Formerly the Philadelphia Athletics, this team now resides in Oakland after making a brief stop in Kansas City during the 1950s. Today’s Athletics are led by a different kind of Connie Mack-like baseball guy named Billy Beane, who is one of the more well known GMs in baseball (and subject of the very well written baseball book Moneyball by Michael Lewis.) The A’s play their games at McAfee Coliseum, which is also home for the terrible Oakland Raiders. Due to the overwhelming size, the Athletics decided to close the top level of seats and cover it with green tarp, reducing the total number of seats in the stadium to just over 34,000. This is the same strategy used in other ballparks that are primarily used in other stadiums such as the Florida Marlins, with the only difference being that the tarp covering actually looks pretty good and masks the fact that McAfree Coliseum is actually better suited for a football game.

Tonight’s game was a sold-out match up between the As and the visiting Boston Red Sox. We were joined by Jeff and Will, of the A’s Superfan Network (see picture here.) It is safe to say that approximately 50% of the fans in the seats were Red Sox fans. Where do they all come from? Seriously, how do 17,000 Red Sox fans appear out of no where in Oakland? And these are not just casual fans, of course. These are your super-intense, Fever Pitch type caliber Red Sox fans cheering on every play. I’ve noticed the same thing happens when the Red Sox come to Philadelphia for interleague play (although I’m sure more of these are fans from Boston.)

The game was dramatic for several reasons. The A’s Dan Haren was lights out—he currently leads the AL with a 6-2 record, and a 1.70 ERA. 1.70 ERA! How does this guy have two losses? Haren only made two bad pitches during the night, and they were unfortunately solo home runs hit by the Red Sox. He left the game after pitching 4 outs away from a 4-2 victory, but the Red Sox rallied in the top of the ninth to tie the game. It was at this point that the Red Sox Nation in attendance went crazy, to the point where a Red Sox fan in our row got into a screaming match with an elderly As fan (in attendance with his 8-year old granddaughter mind you). The argument peaked when the Red Sox fan used several expletives and threatened to take the As fan’s life for no other reason besides the fact that he cheered for the As. Meanwhile, a huge fight broke out in the upper level—and my guess it wasn’t over an argument over the impact of global warming.

The game ended up going into extra innings, with Eric Chavez ending the night with a walkoff homerun for the As. More taunts and jeers were being thrown around and mini-scuffles breaking out in the concourse.

Special thanks to Joellen from StubHub for helping us out with tickets to tonight’s game! If you need tickets to any game, concert, or even theatre show Stubhub.com is the place to get them with a 100% guarantee.