This Day In Sports…September 26, 2015:
Today’s item harkens back to a celebratory day nine years ago in Oakland. It fits now, because this afternoon will be historic for the Athletics. Not in a good way, mind you, as A’s ownership thumbs its nose at the city one last time. This marks the final game at the Oakland Coliseum after 57 seasons by the bay. There are so many ways things could have worked out in Oakland, but owner John Fisher sabotaged most of them.
If only Fisher had sold the team as he was urged to by legions of longtime fans. Instead, he either traded the A’s star players or let them go as free agents when they hit their prime. And he let the Coliseum crumble. It hits home for me, as I attended the first game ever played at the Coliseum (Raiders-Chiefs, 1966).
Now to the more momentous occasion in 2015, as two of Oakland’s “Big Three” pitchers from a decade earlier, both entering the final week of their careers, make a much-celebrated start against each other at the Coliseum. Barry Zito, who had come full-circle with A’s, went against Tim Hudson, now a San Francisco Giant. Along with Mark Mulder, Zito and Hudson had spurred Oakland to its famous and unlikely run of success during the “Moneyball” years in the early 2000s.
The day was laced in irony for Zito, who spent his first seven seasons in Oakland, followed by seven years in San Francisco. He collected career milestones with both teams. Zito won the 2002 Cy Young Award with the A’s after going 23-5. His biggest season as a Giant came 10 years later when he helped the club win the 2012 World Series. Zito went 15-8 and was 2-0 with a 1.69 ERA in the postseason, outdueling Detroit’s Justin Verlander in Game 1 on the World Series on the way to an S.F. sweep.
Hudson debuted with the A’s in 1999 and later spent nine productive seasons with the Atlanta Braves. But his only World Series ring also came with the Giants in 2014. Hudson went 222-133 in his career and never had a losing season record. Neither Zito nor Hudson made it through the third inning in their Bay Area farewell, however, in an eventual 14-10 Giants victory. The winning pitcher, incidentally, was Bishop Kelly High grad Josh Osich, who would go 2-0 with a 2.20 ERA in 35 appearances as a rookie reliever for the Giants.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
