The Oakland A's entered the series in Houston with 99 losses on the season. After taking the first two games of the series while facing Framber Valdez (3.32 ERA) and nemesis Justin Verlander (3.39 ERA), the A's were held hitless on Wednesday night through the first eight innings. Ryan Noda broke up the no-no with a one out single which was followed by a single from Seth Brown. Oakland even avoided the shutout, scoring twice in the ninth, yet they still dropped their 100th game of the year, 6-2.
After last year's 102-loss season, there were a lot of retrospective pieces published about the last time the A's had lost 100 or more games. That came in 1979 when they went 54-108. It was also Rickey Henderson's debut season and the only season in which the A's had lost 100 games while in Oakland.
That '79 club still has the unfortunate title of holding the worst record in Oakland A's history. This year's club is 46-100, and if they were to go .500 over their final 16, they would end up tying that mark.
In the month of September, the A's are 7-5 and their remaining schedule isn't exactly the most daunting with home series against San Diego, Seattle, and Detroit, followed by road series against Minnesota and the Angels. The Twins have all but locked up the AL Central and it's unlikely that they can improve their playoff positioning, so the A's may not get them at full strength. Oakland also already swept the Angels this month, and swept them to conclude last season. There is reason to believe this year's club could finish out the season with a better than .500 record the rest of the way.
But the real interesting part of the team reaching the 100-loss mark is when you look back at history and see when they last lost 100 games in back-to-back seasons. It was in 1964-65 in their brief stint as the Kansas City A's. They played two more seasons in K.C. before heading to Oakland for the 1968 season.
Kinda sounds like history is repeating itself, especially when you add in all of the young talent that has been on display for the A's this month. Bert Campaneris, Blue Moon Odom, and Catfish Hunter were all part of the '65 squad. Campy was 23, Hunter was 20, and Blue Moon was just 19. Mason Miller is 25, while Lawrence Butler and Zack Gelof are 23.
If the Las Vegas deal ends up happening, the A's could end up playing their final season in Oakland as soon as 2024 if the team can't work out a deal to extend their lease at the Coliseum, or through the 2027 season if the lease does get extended. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has let some of her potential demands for extending the lease be known.
There was also a report that Oakland would be a "top two" expansion site if the A's leave for Las Vegas, which would also fall in line with what happened in Kansas City once the A's left. They came into the league in 1969, a year after the A's landed in Oakland, while the city was granted an expansion team in 1968.
Sometimes history has a way of repeating itself. While the team leaving Oakland wouldn't be what any A's fan wants, if starting fresh means getting rid of John Fisher as the owner, then there will be a decent amount of people that wouldn't think twice about rooting for Oakland's potential new club.
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