Not a bad day for a ballgame in Oakland, 2016 – Sully Baseball Daily Photo at Noon for April 6, 2018

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The Oakland Coliseum, or whatever it is called now, gets a lot of crap for being one of the worst parks in baseball.

And yeah, it is an eyesore with the ugly Mount Davis in center field, tarped off seats and the A’s desperately need a new park.

But let me tell you, on a beautiful spring or summer day, even with only a sporadic number of fans in the stands, even a game at the Coliseum can be a glorious thing.

Welcome to… where? Oakland, 2016 – Sully Baseball Daily Photo at Noon for March 21, 2018

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The name of the Oakland Coliseum keeps changing. I know for a while it was called the Network Associates Coliseum, McAfee Coliseum, Overstock.com Coliseum and the oddly named O.co Coliseum.

When O.co dropped their naming rights, I went to a game in Oakland. Outside the entrance was the sign pictured. Usually it says Welcome to [INSERT NAME HERE] Coliseum.

But there was no new name yet.

So we were warmly welcomed to… nothing… no name…

It was like a mystery. We are being welcomed, but to where?

Eventually they went back to the default Oakland Coliseum to avoid MORE confusion.

Mount Davis at Oakland Coliseum, 2015 – Sully Baseball Daily Photo at Noon for January 29, 2018

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Look at Mount Davis, the horrible structure in center field of the Oakland Coliseum. It is a monument to Oakland’s odd romance with the Raiders and dismissal of the A’s.

The Coliseum was a nice place to see a ball game, especially when the A’s didn’t have to share it with the Raiders. But when the Raiders came back from LA, they built this horrific eyesore in center field for football seats. It never quite worked for football and was grotesque for baseball.

And did it work? Of course not. The Raiders want to leave for Vegas and the A’s need a new place to play.

I can’t help but wonder if they built a football only facility or told the Raiders to go f— themselves if the A’s would still be playing in a decent park that housed 4 World Series champs and two more pennant winners.

But Oakland always craved to have the Raiders there more than the A’s. It is too bad.