Going to miss this place, hundreds of memories at the coliseum. A few that stick out

Sep 26, 2024
11:19:32pm

GangstaLean All-American

When I finally got my drivers license at 16 we drove up to the Coliseum from the South Bay a couple of times a week in the summers.

I would pile friends in the bed of my pickup truck and drive up the 880 for games. Crazy to think of 5 or 6 kids in the bed of a pickup driving on a California freeway now!

Went to a game between the A’s and the Royals that went to 13 innings. So many people had left that we moved all of the way down to row 1 next to the A’s dugout. Ricky Henderson made a game saving diving catch in left field, as he was running back into the dugout we tried to get his attention while he was only 5 or 6 feet away from us but he refused to even look our way. My brother yelled something (about his mom) that got his attention finally and he immediately turned and made his way in our direction before one of the coaches grabbed him! He was the second batter in the bottom of the 13th and winds up hitting a solo home run to win the game! When he came back to the dugout after the celebration we were all jumping around and cheering for him and he just looked at us and shook his head. 🤣

We were at the game when Jose Canseco hit his 40th home run the year he also stole 40 bases becoming the first one ever to do it. Later that game we got the foul ball off of the bat of Carney Lansford but as we walked out of the stadium that night we pretended it was the Jose Canseco home run ball and we had hundreds of people swarming us to get a look.

Was there for the stolen base record by Ricky

Attended 4 World Series games in the Colluseum (and 1 at Csndlestick)

When the Raiders came back I was at the AFC championship game, we got there several hours before the game to tailgate. While we were tailgating near a section of the parking lot that had been roped off, eventually a semi truck rolled in and parked in the that area. A few minutes later the side of the truck folded up to reveal Metallica and the proceeded to provide a surprise concert for the next 90 minutes! There were maybe 10 of us standing there when they started to play and within 30 seconds we were surrounded by thousands of people!

We attended games almost every year the Raiders were in Oakland, one game I was sitting behind the Black Hole with my brother and my Dad and before the game I had walked down near the field in the middle of the Black Hole when the Raiders players huddled in the end zone right before kick off. Tim Brown came out of the huddle with the ball and threw it into the Black Hole. It bounced off of several people’s hands and I jumped at the right time, grabbed the ball and fell to the concrete ground. I was surrounded by a mass of some very sketchy people. As I tried to get up I made eye contact with a guy covered in face paint and tattoos and he grabbed me by the shoulders and said “RUN!” Haha, still have the ball in my office.

So many more memories, I could go on forever but having lost my father a year ago and so many of these memories involved him by my side, this is bitter sweet to see this era come to an end for sure.