The A's final game was a boisterous wake for Oakland baseball

After a video of two fans ripping out a pair of Oakland Coliseum seats went viral Tuesday, there was a panic that disgruntled A's fans would go crazy at the last game. Instead, the final game, a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers Thursday, was a festive but sad celebration of 57 years of Oakland A's baseball.

No thanks to team ownership, who did as little as possible to commemorate the event. Oakland fans have come to loathe owner John Fisher, who is planning to move the team to Sacramento next season, on his way to a still-tentative Las Vegas ballpark. Fans have sported T-shirts reading "SELL" to games, organized chants of "Sell the Team," held a "reverse boycott" game to protest ownership and even displayed puppets of Fisher and his partner in abandoning Oakland, team president Dave Kaval.

Aside from a first pitch thrown out by Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson, plus a national anthem sung by former Cy Young winner/aspiring rock star Barry Zito, there weren't any prominent former players. Signs read "Thank You, Oakland," but the atmosphere felt almost hostile to fans. Concession stands were running out of beer in the first inning, perhaps out of ownership's fear of angry crowds. That may explain why the team refused to open the tarp-covered seats in "Mount Davis," the third deck of the outfield — ironically, their concern that the A's would draw too many fans.

The team already removed the tiles from the scoreboard in right field, as if they'd already been sold for scrap. Team employees switched out the bases after each inning, in order to have more collectors' items to sell. Not to donate to charity or fans; to line Fisher's pockets.

In a time where nearly every person has a phone camera in their pockets at all times, the team featured zero videos from former players, even with 57 years of history to choose from. There was a pronounced lack of highlights from the team's four world championships on the scoreboard. The team made very little effort.

Ownership seemed terrified of the fans' justified unhappiness with Fisher, after over a decade of refusing to spend money on players to maintain his stadium. Every time a chant of "Sell the team!" broke out, the team blasted the music for the "Let's Go Oakland!" cheer over the speakers. 

Two fans did run out on the field with one out in the ninth, but both were filming TikTok videos, not leading a protest. The club wasn't even planning to have manager Mark Kotsay speak after the game, as throngs of security guards and police lined the field. But during the address from Kotsay, who spent four seasons in the Coliseum as a player, the crowd roared and chanted "Let's Go Oakland" one last time, while the mayhem that terrified ownership never emerged.

Instead, fans cheered for the departing team and high-fived one another. The right field drummers played, the caped "Banjo Man" played, Krazy George roamed the stands with a drum, fans repeatedly did The Wave (invented by Krazy George during an A's-Yankees playoff game in 1981) and the team's elephant mascot, Stomper, danced. The only real chaos came from a steady stream of green and gold smoke canisters from the bleachers, which were allowed to sputter out on the grass.

Oakland may be losing their team, but fans weren't losing their spirits at the final game. No thanks to the absentee owners.