Frank The Tank
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00:00Welcome to the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.
00:20You can almost hear John Vicenda say that every time.
00:23And well, we was once home to Raiders.
00:27Raiders left, and then they went to Los Angeles.
00:33When they came back, they built this monstrosity.
00:37You're walking in here, it kind of feels like you're walking into a tomb.
00:41It looks like a tomb, and it is.
00:44As the A's have been playing a season-long wake in their final season in Oakland.
00:50Let's check out the Oakland Coliseum, which was built in the 60s for the Raiders.
00:55The A's moved in in 1968, and are moving out.
01:00Let's check it out.
01:04There's nothing.
01:06There's nothing outside this ballpark.
01:07This isn't a ballpark, it's just life after people.
01:10You can take the Barden, and you see just how bad and how damaged the city of Oakland
01:17is from just how poor it is.
01:20They can't afford to build a new stadium.
01:22They can't afford to keep the A's.
01:25Just as much as this stadium has rotted, the city has rotted.
01:31There seems to be a couple people trying to have a good time out here, doing maybe a little
01:37bit of tailgating over here.
01:39But there's nothing for fans outside the gates.
01:41When you walk in from the Bart, it feels like you're walking through a prison with the way
01:45the fences are set up.
01:47In terms of ballpark outside atmosphere, is there a way to give them an F-?
01:53I was in the Coliseum late one night, when my eyes beheld an awesome sight, and A's homerun
02:01had begun to rise, when suddenly, to my surprise, he did the bastard.
02:07It caught on in a flash.
02:09He did the bastard.
02:11He did the monster bash.
02:13The A's have put up a nice little mural under history in Oakland.
02:20And you know, one thing that I haven't seen?
02:24They've won four World Series in Oakland.
02:27There are four World Series trophies.
02:29Where are they?
02:34Those should be on display for the fans to see, not hidden in a team corporate office.
02:40So in terms of honoring your history, the A's get an F!
02:51Wow!
02:54Wow!
02:57Wow!
03:00And do the bash!
03:03It's always important to fans.
03:06In hopeless situations, a team getting ready to leave, and they're out here banging drums,
03:11making noise.
03:12When the A's are making playoff runs, this section was the rowdiest section in baseball.
03:19And now...
03:33Sidelines to the stadium are weird.
03:38I mean, we got the football pleasure.
03:40The foul territory here is the biggest in baseball.
03:46That's going away.
03:49The cozy feel you have in a baseball game doesn't exist here.
03:52That's why for sidelines, the A's get a D.
04:04You know, the athletics have had kind of a vagabond existence.
04:10As they played their final games in Oakland, this is not the first time they've moved.
04:14This team was founded in Philadelphia in 1901, and were a powerhouse.
04:20They went to the 1905 World Series, won it in 1910, 1911, 1913.
04:26But after losing the 1914 World Series, rumors of players throwing the World Series
04:31led Connie Mack, the owner-manager, to sell off all the players.
04:36And the A's instantly became one of the worst teams in baseball history.
04:40I think one year they went, like, dirty in 117.
04:44Worst winning percentage before the White Sox this year.
04:48But in the late 20s, they got good again.
04:50They had Jimmy Foxx, they had Lefty Grove.
04:53They went to the World Series and won it in 29, won it again in 30.
04:57But in 31, they lost to the Cardinals.
05:00And after that World Series, due to the Great Depression and the stock market crash,
05:06which was very hard on Connie Mack,
05:09they had to sell off the players again.
05:11And their next 20 years, they were pretty bad.
05:16Connie Mack was manager of the A's and owned them until 1950.
05:20And then he finally stepped down as manager,
05:22winning and losing as manager in baseball history.
05:25In 1950, the Phillies made a surprise trip to the World Series
05:29and stole the heart of Philadelphia away from the Athletics,
05:33who were the more successful team.
05:35So in 1954, the Athletics moved to Kansas City.
05:40A guy named Arnold Johnson, who was a part owner of the Yankees,
05:44brought the Athletics to Kansas City, which had been the Yankees' farm scene.
05:48And over the next seven years, the A's kind of were a farm team of the Yankees.
05:53For example, in 1961, when the Yankees won the World Series,
05:56there were 10 former Athletics on the Yankees.
05:59If the Yankees needed a player, they just called the A's,
06:02any player they want, for nothing.
06:04It was a collusion that was just horrible that this actually happened.
06:10I mean, the A's history of bad owners is just incredible.
06:14You guys in the bullpen are listening.
06:16All right, well, I got to try a hot dog at every stadium.
06:21And of course, you know, they say that the food service here
06:26is like failing health grades, that it's not clean.
06:30Like the whole stadium is just falling apart.
06:34The whole stadium is falling apart.
06:37But we'll do a hot dog review.
06:43Hot dog to bun ratio, no bueno, not good.
06:47Coloring, not good.
06:50Feels like it sat in a drawer for like 20 minutes or at least three hours probably.
06:56It's cold. It's terrible.
07:05It's chewy. It's the chewiest hot dog I've ever seen.
07:08There's no, it's not, snap, forget snap.
07:11It's like chewing gum. It's not going down. It's not swallowing.
07:16This legitimately is like the worst hot dog I've ever had.
07:23In 1961, after Arnold Johnson died,
07:27Charlie Finley brought the team and said that that's going to change right now.
07:31He changed their colors to green and yellow because he was Irishman, very proud Irishman.
07:36But he didn't like being in Kansas City.
07:38First he tried to move it to Dallas.
07:40Then eventually after Kansas City got the expansion team set up,
07:45he moved the team to Oakland.
07:47And they became successful within a few years.
07:50They had a dynasty. They won five straight division championships,
07:54won three straight World Series.
07:56They won the World Series in 72, 73, and 74.
07:59But Charlie Finley wasn't very rich independently,
08:03and he knew that free agency would not, he would not be able to keep up with them.
08:06So he eventually had to trade off everyone, and he sold the team.
08:10And then in the 80s they got good with the Brash Brothers and Tony LaRusso,
08:14and his team was, his team was competitive.
08:16They built Mount Davis, and the cracks began to fall.
08:20They got new owners that couldn't afford to sign anybody, so they did Moneyball.
08:25And Moneyball worked for a while until other teams learned about Moneyball
08:28and started doing it themselves.
08:30But the A's for the most part had a grittiness, a competitiveness,
08:35that lasted until 2020 when John Fisher basically,
08:39knowing that if they were bad he could move them,
08:42so he basically did Major League.
08:44And now that's where we are now with John Fisher,
08:46and they're going to play a couple years in Sacramento.
08:50Vegas is kind of a sketchy situation, but Major League Baseball wants the A's in Vegas,
08:55so they're going to Vegas.
08:56The A's have an interesting history of bad owners and up and down history,
09:01and it's crazy.
09:14You know what you see over there?
09:17You notice that you don't see any advertising on top of the scoreboard?
09:21They lost their sponsor deal with the stadium over the whole move.
09:28So they just pulled that name off the tag, and they haven't put anything back.
09:33It's a symbol of just the decay of the stadium.
09:40Hey, how's it going?
09:42How's it going?
09:44Here we go.
09:45Here's Stomper.
09:46Now, you know, the elephant was originally derogatory for the A's.
09:50In 1905, John McGraw called the Philadelphia Athletics white elephants,
09:55and then they said the A's had defiantly made the elephant their logo.
10:00And now when they were in Kansas City they used the mule,
10:03And now when they were in Kansas City they used the mule,
10:05but in 1988 they brought the elephant back and Stomper was born.
10:27They do have a little bit of an open concourse.
10:29That's kind of a surprise, but it still feels dated.
10:35It feels dated.
10:37It is dated.
10:39So in terms of concourses, I'm going to give the Oakland Coliseum a D+,
10:47with the infrastructural problems of the stadium.
10:51The toilets have been known to overflow into the visiting and home clubhouses.
10:57They had a nest of possums last year up in the visitor's broadcast booth.
11:02And as I mentioned, the Board of Health gives the food rating at the stadium an F,
11:09and basically they sent out a warning to their fans,
11:13eat at your own risk.
11:15These are the food lines,
11:17because there are no open concessions elsewhere in the ballpark but the first level.
11:23So basically we give food options here an F.
11:29These guys, these workers, these concession workers,
11:32unless they work for the Giants also,
11:34and some people do double duty,
11:38they're not going to have a job.
11:40That's another person hurt by this whole mess.
11:43You know, when a team moves, it's sad for everyone.
11:48It's sad for everyone.
11:50And that's just the feeling I get here.
11:53I feel the sadness. I feel the longing.
11:56I feel like this is...
12:02The stadium is talking to me.
12:04And the Oakland Coliseum is saying to me,
12:07I feel empty.
12:10They don't have urinals here.
12:12They have troughs.
12:14That's how outdated this ballpark is.
12:17They have troughs.
12:20In terms of bathroom cleanliness,
12:23this stadium gets an F.
12:25Well, if the stadium's immaculate or a mess,
12:29it's good to have these dude wipes, personal grooming wipes,
12:34on your body, on your person.
12:37So after those ballpark nozzles go right through you,
12:41you can be clean and fresh,
12:44even in the worst bathrooms in baseball.
12:51This isn't good. This isn't good.
12:53The way this has been handled has been atrocious by everyone.
12:59John Fisher, the city of Oakland, and the commissioner
13:03are all bad guys here.
13:05There are no good guys. There are no heroes.
13:09This is a Major League ballpark.
13:11Just say to yourself,
13:13this is a Major League ballpark.
13:16This is disrepair.
13:20Basically, you have everyone saying fuck you to each other,
13:25no one's helping each other,
13:27and Major League Baseball's driving the bus to Vegas.
13:39Five, four, three, two, one.
13:44Go, Oakland!
13:47Go, Oakland!
13:50One, two, three, six.
13:53Go, Oakland!
13:58In the 70s, there was a homemaker
14:01who got a job in the Oakland A's office.
14:03She was good at making cookies.
14:06The owner of the A's, Finley, liked the cookies so much
14:09he said you should start making them and selling them.
14:13Finley helped her start her business.
14:19Her name was Mrs. Fields.
14:25Here's another story.
14:27In the late 70s,
14:30there were kids that would come around the stadium,
14:32sometimes sneak in the stadium,
14:34and there was this young boy
14:36who would always ride his bike around the stadium.
14:41Finley saw him coming to every game
14:44and sneaking in and said,
14:46I'll let you be a bat boy
14:48so you don't have to sneak in anymore.
14:50Someone remarked to him that he looked like Henry Aaron.
14:55All the players in the A's
14:57would call this bat boy Little Hammer.
15:00He even had his personalized jersey,
15:03Little Hammer.
15:04A decade later,
15:06he became one of the top-ranked ballers of all time,
15:09MC Hammer.
15:14Here's another story.
15:15During the pandemic,
15:18when they had all the cardboard cutouts out,
15:20they had a special one of a former peanut vendor
15:23who was a 17-year-old kid
15:25working his way through high school,
15:26though he became an actor.
15:29Tom Hanks.
15:33And those are the things that are going to be lost
15:36when this stadium goes away.
15:48All right.
15:50What happened here is a tragedy.
15:53This stadium was allowed to rot.
15:56The whole situation here was allowed to rot.
15:59This was once a great fan base.
16:01This was once a great-looking stadium.
16:07It's an F.
16:08But not just the stadium failed.
16:10Everyone failed.
16:12The fans of Oakland.
16:20Spiderwebs, spiderwebs.
16:23In Oakland we have spiderwebs.
16:26Ballpark not maintained.
16:28That is why they're going away.
16:31Look out.
16:32They got some spiderwebs.
16:34Take me out to the ballpark.
16:38Take me to each one.
16:42I'm hitting the road and I'm reviewing everything.
16:46Inside, outside, even the game.
16:50Of course, there will be a raw dog.
16:54Plus the ballpark specialty.
16:57As I review each ballpark in the MLB.