September 14, 2004: A's Fans Need to "Cool It Down"
By Ahchie

Things have gotten so bad in Oaktown that they may need to take a cue from the California State Fair. Although the policy of the Fair was doomed to fail, at least there was a marked effort at addressing a problem that had been increasingly growing out of hand.

Monday, September 13, marked another day where the fans in Oakland inserted themselves into a Major League Baseball game. Exactly one week after A’s fans pelted the field with debris during a loss to the Boston Red Sox, the fans and the Texas bullpen got into a heated exchange in the 9th inning of the tied game, resulting in rookie reliever Frank Francisco hurling a chair into the crowd. Francisco was arrested and will obviously be facing stiff penalties by both the law and MLB. There is no excuse for what young Frank did and he ought to be suspended for the rest of the season, but this is another incident that never even had to happen.

Everyone wants to know whom to blame. The easy target is to blame the pitcher for crossing the line. While he ought to shoulder some of the blame and ought to receive an appropriate punishment, there is plenty of blame that can be placed on the fans, ballpark security, and Mr. Al Davis.

The foul-mouthed, drunken and unruly fans have a long-standing bad reputation in Oakland. While the fans ought to be held accountable for their own disgusting behavior, the root of the problem is none other than Al Davis himself. Al Davis loves this type of attention that Oakland gets, be it during a football or baseball game. He secretly hopes for more of this type of rabid fan behavior. He wants the fans to burn 49ers jerseys and booze it up in the parking lot for hours before game time. He wants the fans to whip themselves into a frenzy. And he sure doesn’t mind when that frenzy boils over into an altercation that gets national attention.

Al Davis created this beast in 1960 when he created the Oakland Raiders. His rosters were commonly filled with talent as well as with thugs. The Raider history is a mix of greatness on one hand and a desire to be the bad boys on the other. While there was a mentality to just win, there has always been an underlying mentality of playing dirty and being on the fringes of fair play. What do you expect of a team that celebrated one of its players by giving him the nickname "Lester the Molester"? Jack Tatum, former defensive back known as "The Assassin", once said, "I like to believe that my best hits border on felonious assault." The mentality Davis put into the team naturally spread to the fan base. Raider fans are notorious for their hateful attitudes and the atmosphere at a Raiders home game is far from fan friendly. Raider fans commonly get into fights at other stadiums as well. And forget the idea of taking kids to a Raiders game, unless you want them to come home with a whole new vocabulary that would get them expelled from school.

This attitude has been gradually and steadily spreading to the once good-natured A’s fans. There are still plenty of good A’s fans, especially those getting the half-priced senior tickets, but the percentage of thug fans is increasing every year. Every year you see more and more unruly fans, and often those fans just happen to be wearing Raider gear.

Al Davis was probably smiling when he watched on television images of the Raider Nation rioting in the Oakland streets after losing badly in the Super Bowl in January of 2003. He was sure to be smiling last night as he watched his Network Associates Coliseum become the site of the Frank Francisco Show, with the knowledge that Francisco was mercilessly egged on for hours on end before he finally snapped.

And don’t feel sorry for the lady who got the broken nose when Francisco let the chair fly. She will make out pretty well in the end. Her husband even admitted that he sits in that section for the very purpose of tormenting the opposing team. These fans are not as innocent as they make themselves out to be. She’s got a nice little payday coming and all she had to put up with is a bloody face and a broken nose. Unlike the young lady in the Kobe Bryant case who was raped and has since been subjected to humiliation. She is still waiting for her payday.

Some other notable Oakland A’s fan incidents:

September 6, 2004 – After one bad call and one good call (both going against the A’s), fans throw debris on the field and cause a delay. The bad call was on a Manny Ramirez catch of a Mark Kotsay line drive that replays showed was trapped. The good call was on a Kotsay trap that replays verified was a trap. Whether the calls were good or bad, the fans didn’t like it and got rid of their garbage in the process.

July 8, 2003 – Fan throws cherry bomb from upper deck and injures 8 year old boy.

April 23, 2003 – A man at an A's game nearly bit off a police officer's pinkie finger when the officer tried to help Coliseum security break up an argument between fans.

April 19, 2003 – Fan throws cell phone at Rangers outfielder Carl Everett. Everett was hit in the back of the head.

October 1, 2001 - Oakland fans from every deck of the stadium hurl insults at and threaten two Red Sox fans who simply offer an alternative option in the tight governor's race that resulted in Gray Davis being kicked out of office.

The proper way to root for your team - an original sign and no disrespect to the opponent. Oakland fans, however, hurled numerous threats and insults in response.

April 10, 2001 - Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki was struck in the head with quarters thrown by fans in Oakland during the Mariners' 5-1 victory. During the game fans in the right-field bleachers taunted Suzuki with racial epithets and threw quarters and ice at him. A man who hit Ichiro in the head with a quarter stood and took a bow.

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