bostonglobe.com file photo: Former Oakland A’s pitcher, native of Fremont, and Boston Red Sox broadcaster Dennis Eckersley appeared at the 1989 World Series reunion in Fremont
A’s 30 Years World Series Reunion at Fremont
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi-González
FREMONT CA–At an upscale restaurant in Fremont, Athletics front office workers,executives,some ex-players and broadcasters were mingling and reminiscing the last time the Oakland A’s won a World Series.
The historic 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake World Series where the A’s swept the Giants. The “time capsule”reunion took place in Fremont,where in this decade,was planned to be the new home for the Oakland A’s and today the fourth largest city (by population) in the Bay Area,closing-in 240,000 residents.just a few months before the next US Census takes place.
The gentrification of Fremont has been taken place for a while now. Some are calling Fremont, “Silicon Valley East” because of its proximity to the hub of technology in the US. Fremont is only 12-15 miles away from Silicon Valley and would have been a well-located place for their new home,specially now because today’s Fremont is much more affluent that the Fremont where the General Motors Plant employed most of the population.
But,it was not-to-be. There was a rally of people supporting the team moving to Fremont.in a popular local eatery but the opposition came right away and the proponents got cold feet. The idea of Fremont as the new home for the A’s never got to first base,even thought it was officially listed on the team’s Media Guide one year.
It is always great to see people that you work in the past,in this case 30 years ago. Part of the history of this franchise that originated in Philadelphia and has won a total of 9 World Series, five in Philadelphia and four in Oakland. Even Crazy George,the ultimate A’s Booster was in attendance,with a drum to cheer everybody.
Although the focus was the 1989 World Series, the reunion was not necessarily about baseball,but about friendships and relationships that are developed in this unique business. Just like any reunion you will see people you have not seen and many that you didn’t even knew where alive. These are the people behind the scenes that make a Major League franchise operate in the good as well as during the lean years.
Fremont was an appropriate place for this reunion,because the city was part of the history of the Athletics and it is well located,just 15 miles from San José, 45 miles from San Francisco and just south of Oakland on highway 880,and accessible via BART. In July, Fremont was named the ‘least stressed city in the United States” by a WalletHub study, according to the San José Mercury News.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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