Photo credit: @oaklandCaRR

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

The saga of the Oakland Athletics’ new ballpark continues. The final score? There’s still no final score. But the A’s might find themselves back at first base in a stadium issue in which the Bay Area is always difficult to score.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said the Howard Terminal site is a big positive, but BART has told the A’s to forget about a new ballpark by Howard Terminal.

The Mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, is a big proponent of the Howard Terminal site, but BART carries a lot of weight in this deal, and obviously, a lot of passengers as it is one of the most popular transportation asset for A’s fans attending the games at the Oakland Coliseum.

It seems like it was during another life, years ago, that I attended a pro-A’s move to Fremont rally in that city. Fremont is currently the fourth most populated city in the Bay Area. Only San José, San Francisco and Oakland have more residents, respectively. Fremont used to be a bedroom community with one large employer the old General Motors/New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. plant.

Today, it is Tesla, and the city of Fremont is steadily increasing in residents as it has become very conveniently named the Silicon Valley East. BART has been extended to Warm Springs and will extend into Santa Clara county later this year. As a matter of record, one year the Athletics included in their media guide with great optimism, a design of the proposed Fremont ballpark. The Fremont site idea struck out quickly.

This next March 29 at 1:05 pm, the A’s will open their 50th season at Oakland. They have played at the Oakland Coliseum since 1968 when they arrived from Kansas City, Missouri. The Coliseum is and still is a perfect location when it comes to transportation. It is hard to find another sports facility in the Bay Area, including A&TT Park in San Francisco, California, with better access for mass transportation. The Oakland Coliseum with Highway 880 to the west and BART station behind left field, to the east is the perfect transportation location. And let’s not forget the AMTRAK station that behind the Stadium. Since Opening Day being on rare afternoon at the Coliseum, I would probably leave the car at home and take BART.

The A’s new ballpark game has been in extra innings with no scores now for years, but it seems like the A’s have still not left first base. A guy who I covered since his rookie season in 1979 and who could leave first base at a moment notice, Rickey Henderson, told me years ago when I asked the question on where the new ballpark should be. He responded:  “Why not right here at the Coliseum?”