Oakland Coliseum

Oakland, CA

Team: Oakland Athletics	Opening Day: April 17, 1968
Capacity: 48,129	Dimensions: Foul Lines 330 Power Alleys 375 CF 400
Surface: bluegrass	Architect: Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill (1966) HNTB (1996)
Owner: City of Oakland and Alameda County	Cost: $25.5 million (1966), $200 million (1996)
Builder: Guy F. Atkinson Co. (1966), Tutor-Saliba (1996)	Year Built: 1966
AKA: Oakland-Alameda County Stadium (1966-98, 2008-11), Network Associates Coliseum (1998-2004), McAfee Coliseum (2004-08), Overstock.com Coliseum (2011), O.co Stadium (2011-2016)

Memorable Moments:

1972 - 1974, 1989 World Series Champions.
1988, 1990 American League Pennants.
1987 All Star Game.
May 8, 1968: Catfish Hunter tosses a perfect game.
October 15, 1981: First appearance of "The Wave" at a baseball game. Ugh.
June 7, 1994: Ricky Henderson steals base number 1,100.
September 4, 2002: A's break the American League record for consecutive wins with 20.
May 9, 2010: Dallas Braden throws the 19th Perfect Game in Major League history.

This is probably the best multi-use stadium I have been in. It feels kind of like a ballpark because the upper sections are closed off to make it more cozy. I saw a great game here and the fans were vehemently into it, but they all left around the sixth or seventh. Weird.

This park was built in 1966 as a home for the NFL Oakland Raiders. In 1968 the Athletics were lured here from Kansas City. Although the Coliseum is huge, the A's have never really drawn well despite their talented players. In the 1970s, the A's were led by Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Rollie Fingers, and Reggie Jackson. In the 1980s they had Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Walt Weiss. In the 2000s they had Miguel Tejada, Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito. Major renovations were done to the Coliseum in 1996 to bring the Raiders back home. Unfortunately the A's don't pay homage to their wonderful and rich past when they were in Philadelphia and Kansas City. Supposedly, the Coliseum used to offer a great view of the Berkeley Hills until Raiders owner Art Davis constructed a huge seating section, affectionately referred to as "Mount Davis".

Retired Numbers:

9 Reggie Jackson (2004)
24 Rickey Henderson (2009)
27 Jim "Catfish" Hunter (1990)
34 Rollie Fingers (1993)
43 Dennis Eckersly (2005)