Tom Hanks is the most recent big name to join the fight to keep the Oakland A’s in their home turf. Current team owner John Fisher has been the subject of disdain from A’s fans for his decision to move the team to Las Vegas. Hanks – who has a deep history with both the city and the team – has slammed the move.
The Oakland A’s, known fully as the Oakland Athletics, are a professional baseball team that have been based in Oakland, California since their establishment. Concord-born Hanks, meanwhile, attended school in Oakland and worked for the team during his formative years. Here is how he’s stepping up.
The Oakland A’s might move to Vegas
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced on July 11 that the Athletics have “begun to submit information related to their relocation application,” although he specified that the application was “not complete at this point.”
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The A’s, who have called Oakland home since 1968, are facing a lease at the Oakland Coliseum due to expire in 2024. Elsewhere along the Vegas strip, Nevada State Legislature passed a $380 million bill that would fund a 30,000-seat, retractable-roof ballpark on the Tropicana hotel site. The plan was for the A’s to open at this venue in time for the 2028 season.
However, the prospective relocation has been met with mixed feedback from varying parties, both within the sports world and without.
Tom Hanks greatly opposes taking the Oakland A’s out of their home city
Manfred himself admitted to some degree of discontent, saying, “My single biggest disappointment is that because of the kind of political process in Oakland, we didn’t find a solution to keep the A’s in Oakland. That’s No. 1 on the disappointment list.”
He’s not alone. Hanks has slammed the team owners who are going ahead with this move, going so far as to say, “Damn them all to hell.”
I asked Tom Hanks if he would buy the A’s to keep them in Oakland… pic.twitter.com/fhMU2y7v0H
— Mike Ono (@skoshi_tiger) June 14, 2023
Hanks graduated from Oakland’s Skyline High School. During his teenage years, Hanks worked as a concession vendor, walking up and down the Oakland Coliseum. He’s praised Oakland A’s fans as “the greatest fans in all of baseball.” When the Raiders announced their own relocation plans years ago, Hanks retaliated in April 2017 by saying he would boycott the NFL.
When it was suggested Hanks become an owner and buy up the team, he jested, “I haven’t done that well, guys.” But for further perspective on just what the Oakland A’s and the Coliseum’s presence means to locals, consider the words of NBA champion Juan Toscano-Anderson, who mourned, “We really lost all 3 of our sports teams in Oakland. I got some of my best life memories at the Coliseum.”
Maybe, just this once, there is crying in baseball.
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