The thing most outsiders don’t understand about Oakland is that sentimentality is not one of its remarkable traits-- the Raiders beat that out of us in 1981. We are use to teams willfully threatening our deep loyalty and conviction by ripping our treasures away from us-- been done before. Oakland has thick skin and an ever-vigilant spirit that exemplifies the true soul of the city, regardless of the blatant bashing that it receives on a daily basis by mainstream media outlets. Oakland is a truly resilient and unrelenting site of deep love for any team that understands commitment, toughness, passion and excellence.

As soon as Lew Wolff stepped up to the podium to announce to the world that the once Oakland Athletics would become an amalgamation of modern day baseball-- a revenue generating suburban blob with no identity, I decided to cash in my thirty-plus years of baseball chips and call it a day. There’s little role for me in the big business of modern sports. To me, taking the A’s out of Oakland is like snatching out someone’s esophagus and expecting that person to swallow without a problem-- yes, totally ludicrous. Yet, I subscribe to the notion that the city shares in the creation of a team’s genetic code.

By SFist Kevin, contributing