you."

Brock took no offense, saying, "He spoke from his heart." But Henderson knew he had gone too far, later saying, "As soon as I said it, it ruined everything. Everybody thought it was the worst thing you could ever say. Those words haunt me to this day, and will continue to haunt me. They overshadow what I've accomplished in this game."

There is a difference between having a healthy ego, which is necessary to succeed in just about any endeavor, including professional sports; and having an excessive ego. Henderson certainly gave the impression of having the latter, not helping himself by being an illeist, a person who tended refer to himself in the third person, often calling himself "Rickey" instead of "I."

Just a few hours later, Henderson's thunder was stolen by Nolan Ryan's lightning. Ryan had pitched the 6th no-hitter of his career against the A's in 1989, and had made Henderson his 5,000th career strikeout victim in 1990. The same day that Rickey gained his 939th steal, Ryan pitched his 7th, no-hitter, against the Toronto Blue Jays, becoming the oldest pitcher ever to throw one, at age 44, and striking out 16 batters. Rickey would follow Ryan as a player who seemed to just keep going and going, and excelling through most of it.

On July 31, 1993, at the trading deadline, the A's sent him to the Toronto Blue Jays, basically as a "rent-a-player" deal, and he helped the Jays win the World Series. He signed a new deal with the A's in 1994, got traded to the San Diego Padres in 1996, and helped them win the NL West title that year.

He was traded to the Anaheim Angels in 1997, returned to the A's in 1998, and helped the Mets reached the NL Championship Series in 1999. In 2000, the Mets traded him to the Seattle Mariners, and he helped them reach the AL Championship Series. He went back to the Padres, and, on October 7, 2001, in a 14-5 Padres loss to the Colorado Rockies, he blooped a double down the right-field line off John Thomson. It was the 3,000th hit of his career.

He played the 2002 season with the Boston Red Sox. No team was willing to take him on for the 2003 season, so he signed with the Newark Bears of the independent Atlantic League. He was impressive enough for the Los Angeles Dodgers to sign him. On September 19, 2003, in the bottom of the 7th inning at Dodger Stadium, he pinch-hit for pitcher Guillermo Mota, against Jason Christiansen. He was hit by a pitch, and eventually scored, but the Dodgers lost to the Giants, 6-4. It turned out to be Rickey's last major league appearance.

He hung on, signing with the Newark Bears again for 2004, and in 2005 in another independent league, with the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the Golden Baseball League. Nobody would take him for 2006. In 2007, the Mets took him on as hitting instructor, but his hope that he would be signed as a player -- at the age of 48 -- went unrealized. Finally, on July 13, 2007, he announced his retirement.

*

Henderson was baseball's greatest base stealer, with 1,406. To put that in perspective, Brock's 938 remains 2nd on the all-time list. He collected 3,055 hits. His lifetime batting average is not very impressive, .279; but all those walks pushed his on-base percentage to .401. His slugging percentage is .419, and his OPS+ is 127. He had a surprising amount of power, with 297 home runs despite spending the majority of his career in the pitching-friendly Coliseum. And he is baseball's all-time leader in runs scored, with 2,295; and is 2nd (and formerly 1st) all-time in walks, with 2,190.

Baseball statistician Bill James once said, "If you could split him in two, you'd have two Hall-of-Famers."

In 1999, while still an active player, The Sporting News ranked him 51st on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players. And yet, he was not chosen by fans in balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 2022, ESPN ranked him 23rd on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.

In 2009, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in his 1st year of eligibility, and the A's retired his Number 24. In 2017, as part of the team's 50th Anniversary celebration, the playing surface at the Oakland Coliseum was renamed Rickey Henderson Field. Few players in baseball history have been as great as he has, and even fewer have done it with their hometown teams.

On September 26, 2024, Rickey was in attendance as the Athletics played their last game at the Oakland Coliseum, beating the Rangers, 3-2. They will play the next 3 seasons in Sacramento, before moving to a new stadium in Las Vegas. On October 30, he was in attendance again as A's and Yankees Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson hosted a charity softball game at the Coliseum.

It turned out to be Rickey's last public appearance. He was hospitalized a few days ago, for pneumonia, and died yesterday, December 20, 2024. He was 5 days short of his 66th birthday.

Rickey played his 1st major league game when I was 9 years old, and his last when I was 33. (He was 20 and 44, respectively.) He thrilled me at some times, and angered me at others. He amazed me with his talent, and he perplexed me that so much talent was given to a guy like him. In ways both good and not-so-good, he will remain a baseball icon.

Rickey Henderson was one of a kind. We shall not look upon his like again.

Who Is Baseball's Greatest Living Player?

At a dinner to honor the 100th Anniversary of professional baseball in 1969, 2 all-time teams were named: The Greatest Players, and the Greatest Living Players. Babe Ruth was named the Greatest Player, and Joe DiMaggio was named the Greatest Living Player -- and, for the rest of his life, he insisted upon being introduced as "Baseball's Greatest Living Player."

When he died in 1999, the title of "Baseball's Greatest Living Player" was, for most fans, passed to Willie Mays. Willie died this week. So who holds the title now?

By looking at the list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players compiled in 1999 by The Sporting News, we can say that, with the death of Willie Mays, ranked 2nd behind Babe Ruth, the greatest living player is the man then ranked 16th, Johnny Bench.

It was a bad ranking. They had him ahead of his fellow Oklahoman, Mickey Mantle (17th, and dead in 1995), and ahead of the actual greatest catcher who ever lived, Yogi Berra (40th, still alive then, died in 2015).

Next on that list among players still alive: At 25th, Pete Rose. No. Just no. And that's got nothing to do with the reason he was banned from baseball -- or with the other reason he has become a pariah.

Next, at 26th, is Sandy Koufax. I have a hard time accepting a pitcher as the greatest living player, especially one whose legend is essentially based on just 5 seasons, maybe 6.

Next, at 28th, is Mike Schmidt. Here we go. Almost certainly, the greatest player ever to play 3rd base. Definitely the greatest player in Phillies history, and, given how many of the old Philadelphia Athletics' legends split their careers with other teams, probably also the greatest player in Philadelphia baseball history. 548 home runs. 10 Gold Gloves. 3 Most Valuable Player awards. Led his team to 6 Playoff berths, 2 Pennants, and its 1st World Series win.

You want another candidate? The next one still alive, at 30th, is Schmidt's Phillies teammate, Steve Carlton. A pitcher. Let's move on. The next living player, and the top player then active, at 34th, was Barry Bonds. This was before Bonds started setting records like crazy. This was also before we knew he had started using steroids. So, he's disqualified, even if he was "a Hall-of-Famer before he started cheating." After all, the appearance that he didn't need to cheat to be great, and then cheated anyway, makes things worse.

Next, at 39th, is Greg Maddux. Another pitcher. Next living, at 41st, is Nolan Ryan. Another pitcher. Next living, at 48th, is Reggie Jackson. He's my favorite athlete of all time, and he has been known to show some ego. But I don't think even Reggie would call himself "baseball's greatest living player."

Next, at 51st, is Rickey Henderson. Here is another legitimate candidate, even if he surpassed Reggie, DiMaggio, Ty Cobb and everybody else as baseball's supreme egotist. Baseball's greatest base stealer (1,406), he collected over 3,000 hits (3,055), had a surprising amount of power (297 home runs), and is baseball's all-time leader in runs scored (2,295).

His lifetime batting average is just .279, but, A, that's higher than Schmidt (.267), Bench (also .267) or Reggie (.262); and, B, his on-base percentage is .401 (higher than Schmidt at .380, Reggie at .356 and Bench at .342), because he was once the all-time leader in walks (2,190, surpassed by Bonds, mainly due to the intentionals, a backlash against his cheating). And he was a winner, reaching the postseason 8 times with 5 different teams. (In 1985, the Yankees fell just short, so it was almost 9 times with 6 teams.) This also includes 3 Pennants, which includes World Series wins with 2 different teams.

In 2022, ESPN had an updated list. Their top 10 players who are alive as of Mays' death are: Bonds, 8th; Pedro Martinez, 11th; Ken Griffey Jr., 13th; Maddux, 14th; the still-active Mike Trout, 15th; Roger Clemens, 17th; Schmidt, 18th; Henderson, 23rd; Randy Johnson, 24th; and Alex Rodriguez, 26th.

After that: Derek Jeter, 28th; Bench, 29th; Albert Pujols, 30th; Mariano Rivera, 31st; Koufax, 32nd; Rose, 34th.

First, let's dump the pitchers: Pedro (11th among all players? A damn joke), Maddux, Clemens, Johnson, Rivera, Koufax. Next, let's dump the steroid cheats, Bonds and A-Rod. Finally, add those we've already considered: Schmidt, Henderson, Bench.

Not yet considered: Griffey, Trout, Jeter and Pujols. All 4 of whom, as far as we know, were, or, in the case of the still-active Trout, are, clean.

Okay, let's get serious: Trout doesn't make the Top 100 players. If, for whatever reason, he never plays another game, he leaves with 1,648 hits, 378 of which are home runs. That's fewer home runs than Frank Howard and Dale Murphy, for whom home runs were kind of their thing, and neither one is in the Baseball Hall of Fame. I don't care that he already has 3 MVPs: Trout is not a Hall-of-Famer yet.

That leaves Griffey, Jeter and Pujols. Jeter has more hits than any human being who, today, is both alive and eligible to be in baseball: 3,465. He had a .310 lifetime batting average and 358 stolen bases. And, in his time, he was baseball's biggest winner. But he only hit 260 home runs, and never won an MVP, although he was robbed of at least 2 and maybe a 3rd.

That leaves Griffey, with 630 home runs, and Pujols, with 3,384 hits (not that far behind Jeter), 703 of which were home runs. Griffey had 10 Gold Gloves, Pujols 2. Pujols had the postseason success, Griffey didn't. (Remember the 1995 ALDS all you want, but he never played in a World Series.)   

Is it just me, or does this picture look like

one of those baseball cards of players who recently changed teams,

which we used to call "Topps airbrush jobs"?

So, I would say that, for the title of Baseball's Greatest Living Player, there are 4 legitimate candidates. In chronological order, they are: Mike Schmidt, Rickey Henderson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Albert Pujols.

If Junior hadn't tailed off a bit when he went to the Cincinnati Reds in 2000, he could have made the question easy to answer. Same for Phat Albert, if he hadn't tailed off a bit when he went to the Los Angeles Angels in 2012: He could have put it away. If Junior hadn't had so many injuries, and if Albert hadn't gone to Anaheim, one of them might have hit 763 home runs to surpass Bonds, and make this an easy answer.

So, of the four, which one is Baseball's Greatest Living Player? Henderson would tell you it's him. The other 3 wouldn't claim that for themselves. Perhaps that's another reason why each of them might deserve it.

UPDATE: Pete Rose died on September 30, 2024, removing him from anyone's discussion; and Rickey Henderson followed on December 20, 2024, removing him from this discussion. That leaves Mike Schmidt, Ken Griffey Jr. and Albert Pujols.

Maury Wills, 1932-2022

When Jackie Robinson re-integrated baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, he changed how the game was played, not just by whom: He brought the stolen base back as a weapon. But it would be a Los Angeles Dodger who raised the bar on that: Maury Wills.

Maurice Morning Wills was born on October 2, 1932 in Washington, D.C. He attended Cardozo High School there, to be followed a few years later by singer Marvin Gaye. In 1948, he quarterbacked their football team to an undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon season. In 1950, he pitched a one-hitter and struck out 17 batters in the same game. He was named All-City in baseball, football and basketball.

After graduating, he signed with the Dodgers, but it took until 1959, by which point they had moved to Los Angeles, for him to make the major leagues. The key was learning how to switch-hit: A natural righthander, Wills was reminded that, with his speed, having one less step to 1st base as a lefthanded hitter would make him a better hitter.

His debut came on June 3, 1959, at Milwaukee County Stadium. He batted 8th, played shortstop, and wore the Number 30 he would wear throughout his career. He went 0-for-4 against Bob Rush of the Milwaukee Braves. Sandy Koufax pitched for the Dodgers, and he hadn't yet become a star, either, and the Braves won, 3-2.

Wills played 82 games in the 1959 season, and was on the roster when the Dodgers won the World Series. In 1960, he became the Dodgers' starting shortstop, and led the National League in stolen bases with 50. In 1961, he won the 1st of back-to-back Gold Gloves.

But nothing prepared anyone for the performance Wills put on in 1962. At age 29, he put together one of the most spectacular seasons baseball had ever seen. He batted .299, hit 6 home runs, and had 48 RBIs, typical for a leadoff hitter at the time. What was not typical is that he stole 104 bases, a new major league record, and was caught stealing only 13 times.

As with Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox on the Chicago White Sox in their Pennant-winning season of 1959, before losing the World Series to the Dodgers, fans would chant, "Go! Go! Go!" when Wills was on base, expecting him to steal. Danny Kaye, the entertainment legend who moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles (or, more accurately, from Broadway to Hollywood) years before the Dodgers did, recorded a novelty song about the Dodgers, a reworking of "Ragg Mopp" in which Wills featured -- but was, perhaps incorrectly, called out.

At 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, he was built not only like most middle infielders of the era, but seemingly just the right way for stealing bases. "Stealing is a matter of confidence, even conceit," he told The New York Times that September. "It's more than getting a good jump, a big lead. It's being in the right frame of mind. I run with the thought that the pitcher will make a perfect throw, and the catcher will make a perfect throw, and I'll still beat them. I don't have a doubt."

Wills posing with 97 bases, symbolic of the new record

The previous major league record had been 96, by Ty Cobb in 1915. Wills broke that record on September 23, in a 12-2 Dodger loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

It was the Dodgers' 156th game of the season, the 1st with the expanded National League, and thus going from 154 games to 162, so, as with Roger Maris and his 61 home runs the year before, there would be 2 records in the book, Wills' 104 and Cobb's 96, until Lou Brock got his 97th in his 126th game, his 104th and 105th in his 134th, and his 118th and last in his 152nd. In 1982, Rickey Henderson would break all records, stealing 130.

Because the Dodgers finished in a tie for 1st place with the San Francisco Giants, a 3-game Playoff was required under the rules of the time. This enabled Wills to play in 165 regular-season games, a record that has never been broken. Due to being traded to a team that had played fewer games, there are 4 players who have since played in 164 in a regular season, but never again has a player played in 165.

Being the Dodgers' leadoff hitter allowed Wills to lead the NL in plate appearances with 795, and at-bats with 695. He also led in triples with 10. Wills was named the NL's Most Valuable Player, despite his teammate Tommy Davis having a better season, Willie Mays of the Pennant-winning Giants having a better season, and Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds, the previous season's MVP, having an even better season statistically than he had the year before.

How popular was Wills with Dodger fans? California was electing a Governor, the choices being the Democratic incumbent, Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and the Republican former Vice President Richard Nixon. James Reston, Washington columnist for The New York Times, wrote, "If, after the season, Maury Wills were to run for governor, neither Brown nor Nixon would have a chance."

(Brown won in a landslide, leading Nixon to blame the media for his loss, saying, "Just think how much fun you'll be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference." It wasn't the first promise Nixon broke, and it wouldn't be the last.)

Wills stole "only" 40 bases in 1963, but he batted .302, his 1st time over .300, and, this time, the Dodgers went all the way, and so he got his 2nd World Series ring. He got a 3rd in 1965, in which he stole 94, at that point 2nd in NL history behind his own 104 in '62. It would be the 6th straight season in which he led the NL in stolen bases.

It would also be the last time he led the NL, despite stealing 52 in 1968 and 40 in 1969. The Dodgers won the Pennant again in 1966, with Wills making the All-Star Game for the 5th and last time, but lost the World Series.

After the 1966 season, the Dodgers traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Bob Bailey and Gene Michael. (Yes, Yankee Fans, the Stick himself.) After 2 years with the Bucs, he was taken by the Montreal Expos in the expansion draft, but was traded back to the Dodgers the following June, with Manny Mota, for Ron Fairly and Paul Popovich. He batted .281 as late as 1971, turning 39 by the end of the season. But he struggled in 1972, was replaced as the starting shortstop by Bill Russell, and was released on October 24 -- the day Jackie Robinson died.

He finished his career with a .281 batting average, 2,134 hits, and 586 stolen bases. At the time, the total ranked 10th in baseball history, 5th among players who had played all or most of their career in the 20th Century, and far and away the most of anyone whose career began after 1910. He now ranks 20th all-time.

For the next 5 seasons, he was a broadcaster for NBC. But he really wanted to be a manager. He had won a Pennant in the Mexican Pacific League in the Winter of 1970-71. When Frank Robinson was named manager of the Cleveland Indians for the 1975 season, making him the 1st black manager in the major leagues, Wills thought he had a chance, and wrote a book touting himself as manager, titled How to Steal a Pennant. He wrote, "Give me a last-place club, and after three years we would be strongly in contention, and by the fourth year we'd go all the way."

After Larry Doby became the 2nd black manager in MLB, with the 1978 Chicago White Sox, Wills was named the 3rd, by the Seattle Mariners, on August 4, 1980. They were an expansion team in their 4th year, and they were terrible, going 20-38 under his tutelage. In mid-September, they had a 6-game winning streak, but this was immediately followed by an 8-game losing streak.

Things would get worse in 1981. Wills hired ex-teammate Tommy Davis as hitting instructor. He also told the media that he had great hopes for his new center fielder, Leon Roberts. He had forgotten that Roberts had been traded a few days earlier. He once made out a lineup card that had 2 3rd basemen and no center fielder. He once signaled to the bullpen for a relief pitcher, without having ordered one to get warmed up. He once held a game up for 10 minutes while looking for a pinch-hitter.

On April 25, the Oakland Athletics had come to the Kingdome, and their manager, Billy Martin, noticed that the batter's box looked too long. He talked to home plate umpire Bill Kunkel, who had it measured. Sure enough, it was one foot longer than the rules allowed. Kunkel talked to the head groundskeeper, who admitted it, saying that Wills had ordered it, because the A's had several pitchers who specialized in curveballs and sliders, and that this would give them an advantage. Kunkel ordered the box relined to specifications, and Wills was suspended for 2 games and fined $500.

On May 6, with the Mariners are 6-18, Wills was fired. In his 1992 memoir On the Run: The Never Dull and Often Shocking Life of Maury Wills, he admitted, "Contrary to what I thought, I really needed managing experience below the major league level, to learn how to organize, how to delegate responsibility, and how to deal with the press." He also admitted that he then had a crazy girlfriend, who was demanding attention that he might have been able to give to baseball. He also admitted that he had developed serious addictions to alcohol and cocaine.

It was another Dodger legend, Don Newcombe, whose experience with recovery from alcohol led him to point Wills in the same direction. Wills said, "He was a channel for God's love for me, because he chased me all over Los Angeles trying to help me, and I just couldn't understand that. But he persevered, he wouldn't give in and my life is wonderful today because of Don Newcombe."

Maury's son, Elliott Taylor "Bump" Wills, was also a switch-hitter who reached the major leagues, a 2nd baseman with the Texas Rangers from 1977 to 1981, the Chicago Cubs in 1982, and the Hankyu Braves of Nishinomiya, Japan in 1983 and '84. In the American majors, he batted .266, and stole 196 bases.

Maury and Bump at the Kingdome, 1980

Bump was 1 of 6 children Maury had, all from his 1st marriage, to Gertrude Elliott, the others being son Barry, and daughters Mauricia, Anita, Wendi and Susan. He lived to see 7 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Between getting clean and writing his lurid memoir, he married a woman named Carla, who survives him.

In 1993, Wills played himself as the Dodger 3rd base coach in the "present" section of the film The Sandlot, most of which takes place in 1962, the year of his 104 steals. He also served as a member of the Dodgers Legends Bureau, a team ambassador role.

Current Dodger manager Dave Roberts

and Maury Wills, both wearing Number 30

In 1996 and 1997, Maury was a coach for the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, who have operated in various independent leagues. From 1998 to 2017, he was a broadcaster for them. Over that stretch, their ballpark, Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, North Dakota, housed the Maury Wills Museum. When Wills retired as a broadcaster, the museum was closed down, and he took his memorabilia back to his home in Sedona, Arizona. Roger Maris had grown up in Fargo, and a museum honoring him is still there, in the West Acres Mall.

Maury Wills died yesterday, September 19, 2022, at his home in Sedona. He was 13 days short of his 90th birthday. He has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, despite his achievements and influence in baserunning. He has his supporters, but not enough of them on the voting committees. Perhaps now, at the next available meeting, they will reconsider his role in the game's history. 

How to Be a Yankee Fan In Oakland -- 2022 Edition

The Yankees begin a 3-game series away to the Oakland Athletics next Thursday night.

The Oakland Raiders have moved out of the Oakland Coliseum to Las Vegas. The Golden State Warriors have moved across the Bay to a new arena in San Francisco. So while Oakland had 3 teams as recently as June 2019, and had 4 teams from the original crossing of the Bay by the Warriors in 1971 until the failure of the NHL's California Golden Seals in 1976, this has left the A's as the last team in Oakland -- if they stay.

Finally, it looks like they will. After failed attempts to get ballparks in Fremont (thus staying in "The East Bay") and San Jose (thus at least staying in the Bay Area), A new 34,000-seat ballpark has received tentative approval for the Jack London Square area. If all goes well, it will open in April 2025. The A's have now passed the title of "MLB team most likely to move" to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Before You Go. The San Francisco Bay Area has inconsistent weather. San Francisco, in particular, partly because it's bounded by water on 3 sides, is the one city I know of that has baseball weather in football season and football weather in baseball season. Or, as Mark Twain, who worked for a San Francisco newspaper during the Civil War, put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."

The Coliseum doesn't get as cold as Candlestick Park did, but it has been known to be bad enough, getting quite chilly early in the season. But, this being late August, that shouldn't be a problem for you. Still, before you go, I would suggest checking the websites of the Oakland Tribune and SFgate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, for the forecasts. For the moment, they're predicting the high 60s for daylight, and the high 50s for night. They're predicting no rain for Thursday or Friday, and a 30 percent chance for Saturday and Sunday.

As with the rest of California, Oakland is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. Even when they win, the A's tend to have one of the worst attendance records in baseball. Even when they won 5 straight AL West titles in 1971-75, they only drew a million or more fans once, in 1975, averaging 13,278 fans per home game. (In 1973, owner Charlie Finley fudged the figure on the final day of the season, to sneak them over the million mark, which he later admitted.) They peaked at 35,804 in 1990, the height of their "Bash Brothers" success, and had 27,365 at the height of their "Big Three" run in 2003.

The A's are averaging 9,580 fans per home game this season, dead last in the majors, 1,800 per game less than the Miami Marlins. It's totally because of the condition of the stadium, not the quality of the team.

From 2006 until 2016, they had the upper deck entirely tarped-over except for the right-over-the-plate seats, reducing baseball seating capacity from a potential 55,945 to an official 35,067. In 2017, they tossed the tarp, and capacity is now listed as 47,170. Essentially, you can walk up to the gate at the Coliseum right before the first pitch and buy any seat you can afford.

"MVP" seats are $78. Lower Boxes are $76. Field Level seats are $68. Plaza Level seats are $55 in the infield, and $41 in the outfield. Bleachers (in "Mount Davis") are $26, Plaza Reserved (also in Mount Davis) are $15, and the top-level View Level seats are $23.

Getting There. It's 2,914 miles from Yankee Stadium to the Oakland Coliseum. This is the longest regular Yankee roadtrip there is (regular as in annual, since the Interleague schedule is staggered), and will remain so barring realignment, unless some future Commissioner decides to create a World League of Baseball and the Tokyo-based Yomiuri Giants come in. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.

You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you'll still need over 2 full days. Each way.

But, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and – though incredibly long, it's also incredibly simple – you'll stay on I-80 for almost its entire length, which is 2,900 miles from Ridgefield Park, just beyond the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge, to the San Francisco end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Getting off I-80, you'll need Exit 8A for I-880, the Nimitz Freeway – the 1997-rebuilt version of the double-decked expressway that collapsed, killing 42 people, during the Loma Prieta Earthquake that struck during the 1989 World Series between the 2 Bay Area teams. From I-880, you'll take Exit 37, turning left onto Zhone Way (no, that's not a typo), which becomes 66th Avenue, and then turn right onto Coliseum Way.

Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 7:45, Wyoming for 6:45, Utah for 3:15, Nevada for 6:45, and California for 3:15. That's almost 49 hours, and with rest stops, and city traffic at each end, we're talking 3 full days.

That's still faster than Greyhound and Amtrak. Greyhound does stop in Oakland, at 2103 San Pablo Avenue at Castro Street. But the trip averages about 74 hours, depending on the run, and will require you to change buses 3, 4 or even 5 times. Fare: $759, although it can drop to $528 with advanced purchase.

On Amtrak, you would leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM on Monday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 10:12 AM Central Time on Tuesday, and switch to the California Zephyr at 2:00 PM, arriving at Emeryville, California at 4:10 PM Pacific Time on Thursday. Round-trip fare: $743. Then you'd have to get to downtown Oakland on the Number 26 bus, which would take almost an hour. It'll be close, but that should still give you enough time to check into a hotel, get ready for the game, go to it, and arrive before first pitch.

Amtrak service has been restored to downtown Oakland, at 245 2nd Street, in Jack London Square. Unfortunately, it's a half-mile walk to the nearest BART station, at Lake Merritt (8th & Oak). For A's and Raiders games, the station at the Coliseum site, which is part of the BART station there, might be better. 700 73rd Street. And yet, for either of these stations, you'd still have to transfer at Emeryville to an Amtrak Coast Starlight train.

Getting into Oakland International Airport, right by the Coliseum, won't be easy, as you'll have to change planes somewhere, and it may be prohibitively expensive. You'd be better off flying into San Francisco International Airport, where nonstop round-trip flights could come for as little as $622, and then taking BART into either San Francisco or Oakland. BART from SFO to downtown San Francisco takes 26 minutes, to downtown Oakland 43 minutes. It's $8.60 to San Fran, $8.95 to Oakland.

Once In the City. Founded in 1852 and named after oak trees in the area, Oakland is a city of a little over 440,000 people. That's not much by major league standards, but it's more people than live within the city limits of Minneapolis, Cleveland, Arlington (Texas), Anaheim, both Tampa and St. Petersburg (but not combined), St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

Of course, the true measure of a team's "market" isn't who lives within the city limits, it's who lives within the metropolitan area. This becomes more difficult in 2-team markets, and the Giants are easily more popular in the Bay Area than the A's.

But if you count the "Oakland area" of the San Francisco Bay Area as being the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Merced, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter and Yolo (not "YOLO"), it comes to 5,206,604 people -- more than the San Francisco side of the area, counting the Counties of Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara (including San Jose), Santa Cruz and Sonoma: 5,026,514. Total: 10,232,618, 4th in the country behind New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the other two-team areas. So anyone who says, "Oakland is a small market," or, "The East Bay is a small market," is wrong.

Most Oakland street addresses aren't divided into north-south, or east-west.  The city does have numbered streets, starting with 1st Street on the bayfront and increasing as you move northeast. Interstates 280 and 680 form a "beltway" for San Jose, but San Francisco and Oakland don't have them.

One of the BART stops in the city is called "12th Street Oakland City Center," and it's at 12th & Broadway, so if you're looking at a centerpoint for the city, that's as good as any. The BART fare is $1.95 as long as you remain within the city of Oakland. The most it can be if you stay on the East side of the Bay is $5.35.

BART rides are accessed with a Clipper Card. An initial purchase fee is $3.00. A BART ride within San Francisco is $2.10; going from downtown to Daly City, where the Cow Palace is, is $3.50; going from downtown SF to downtown Oakland is $3.70, from downtown SF to the Oakland Coliseum complex is $4.50; and from downtown SF to Berkeley is $4.35.

The maximum fare, if you stay on the West side of the Bay, is $5.05 from Embarcadero to Millbrae. The highest fare, other than for trips to San Francisco and Oakland International Airports, is $8.85. The BART system switched from subway tokens to farecards in 2005.

The sales tax in California is 7.5 percent, and rises to 9 percent in Alameda County, including the City of Oakland. ZIP Codes in the East Bay start with the digits 945, 946, 947 and 948. The Area Code for the inner East Bay region is 510, the outer region 925.

San Francisco's electric company is called Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). In addition to being the wealthiest metro area in the country, ahead of New York and Washington, the Bay Area is one of the most ethnically diverse, with 32 percent of the population being foreign-born.

Of the 9 Counties usually included in "the Bay Area," 42 percent of the population is white, 24 percent Hispanic (the vast majority of those being of Mexican descent), 18 percent East Asian (highest in the world outside of Asia, except for Vancouver), 7 percent black, 4 percent South Asian, 4 percent Middle Eastern, and half a percent each Native American and Pacific Islander.

San Francisco became well-known for its Chinatown, as Chinese and Chinese Americans are the largest ethnic group in San Francisco itself, with 21 percent. Daly City, just south of the city, home to the Cow Palace arena, is 58.4 percent Asian, the highest percentage in the U.S. outside of Hawaii. San Jose has more Filipinos than any city outside the Philippines, and more Vietnamese than any city outside Vietnam. In total numbers of Asians, New York ranks 1st in the nation, Los Angeles 2nd, San Jose 3rd and San Francisco 4th.

The City also became well-known for its North Beach neighborhood, which became its "Little Italy," and the West Coast hub of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. The Mission District, once mostly Irish, is now mostly Central American, particularly Salvadoran and Guatemalan.

Despite its name, Russian Hill hasn't had much of a Russian presence in over 200 years. That was not the case with the Castro District, where even after Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867, there were significant numbers of people from the Russian Empire, including, at the time, Finland. In the early 20th Century, it was known as Little Scandinavia, because Norwegians, Swedes and Danes joined the Finns there.

During the Great Depression, just as Southerners went to Southern California in search of work, working-class people of Irish, Italian and Polish descent went to San Francisco, especially the Castro. And many closeted soldiers and sailors, returning from the Pacific Theater of World War II, decided to stay instead of going home, and built the largest gay village in America except for New York's Greenwich Village. Just as Haight-Ashbury led the way for the Hippies, for gay America, the Seventies were their "Sixties."

Oakland has a black majority, and became known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and, along with South Central Los Angeles, the West Coast rap scene. As recently as 1970, 1 out of 7 San Franciscans was black, but as the black middle class grew, they were able to afford better places to live, and, in recognition of Oakland's role, abandoned "The Harlem of the West," once the home of a thriving jazz scene (part of what attracted the Beat writers), and headed for the East Bay. San Jose has a Hispanic plurality, which may be a big reason why Major League Soccer put a team there, instead of in San Francisco or Oakland.

Despite its image as a city of peace and love, San Francisco, and the surrounding Bay Area, have had their share of civic strife. There were riots in Watsonville, outside Santa Cruz, against Filipinos in 1930; the Berkeley Police crushing the People's Park movement in 1969; the "White Night" in 1979, after the acquittal-on-lesser-charges of former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White for his assassination the year before of Mayor George Moscone and openly gay Supervisor Harvey Milk; and a riot in Oakland in 2009.

San Francisco has always been a parochial city. I don't mean in a religious sense. I mean that it has always looked down on Oakland and the East Bay, which have always resented the more established city because of it, more than New Jersey has ever resented New York.

This even extends to sports: Because Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal reached the major leagues in San Francisco, and Willie Mays was an established star brought in from another city, he has never been as loved in San Francisco as those others. Frank Conniff of the New York Journal-American, perhaps the only man ever to interview both men, wrote, "This is the damnedest city. They cheer Khrushchev and boo Willie Mays." (Khrushchev had visited San Francisco as part of his 1960 U.S. tour.)

Important to note: If you're going to spend any part of your visit to the Bay Area in San Francisco, do not call the city "Frisco." They hate that. "San Fran" is okay. And, like New York (sometimes more specifically, Manhattan), area residents tend to call it "The City." For a time, the Golden State Warriors, then named the San Francisco Warriors, actually had "THE CITY" on their jerseys. They will occasionally bring back throwback jerseys saying that.

Going In. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway line has a Coliseum/Oakland Airport stop, which can be accessed from nearly every city in the Bay Area. It takes about 20 minutes to ride either the Green (Fremont) or Blue (Dublin/Pleasanton) Line from downtown San Francisco to the Coliseum stop, and it will cost $4.30 each way – a lot more expensive than New York's Subway, but very efficient. (The BART system switched from subway tokens to farecards in 2005.)

From downtown Oakland, it will take about 10 minutes on the Fremont Line, and cost $1.95, cheaper than New York's, because, in this case, you would be staying not just on the Oakland side of the Bay, but wholly within the City of Oakland.

The Coliseum BART stop

The complex includes the stadium that has been home to the A's since 1968, and to the NFL's Oakland Raiders from 1966 to 1981 and again since 1995; and the Oracle Arena, a somewhat-renovated version of the Oakland Coliseum Arena, home to the NBA's Golden State Warriors on and off since 1966, and continuously since 1971 until this year, except for a 1-year hiatus in San Jose while it was being renovated, 1996-97.

The Oakland Clippers, the only champions the National Professional Soccer League would know, played at the Coliseum in 1967 and 1968, beating the Baltimore Bays 4-1 in the 2nd leg of the 1967 NPSL Final to win 4-2 on aggregate, before the NPSL merged with the North American Soccer League the next year. The Bay Area's former NHL team, the Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals, played at the arena from 1967 to 1976.

The official address of the Coliseum is 7000 Coliseum Way. If you're driving in (either having come all the way across the country by car, or from your hotel in a rental), there are 4 major lots, and going clockwise from the north of the stadium they are A, B, C and D, each corresponding with an entry gate at the stadium. Parking is $20.

If you're coming from the BART station, there will be a walkway over San Leandro Street, which may remind you of the walkway from the Willets Point station into the parking lot of Shea Stadium and its successor Citi Field. (Hopefully, it won't be as creepy as the Meadowlands' walkway over Route 120 from the Giants Stadium side of the parking lot to the Arena.) That will drop you off at the due east side of the Coliseum, dead center field.

Various tech companies bought naming rights to the place: It became Network Associates Coliseum in 1998, McAfee Coliseum in 2004, the Oakland Coliseum again in 2008, the O.co Coliseum (naming rights bought by Overstock.com), the Oakland Coliseum again in 2016, and RingCentral Coliseum in 2019. (RingCentral calls itself "a publicly traded provider of cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions for businesses."

Most people just call it "The Coliseum." Of course, sparse crowds meant that, like the Nassau Coliseum after the New York Islanders stopped being good, it became known as the Mausoleum.

The Coliseum faces east, away from San Francisco, and is 6 miles northwest of downtown Oakland and 15 miles southeast of downtown San Francisco. From the outside, it won't look like much, mainly because it was mostly built below ground. Above ground, you'll be seeing only the upper deck.

From 1966 to 1995, the Coliseum consisted of three decks wrapping from the left field pole around the infield to the right field pole, and bleacher sections topped by big scoreboards in left and right fields in between. But the price of getting the Raiders to come back was an expansion, with new bleachers, named Mount Davis in "honor" of then-Raiders owner Al Davis.

Before the construction of "Mount Davis." Nice view.

The construction of Mount Davis ruined a lot of the atmosphere at A's games, mainly by obstructing the view of the Oakland foothills. It stands as a bold green reminder of the man who stole one of the locals' teams away, and then, in order to bring it back, screwed up a stadium that was already looking more and more inadequate with the building of every new retro-style stadium -- and now, that man's son is abandoning the place anyway.

Indeed, with the Toronto Argonauts having moved from the Rogers Centre to BMO Field, the Coliseum became the last stadium in MLB that was shared by a pro football team. Even that ceased to be true with the last Raiders home game of the 2019 season.

In spite of the Raiders' now-ended return, the 49ers were more popular -- according to a 2014 article in the Atlantic Monthly, even in Alameda County. This is also true for the Giants, more popular in Alameda County than the A's. The Raiders remain more popular in the Los Angeles area, a holdover from their 1982-94 layover, and also a consequence of L.A. not having had a team from 1995 to 2015, although the return of the Rams changed that.

The field is natural grass, and, at this time of year the football markings won't be a problem. The field dimensions are symmetrical. The foul poles are 330 feet from home plate, the power alleys 367, and center field 400.

These distances might sound a little short, but the vast amount of infield foul territory, easily the most in the major leagues throughout my lifetime, results in a lot of balls getting caught which would be into the stands in most parks. So the Coliseum has always been regarded as a pitcher's park.

With Mount Davis. No view at all.

In spite of 55 seasons of history, and such big boomers as Reggie Jackson, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi -- all but the first are confirmed steroid users -- the longest home run in the Coliseum was hit on October 1, 2020, by Luis Robert of the Chicago White Sox, measured at 487 feet.

For those of you who are Jets fans, the Oakland Coliseum was where the Jets lost the "Heidi Bowl" to the Raiders on November 17, 1968 -- but the Jets ended up beating the Raiders in that season's AFL Championship Game at Shea. The Coliseum has also hosted 3 games of the U.S. national soccer team, all wins, most recently over China in 2001.

It's worth noting that Elvis Presley sang across the parking lot, at the Coliseum Arena, on November 10, 1970 and November 11, 1972. 

Food. San Francisco, due to being a waterfront city and a transportation and freight hub, has a reputation as one of America's best food cities. Oakland benefits from this.

Aramark Sports & Entertainment, the successor corporation to the Harry M. Stevens Company that invented ballpark concessions, provides food and beverage services for the Westside Club, Eastside Club, Luxury Suites, and all of the Coliseum's Premium Seating areas. Traditional ballpark fare is also offered throughout the stadium by Aramark. Specialty items such as barbecue, pizza, and garlic fries can also be found at specific concession stands. (The Giants have been known for their garlic fries, the A's less so.)

The blog Athletics Nation recommends Ribs & Things BBQ, a stand based on the restaurant of the same name in the East Bay suburb of Hayward, behind Section 104; Hot Dog Nation at 111 and 123; Round Table Pizza at 114; A's Grill, featuring specialty sausages, at 205; and Burrito District and 220. Their recommendation of Ribs & Things is backed up by a recent Thrillist article on the best food at each big-league ballpark.

They also recommend Ballpark Poppers, on the lower level behind the foul poles. They fry cheeseburger bites, corn dogs and Jalapeno peppers in cornbread batter, with ranch and Sriracha sauces.

One of the ways the A's pay tribute to their Philadelphia past is with Shibe Park Tavern, which replaced the Westside Club this season, on the middle level behind home plate. This sports bar, which is open on non-game days, has Philadelphia Athletics-related memorabilia, some purchased, some donated. It won't make you believe the A's have been playing in Oakland since the days of Connie Mack, but it will remind you that the team's history goes back further than Charlie Finley's garish green and gold.

Team History Displays. The Yankees and A's have played each other in 3 postseason series: The 1981 AL Championship Series and the 2000 and 2001 AL Division Series -- the Yanks winning all 3. Still, if you count the Philly titles (and you really shouldn't, but if you do), the A's have won 9 World Series, more than any AL team except the Yankees, and the only NL team with more is the St. Louis Cardinals (with whom the Philly edition of the A's split back-to-back World Series, the A's winning in 1930 and the Cards in '31.)

There are no mentions, visible from the field of play, about the Raiders' Super Bowl XI, XV and XVIII wins; nor of their 1967 AFL Championship; nor of their 1976, 1980, 1983 or 2002 AFC Championships; nor of their 15 Western Division Championships from 1967 to 2002 -- and while that included a streak of 9 in 10 years from 1967 to 1976, only 4 of them have been won in the last 30 seasons. And don't bother looking around the Coliseum for a display of the Raiders' retired numbers: They don't retire numbers.

The tarped-over outfield upper deck displays the A's history – or, rather, those parts of it that they want you to see. In the left field corner of the main structure, they show the 4 World Series they've won in Oakland: 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1989. In the right field corner, they show the 5 World Series that the A's won in Philadelphia: 1910, 1911, 1913, 1929 and 1930.

At the left field corner of the bleachers are 3 retired numbers: 9, Reggie Jackson, right field, 1967-75 with a return at the end of his career in 1987; 24, Ricky Henderson, left field, on and off 4 times 1979-98; and 43, Dennis Eckersley, pitcher, 1987-95.

At the right field corner of the bleachers are 2 more numbers: 34, Rollie Fingers, pitcher, 1968-76; and 27, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, pitcher, 1965-74. Dave Stewart, an Oakland native who pitched for the A's 1986-92 and again in '95, also wore 34, but the A's did not do a dual retirement the way some teams have done (including the Yankees with 8 for Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra). The A's have announced that 34 will be dually retired for Stewart on September 11.

All 5 of the retired number honorees have been inducted into the Oakland A's Hall of Fame. So have Stewart and 1960-80 owner Charlie Finley, who are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The A's Hall of Fame currently has 28 members:

* From their Philadelphia era, 1901 to 1954, also all members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: Manager-owner Connie Mack; 1st baseman Jimmie Foxx; 3rd baseman Frank "Home Run" Baker; left fielder Al Simmons; catcher Mickey Cochrane; and pitchers Eddie Plank, George "Rube" Waddell, Charles "Chief" Bender and Robert "Lefty" Grove.

* From their Kansas City era, 1955 to 1967: No one.

* From their 1972-74 dynasty: Owner Charlie Finley; shortstop Bert Campaneris; 3rd baseman Sal Bando; left fielder Joe Rudi; right fielder Reggie Jackson; catcher Ray Fosse; pitchers Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Rollie Fingers and Vida Blue; director of player development Keith Liennman; and clubhouse attendant Steve Vucinich.

* From their 1988-90 dynasty: Owner Walter Haas, manager Tony La Russa, 1st baseman Mark McGwire, left fielder Rickey Henderson, and pitchers Dave Stewart and Dennis Eckersley.

* From their 2000-06 "dynasty": So far, only 3rd baseman Eric Chavez.

Previously, the A's also had an A's logo, standing in for a retired number, for Walter Haas, the Levi Strauss heir who bought the team from Charlie Finley in 1981, saving the franchise from being moved (at least for one generation) before dying in 1995, at which point his heirs sold the team.

The A's moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City for the 1955 season, and to Oakland for 1968. Reggie and Catfish began their careers with the A's in Kansas City; but, while the A's put up banners honoring their Philadelphia titles, they have not retired any numbers from their Philadelphia days.

The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society honors these figures with a mini-museum at Spike's sporting goods store in Northeast Philly. It features plaques that used to be part of the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame display at Veterans Stadium. I visited the plaques' former home in the suburb of Hatboro, Pennsylvania, but damage from Hurricane Sandy forced them to seek new quarters, and I haven't been to Spike's yet.

At the 2017 home opener, the field at the Coliseum was named Rickey Henderson Field for the Oakland native and Hall-of-Famer. While naming the field (or the court, or the rink) for one person and the building for another is common in college sports, the A's are the 1st MLB team to do this. (In English soccer, naming 1 of the 4 stands surrounding the field is a common tradition, but North American stadiums usually don't work that way, especially in baseball with its fields' shape.)

Jackson, Fingers, Eckersley, McGwire, Henderson, and Philadelphia Athletics Eddie Plank, Eddie Collins, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Lefty Grove were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players in 1999. That same year, Grove and McGwire (at the peak of his fame, before his downfall) were named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

In 2006, A's fans selected Reggie as their team's representative in the DHL Hometown Heroes series. In 2008, the A's selected a 40th Anniversary team: Catcher, Terry Steinbach; 1st base, Mark McGwire; 2nd base, Mark Ellis; shortstop, Bert Campaneris; 3rd base, Carney Lansford; outfield, Reggie, Rickey and Joe Rudi; designated hitter, Dave Kingman; pitchers, Catfish, Stewart, Eck and Vida Blue; manager, Tony LaRussa. (The Cardinals have retired Number 10 for LaRussa, but the A's haven't.)

In 2018, they selected a 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players:

* From their 1972-74 dynasty: Campaneris, Bando, Rudi, Jackson, Fosse, Hunter, Fingers, Blue, 2nd baseman Dick Green, center fielder Billy North, catcher-1st baseman Gene Tenace, and pitchers Ken Holtzman and John "Blue Moon" Odom.

* From their 1981 AL West Champions: Henderson, center fielder Dwayne Murphy and pitcher Mike Norris.

* From their 1988-90 dynasty: Henderson, McGwire, 2nd basemen Tony Phillips and Mike Gallego, shortstop Walt Weiss, 3rd baseman Carney Lansford, center fielder Dave Henderson (no relation to Rickey), right fielder Jose Canseco, catcher Terry Steinbach, and pitchers Stewart, Eckersley, Bob Welch and Curt Young.

* From their 2000-06 "dynasty": Chavez, 1st basemen Jason Giambi and Scott Hatteberg, 2nd baseman Mark Ellis, shortstop Miguel Tejada, left fielder Eric Byrnes, right fielders Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher, designated hitter Frank Thomas; and the "Big Three" pitchers: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.

* From 2007 to 2011: Pitcher Dallas Braden.

* From the 2012-14 Playoff teams: 3rd baseman Josh Donaldson, left fielder Yoenis Céspedes, center fielder Covelli "Coco" Crisp, right fielder Josh Reddick, catchers Kurt Suzuki and Stephen Vogt; and pitchers Sonny Gray and Sean Doolittle. Vogt, who left before the 2018-20 Playoff run and has returned, is the only current player on the list.

* From the 2018-20 Playoff teams: Left fielder Khris Davis.

You'll notice that a lot of these guys also played for the Yankees: Jackson, Hunter, Campaneris, Holtzman, Rickey Henderson (but not Dave), Gallego, Canseco (briefly), Chavez, Giambi, Swisher, Gray, and now Donaldson.

The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF) is unusual in that its exhibits are spread over several locations, including the Coliseum. The ones honored there, on the walls of the Coliseum's concourse, are: Reggie, Catfish, Fingers, A's pitcher and Oakland native Dave Stewart, Billy Martin (the Yanks & A's manager grew up in nearby Berkeley); Oakland-area natives Ernie Lombardi (Cincinnati Reds HOF catcher), Dick Bartell (New York Giants All-Star shortstop), Bill Rigney (Giants infielder, coach & manager), Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, Vada Pinson, Willie Stargell and Joe Morgan; and Raiders stars Jim Otto, George Blanda, Fred Biletnikoff, Art Shell, Willie Brown and Ken Stabler.

Other A's stars have been honored in the BASHOF, but their plaques are elsewhere: Eckersley and 1970s shortstop Bert Campaneris at San Francisco International Airport, and 1970s pitcher Vida Blue, who also pitched for the Giants, at their new home, AT&T Park, along with Giants HOFers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda; and San Francisco Seals star-manager Lefty O'Doul. LaRussa has been elected, but his plaque has not yet been dedicated. (Al Davis was elected to the BASHOF after his death, but his plaque is at the San Francisco Airport.)

In 2022, ESPN named its 100 Greatest Baseball Players. Among players who played significant time for the A's: Rickey Henderson was ranked 23rd, Jimmie Foxx 40th, Lefty Grove 54th, Reggie Jackson 55th, and Eddie Collins 82nd. Foxx, Grove and Collins, of course, played for the A's in Philadelphia, not Oakland.

The Athletics and the Giants faced each other in the World Series in 1905 (the Giants won), 1911 (the A's won) and 1913 (the A's won again). The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958. The A's swept the Giants 4 straight in the earthquake-marred 1989 World Series. In addition, the Giants and A's have both made the Playoffs in the same season in 1971, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2012 and 2014.

Since the institution of Interleague Play in 1997, the "Bay Bridge Series" is dead even at 68-68 -- in the regular season. Counting the 1989 World Series, it's 72-68 A's. The season series has been been won by the A's 8 times, the Giants 7 times (including this season), and there have been 10 splits. The 2018 season marked the 1st awarding (to the A's) of The Bridge, a trophy made from metal removed from the recent renovation of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, connecting their cities.

Stuff. The A's have a Team Store located at Gate D in the stadium's northwest corner. Additional merchandise locations and novelty kiosks are open throughout the stadium during all home games.

Having a fascinating (if occasionally controversial) history even if you only count the Oakland years, the A's have had several books written about them, although they don't always put the team in a good light. The ones about the "Swingin' A's" of the 1970s invariably mention the successes and excesses, including cheapness and pettiness, of then-owner Charles O. Finley. And the players, including Reggie, often don't come off much better in these books.

These books include Bruce Markusen's 2002 A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's; Roger D. Launius and G. Michael Green's 2010 Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman; and 2 new ones: Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A's Into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever, by Nancy Finley, daughter of Charlie's cousin Carl, who was also involved with the team; and Jason Turbow's Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's.

In 2016, Ed Gruver published Hairs vs. Squares: The Mustache Gang, the Big Red Machine, and the Tumultuous Summer of '72, which culminates in the World Series between the A's and the Cincinnati Reds. Matthew Silverman wrote Swinging '73: Baseball's Wildest Season, and John Rosengren wrote Hammerin' Hank, George Almighty and the Say Hey Kid: The Year That Changed Baseball Forever, whose cover includes a photo of Reggie Jackson at Yankee Stadium -- the pre-renovation Stadium, and he's wearing an A's uniform.

Michael Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which came out in 2003, showcases the way general manager Billy Beane brought the A's back in the 2000s, but it glosses over a glaring fact: The A's have won a grand total of zero American League Championship Series games since George Bush was President. The father, not the son. If he's been GM (or, now, executive vice president) for 25 seasons (since 1998) and has never won a Pennant, how much of a "genius" can Beane be? Especially since he hasn't been able to hold onto his players? Nevertheless, the book is sold at the Coliseum, and was made into a mediocre movie starring Brad Pitt as Beane. I don't think having Angelina Jolie in it would have helped.

There is a DVD collection of the official World Series highlight films of 1972, '73, '74 and '89, all won by the A's (the 5 they won in Philadelphia came before there were official highlight films), but, as yet, there is Essential Games of the Oakland Athletics or Essential Games of the Oakland Coliseum DVD collection.

During the Game. On July 4, 2021, amid postgame fireworks, 5 people, including an 11-year-old boy, were shot at the Oakland Coliseum. All survived with minor wounds. The shooter has never been identified.

This was an anomaly for A's games. Although the Raiders fans who show up for home games like to wear costumes ranging from biker gang members to sci-fi film villains – a guy in a Darth Vader mask was a regular Raider-goer in the Jimmy Carter years – and have been known to be the closest thing North American sports has to English-style football hooligans, you'll probably be safe. Wearing Yankee gear to the game will probably not endanger your safety. True, A's fans hate the Yankees, but you'll probably get nothing more than a little bit of verbal abuse.

A recent Thrillist article on "Baseball's Most Intolerable Fans" ranked the A's 18th, in the middle of the pack, saying:

A solid blend of hardcore old-school Oaklanders (plus ones who tell you they're from Oakland, but, when pressed, admit they mean Piedmont), people who grew up in the surrounding East Bay towns, and baseball hipsters who've decided that wearing an A's cap makes them a little more edgy than a Giants one.

The A's current slogan is "Rooted in Oakland," a sign that they really, really don't want to leave the city, just the Coliseum. Their previous slogan was "Green Collar Baseball." If that was supposed to be like "blue collar," it's a poor rewording of it: It mades them sound less like longshoremen on the Oakland side of the Bay, and more like environmental activists on the San Francisco side.

But the A's have usually had a blue-collar image, from Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's of Reggie, Catfish and Rollie in the Silly Seventies to the McGwire-Canseco Bash Brothers of the late Eighties and early Nineties, to the Giambi Brothers, "Big Three" pitchers, Billy Beane "Moneyball" era of 2000-06.

Saturday's game will be Firefighter Appreciation Night. For Sunday, they will have a 20th Anniversary reunion of their 2002 AL West Champions, who ran off a 20-game winning streak.

This season, the A's are wearing sleeve patches in memory of Ray Fosse, catcher 1973-75, broadcaster 1986-2021. He died last October 13.

Back in 1905, when the 2 Bay Area teams were the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics, they played each other in the World Series, and Giants manager John McGraw dismissed the A's as a "white elephant." A's manager-owner Connie Mack decided to just go with it, and had white elephants stitched onto their gray jerseys.

The elephant remained a team symbol into the Kansas City years, until Finley dumped it when he bought the Kansas City edition of the team in 1960, replacing it with a "Missouri mule" that he named Charlie O after himself. But in 1990, the elephant logo was brought back and modernized. In 1997, the A's created a new mascot, a man in an elephant suit, named Stomper.

The A's hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. The A's don't have a special "Get Loud" device, nor a special song played after "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the 7th Inning Stretch. But they have long had a string band playing in right field. After years of playing Kool & the Gang's "Celebration" after victories, in 2015, they switched to "Theme for Oakland" by the Phenomenauts. When they lose, they play "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer.

After the Game. Oakland has a bit of a rough reputation, but, since the Coliseum is an island in a sea of parking, you won't be in any neighborhood, much less a bad one. But if you do want to go out for a postgame meal or drinks, be advised that some sections of town are crime-ridden. And, in this case, wearing Yankee gear might not be a good idea. It's probably best to stay within the area from the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station and Jack London Square, center of the city's nightlife.

I can't find any reference to an Oakland bar that is Yankee-friendly. There are two bars in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco that are worth mentioning. Aces Bar, at 998 Sutter Street & Hyde Street in San Francisco's Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, is said to have a Yankee sign out front and a Yankee Fan as the main bartender, and to also be friendly to Giants, Knicks and Rangers fans; whether they will welcome Met fans, I do not know.

R Bar, at 1176 Sutter & Polk Street, is the official local Jets fan hangout, and maybe be more accommodating to 7 Liners. The Wreck Room, at 1390 California Street at Hyde Street, is also said to be a place for Jet fans. And Greens Sports Bar, at 2239 Polk at Green Street, is also said to be a Yankee-friendly bar. 

The Kezar Pub is rated by many as the best sports bar in San Francisco. It's at 770 Stanyan Street, at Waller Street, in the Haight-Ashbury, across from Golden Gate Park and the new version of the stadium from whence comes its name. Number 7 bus.

The Kezar Pub is also rated as one of the best bars to watch European soccer games. If you visit the Bay Area during that sport's season (which is about to get underway), these San Francisco bars are also recommended, due to their early openings: Maggie McGarry's, 1353 Grant Avenue, Bus 30; The Mad Dog in the Fog, 530 Haight Street, MUNI N Line or Bus 6; and Danny Coyle's, 668 Haight Street, MUNI N Line or Bus 6.

Lefty O'Doul's, named for the legendary ballplayer who was the longtime manager of the Pacific Coast League's San Francisco Seals, long stood at 333 Geary Street, corner of Powell Street, just 3 blocks from the Powell Street BART station and right on a cable car line. A a dispute between the operators of the restaurant and the owners of the building meant its closing in 2017. A a new version has opened at 555 California Street, downtown.

Sidelights. On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and, as you might expect from the nation's 4th largest metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area came in 4th. The Area, including the East Bay (which includes Oakland), has a very rich sports history.

Here are some of the highlights, aside from the Oakland Coliseum complex:

* Howard Terminal Ballpark. On November 28, 2018, the A's announced that they'd chosen the Howard Terminal as the site for a 34,000-seat ballpark, which, presuming they clear all the necessary permissions, and come up with all the funding themselves as they say they will -- no government money and therefore no taxes -- they can begin construction in time to open for the 2025 season.

Artist's depiction

1 Market Street, 3 blocks west of the Clay Street Ferry Terminal, 5 blocks west of Jack London Square, and 8 blocks south of downtown. From Oakland City Center: Bus 72 to Jack London Square. By BART: Lake Merritt Station, then Bus 62 or 72 to 7th & Market, then 8 blocks south.

* Site of Emeryville Park. Also known as Oaks Park, this was the home of the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks from 1913 until 1955. The Oaks won Pennants there in 1927, '48, '50 and '54.

Most notable of these was the 1948 Pennant, won by a group of players who had nearly all played in the majors and were considered old, and were known as the Nine Old Men (a name often given to the U.S. Supreme Court). These old men included former Yankee 1st baseman Nick Etten, the previous year's World Series hero Cookie Lavagetto of the Brooklyn Dodgers (an Oakland native), Hall of Fame catcher Ernie Lombardi (another Oakland native), and one very young player, a 20-year-old 2nd baseman from Berkeley named Billy Martin.

Their manager? Casey Stengel. Impressed by Casey's feat of managing the Nine Old Men to a Pennant in a league that was pretty much major league quality, and by his previously having managed the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers to an American Association Pennant, Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb hired Casey to manage in 1949. Casey told Billy that if he ever got the chance to bring him east, he would, and he was as good as his word.

Pixar Studios has built property on the site. 45th Street, San Pablo Avenue, Park Avenue and Watts Street, Emeryville, near the Amtrak station. Number 72 bus from Jack London Square.

* Seals Stadium. Home of the PCL's San Francisco Seals from 1931 to 1957, the Mission Reds from 1931 to 1937, and the Giants in 1958 and '59, it was the first home professional field of the DiMaggio brothers: First Vince, then Joe, and finally Dom all played for the Seals in the 1930s. The Seals won Pennants there in 1931, '35, '43, '44, '45, '46 and '57 (their last season). It seated just 18,500, expanded to 22,900 for the Giants, and was never going to be more than a stopgap facility until the Giants' larger park could be built. It was demolished right after the 1959 season, and the site now has a Safeway grocery store.

Bryant Street, 16th Street, Potrero Avenue and Alameda Street, in the Mission District. Hard to reach by public transport: The Number 10 bus goes down Townsend Street and Rhode Island Avenue until reaching 16th, but then it's an 8-block walk. The Number 27 can be picked up at 5th & Harrison Streets, and will go right there.

* Candlestick Park. Home of the Giants from 1960 to 1999, the NFL 49ers since 1970, and the Raiders in the 1961 season, this may be the most-maligned sports facility in North American history. Its seaside location (Candlestick Point) has led to spectators being stricken by wind (a.k.a. The Hawk), cold, and even fog.

It was open to the Bay until 1971, including the 1962 World Series between the Yankees and the Giants, and was then enclosed to expand it from 42,000 to 69,000 seats for the Niners. It also got artificial turf for the 1970 season, one of the 1st stadiums to have it – though, to the city's credit, it was also the 1st NFL stadium and the 2nd MLB stadium (after Comiskey Park in Chicago) to switch back to real grass.

It is easily the most-hated venue in the history of North American sports. But its finest hour came on October 17, 1989, just before Game 3 of the World Series, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck. Over 60,000 people were inside the stadium, and they all got out okay, because the stadium's reinforced concrete held, with only minor damage.

The Giants only won 2 Pennants there, and never a World Series. But the 49ers won 5 Super Bowls while playing there, with 3 of their 6 NFC Championship Games won as the home team. The NFL Giants did beat the 49ers there in the 1990 NFC Championship Game, scoring no touchdowns but winning 15-13 thanks to 5 Matt Bahr field goals. ABC and ESPN hosted Monday Night Football at Candlestick 36 times, the most of any stadium.

The Beatles played their last "real concert" ever at the 'Stick on August 29, 1966 – only 25,000 people came out, a total probably driven down by the stadium's reputation and John Lennon's comments about religion on that tour. The Giants got out, and the 49ers have now done the same, with Levi's Stadium ready for the 2014 season.

The U.S. national soccer team played their 4th and final match there in 2014, a win over Azerbaijan. MLS' San Jose Earthquakes are scheduled to do so on July 27, which ended up being the last competitive sporting event held there. On July 12, nearly 30 years after their Super Bowl XIX matchup, legendary quarterbacks Joe Montana of the 49ers and Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins led teams in a flag football game there, with the proceeds going to charity. And Paul McCartney, having played its 1st concert with the Beatles 48 years earlier, played its last concert on August 14, the last scheduled show before the place was demolished.

The current plan for the site is to build office complexes. Ironically, since it replaced the original Kezar Stadium, 5,000 of Candlestick's seats went to the new Kezar.

The best way by public transport isn't a good one: The KT light rail at 4th & King Streets, at the CalTrain terminal, to 3rd & Gilman Streets, and then it's almost a mile's walk down Jagerson Avenue. So unless you're driving/renting a car, or you're a sports history buff who has to see the place, I wouldn't blame you if you crossed it off the list.

* Oracle Park. Home of the Giants since 2000, and formerly known as Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park and AT&T Park, it has been better for them than Candlestick -- aesthetically, competitively, financially, you name it. Winning 3 Pennants and 2 World Series since it opened, it's been home to The Freak (Tim Lincecum) and The Steroid Freak (Barry Bonds).

It's hosted some college football games, and a February 10, 2006 win by the U.S. soccer team over Japan. 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at 3rd & King Streets.

* Kezar Stadium. The 49ers played here from their 1946 founding until 1970, the Raiders spent their inaugural 1960 season here, and previous pro teams in the city also played at this facility at the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, a mere 10-minute walk from the fabled corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets.

High school football, including the annual City Championship played on Thanksgiving Day, used to be held here as well. Bob St. Clair, who played there in high school, college (University of San Francisco) and the NFL in a Hall of Fame career with the 49ers, has compared it to Chicago's Wrigley Field as a "neighborhood stadium."

After the 49ers left, it became a major concert venue. Rocky Marciano defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World there on May 16, 1955, knocking British fighter Don Cockell out in the 9th round.

The original 60,000-seat structure was built in 1925, and was torn down in 1989 (a few months before the earthquake, so there's no way to know what the quake would have done to it), and was replaced in 1990 with a 9,000-seat stadium, much more suitable for high school sports. The original Kezar, named for one of the city's pioneering families, had a cameo in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. Frederick & Stanyan Streets, Kezar Drive and Arguello Blvd. MUNI light rail N train.

* Frank Youell Field. This was another stopgap facility, used by the Raiders from 1962 to 1965, a 22,000-seat stadium that was named after an Oakland undertaker – perhaps fitting, although the Raiders didn't yet have that image. Interestingly from a New York perspective, the first game here was between the Raiders and the forerunners of the Jets, the New York Titans. It was demolished in 1969. A new field of the same name was built on the site for Laney College. East 8th Street, 5th Avenue, East 10th Street and the Oakland Estuary. Lake Merritt BART station.

* Cow Palace. The more familiar name of the Grand National Livestock Pavilion, this big barn just south of the City Line in Daly City has hosted just about everything, from livestock shows and rodeos to the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions, nominating Dwight D. Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater, respectively, for President. (Yes, the Republicans came here, not the "hippie" Democrats, although they did hold their 1984 Convention downtown at the George Moscone Convention Center, 747 Howard Street at 4th Street, nominating Walter Mondale.)

The '64 Convention is where New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to be booed off the podium when he dared to speak out against the John Birch Society – the Tea Party idiots of their time – and when Senator Goldwater was nominated, telling them, "I would remind you, my fellow Republicans, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And I would remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." (Personally, I think that extremism in the defense of liberty is no defense of liberty.)

Built in 1941, it is one of the oldest remaining former NBA and NHL sites, having hosted the NBA's Warriors (then calling themselves the San Francisco Warriors) from 1962 to 1971, the NHL's San Jose Sharks from their 1991 debut until their current arena could open in 1993, and several minor-league hockey teams. It hosted 1 fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, with Ezzard Charles defending the title by beating Pat Valentino on October 14, 1949.

The 1960 NCAA Final Four was held here, culminating in Ohio State, led by Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek (with future coaching legend Bobby Knight as the 6th man) beating local heroes and defending National Champions California, led by Darrall Imhoff.

The Beatles played here on August 19, 1964 and August 31, 1965, and Elvis sang here on November 13, 1970 and November 28 & 29, 1976. It was the site of Neil Young's 1978 concert that produced the live album Live Rust and the concert film Rust Never Sleeps, and the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope benefit with Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Sting and U2. The acoustics of the place, and the loss of such legendary venues as the Fillmore West and the Winterland Ballroom, make it the Bay Area's holiest active rock and roll site. 2600 Geneva Avenue at Santos Street, in Daly City. 8X bus.

In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang at the Auditorium Arena (now the Kaiser Convention Center, near the Laney College campus in Oakland) early in his career, on June 3, 1956 and again on October 27, 1957; and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street at Polk Street) on October 26, 1957. This is also where the Democratic Party held their 1920 Convention, nominating James M. Cox, who lost to Warren Harding.

While Fresno is nearly 200 miles southeast, it's closer to Oakland than it is to Los Angeles. Elvis sang at Fresno's Selland Arena on April 25, 1973 and May 12, 1974. 700 M Street at Ventura Street.

* SAP Center at San Jose. Formerly the San Jose Arena and the HP Pavilion, this building has hosted the NHL's San Jose Sharks since 1993. If you're a fan of the TV show The West Wing, this was the convention center where the ticket of Matt Santos and Leo McGarry was nominated. The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang there on December 29, 1999. 525 W. Santa Clara Street at Autumn Street, across from the Amtrak & CalTrain station.

* PayPal Park. Formerly named Earthquakes Stadium and Avaya Stadium, the new stadium for the Earthquakes opened in 2015. It is soccer-specific and seats 18,000 people. On July 28, 2016, it hosted the MLS All-Star Game, with North London giants Arsenal defeating the MLS All-Stars 2-1. It hosted 1st match of the U.S. soccer team on March 24, 2017, a 6-0 win over Honduras. It has also hosted the U.S. women's soccer team, and rugby. In 2016, it hosted the MLS All-Star Game, with North London giants Arsenal defeating the MLS All-Stars 2-1. On February 2, 2019, it hosted the U.S. team in a 2-0 win over Costa Rica.

1123 Coleman Avenue & Newhall Drive. It is 3 1/2 miles from downtown San Jose, 41 miles from downtown Oakland, and 46 from downtown San Francisco. ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) to Great America-Santa Clara.

This is actually the 3rd version of the San Jose Earthquakes. The 1st one played in the original North American Soccer League from 1974 to 1984, at Spartan Stadium. This has been home to San Jose State University sports since 1933, it hosted both the old Earthquakes, of the original North American Soccer League, from 1974 to 1984. It was a neutral site hosting Soccer Bowl '75, in which the Tampa Bay Rowdies beat the Portland Timbers 2-0. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. national team, most recently a 2007 loss to China, and games of the 1999 Women's World Cup.

1251 S. 10th Street, San Jose. San Jose Municipal Stadium, home of the Triple-A San Jose Giants, is a block away at 588 E. Alma Avenue. From either downtown San Francisco or downtown Oakland, take BART to Fremont terminal, then 181 bus to 2nd & Santa Clara, then 68 bus to Monterey & Alma.

On November 19, 2018, Moneywise compiled a list of their Worst College Football Stadiums, the bottom 19 percent of college football, 25 out of 129. Spartan Stadium, now named CEFCU Stadium, came in 5th: The article called the New Deal-era stadium "tired," and cited bad concessions and the fact that the field was Astroturf, the original artificial turf that has proven so dangerous, and not a more modern, safer synthetic grass like FieldTurf.

San Jose State was also the alma mater of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, the Gold and Bronze Medalists in the 200 meters at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, who then gave their glove-fisted salute for civil rights (most people still don't understand that it wasn't a "Black Power" salute) on the medal platform, to short-term anger and long-term praise.

In 2005, SJSU dedicated a statue commemorating the occasion, with the Silver Medal part of the platform, where Australian runner Peter Norman would have stood, empty so people can pose with the Smith and Carlos figures. Outside Clark Hall, where 6th and San Antonio Streets would have met.

Smith and Carlos at their statue

The 2nd version of the Quakes played at Spartan Stadium from 1996 to 2005, but ran into financial trouble, and got moved to become the Houston Dynamo. The 3rd version was started in 2008, and until 2014 played at Buck Shaw Stadium, now called Stevens Stadium, in Santa Clara, on the campus of Santa Clara University. Also accessible by the Santa Clara ACE station.

Despite all its contributions to women's soccer, the Bay Area no longer has a professional women's team. The San Jose CyberRays of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA), captained by 1999 penalty hero Brandi Chastain, played at Spartan Stadium from 2001 to 2003, winning the 2001 league title.

FC Gold Pride won the 2010 title in the league named Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), but couldn't sustain itself financially, and folded immediately thereafter. Pioneer Stadium, Hayward. 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., on the campus of California State University-East Bay, in Hayward. About 28 miles from San Francisco, 19 from Oakland, 28 from San Jose. BART to Hayward, then Bus 60.

* Levi's Stadium. The new home of the 49ers, whose naming rights were bought by the San Francisco-based clothing company that popularized blue jeans all over the world, is about to open at 4701 Great America Parkway at Old Glory Lane in Santa Clara, next to California's Great America park, outside San Jose. ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) to Great America-Santa Clara.

The Sharks lost to their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, in an NHL Stadium Series outdoor hockey game there on February 21, 2015. On February 7, 2016, it hosted Super Bowl L, and the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers. It will host the National Championship game for the 2018-19 college football season. It has been selected by FIFA to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.

* Stanford Stadium. The home field of Stanford University in Palo Alto, down the Peninsula from San Francisco. Originally built in 1921, it was home to many great quarterbacks, from early 49ers signal-caller Frankie Albert to 1971 Heisman winner Jim Plunkett to John Elway. It hosted Super Bowl XIX in 1985, won by the 49ers over the Miami Dolphins – one of only two Super Bowls that ended up having had a team that could have been called a home team. (The other was XIV, the Los Angeles Rams losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rose Bowl.)

It also hosted San Francisco's games of the 1994 World Cup, a game of the 1999 Women's World Cup, and the soccer games of the 1984 Olympics, even though most of the events of those Olympics were down the coast in Los Angeles. It hosted 10 games by the U.S. national team, totaling 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws.

The original 85,000-seat structure was demolished and replaced with a new 50,000-seat stadium in 2006. Arboretum Road & Galvez Street. Caltrain to Palo Alto.

No President has ever been born, or has ever grown up, in the San Francisco Bay Area. But Herbert Hoover, 1929-33, was part of the 1st class at Stanford, from 1891 to 1895, and he and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, maintained a home there from 1920 until her death in 1944, at which point he moved to the Waldorf Towers in New York. The house is now the official residence of the president -- of Stanford. It is not open to the public. 623 Mirada Avenue, across the campus from the stadium.

Stanford runs a think tank named for the 31st President, the Hoover Insitution, and exhibits inside the Hoover Tower on campus. 550 Serra Mall.

* California Memorial Stadium. Home of Stanford's arch-rivals, the University of California, at its main campus in Berkeley in the East Bay. (The school is generally known as "Cal" for sports, and "Berkeley" for most other purposes.) Its location in the Berkeley Hills makes it one of the nicest settings in college football.

But it's also, quite literally, on the Hayward Fault, a branch of the San Andreas Fault, so if "The Big One" had hit during a Cal home game, 72,000 people would have been screwed. With this in mind, the University renovated the stadium, making it safer and ready for 63,000 fans in 2012.

The old stadium hosted one NFL game, and it was a very notable one: Due to a scheduling conflict with the A's, the Raiders played a 1973 game there with the Miami Dolphins, and ended the Dolphins' winning streak that included the entire 1972 season and Super Bowl VII. 76 Canyon Road, Berkeley. Downtown Berkeley stop on BART.

* Chase Center. The new home of the Warriors is expected to open for the 2019-20 season -- that is, next year. It will seat 18,064, and be located off the Central Basin of San Francisco Bay, on land bordered by South Street, 3rd Street (north-south), 16th Street (east-west) and Terry A. Francois Blvd., across from the campus of the University of California at San Francisco, and 8 blocks south of the Giants' AT&T Park. Light Rail K or T to UCSF/Mission Bay.

* Mechanic's Pavilion. Knowing that the drying up of the Gold Rush had put many of the original "Forty-Niners" out of work, with no educational background to support them, a group of charitable San Franciscans opened the Mechanics' Institute in 1854. It offered classes in woodworking, mechanical drawing, industrial design, electrical science, applied mathematics and ironwork. It is often said to be the predecessor of the University of California system.

In 1865, the adjoining Mechanic's Pavilion was built, hosting several major events, including a speech by President Theodore Roosevelt on his 1902 tour of the country.

This also included 4 fights for the Heavyweight Championship of the World, each time with a Californian defending the title: "Gentleman Jim" Corbett against Tom Sharkey on June 24, 1896 (a draw, thus allowing Corbett to retain the title); Jim Jeffries against Gus Ruhlin on November 15, 1901; Jeffries against Corbett on August 14, 1903 (the 10th-round knockout turning out to be Corbett's last fight); and Jeffries against Jack Munroe on August 26, 1904 (after which Jeffries retired, only to return and get clobbered by Jack Johnson in Reno in 1910).

The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed Mechanic's Pavilion, but the men running the Mechanics' Institute kept it going and helped with the rebuilding of the city. Today, membership in the Institute is still open to the pubic, offering the full services of the library, and to the chess room, home of the oldest continuously operating chess club in the Western Hemisphere. 57 Post Street, off Kearny Street, downtown.

Yankee Legend Joe DiMaggio, who grew up in San Francisco and later divided his time between there and South Florida, is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, on the Peninsula. Also buried there are 1930s Yankee shortstop and longtime coach Frank Crosetti; George "Highpockets" Kelly, the Hall of Fame Giants 1st baseman of the 1920s; Hank Sauer, All-Star outfielder for the 1950s Cubs and Giants; Charlie Fox, who managed the Giants to the 1971 National League Western Division title; Pat Brown, Governor of California 1959-67 and father of current Governor Jerry Brown; Eugene Schmitz, Mayor from 1902 to 1907, including the 1906 earthquake; John F. Shelley, Mayor from 1964 to 1968, including the 1967 "Summer of Love"; George Moscone, the Mayor assassinated along with Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978; and jazz musician Vince Guaraldi, composer of the music for the Peanuts TV specials. 1500 Mission Road & Lawndale Blvd. BART to South San Francisco, then about a 1-mile walk.

Yankee Hall-of-Famer pitcher and Monument Park honoree and Vernon "Lefty" Gomez, a native of Rodeo in the East Bay and a former San Francisco Seal, is buried at Mount Tamalpais Cemetery. So is 1920s football legend Ernie Nevers, of Stanford and the Chicago Cardinals. 2500 5th Avenue, San Rafael, in Marin County, 20 miles north of downtown San Francisco. Not easily reachable without a car.

Another San Franciscan who went from the Yankees to the Hall of Fame is Tony Lazzeri. He is buried at Sunset Mausoleum, at 101 Colusa Avenue in El Cerrito. BART to El Cerrito Plaza station. El Cerrito is also the hometown of John Fogerty, who, long after leaving the band for whom he was the heart, soul and brains, Creedence Clearwater Revival, wrote the greatest baseball song ever, "Centerfield," which mentions DiMaggio and Willie Mays.

The Fillmore Auditorium was at Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, and it still stands and hosts live music. Bus 38L. Winterland Ballroom, home of the final concerts of The Band (filmed as The Last Waltz) and the Sex Pistols, was around the corner from the Fillmore at Post & Steiner Streets. And the legendary corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets can be reached via the 30 Bus, taking it to Haight and Masonic Avenue and walking 1 block west.

Oakland isn't much of a museum city, especially compared with San Francisco across the Bay. But the Oakland Museum of California (10th & Oak, Lake Merritt BART) and the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., not accessible by BART) may be worth a look.

San Francisco, like New York, has a Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), at 151 3rd Street, downtown. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is probably the city's most famous museum, in Lincoln Park at the northwestern corner of the city, near the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Any of you who are Trekkies, the Presidio is a now-closed military base that, in the Star Trek Universe, is the seat of Starfleet Command and Starfleet Academy.)

The Palace of Fine Arts isn't just an art museum, it has a theater that hosted one of the 1976 Presidential Debates between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter -- the one where Ford said, "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe." 3301 Lyon Street. Bus 30.

San Francisco, like New York, has a Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), at 151 3rd Street, downtown. It's part of Fort Mason, on the north shore of the city, which also includes the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture. The park's Great Meadow was the site of James Brown's last concert, on August 20, 2006. 1300 Bay Street. Bus 30 from downtown.

Oakland doesn't have tall buildings as we in the New York area understand that term. The tallest is the rather ordinary-looking Ordway Building, at 2150 Valdez Street, 404 feet. The tallest building in Northern California is the new Salesforce Tower, downtown, at 415 Mission Street, rising 1,070 feet. It succeeded the iconic Transamerica Pyramid, 853 feet high, opening in 1972 at 600 Montgomery Street, also downtown.

And don't forget to take a ride on one of them cable cars I've been hearing so dang much about.

While San Francisco has been the setting for lots of TV shows, Oakland, being much less glamorous, has had only one that I know of: Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, comedian Mark Curry's show about a former basketball player who returns to his old high school to teach. The 2010-15 NBC series Parenthood, loosely based on the 1989 film of the same name, was set in Berkeley.

Oakland's status as a Navy city has allowed some nautical-themed films to be filmed there, including the 1934 pirate classic Treasure Island, various versions of The Sea Wolf, the World War I-themed film Hell's Angels (predating the Oakland-based motorcycle gang founded in 1948 and taking the name), the World War II film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

That movie filmed at Naval Air Station Alameda, where, as Commander Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) put it, "It's vhere they keep the nuclear wessels." (At least he didn't say, "Nucular.") They were allowed to film aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, standing in for the USS Enterprise, which was away at sea during filming; the Enterprise's call sign, CVN-65, was painted over the Ranger's CVN-61.

Movies set in San Francisco often have scenes filmed in Oakland's wealthy hillside home areas, including Pal Joey, Mahogany, Basic Instinct, and the James Bond film A View to a Kill. The Jim Belushi film The Principal and Janet Jackson's gang-themed debut, Poetic Justice, were Oakland all the way. Robin Williams, a San Francisco native, filmed scenes from Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber in Oakland. And the aforementioned George Lucas made his first film, THX-1138, in Oakland in 1970.

For legal reasons, the CBS medical drama Trapper John, M.D., starring former Bonanza star Pernell Roberts as Dr. John McIntyre, was said to be a sequel to the film version of M*A*S*H, where Trapper was played by Elliott Gould, not the TV show, where he was played by Wayne Rogers. Thus we have the oddity of Trapper working in a hospital in San Francisco, the hometown (well, the neighboring suburb of Mill Valley, in Marin County, was) of the man who replaced him at the 4077th MASH, B.J. Hunnicutt (Mike Farrell).

Wayne Rogers did play a doctor in a series set in San Francisco, after leaving M*A*S*H, starring with Lynn Redgrave in the 1979-82 sitcom House Calls, set it what was then the present day. Other series set in San Francisco include (separated by category, then by chronological order) the police dramas Ironside, The Streets of San Francisco, McMillan and Wife, Hooperman, Nash Bridges and
Monk; the sci-fi/fantasy shows Sliders and Charmed; the family drama Party of Five; and the sitcoms Phyllis, Too Close for Comfort, My Sister Sam, Suddenly Susan, Dhrama & Greg, and Disney's That's So Raven.

The 1957-63 CBS Western Have Gun - Will Travel established the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco as the base of operations for the man known only as Paladin (Richard Boone). Today, there is a hotel by that name in the city, at 1075 Sutter Street in the Nob Hill section.

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So, if you can afford it, go on out and join your fellow Yankee Fans in going coast-to-coast, and enjoy the Yanks-A's rivalry, even if it's not what it was back in the late 1920s and early '30s when it was Ruth & Gehrig vs. Cochrane, Foxx, Simmons & Grove. Or even what it was at the dawn of the 21st Century, when it was Jeter, Rivera & Co. vs. the Giambis and the Big Three.