It's a Celebration ... well, a bittersweet sad Celebration
Crafting the Call: Saying goodbye to the Oakland Coliseum by reviewing announcers descriptions from the most iconic A's moments
My goal for this week’s episode of “Crafting the Call” was to not sob uncontrollably.
It was emotional, yet cathartic, looking back on the history of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum by analyzing how the play-by-play announcers described the most iconic Oakland Athletics moments.
For this week’s episode, my co-host Jesse Goldberg-Strassler recommended that we get a guest.
Immediately, I knew the perfect person was A’s historian and longtime television producer Dave Feldman. Like me, Dave practically grew up at the Coliseum. We didn’t know each other as teenagers. We met as working adults when I was writing for The Oakland Tribune. It didn’t take long to piece together how frequently we attended the same games and often sat really close to each other.
We tried to make the episode a Celebration, because, let’s face it, whenever you hear Kool and the Gang’s classic hit “Celebration,” how do you not think of the Oakland Coliseum?
We mostly went in chronological order, from the A’s dynasty in the early 1970s to the modern era. Of course, we included Bill King’s call after Scott Hatteberg’s walkoff home run for the 20th consecutive win in 2002. Here’s a clip from it.
For new subscribers: Hi, I’m Josh, a former newspaper reporter who is now the play-by-play announcer for the Albuquerque Isotopes (the Rockies Triple-A affiliate). I write essays on baseball, life, and promote my other side projects on this Substack Newsletter.
This is our longest episode, clocking in at one hour and 38 minutes. Honestly, we could have made it 3-4 hours with all our stories and all the other famous highlights we did not use.
Here’s a rundown:
Dave Beard on the mound as the A’s clinch the 1981 Division Seres (Al Michaels).
Bert Campaneris and Reggie Jackson home runs in the 1973 World Series (Monte Moore).
Joe Rudi’s go-ahead homer in the decisive Game Five of the 1974 World Series (Curt Gowdy).
Krazy George starts The Wave for the first time in the 1981 AL Championship Series … Bill King and Lon Simmons don’t know what to call it yet.
Mike Warren’s no-hitter from 1983 (Ken Harrelson on the White Sox broadcast).
Rickey Henderson’s first game back in June 1989 (Gary Thorne and Joe Morgan).
Dave Stewart’s complete-game shutout masterpiece in Game One of the 1989 World Series (Al Michaels, Tim McCarver, Jim Palmer).
Rare home video footage of Mt. Davis under construction as the A’s play a day game in 1996.
Miguel Tejada’s walkoff homer for the 18th straight win in 2002 (Greg Papa).
Miguel Tejada’s walkoff single for the 19th straight win in 2002 (Ken Korach).
Scott Hatteberg’s walkoff homer for the 20th straight win in 2002 (Bill King).
Ramon Hernandez’s walkoff bunt single to win Game One of the 2003 ALDS (Bill King).
Marco Scutaro’s bases-clearing double seals the 2002 Division Series over the Twins (Vince Cotroneo).
Grant Balfour closes out the improbable 2012 AL West title over the Rangers (Glen Kuiper).
The full episode:
Crafting the Call is a YouTube series that I developed along with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler. Each week, we examine different aspects of baseball play-by-play announcing, offering our perspective as working professionals for fans, and advice for fellow broadcasters. To help support our work, subscribe, like, comment, or send us a suggestion for a future episode.
In the next few weeks, I’m going to have a bunch more content about the A’s and the Coliseum. I can’t help it. Writing is the best way for me to cope with sadness.
I’m excited to tell you the story about this guy named Jay Didion and more of the regulars from the old bleachers. I’m also going to list my personal favorite Coliseum memories.
I’ll be attending the final three A’s games at the Coliseum in person. I’m pretty just going to cry while drinking beer for three straight days.
John Fisher burn in hell.