April 17, 1979: The night only 250 fans showed up

thunderdan

Really interesting (short) read. While the A's aren't my team, I've always kind of had a soft spot for them because they just never seem to get the love. EVERY time I've been to one of their home games, the opposing team has more fans. Every single time. Granted those were big market teams (Red Sox, Yankees), but that never seemed right.

This would have been a cool game to be part of....but only if you're a true baseball fan.

250 people!

grote15

Some of the "crowds" at Shea during the darker era of the 1970s were pretty close, lol.

At least you could stretch out!

itzagoner

as long as they weren't all waiting in the same line to pee.

ClockworkAngel

Thanks for sharing that Dan. I love those kinds of stories. Many like that have become lost with time so it's good to bring them back. I remember going to a couple San Diego Padre games in the early 80's at "The Murph" (Jack Murphy Stadium) that had maybe 4,000-5,000 people in attendance, but 250? That's so weird to think about.

Back then, stadium security wasn't so strict on people moving around, so by the 3rd inning we could always sneak closer and have great seats. Of course the best seats in the park were like 8 bucks back then.

Carew29

My Angels in 1971 weren't much better with their starting line up!!
And a whopping team batting avg of .237. Yet the team pitching staff ERA was an amazing 3.10 and that ERA only got us 8th place of 12 teams

John Stephenson BA .219 HR 3
Jim Spencer BA .237 HR 18
Sandy Alomar BA .260 HR 4
Jim Fregosi BA .233 HR 5
Ken McMullen BA .250 HR 21
Tony Gonzalez BA .245 HR 3
Ken Berry BA .221 HR 3
Tony Conigliaro BA .222 HR 4

thunderdan

<< <i>Thanks for sharing that Dan. I love those kinds of stories. Many like that have become lost with time so it's good to bring them back. I remember going to a couple San Diego Padre games in the early 80's at "The Murph" (Jack Murphy Stadium) that had maybe 4,000-5,000 people in attendance, but 250? That's so weird to think about.

Back then, stadium security wasn't so strict on people moving around, so by the 3rd inning we could always sneak closer and have great seats. Of course the best seats in the park were like 8 bucks back then. >>



Article talks about how the outfielders could hear customers ordering peanuts. That's how dead silent the stadium was. Can you imagine? And players yelling at fans in the upper deck to move closer? lol.
And to think that only a year later, Rickey joined the team and they took the AL West title. Rickey brought sunshine to Oakland.

dtkk49a

That was a good read. Thanks

garnettstyle

Hard to Imagine just a few years earlier the A's were winning the World Series.

Wasn't 1979 Rickey Henderson's rookie year?

bjbrall4

On September 22, 1966, there were only 413 people at a game at Yankee Stadium, which then held about 65,000 people.

ClockworkAngel

<< <i>On September 22, 1966, there were only 413 people at a game at Yankee Stadium, which then held about 65,000 people. >>



That's odd. They had Mantle too. You'd think a few thousand would show up just to see him, even in the twilight!

thunderdan

<< <i>

<< <i>On September 22, 1966, there were only 413 people at a game at Yankee Stadium, which then held about 65,000 people. >>



That's odd. They had Mantle too. You'd think a few thousand would show up just to see him, even in the twilight! >>



Mickey may have been behind the bleachers for that game.

DanBessette

I know it's not the majors, but I went to an Ottawa Lynx (triple A) game in '03. It was April and freezing cold. They announce an attendance of over 1,000. We counted about 90 people, and a good portion of those were holding radar guns.

mrmopar

Figures it was the Mariners. We didn't have great numbers for Seattle home games in that time frame either. I frequently remember crowds of less than 10K there. You could practically pick your seats a lot of the time.

yankeesman

Awesome story! I too went to some pretty brutally attended Braves games in the 80s but the game that takes the cake is me, my dad and my two boys took a baseball trip to DC and it timed out to Randy Johnson going for his 300th win (which he ultimately got). We got up there for the night game before and it got rained out when Johnson was supposed to pitch so he started the front end of a double header the next day. It was rainy all day and constant but not enough to stop the game so maybe 4000 people were in the stands to see Johnson's 300th win. Then, the next game started shortly after and we asked the usher if we needed to move to our other seats for the second game. He said, nah, sit wherever you want. By the time they ended up rain delaying the second game (and ultimately ended it early) there might have been a couple hundred people still at the park. Oh, and I caught a foul ball in Randy Johnson's 300th win game I still have which was a first for me.

MooseDog

I didn't attend that game, but I did go to the previous game at which I think the "crowd" was announced as 1100 or so. Given that a "good" crowd in those years was 5000...well, pretty sad, but memorable days for this lifetime A's fan.

Griffins

Todays game at Camden is going to beat all of those records.