‘Let’s Go Oakland’ chants at A’s games kill the vibe if you love Sacramento | Opinion
Sutter Health Park does not create a great fan experience for people who love Sacramento. At least when the Athletics are playing. The left field wall is plastered with a giant purple sign that says “Las Vegas,” the future home of the A’s.
Worse than that are some of the fans who attend the games. They vent their anger toward A’s owner John Fisher with a chant that is wrapped in an annoying phrase and delivered with cult-like energy.
There I was, in the bottom of the 10th inning of the Athletics’ game against the Atlanta Braves at Sutter Health Park on July 10. The sun had left the ballpark, yet the A’s chances of winning the game were still bright. It was 3-3.
Mason Miller was the reliever who kept the Braves from scoring in the top of the 10th, so the A’s could have a chance to win it when they came to bat in the bottom of the 10th. At that moment, the crowd stood up with excitement, looking to cheer on the Green and Gold to victory.
I just so happened to look a couple of rows down from me and saw a gentleman stand up. He then began the chant that has echoed in Sutter Health Park since the Athletics arrived in Sactown: “Let’s go Oakland.” The crowd surrounding him joined in with him happily.
The ironic part to me is that the man was wearing an A’s hat that had the Sacramento patch on the side.
Now, you may ask, “Well, why don’t you make the experience your own, LeBron?”
I tried.
One game, during the faithful seventh-inning stretch, the crowd began to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” A tradition is for fans to insert the name of their team instead of singing “home team.” I decided, as I usually do, to say “Sacramento A’s.” I was met with a loud and obnoxious response that Sacramento “will never be their name!”
The allure of Las Vegas and the chip on the shoulder caused by the nasty divorce with Oakland doesn’t leave a lot of room for Sacramento.
It is extremely natural for a fan to want a sense of pride and identity with the sports team that is in their community. What is incredibly abnormal is being corrected by the Oakland A’s culture police every time someone tries to mention Sacramento in the same breath as the team.
Sacramento did not ask for the A’s to come here. This was a decision that Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé made by himself, as rich millionaires do, to make a case to the MLB that the city can be a great place for an expansion team. But the league and its fans are not witnessing a Sacramento fan experience. They are seeing a disgruntled, grumpy group of fans cling to a city that Major League owners voted unanimously to leave.
I reached out to Ranadivé’s team for comment and they didn’t get back with in time of this column.
Listen, I get it. It hurts to see a team that spent decades, generations playing baseball in your community be ripped away. But the reality is that Sacramento is not the new nor permanent home of the Athletics. We just want to watch baseball and have a good time doing it. And that means being able to openly chant Sacramento (or West Sacramento) and take pride in our community. That is what sports are about.
It’s mind-numbingly painful to sit through a baseball game with the most dejected, dissatisfied and angry fan base in baseball.
I place the blame on Ranadivé and his zealous quest to get an MLB team here. If he cared enough about the culture of Sacramento, he would see the harm in hosting the A’s.
But the Kings’ owner still has a chance to make it right.
Ranadivé needs to cut A’s stay short
Ranadivé may need to take a step back and think about what this Athletics stint is doing to the culture of Sacramento. We’re already known as the stepchild of Northern California.
At the end of the season, Sacramento will have one year under its belt as an MLB team and that is more than other cities that arevying to have baseball like Nashville and Portland, Oregon. Ranadivé got what he wanted and that is great.
Yet the community as a whole has nothing to show for it. It would be a basic show of trust for Ranadivé to let the public know about any efforts by him to get Sacramento’s own MLB team. Only then would going to Sutter Health Park to watch the A’s mean something.
These disgruntled A’s fans are not going away after this season. If anything, their negative movement will only grow. Sacramento should not be the host to this for another season.
We’re frankly better than this. Let’s go Sacramento.
This story was originally published July 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: This commentary has been updated to correct the name of an A’s relief pitcher.
