Photo of the Oakland Coliseum from Wikipedia user Quintin Soloviev via Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en

Last week, 57 years of Athletics baseball in Oakland came to an emotional end. 

Even though the A’s have struggled with attendance throughout the past decade, 46,887 fans of all ages filled the Coliseum one last time for the A’s final home game before heading to Sacramento for the next three seasons and eventually Las Vegas for the long term.

Terance Frazier was among the 46,887 fans in attendance. Frazier has ties with the A’s dating back to their inaugural season in Oakland. Less than three months after the 1968 season concluded, Frazier was born in Oakland. 

Before making a name for himself in Fresno’s real estate scene, Frazier grew up going to A’s and Raiders games at the Coliseum, which made the experience of being there one final time bittersweet.

“All of the memories [of the Coliseum] start going in back in my head about when I was a little kid sneaking into the games,” Frazier said.

Even though the A’s defeated the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers 3-2 last Thursday, Frazier compared the emotions of the final home game to seeing the Raiders lose a home playoff game with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

During the game, Frazier would leave his seats so people wouldn’t see him in an emotional state.

 

“I had some sober moments at the ballpark,” Frazier said. “I had to sneak away to the restrooms. I didn’t want people to see me.”

The emotional connections don’t stop there for Frazier. After a standout college baseball career at Fresno State, Frazier was drafted in the 24th round by Oakland in the 1992 MLB Draft.

Despite only spending a few seasons in the organization, Frazier built relationships that still last today.

“I have a lot of good relationships with a lot of people in their management team,” Frazier said. “I still talk to (Director, Baseball Administration) Pamela Pitts and (Senior Advisor) Billy Beane.” 

Frazier praised the A’s for their family-oriented approach as an organization. 

That was never more evident than when the A’s drafted Frazier’s son Matthew in the 38th round in the 2016 MLB Draft. Even though Matthew opted to go to college, Frazier was overcome with emotions when getting a call from the A’s telling him they were going to select his son. 

“It brought all kinds of emotions, just to think I must have left a pretty good impression on them,” Frazier said. “Plus, they also like my son and the makeup of our family.”

As a child who used to go to A’s games, Frazier’s primary concern is what the youth of Oakland will do without a sports team to enjoy.

“It’s the kids like the Terance Fraziers of the world,” Frazier said. “Instead of being (at the Coliseum), they’ll be hanging out on the streets gambling and selling drugs. The long-term effect of this is going to hurt the younger generation.” 

Even though he doesn’t think Oakland will receive another professional sports franchise after losing the A’s, Raiders and Golden State Warriors, he knows the community of Oakland will do what they always have: recover.

“Oakland is very resilient. They will bounce back,” Frazier said.