Oakland A's Turn Back the Clock

When to my first A's game of the year on Saturday, which just happened to be Turn Back the Clock night, in honor of the A's championship teams from 1972-1974. As an early birthday present, my wife surprised me with really great tickets to the game, right behind the A's bullpen.


This first picture is for Brian, who asked me a few weeks ago if Rickey's numbered had been added to the tarps in the upper deck. The answer...yes, but his jersey is also still on the fence in left field, along with the logo commemorating Braden's perfect game.


In honor of Charlie finely, the A's brought back Charlie O the mule, their mascot in the late 60's and early 70's. (The real Charlie O died in the mid-70's, but it is the thought that counts).


Since we had good seats, I wanted to get there early and watch warm-ups. I don't think Cahill stretches with a mule watching him from centerfield every night, but I could be wrong!




As they attempted to dodge the classic cars driving around the warning track, Cahill and Suzuki warmed up in the bullpen, with pitching coach Curt Young looking on.


Due once again to the awesome seats, I got a thumbs up from Ray Fosse (center), and he joined Vida Blue (left) and Campy Campaneris (right) with the 1972, 1973, and 1974 World Series trophies.


As the players stood for the national anthem, there was definitely plenty of yellow to go around!


The A's went all out with the throwback theme, even displaying the players astrological signs along with their stats.


The view from our seats. Definitely a great place to watch a ballgame.


Due in large parts to Cahill's impressive start (7.2 innings, 2 hits, 10 K's), we didn't get to see too much action in the bullpen. But, I was surprised to learn, that contrary to other sidearm pitchers I've seen, Ziegler actually starts his warm-ups overhand, and then drops down later on.


This was the last pitch of the game, when Andrew Bailey got Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit to pop up to Kouzmanoff at 3rd.


We were sitting right behind the bullpen phone, and could even here it when it rang. After the game was over, I stuck my camera down into the bullpen, and got a pretty cool shot.


Since this is a Rickey blog, I was actually able to get this pin, which I missed out on during my last trip to the Coliseum for Rickey's jersey retirement ceremony. I'd only seen one on eBay since then, so I was surprised to see they still had them in stock.

Overall, it was a great night out with my wife, and a perfect 30th birthday present!

Rickey's Jersey Number Retirement Speech

When I wrote about Rickey's jersey retirement last week, I mentioned that I'd also taken some video, although it wasn't that great. It's a bit shaky at first, but it gets better fairly quickly. The camcorder I was using was a Flip, which works well, but doesn't really zoom, and also doesn't have any sort of image stabilization.

So, I basically recorded it for the audio, which is better than nothing at all.



This first clip is from A's great, and Rickey friend, Dave Stewart.



Just like in Cooperstown, Rickey gave a great speech. It was a lot of fun hearing 35,000 fans screaming "Run, Rickey, Run." I was really hoping he'd take off down the base paths, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Rickey Weekend: Day Two

Since the A's had declared their celebration of Rickey Henderson a "Rickey Weekend," with Rickey giveaways on both days, I obviously had to go to the game on Sunday as well.

Although the outcome was the same (the A's lost), not withstanding the number retirement ceremony, I actually had a lot more fun during the game on Sunday than I did on Saturday. We had seats directly behind home plate, in the second row towards that third base side, which put us right in the middle of the action.

But, that also put us directly behind the net, which isn't always conducive to picture taking. Fortunately, the telephoto lens was able to focus on the players most of the time, and in the shots that came out, you can barely even tell the net was there. Although I took quite a few pictures, below are some of my favorites.

Rickey Around the Coliseum, Including Merchandise!

As you might expect, Rickey's face was popping up all over the place at the Coliseum this weekend.



When you first drive into the parking lot, one of the first things you see when you look up at the stadium is this giant Rickey banner off to the left.







Surrounding the concourse walls on the other side of the stadium are a few other banners, prominently featuring Rickey as well.



Once you enter the stadium, the "program" for the day's game features Rickey as the "Man of Steal" on the cover. I had hoped that the A's would have produced some sort of special program for the ceremony, but this copy of the August A's Magazine will just have to do.



But, the magazine does feature a foldout poster of Rickey inside, which is a nice touch.



On flat screen monitors inside the stadium, the A's were promoting the Rickey Henderson Sweepstakes which I'd mentioned previously.





During the jersey retirement ceremony, Ray Fosse noted that a plaque honoring the event would be included in the concourse in-between the stadium and the arena (where the Golden State Warriors play), joining the plaques of other retired jersey numbers, as well as those of world championship teams.









As far as merchandise goes, they A's didn't have very much to commemorate the event. But, they did have this gold baseball, my second gold Rickey ball of the week. I found it odd that the bottom of the ball had the Hall of Fame Induction logo, as it almost seemed like something that should have been sold in Cooperstown, not Oakland.

There was also a Rickey pin commemorating his 1,406 stolen bases, but I was never able to find one, and I forgot to take a picture. They had a 5-piece set, similar to the Rickey set I'd purchased previously, but this set only contained one Rickey pin, so I didn't buy the entire set. The pins were also being sold separately, and I found all of the others, but the Rickey pin was sold out.





As I mentioned previously, I also missed out on the Rickey jersey giveaway, but I wasn't too disappointed. The jerseys are basically T-shirts with buttons, and I wasn't a big fan of the Mountain Dew logo on the sleeve anyway. So, I've borrowed the images above from eBay, where the jerseys are being sold for fairly ridiculous amounts right now.



But, I did manage to get the banner giveaway on Sunday, which I thought was pretty cool, as it measures about 5' tall by 3' wide. Here it is hanging from my fireplace, which is not where it's going to stay.



Finally, here's my sons best Rickey Henderson impersonation. I promise that he did this all on his own, and he even picked up the bat. Looks like we've got another Rickey fan in the family!

Rickey's #24 Retired by the A's

After returning home from Cooperstown last week, after 5 days of Rickey mania, I knew that the fun wasn't over yet, as I still had Rickey Henderson Weekend at the Oakland Coliseum to look forward too.



But, based on the crowds at the game on Saturday, so did A LOT of other people, as the line to get in stretched to the end of the parking lot. The A's were expecting a big turnout for the game on Saturday, which would feature a pre-game ceremony retiring Rickey's #24, but I don't thing they were prepared for the mobs of people that showed up. The announced attendance was 35,067, which is considered a sellout for the current configuration of the Coliseum, and almost certainly the largest crowd of the year.



Once you finally got close to the gate, you still had to wrap around the front of the stadium a few times. The A's were giving away Rickey Henderson replica jerseys, and in order to get one, you had to stand in line at around 1:30, for a game that started at 6:05! Since I had my one-year-old with me, that was definitely not going to happen, so there would be no jersey for me (but I did get the Rickey banner on Sunday, which is the giveaway that I really wanted).



Although I've included quite a few pictures below, I hope everyone enjoys my photo essay of the day's events. I wasn't as close as I was for the Hall of Fame induction, but I think I still managed to get some decent shots. As everyone waited for the game to start, the A's showed a slideshow of pictures taken at the induction ceremony. It was pretty cool to be able to look at them and know that I took almost the exact same pictures.



His name and number were also shown on all of the digital scoreboards around the stadium.



When the ceremony finally began, ex-teammates of Rickey's arrived in classic cars and sports cars, with about eight of them in total. Here's Tony Phillips, who Rickey played with on the A's for quite a few years.



Arriving to chants of "Stewwwww," Dave Stewart is one of Rickey's best friends, and is also his agent.



It was finally time for Rickey to be announced…



…and he was presented with a burst of fireworks from the outfield.



Through the smoke of the fireworks, Rickey walked the red carpet, towards the infield and second base.





After arriving at gold-plated second base, Rickey gave the crowd a re-creation of his epic 939th steal of third base back in 1991.



The short ceremony was overseen by A's announcer Ray Fosse, as Rickey's ex-teammates surrounded him.





At one point, Jason Giambi, on behalf of the A's organization, presented Rickey was a crystal trophy utilizing a now iconic pose.



The A's presented Rickey with a framed jersey to commemorate the retiring of #24.





Rickey's three daughters then unveiled his #24 up on the outfield wall, which was followed by more fireworks and a blast of green and gold confetti. As you can see, the videographer decided to stand directly in front of the number the entire time, which was rather annoying.



Here's a close-up of the jersey which I took after the game on Sunday.



Rickey's jersey will stay on the outfield wall for a little while, and will then join the A's four other retired jerseys (Catfish, Fingers, Reggie, and Eck) on the outfield tarps.



Rickey threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the game to Jason Giambi.



For both games this weekend Rickey's #24 was painted on the field behind home plate.



After receiving the ceremonial first pitch ball from Giambi, Rickey seemed to contemplate tossing it into the stands, but must have changed his mind. Behind him, in the retro-Rickey t-shirt, is the A's official photographer Michael Zagaris. Also behind him, which I didn't even realize until I cropped the photo, is the gold base which was used in the ceremony.





Although Rickey walked in along the red carpet, he left in one of the classic cars. Overall, it was a fun ceremony, and something that I'm definitely glad that I was able to attend. I did take some video of the ceremony itself, but the video itself is not that great, and may only be good for the audio. Either way, I'll try to edit it and get it posted up soon