COMMENTARY: Alas, it’s finally true about Oakland professional sports: ‘There is no there there’

“There is no there there.”

Those are the famous words of writer Gertrude Stein in describing her childhood days growing up in the northern California city of Oakland. As many know, the township of Oakland is situated just across the bay from the larger and more prestigious city of San Francisco.

Those two cargo/shipping giants, which call the Bay Area their home, became a tale of two cities, both of which feature explosive true-to-life stories. Stein is a worthy example of a writer who made her opinion stand out by using unusual terms for a city missing its so-called whereabouts.

Growing up in Oakland, Stein used that phrase to express her childhood feelings that the city had become something not so important and not very favorable to the common eye.

Like Stein, I also grew up in Oakland, residing in the Fruitvale Diamond district of the East Bay city. But unlike Stein, I found it to be a vibrant and inviting place to live.

In the mid-to-late 1940s when World War II was winding down, young boys like myself found time to play most of our games on the adjoining Sequoia Grammar School diamond devoid of grass but with plenty of dirt.

And for some of us, Oakland remains a sports city like no other.

In fact, it is the only city in America to be abandoned by the same organization twice, that being the Raiders in 1982 and again in 2020.

And then in the pro basketball ranks, the Golden State Warriors, who had crossed the bay in 1971 in search of better digs, have since returned home to San Francisco with a burgeoning trophy case in tow.

And finally there was the long-fought battle to keep the Oakland Athletics in the East Bay, but sadly such efforts did not save the baseball city from becoming the final hat trick of departures.

And just like that, for Oakland, “there is no there there.”

Once the kingpin of professional sports for the West Coast, Oakland’s stadium/pavilion complex just off Interstate 880 now sits idle and ghostlike, no longer harboring the Raiders, Warriors and A’s.

In short, the past athletic accomplishments of those three Oakland clubs will never be forgotten and for good reason. They were big winners from the 1960s onward, combining for 10 championships (two in the NFL, four in the NBA and four in the MLB). Today the city of Oakland is still gutsy and self-preserving with a blue-collar mentality helped along by the Silicon Valley tech boom.

Oakland became one of the most desirable places to strive by day and thrive by night, thanks in part to the Athletics’ Moneyball presence and the overall success of the Raiders and Warriors.

Not bad for a city considered a small-time market. The baseball A’s fan base was limited by lack of numbers. Right now, the population for San Francisco is 874,000, nearly twice as large as Oakland’s current 441,000.

When Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley decided to move his A’s to Oakland in 1968, there were the doubters who thought the Bay Area wasn’t large enough to support two major league teams. San Francisco had, at that point, been home to the Giants for 13 years after that franchise had left New York.

As things turned out, the doubters may have seen the partial light of day, but it took some 56 years (1968-2024) before the break-up between the Giants and the Sacramento-bound A’s was made official.

Personally, I think the A’s should be officially named the Sacramento Athletics, not just Athletics. The A’s are slated to land in their new home of Las Vegas in 2028.

As for Gertrude Stein’s personal view of Oakland, it never changed.

But as I mentioned before, the city and county did change and for the better, especially on the athletic front.

Initially, there was the building of a multi-purpose football/baseball stadium, and that was followed by the building of an adjoining basketball pavilion. Sorry Gertrude, but there was a definite “there there” sweeping across the waters of the Bay Area.

These were indeed fast times at Oakland, lasting for some 60-plus years, thanks in particular to the many Raider, Athletic and Warrior achievements on the playing field. The A’s drew well but only in those years when they put a winning team on the diamond. Perhaps by way of low attendance numbers and a somewhat lower fan base, we can understand why the green and gold A’s have now shuffled out of town.

There still stands just across the bay the looming giant we know as San Francisco. I firmly believed in 1946 at age 12 that Oakland, the so-called little guy, would someday become king of the hill while turning S.F. to toast.

Let’s face it, back in those old Pacific Coast League rivalry days, the Oakland Oaks often made life somewhat difficult for the San Francisco Seals. And their minor league rivalry was both hot and contentious, especially during those Sunday twinbills in which the teams switched home sites for the morning and afternoon tilts. And there was, as a result, added mid-day traffic on the Bay Bridge separating the two Treasure Island cities.

While all such fond baseball memories of Oakland may still be with us, this tale of two cities still has a sad ending. According to Gertrude Stein, Oakland is where “there is no there there.”

Barrows is a retired Tribune sports writer. He may be contacted at cranston6767@hotmail.com.