Billy Beane will miss Athletics games at the Coliseum.
In an exclusive interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser, the longtime A’s executive recalled his favorite memories in Oakland.
“I think it was Game 5 of the [2000 AL] division series, I get a call that ‘Mr. Steinbrenner wants you to stop the drummers,’ Beane told Slusser. “George Steinbrenner had someone call me to say he didn’t want to hear the drummers from wherever he was watching the game.
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“And my first thought was, ‘Tell them to play louder!’ I said, I’m not telling them to stop drumming, but they got someone from the commissioner’s office to say they could only pound the drums at certain times.”
The iconic drummers at the Coliseum frustrated the former New York Yankees owner when the two teams met in the MLB playoffs 20 years ago.
Whether it was due to the Oakland 68’s, or other fans in the crowd, drums always were a loud feature at the Coliseum, often to the dismay of opposing teams and staff.
However, Beane recalled certain rivals admiring the atmosphere at A’s home games.
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“Justin Verlander had so many victories against us in big games, but he said that Game 5 at Oakland (in 2012) was one of the loudest and best crowds he’d pitched in front of,” Beane shared with Slusser.
“That was my experience when we had big crowds and big games -- I don’t think there was any place like it… That made the hair on my neck go up (when the Detroit Tigers saluted the Coliseum crowd). It was so exciting around that place at the end of that year. You knew something good was happening.”
The Coliseum had its moments.
Beane, who played for the A’s during the 1989 MLB season, has been in Oakland’s front office ever since.
Rightfully, Beane expects to be filled with emotion at the A’s last game in “The Town” -- Sep. 26 against the Texas Rangers -- and already has been “feeling” the heavy-hitting nostalgia.
“I think it’s starting to hit me, that finality of the last game at the Coliseum,” Beane told Slusser “As we creep towards that day, I am becoming more nostalgic, something I never thought I was.
“There were some really good teams and a lot of really good guys who I got to know not just professionally but personally.”
The A’s have yet to win a World Series with Beane in the mix. But Oakland has provided the baseball lifer a lifetime of memories to cherish.
Even when MLB in the East Bay is gone.