Delayed

Final A's game in Oakland delayed by fans throwing trash onto field

By Alex Simon

The final A’s game in Oakland was interrupted multiple times in the final three innings due to fans running on the field and items thrown onto the field.

The stoppages came in the bottom of the seventh and top of the ninth innings of a 3-2 win for the A's. Both stoppages in the bottom of the seventh came during A’s outfielder Brent Rooker’s at-bat. The first happened when a flare with green smoke was thrown, and the second came when someone threw a beer from the right-field bleachers. Several fans in the right-field bleachers quickly pointed out the person to security, leading the man to depart his seat.

As the man who threw a beer onto the field exited the bleachers, another person grabbed his own beer and threw it hard at that man. Fans in the right-field bleachers lit a flare shortly after the final singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” as they unveiled a tifo of Oakland’s city flag.

Security presence in those bleachers was about the same throughout the game up until the two incidents, but several additional security personnel and police officers congregated in the section afterward.

Several more delays occurred in the top of the ninth. With one out in the ninth, two men jumped onto the field and ran around in the outfield for a few seconds before being tackled by security.

That moment seemed to kick off more items being thrown onto the field, and a delay of several minutes was needed to clean up the first wave of items. Most pitches that A’s closer Mason Miller threw to the final batter needed brief pauses to clean up junk — mostly bottles of beer, flares and other trash. Once the final out occurred, a smattering of trash was thrown onto the field in the outfield, but did not reach the level of the "reverse boycott" game from June.

The main damage done to the stadium that SFGATE witnessed throughout the stadium came from fans breaking the cup holders off of the seats and taking them home, with hundreds of seats in the Coliseum now missing their cup holders. SFGATE also witnessed the sign for Section 125-126 being removed from its location and saw a set of seats in Section 129 broken off of their hinges.

Still, none of it came close to the damage and destruction that the A's reportedly warned their players about it what amounted to fearmongering. A's manager Mark Kotsay also addressed the crowd afterward in an impassioned speech before the A's took a team picture at the mound after the win.