Smoke bombs, chaos and crying: As final game in Oakland had it all

The A’s time in the Bay Area came to a close on Thursday in the franchise’s final game at the Oakland Coliseum on a day that included chants of “Sell the Team!” toward owner John Fisher and fans throwing smoke bombs on the field. In the end, the A’s ended their run at the Coliseum with a 3-2 win over the Rangers in front of a sellout crowd of 46,889.After the Athletics pulled out the win, pitcher Mason Miller tapped his hand under the part of the jersey where it said Oakland.But while fans mourned the departure of their team, they expressed their sadness in a number of ways, including two instances where green smoke bombs were tossed onto the field, delaying play. The first instance came in the seventh inning when A’s outfielder Brent Rooker was at the plate, and a fan launched the smoke bomb into right field before it started billowing green smoke. During the same at-bat, a beer bottle was flung onto the field, which one of the Rangers players picked up and removed. A second smoke bomb — with yellowish smoke — landed on the playing surface in the top of the ninth with two outs and two strikes.The emotional day in the Bay Area marked the third professional sports team to depart Oakland after the Raiders left for Las Vegas in 2020 and the Golden State Warriors moved to the Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019. Across Oakland Coliseum, fans held a number of signs expressing their feelings on Thursday. “The soul of Oakland will survive,” one read. And a third paid homage to one of baseball’s classic films — “A League of Their Own” — with the altered saying, “Today there IS crying in baseball.”And, in an address to fans after the game, Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said, “Thank you all for loving the game of baseball.”...