If the Athletics can't get a new ballpark agreement soon, there won't be many more chances to see them play in Oakland against anybody, let alone the Yankees. So if you do get the chance, you should go. This will be the Yankees' only trip to Oakland this season, and the A's current lease will keep them in the Coliseum at least through next season. A's owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher are said to be negotiating a new 10-year lease, which would keep them at the building currently named the O.co Coliseum through the 2025 season. But that's not assured yet.
The fact that there aren't many stadiums capable of hosting Major League Baseball that are not already doing so limits their moving options. (The Olympic Stadium in Montreal is pretty much it, unless somebody -- Charlotte? Salt Lake City? Las Vegas -- does some serious expansion on a stadium that they already have.) But, with their financial struggles (some of their own making) and the success of the Giants across the Bay, the A's may not be long for the area.
At the moment, the likeliest result is a move to nearby San Jose, but since the Giants have territorial rights to the city and a farm team there, they would have to give permission, and, for the time being, they choose not to.
Before You Go. The San Francisco Bay Area has inconsistent weather. San Francisco, in particular, partly because it's bounded by water on 3 sides, is the one city I know of that has baseball weather in football season and football weather in baseball season. Or, as Mark Twain, who worked for a San Francisco newspaper during the Civil War, put it, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum – currently named the O.co Coliseum (O.co being the marketing name of Overstock.com), but I’ll use the original name throughout for simplicity’s sake – doesn't get as cold as Candlestick Park did, but it has been known to be bad enough, getting quite chilly early in the season. But, this being mid-June, that shouldn't be a problem for you. Still, before you go, I would suggest checking the websites of the Oakland Tribune and SFgate.com, the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, for the forecasts. For the moment, they're predicting the mid-60s for daylight, and the low 50s for night.
(This is one of the difficulties with doing these guides: I want to give you enough time to get a decent travel deal, but to do that, I'm sacrificing accuracy on the weather forecasts.)
As with the rest of California, Oakland is in the Pacific Time Zone, 3 hours behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.
Tickets. Even when they win, the A's tend to have one of the worst attendance records in baseball. Even when they won 5 straight AL West titles in 1971-75, they only drew a million or more fans once, in 1975, averaging 13,278 fans per home game. (In 1973, owner Charlie Finley fudged the figure on the final day of the season, to sneak them over the million mark, which he later admitted.) They peaked at 35,804 in 1990, the height of their "Bash Brothers" success, and had 27,365 at the height of their "Big Three" run in 2003.
The A's averaged 21,829 fans season, and are averaging 18,380 this season -- dropping from 25th to 28th out of 30. So, even with the upper deck entirely tarped-over except for the right-over-the-plate seats, reducing baseball seating capacity from a potential 55,945 to an official 35,067, making the seats about 52 percent full, essentially, you can walk up to the gate at the Coliseum right before the first pitch and buy any seat you can afford.
"MVP" seats are $95, Lower Boxes are $79, Field Level seats are $44, Plaza Level seats are $36, Bleachers (in "Mount Davis") are $28, Plaza Reserved (also in Mount Davis) are $26, and the top-level Value Deck seats are $29.
Getting There. It's 2,914 miles from Yankee Stadium to the Oakland Coliseum. This is the longest regular Yankee roadtrip there is (regular as in annual, since the Interleague schedule is staggered), and will remain so barring realignment, unless some future Commissioner decides to create a World League of Baseball and the Tokyo-based Yomiyuri Giants come in. In other words, if you're going, you're flying.
You think I'm kidding? Even if you get someone to go with you, and you take turns, one drives while the other one sleeps, and you pack 2 days' worth of food, and you use the side of the Interstate as a toilet, and you don’t get pulled over for speeding, you’ll still need over 2 full days. Each way.
But, if you really, really want to drive... Get onto Interstate 80 West in New Jersey, and – though incredibly long, it’s also incredibly simple – you'll stay on I-80 for almost its entire length, which is 2,900 miles from Ridgefield Park, just beyond the New Jersey end of the George Washington Bridge, to the San Francisco end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Getting off I-80, you'll need Exit 8A for I-880, the Nimitz Freeway – the 1997-rebuilt version of the double-decked expressway that collapsed, killing 42 people, during the Loma Prieta Earthquake that struck during the 1989 World Series between the 2 Bay Area teams. From I-880, you'll take Exit 37, turning left onto Zhone Way (no, that's not a typo), which becomes 66th Avenue, and then turn right onto Coliseum Way.
Not counting rest stops, you should be in New Jersey for an hour and a half, Pennsylvania for 5:15, Ohio for 4 hours, Indiana for 2:30, Illinois for 2:45, Iowa for 5 hours, Nebraska for 7:45, Wyoming for 6:45, Utah for 3:15, Nevada for 6:45, and California for 3:15. That's almost 49 hours, and with rest stops, and city traffic at each end, we’re talking 3 full days.
That's still faster than Greyhound and Amtrak. Greyhound does stop in Oakland, at 2103 San Pablo Avenue at Castro Street. But the trip averages about 72 hours, depending on the run, and will require you to change buses 3, 4 or even 5 times. Fare: $438.
On Amtrak, you would leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM on Monday, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:45 AM Central Time on Tuesday, and switch to the California Zephyr at 2:00 PM, arriving at Emeryville, California at 4:10 PM Pacific Time on Thursday. Round-trip fare: $582. Then you'd have to get to downtown Oakland on the Number 26 bus, which would take almost an hour.
Amtrak service has been restored to downtown Oakland, at 245 2nd Street, in Jack London Square. Unfortunately, it's a half-mile walk to the nearest BART station, at Lake Merritt (8th & Oak). For A's and Raiders games, the station at the Coliseum site, which is part of the BART station there, might be better. 700 73rd Street. And yet, for either of these stations, you'd still have to transfer at Emeryville to an Amtrak Coast Starlight train.
Once In the City. Founded in 1852 and named after oak trees in the area, Oakland is a city of a little over 400,000 people. But if you count the "Oakland area" of the San Francisco Bay Area as being the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Merced, San Joaquin, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter and Yolo (not "YOLO"), it comes to 4,723,778 people -- almost as much as the San Francisco side of the area, counting the Counties of Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara (including San Jose), Santa Cruz and Sonoma: 4,855,538.
So anyone who says, "Oakland is a small market," or, "The East Bay is a small market," is wrong: The Oakland part of the Bay Area has more people than the metro areas of every major league city except New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Washington, Miami, Atlanta and San Diego.
Most Oakland street addresses aren't divided into north-south, or east-west. The city does have numbered streets, starting with 1st Street on the bayfront and increasing as you move northeast. One of the BART stops in the city is called "12th Street Oakland City Center," and it's at 12th & Broadway, so if you're looking at a centerpoint for the city, that's as good as any.
The sales tax in California is 7.5 percent, and rises to 9 percent in Alameda County, including the City of Oakland.
Going In. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway line has a Coliseum/Oakland Airport stop, which can be accessed from nearly every city in the Bay Area. It takes about 20 minutes to ride either the Green (Fremont) or Blue (Dublin/Pleasanton) Line from downtown San Francisco to the Coliseum stop, and it will cost $4.20 each way – a lot more expensive than New York’s Subway, but very efficient.
From downtown Oakland, it will take about 10 minutes on the Fremont Line, and cost $1.95, cheaper than New York's, because, in this case, you would be staying not just on the Oakland side of the Bay, but wholly within the City of Oakland.
The Coliseum BART stop
The complex includes the stadium that has been home to the A's since 1968, and to the NFL's Oakland Raiders from 1966 to 1981 and again since 1995; and the Oracle Arena, a somewhat-renovated version of the Oakland Coliseum Arena, home to the NBA's Golden State Warriors on and off since 1966, and continuously since 1971, except for a 1-year hiatus in San Jose while it was being renovated, 1996-97. Various defunct soccer teams played at the Coliseum, and the Bay Area's former NHL team, the Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals, played at the arena from 1967 to 1976.
The official address of the Coliseum is 7000 Coliseum Way. If you're driving in (either having come all the way across the country by car, or from your hotel in a rental), there are 4 major lots, and going clockwise from the north of the stadium they are A, B, C and D, each corresponding with an entry gate at the stadium. Parking is $20 for A's games, $30 for the Warriors, and $35 for the Raiders.
If you're coming from the BART station, there will be a walkway over San Leandro Street, which may remind you of the walkway from the Willets Point station into the parking lot of Shea Stadium and its successor Citi Field. (Hopefully, it won't be as creepy as the Meadowlands' walkway over Route 120 from the Giants Stadium side of the parking lot to the Arena.) That will drop you off at the due east side of the Coliseum, dead center field.
The Coliseum faces east, away from San Francisco, and is 6 miles northwest of downtown Oakland. From the outside, it won't look like much, mainly because it was mostly built below ground. Above ground, you’ll be seeing only the upper deck.
Before the construction of "Mount Davis"
The construction of Mount Davis ruined a lot of the atmosphere at A's games, mainly by obstructing the view of the Oakland foothills. It stands as a bold green reminder of the man who stole one of the locals' teams away, and then, in order to bring it back, screwed up a stadium that was already looking more and more inadequate with the building of every new retro-style stadium. Indeed, with the Toronto Argonauts having moved from the Rogers Centre to BMO Field, the Coliseum is now the last stadium in MLB that is shared by a pro football team.
In spite of the Raiders' return, the 49ers are more popular -- according to a 2014 article in the Atlantic Monthly, even in Alameda County. The Raiders remain more popular in the Los Angeles area, a holdover from their 1982-94 layover, and also a consequence of L.A. not having had a team since, although the return of the Rams changes that.
The Coliseum has also hosted 3 games of the U.S. national soccer team, all wins, most recently over China in 2001.
The field is natural grass, and although the A's are one of 2 teams left in MLB that has to groundshare with a pro football team (the Raiders), at this time of year the football markings won't be a problem. The field dimensions are symmetrical. The foul poles are 330 feet from home plate, the power alleys 367, and center field 400.
These distances might sound a little short, but the vast amount of infield foul territory, easily the most in the major leagues throughout my lifetime, result in a lot of balls getting caught which would be into the stands in most parks. So the Coliseum has always been regarded as a pitcher's park.
With Mount Davis
For those of you who are Jets fans, the Oakland Coliseum was where the Jets lost the "Heidi Bowl" to the Raiders on November 17, 1968 -- but the Jets ended up beating the Raiders in that season's AFL Championship Game at Shea.
It's worth noting that Elvis Presley sang across the parking lot, at the Coliseum Arena, on November 10, 1970 and November 11, 1972. It's also worth noting that the Warriors have put together a plan to leave the Arena and move into a new arena on the San Francisco waterfront, 4 blocks from the Giants' ballpark. It will be known as the Chase Center, and is set to open in the 2019-20 season, 48 years after they last played on that side of the Bay.
Aramark Sports & Entertainment, the successor corporation to the Harry M. Stevens Company that invented ballpark concessions, provides food and beverage services for the Westside Club, Eastside Club, Luxury Suites, and all of the Coliseum's Premium Seating areas. Traditional ballpark fare is also offered throughout the stadium by Aramark. Specialty items such as barbecue, pizza, and garlic fries can also be found at specific concession stands. (The Giants have been known for their garlic fries, the A's less so.)
The blog Athletics Nation recommends Ribs & Things BBQ, a stand based on the restaurant of the same name in the East Bay suburb of Hayward, behind Section 104; Hot Dog Nation at 111 and 123; Round Table Pizza at 114; A's Grill, featuring specialty sausages, at 205; and Burrito District and 220.
They also recommend Ballpark Poppers, on the lower level behind the foul poles. They fry cheeseburger bites, corn dogs and Jalapeno peppers in cornbread batter, with ranch and Sriracha sauces.
Team History Displays. The Yankees and A's have played each other in 3 postseason series: The 1981 AL Championship Series and the 2000 and 2001 AL Division Series -- the Yanks winning all 3. Still, if you count the Philly titles (and you really shouldn't, but if you do), the A's have won 9 World Series, more than any AL team except the Yankees, and the only NL team with more is the St. Louis Cardinals (with whom the Philly edition of the A's split back-to-back World Series, the A's winning in 1930 and the Cards in '31.)
Indeed, at the Coliseum's front entrance, you'll see banners for each team. Both teams' banners have their logos on them. The A's logo mentions Oakland as their city. The Raiders' logo does not. The A's banner lists their 4 World Series wins. The Raiders' banner says only, "COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE."
But that's all the display that you'll see of the Raiders' past. There are no mentions, visible from the field of play, about their Super Bowl XI, XV and XVIII wins; nor of their 1967 AFL Championship; nor of their 1976, 1980, 1983 or 2002 AFC Championships; nor of their 15 Western Division Championships from 1967 to 2002 -- and while that included a streak of 9 in 10 years from 1967 to 1976, only 4 of them have been won in the last 30 seasons.
And don't bother looking around the Coliseum for a display of the Raiders' retired numbers: They don’t have any.
Reggie and Catfish began their careers with the A’s in Kansas City; but, while the A's put up banners honoring their Philadelphia titles, they have not retired any numbers from their Philadelphia days. The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society honors these figures with a mini-museum at Spike's sporting goods store in Northeast Philly. It features plaques that used to be part of the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame display at Veterans Stadium. I visited the plaques' former home in the suburb of Hatboro, Pennsylvania, but damage from Hurricane Sandy forced them to seek new quarters, and I haven't been to Spike's yet.
Jackson, Fingers, Eckersley, McGwire, Henderson, and Philadelphia Athletics, Eddie Plank, Eddie Collins, Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Lefty Grove were named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players in 1999. That same year, Grove and McGwire (at the peak of his fame, before his downfall) were named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
In 2006, A's fans selected Reggie as their team's representative in the DHL Hometown Heroes series. In 2008, the A's selected a 40th Anniversary team: Catcher, Terry Steinbach; 1st base, Mark McGwire; 2nd base, Mark Ellis; shortstop, Bert Campaneris; 3rd base, Carney Lansford; outfield, Reggie, Rickey and Joe Rudi; designated hitter, Dave Kingman; pitchers, Catfish, Stewart, Eck and Vida Blue; manager, Tony LaRussa. (The Cardinals have retired Number 10 for LaRussa, but the A's haven't.)
The Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame (BASHOF) is unusual in that its exhibits are spread over several locations, including the Coliseum. The ones honored there, on the walls of the Coliseum's concourse, are: Reggie, Catfish, Fingers, A's pitcher and Oakland native Dave Stewart, Billy Martin (the Yanks & A's manager grew up in nearby Berkeley); Oakland-area natives Ernie Lombardi (Cincinnati Reds HOF catcher), Dick Bartell (New York Giants All-Star shortstop), Bill Rigney (Giants infielder, coach & manager), Frank Robinson, Curt Flood, Vada Pinson, Willie Stargell and Joe Morgan; and Raiders stars Jim Otto, George Blanda, Fred Biletnikoff, Art Shell, Willie Brown and Ken Stabler.
Other A's stars have been honored in the BASHOF, but their plaques are elsewhere: Eckersley and 1970s shortstop Bert Campaneris at San Francisco International Airport, and 1970s pitcher Vida Blue, who also pitched for the Giants, at their new home, AT&T Park, along with Giants HOFers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda; and San Francisco Seals star-manager Lefty O’Doul. (Al Davis was elected to the BASHOF after his death, but his plaque is at the San Francisco Airport.)
Stuff. The A's have a Team Store located at Gate D in the stadium's northwest corner. Additional merchandise locations and novelty kiosks are open throughout the stadium during all home games.
Having a fascinating (if occasionally controversial) history even if you only count the Oakland years, the A's have had several books written about them, although they don't always put the team in a good light. The ones about the "Swingin' A's" of the 1970s invariably mention the successes and excesses, including cheapness and pettiness, of then-owner Charles O. Finley. And the players, including Reggie, often don’t come off much better in these books.
Michael Lewis' Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which came out in 2003, showcases the way general manager Billy Beane brought the A's back in the 2000s, but it glosses over a glaring fact: The A's have won a grand total of zero American League Championship Series games since George Bush was President. The father, not the son. If he's been GM for 16 years (since 1998) and has never won a Pennant, how much of a "genius" can Beane be? Especially since he hasn't been able to hold onto his players? (Put it this way: 2006 is the only season since 1990 in which the A's have won a postseason series, and they then got swept in the ALCS by the Detroit Tigers. That was 8 years ago, and by the time it became 6 there were no players left from that team). Nevertheless, the book is sold at the Coliseum, and was made into a mediocre movie starring Brad Pitt as Beane. I don't think having Angelina Jolie in it would have helped.
There is a DVD collection of the official World Series highlight films of 1972, '73, '74 and '89, all won by the A's (the 5 they won in Philadelphia came before there were official highlight films), but, as yet, there is Essential Games of the Oakland Athletics or Essential Games of the Oakland Coliseum DVD collection.
During the Game. Although the Raiders fans who show up for home games like to wear costumes ranging from biker gang members to sci-fi film villains – a guy in a Darth Vader mask was a regular Raider-goer in the Jimmy Carter years – and have been known to be the closest thing North American sports has to English-style football hooligans, you’ll probably be safe. Wearing Yankee gear to the game will probably not endanger your safety. True, A's fans hate the Yankees, but you'll probably get nothing more than a little bit of verbal abuse.
A recent Thrillist article on "Baseball's Most Intolerable Fans" ranked the A's 18th, in the middle of the pack, saying:
A solid blend of hardcore old-school Oaklanders (plus ones who tell you they’re from Oakland, but, when pressed, admit they mean Piedmont), people who grew up in the surrounding East Bay towns, and baseball hipsters who've decided that wearing an A's cap makes them a little more edgy than a Giants one.
The A's current slogan is "Green Collar Baseball." If that's supposed to be like "blue collar," it's a poor rewording of it: It makes them sound less like longshoremen on the Oakland side of the Bay, more like environmental activists on the San Francisco side. But the A's have usually had a blue-collar image, from Charlie Finley's Swingin' A's of Reggie, Catfish and Rollie in the Silly Seventies to the McGwire-Canseco Bash Brothers of the late Eighties and early Nineties, to the Giambi Brothers, "Big Three" pitchers, Billy Beane "Moneyball" era of 2000-06.
This season, the A's are wearing memorial patches for Dave Henderson and Tony Phillips, who played for their 1988-92 quasi-dynasty, and died during the last off-season. The Friday night game will be a Fireworks Night.
Back in 1905, when the 2 Bay Area teams were the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics, they played each other in the World Series, and Giants manager John McGraw dismissed the A’s as a "white elephant." A's manager-owner Connie Mack decided to just go with it, and had white elephants stitched onto their gray jerseys. The elephant remained a team symbol into the Kansas City years, until Finley dumped it when he bought the Kansas City edition of the team in 1960, replacing it with a "Missouri mule" that he named Charlie O after himself. But in 1990 the elephant logo was brought back and modernized. In 1997, the A’s created a new mascot, a man in an elephant suit named Stomper.
The A's hold auditions for National Anthem singers, instead of having a regular. The A's don't have a special "Get Loud" device, nor a special song played after "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at the 7th Inning Stretch. After years of playing Kool & the Gang's "Celebration" after victories, last year, they switched to "Theme for Oakland" by the Phenomenauts.
I can't find any reference to an Oakland bar that is Yankee-friendly. There are 4 bars in the Lower Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco that are worth mentioning. R Bar, at 1176 Sutter & Polk Street, is the local Jet fan hangout. The Wreck Room, at 1390 California Street at Hyde Street, is also said to be a place for Jet fans. And Greens Sports Bar, at 2239 Polk at Green Street, is also said to be a Yankee-friendly bar. Of course, you’ll have to cross the Bay by car or by BART to get there.
The Kezar Pub is rated by some as the best sports bar in San Francisco. It's at 770 Stanyan Street, at Waller Street, in the Haight-Ashbury, across from Golden Gate Park and the new version of the stadium from whence comes its name. Number 7 bus.
Sidelights. The San Francisco Bay Area, including the East Bay (which includes Oakland), has a very rich sports history. Here are some of the highlights, aside from the Oakland Coliseum complex:
Sidelights. The San Francisco Bay Area, including the East Bay (which includes Oakland), has a very rich sports history. Here are some of the highlights, aside from the Oakland Coliseum complex:
* Site of Emeryville Park. Also known as Oaks Park, this was the home of the Pacific Coast League’s Oakland Oaks from 1913 until 1955. The Oaks won Pennants there in 1927, '48, '50 and '54.
Their manager? Casey Stengel. Impressed by Casey's feat of managing the Nine Old Men to a Pennant in a league that was pretty much major league quality, and by his previously having managed the minor-league version of the Milwaukee Brewers to an American Association Pennant, Yankee owners Dan Topping and Del Webb hired Casey to manage in 1949. Casey told Billy that if he ever got the chance to bring him east, he would, and he was as good as his word.
* Seals Stadium. Home of the PCL’s San Francisco Seals from 1931 to 1957, the Mission Reds from 1931 to 1937, and the Giants in 1958 and '59, it was the first home professional field of the DiMaggio brothers: First Vince, then Joe, and finally Dom all played for the Seals in the 1930s. The Seals won Pennants there in 1931, '35, '43, '44, '45, '46 and '57 (their last season). It seated just 18,500, expanded to 22,900 for the Giants, and was never going to be more than a stopgap facility until the Giants' larger park could be built. It was demolished right after the 1959 season, and the site now has a Safeway grocery store.
Bryant Street, 16th Street, Potrero Avenue and Alameda Street, in the Mission District. Hard to reach by public transport: The Number 10 bus goes down Townsend Street and Rhode Island Avenue until reaching 16th, but then it’s an 8-block walk. The Number 27 can be picked up at 5th & Harrison Streets, and will go right there.
* Candlestick Park. Home of the Giants from 1960 to 1999, the NFL 49ers since 1970, and the Raiders in the 1961 season, this may be the most-maligned sports facility in North American history. Its seaside location (Candlestick Point) has led to spectators being stricken by wind (a.k.a. The Hawk), cold, and even fog.
It was open to the Bay until 1971, including the 1962 World Series between the Yankees and the Giants, and was then enclosed to expand it from 42,000 to 69,000 seats for the Niners. It also got artificial turf for the 1970 season, one of the first stadiums to have it – though, to the city’s credit, it was also the 1st NFL stadium and 2nd MLB stadium (after Comiskey Park in Chicago) to switch back to real grass.
The Giants only won 2 Pennants there, and never a World Series. But the 49ers have won 5 Super Bowls while playing there, with 3 of their 6 NFC Championship Games won as the home team. The NFL Giants did beat the 49ers in the 1990 NFC Championship Game, scoring no touchdowns but winning 15-13 thanks to 5 Matt Bahr field goals. The Beatles played their last “real concert” ever at the ‘Stick on August 29, 1966 – only 25,000 people came out, a total probably driven down by the stadium’s reputation and John Lennon’s comments about religion on that tour.
The Giants and 49ers got out and built new stadiums. The last sporting event at Candlestick Park was a U.S. national soccer team win over Azerbaijan, the 4th game the Stars & Stripes have played there (2 wins, 2 losses). The stadium has now been demolished.
Best way by public transport isn't a good one: The KT light rail at 4th & King Streets, at the CalTrain terminal, to 3rd & Gilman Streets, and then it’s almost a mile’s walk down Jagerson Avenue. So unless you're driving/renting a car, or you're a sports history buff who has to see the site, I wouldn't suggest making time for it.
* AT&T Park. Home of the Giants since 2000, it has been better for them than Candlestick -- aesthetically, competitively, financially, you name it. Winning 3 Pennants and 2 World Series since it opened, it's been home to The Freak (Tim Lincecum) and The Steroid Freak (Barry Bonds).
It's hosted some college football games, and a February 10, 2006 win by the U.S. soccer team over Japan. 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at 3rd & King Streets.
* Kezar Stadium. The 49ers played here from their 1946 founding until 1970, the Raiders spent their inaugural 1960 season here, and previous pro teams in the city also played at this facility at the southeastern corner of Golden Gate Park, a mere 10-minute walk from the fabled corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets. High school football, including the annual City Championship played on Thanksgiving Day, used to be held here as well. Bob St. Clair, who played there in high school, college (University of San Francisco) and the NFL in a Hall of Fame career with the 49ers, has compared it to Chicago’s Wrigley Field as a “neighborhood stadium.” After the 49ers left, it became a major concert venue.
The original 60,000-seat structure was built in 1925, and was torn down in 1989 (a few months before the earthquake, so there’s no way to know what the quake would have done to it), and was replaced in 1990 with a 9,000-seat stadium, much more suitable for high school sports. The original Kezar, named for one of the city’s pioneering families, had a cameo in the Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. Frederick & Stanyan Streets, Kezar Drive and Arguello Blvd. MUNI light rail N train.
* Frank Youell Field. This was another stopgap facility, used by the Raiders from 1962 to 1965, a 22,000-seat stadium that was named after an Oakland undertaker – perhaps fitting, although the Raiders didn’t yet have that image. Interestingly from a New York perspective, the first game here was between the Raiders and the forerunners of the Jets, the New York Titans. It was demolished in 1969. A new field of the same name was built on the site for Laney College. East 8th Street, 5th Avenue, East 10th Street and the Oakland Estuary. Lake Merritt BART station.
* Cow Palace. The more familiar name of the Grand National Livestock Pavilion, this big barn just south of the City Line in Daly City has hosted just about everything, from livestock shows and rodeos to the 1956 and 1964 Republican National Conventions, nominating Dwight D. Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater, respectively. (Yes, the Republicans came here, not the “hippie” Democrats, although they did hold their 1984 Convention downtown at the George Moscone Convention Center, 747 Howard Street at 4th Street, nominating Walter Mondale.)
The ’64 Convention is where New York’s Governor Nelson Rockefeller refused to be booed off the podium when he dared to speak out against the John Birch Society – the Tea Party idiots of their time – and when Senator Goldwater was nominated, telling them, “I would remind you, my fellow Republicans, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And I would remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” (Personally, I think that extremism in the defense of liberty is no defense of liberty.)
Built in 1941, it is one of the oldest remaining former NBA and NHL sites, having hosted the NBA’s Warriors (then calling themselves the San Francisco Warriors) from 1962 to 1971, the NHL’s San Jose Sharks from their 1991 debut until their current arena could open in 1993, and several minor-league hockey teams. The 1960 NCAA Final Four was held here, culminating in Ohio State, led by Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek (with future coaching legend Bobby Knight as the 6th man) beating local heroes and defending National Champions California, led by Darrell Imhoff.
The Beatles played here on August 19, 1964 and August 31, 1965, and Elvis sang here on November 13, 1970 and November 28 & 29, 1976. It was the site of Neil Young’s 1978 concert that produced the live album Live Rust and the concert film Rust Never Sleeps, and the 1986 Conspiracy of Hope benefit with Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Sting and U2. The acoustics of the place, and the loss of such legendary venues as the Fillmore West and the Winterland Ballroom, make it the Bay Area’s holiest active rock and roll site. 2600 Geneva Avenue at Santos Street, in Daly City. 8X bus.
In addition to the preceding, Elvis sang at the Auditorium Arena (now the Kaiser Convention Center, near the Laney College campus in Oakland) early in his career, on June 3, 1956 and again on October 27, 1957; and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium (now the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove Street at Polk Street) on October 26, 1957. This is also where the Democratic Party held their 1920 Convention, nominating James M. Cox, who lost to Warren Harding.
* SAP Center at San Jose. Formerly the San Jose Arena and the HP Pavilion, this building has hosted the NHL’s San Jose Sharks since 1993. If you’re a fan of the TV show The West Wing, this was the convention center where the ticket of Matt Santos and Leo McGarry was nominated. 525 W. Santa Clara Street at Autumn Street, across from the Amtrak & CalTrain station.
* Spartan Stadium. Home to San Jose State University sports since 1933, it hosted both the old San Jose Earthquakes, of the original North American Soccer League, from 1974 to 1984; and the new version, of Major League Soccer, from 1996 to 2005. It's hosted 3 games of the U.S. national team, most recently a 2007 loss to China, and games of the 1999 Women's World Cup.
1251 S. 10th Street, San Jose. San Jose Municipal Stadium, home of the Triple-A San Jose Giants, is a block away at 588 E. Alma Avenue. From either downtown San Francisco or downtown Oakland, take BART to Fremont terminal, then 181 bus to 2nd & Santa Clara, then 68 bus to Monterey & Alma.
* Levi's Stadium. The new home of the 49ers, whose naming rights were bought by the San Francisco-based clothing company that popularized blue jeans all over the world, is about to open at 4701 Great America Parkway at Old Glory Lane in Santa Clara, next to California’s Great America park, outside San Jose. ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) to Great America-Santa Clara.
The NHL will host a Stadium Series outdoor hockey game there in the 2014-15 season, between the Sharks and their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. In February 2016, it will host Super Bowl L -- the 50th edition of the game. (It really should have been in the city/metro area of Super Bowl I, but the NFL is not currently satisfied with Los Angeles' facilities, either the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl.) And with the 49ers having gotten to the last 2 NFC Championship Games, winning 1, the chance is not bad at all for the 49ers becoming the first team ever to play a Super Bowl in their own house.
* Stanford Stadium. The home field of Stanford University in Palo Alto, down the Peninsula from San Francisco. Originally built in 1921, it was home to many great quarterbacks, from early 49ers signal-caller Frankie Albert to 1971 Heisman winner Jim Plunkett to John Elway. It hosted Super Bowl XIX in 1985, won by the 49ers over the Miami Dolphins – one of only two Super Bowls that ended up having had a team that could have been called a home team. (The other was XIV, the Los Angeles Rams losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Rose Bowl.)
It also hosted San Francisco’s games of the 1994 World Cup, a game of the 1999 Women's World Cup, and the soccer games of the 1984 Olympics, even though most of the events of those Olympics were down the coast in Los Angeles. It hosted 10 games by the U.S. national team, totaling 4 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws.
The original 85,000-seat structure was demolished and replaced with a new 50,000-seat stadium in 2006. Arboretum Road & Galvez Street. Caltrain to Palo Alto.
* California Memorial Stadium. Home of Stanford’s arch-rivals, the University of California, at its main campus in Berkeley in the East Bay. (The school is generally known as “Cal” for sports, and “Berkeley” for most other purposes.) Its location in the Berkeley Hills makes it one of the nicest settings in college football. But it’s also, quite literally, on the Hayward Fault, a branch of the San Andreas Fault, so if “The Big One” had hit during a Cal home game, 72,000 people would have been screwed. With this in mind, the University renovated the stadium, making it safer and ready for 63,000 fans in 2012.
The old stadium hosted one NFL game, and it was a very notable one: Due to a scheduling conflict with the A’s, the Raiders played a 1973 game there with the Miami Dolphins, and ended the Dolphins’ winning streak that included the entire 1972 season and Super Bowl VII. 76 Canyon Road, Berkeley. Downtown Berkeley stop on BART. (Remember, until the fall, it’s still being renovated, so it could be messy.)
Yankee Legend Joe DiMaggio, who grew up in San Francisco and later divided his time between there and South Florida, is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, on the Peninsula. 1500 Mission Road & Lawndale Blvd. BART to South San Francisco, then about a 1-mile walk.
The Fillmore Auditorium was at Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard, and it still stands and hosts live music. Bus 38L. Winterland Ballroom, home of the final concerts of The Band (filmed as The Last Waltz) and the Sex Pistols, was around the corner from the Fillmore at Post & Steiner Streets. And the legendary corner of Haight & Ashbury Streets can be reached via the 30 Bus, taking it to Haight and Masonic Avenue and walking 1 block west.
Oakland isn’t much of a museum city, especially compared with San Francisco across the Bay. But the Oakland Museum of California (10th & Oak, Lake Merritt BART) and the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., not accessible by BART) may be worth a look.
San Francisco, like New York, has a Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), at 151 3rd Street, downtown. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor is probably the city’s most famous museum, in Lincoln Park at the northwestern corner of the city, near the Presidio and the Golden Gate Bridge. (Any of you who are Trekkies, the Presidio is a now-closed military base that, in the Star Trek Universe, is the seat of Starfleet Command and Starfleet Academy.)
The Palace of Fine Arts isn't just an art museum, it has a theater that hosted one of the 1976 Presidential Debates between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter -- the one where Ford said, "There is no Soviet domination in Eastern Europe." 3301 Lyon Street. Bus 30.
While San Francisco has been the setting for lots of TV shows (from Ironside and The Streets of San Francisco in the 1970s, to Full House and Dharma & Greg in the 1990s), Oakland, being much less glamorous, has had only one that I know of: Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, comedian Mark Curry's show about a former basketball player who returns to his old high school to teach.
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So, if you can afford it, go on out and join your fellow Yankee Fans in going coast-to-coast, and enjoy the Yanks-A's rivalry, even if it's not what it was back in the late 1920s and early '30s when it was Ruth & Gehrig vs. Cochrane, Foxx, Simmons & Grove. Or even what it was at the dawn of the 21st Century, when it was Jeter, Rivera & Co. vs. the Giambis and the Big Three.