For A’s fans, new city, same anger

ON THE LAST Monday in August, in a minor league ballpark temporarily posing as a big league stadium, Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal walked off the mound after striking out the side in the second inning against the Athletics. He looked up over the first-base dugout at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, to see an army of Tigers caps and jerseys bearing his name and number. The people wearing them, including 25 members of his family, stood and clapped and yawped “Skoob” until Skubal disappeared into the visiting dugout. That one syllable was stretched out with such volume and length that, given the setting, felt mildly sadistic.

It was the perfect night: 85 degrees, no wind. The best pitcher in baseball was pitching for one of the best teams in baseball and an announced crowd of 8,105 — a shade over 60% of Sutter Health’s capacity — found its way to the ballpark. Seats 18 rows behind home plate were being sold for $35 each on the secondary market, even as tickets in the same section remained at $117.20 on the Athletics’ official site.

As the Skoobs subsided, a man sitting about 20 rows behind home plate turned to the person next to him and said, professorially, “Technically, this is an A’s home game.”

IN APRIL 2024, when the A’s announced their three-year stutter-step in West Sacramento on their way to the permanence of Las Vegas, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive — also the owner of the Triple-A River Cats and Sutter Health Park — claimed the A’s were now the proud possessor of “the most sought-after ticket in America.”