Will A's make more memories during final homestand?

This story was excerpted from Martín Gallegos’ A’s Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

OAKLAND -- With only six games left on the schedule, the reality of 2024 being the final season of baseball played at the Oakland Coliseum is starting to set in for A’s players and coaches.

Back in April, the A’s announced that Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento will be their home for the 2025-27 seasons before their planned relocation to a new ballpark in Las Vegas that is expected to be ready for play by 2028.

While wrapping up the penultimate homestand at the Coliseum on Sunday, manager Mark Kotsay looked ahead to what figures to be an emotional final homestand that begins on Sept. 20 with a three-game series against the Yankees and ends on Sept. 26 after three games against the Rangers.

“I think the next homestand will be a pretty difficult one for those that have been here for a long time,” said Kotsay, who has spent a combined 11 years with the A’s as a player and coach. “It’s not a secret to anybody, really. … The closer it gets, the more it comes to a realization. You don’t know what kind of emotion you’re going to have when that final day comes.”

The A’s have called the Coliseum home since 1968. To celebrate their 57 seasons in Oakland, the club has planned a variety of promotions throughout the homestand. The Yankees series will feature a Rickey Henderson bobblehead giveaway and a special A’s Through the Decades Drone and Fireworks Show, while the final series against the Rangers will feature $2 tickets on Sept. 24, and $10 tickets on Sept. 25, with proceeds benefiting the Boys & Girls Club of Oakland, as well as a Replica Coliseum Stadium giveaway for the final game.

“It’s going to be a tough homestand,” Kotsay said. “The weekend series will be a little bit easier than the final series. I still think as each day goes by, there’s probably more emotion that goes along with it.”

This past seven-game homestand saw the A’s go 3-4 against the Mariners and Tigers. Perhaps fittingly, all three wins last week came on a walk-off.

Longtime A’s play-by-play announcer Vince Cotroneo once coined Oakland as “the walk-off capital of baseball” given the club’s propensity for late-inning thrillers at home. Turns out, that statement is pretty accurate. According to A’s baseball information manager Mike Selleck, since the A’s moved from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, their 484 walk-off victories are the most in the Majors.

Seth Brown, the longest-tenured current member of the A’s roster, had two of those walk-off hits in the past week.

“I love the Oakland A’s,” Brown said. “I got drafted in 2015, so being part of this organization has been the most special times of my life. As it’s winding down here at the Coliseum, you’ve got a little nostalgia.”