Friday, 3 August 2012 - I hate to make excuses, but it has been a tough year for the Blue Jays. With a strong, young lineup, and a pitching rotation that looked extremely promising, Jays fans came into 2012 with high hopes for that additional Wild Card spot in the American League.
Unfortunately, the Jays had been absolutely decimated by injuries to much of their core lineup and many of their starting pitchers. That said, my son and I were still very excited to see our Jays on the road in Oakland. This would be the first time I had attended a Jays game in seventeen years!!
Having stayed in San Francisco, we took the Blue Line
BART from the Embarcadero Station, and just 20 minutes later, we arrived at
O.Co Colisseum. I know I've said it many times, but I am a big fan of taking public transportation to games!
Now I know that I have been spoiled to date. Wrigleyville, Great American, Angel Stadium, and other parks all boast stunning front gates adorned with statues, plaques, and memorabilia that are intended to heighten the fan experience. O.Co Colisseum, though? Not a chance. I had heard that Oakland was home to the worst stadium in the league, but come on!
After leaving the train, we walked over a concrete bridge that appeared to cross over some sort of container storage yard. I don't exaggerate when I say that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some of those white container units hold some kind of toxic waste! Above us were enough coils of razor wire to make even the most hardened of Raiders fans feel emmasculated. There was no doubt about it - this was an interesting stop on our quest!
The closest thing to a statue was a banner acknowledging the accomplishments of the great
Rickey Henderson, which is a shame. The A's were a serious team in the late 80s, and had a legitimate team this year, but there was no sense of legacy in this park whatsoever.
We took our seats on the steel risers behind the visitors dugout and were immediately struck by the fact that every upper section was covered by large green tarps. I'm not sure if this is a way of trying to fool people into thinking that they are attending a sellout game, but it was strange to say the least. I'm guessing that
Billy Beane and company got a good deal on green tarps at CostCo!
Even with our brutal surroundings, we enjoyed watching the Jays during their pre-game warm up. My son and I chatted briefly with
Ricky Romero and
Rajai Davis, and before the game started,
Moises Sierra and
Colby Rasmus signed a baseball for my son! The Jays struggled in this game against the red-hot A's, and
Brett Cecil was forced out of the game after 4 innings.
Brett Lawrie left the game with rib pain after just his first at bat, and
Colby Rasmus left late in the game with a pulled groin. On the other hand, Oakland pitcher
Dan Straily pitched an outstanding game and got some run support courtesy of
Coco Crisp and
Josh Reddick.
(above) Rajai Davis
(above) Brett Lawrie warms up
(below) Edwin Encarnacion and Yunel Escobar
Leaving the game was no more charming than our arrival, as the bridge that we planned to walk across to take the train back to San Francisco was closed due to that night's fireworks show. This forced us to take a painfully slow and seemingly directionally challenged shuttle through a scary neighbourhood and to the back of the train station. Insult to injury.
The only positive thing I can honestly say about this stadium is that it was, by far, the least expensive stop on our trip. Our tickets alone would have topped $200 a piece in many stadiums, but were less than $50 each. Food was also pretty reasonable, though their vendors were inexplicably on different levels of the stadium ("Do you have cheeseburgers?" "No, those are on level three" "Fries?" "Level three, Sir." "Just the hot dogs, then.").
Speaking of the hot dogs, here is the ranking for O.Co Colisseum's dogs:
Temperature: 6.0/10
Flavour: 5.5/10
Juiciness: 6.0/10
Bun Texture: 5.0/10
TOTAL: 22.5/40
