A's Hall of Famer Credits the Fans That Have Left Team as 'Heartbeat' of Franchise

The sentiment is extremely sweet, and if Zito and his rotation mates had been inducted back in Oakland, this speech would have gone over extremely well. The problem is, a lot of the fans that supported the trio during their playing days haven't made the trip up north to continue supporting the team in the midst of their relocation to Las Vegas.

With first pitch set at 78 degrees on a Saturday night, the A's ended up announcing an attendance of 8.758 for the middle game of their series against the Cincinnati Reds.

Zito made a point to mention the drums that used to echo through the Coliseum, and if you've ever watched a game played there either in person or on TV, you've heard the drums banging over the course of all nine innings of a game in Oakland.

Those drums don't exist in Sacramento, because the fans that used to bring them to the games are no longer in attendance. By the lefty's logic, a good portion of the heartbeat of the franchise has been removed from the club.

The A's made a decision to leave Oakland for Las Vegas, seeking a new opportunity for the franchise. While this is viewed by some as a decent business decision, the way that the relocation effort has been carried out has left a sour taste in many fan's mouths, which has left them either watching from afar, or not at all.

There are plenty of former A's fans that would be completely on board with this new roster of young talent and burgeoning stars like Jacob Wilson, Nick Kurtz, Denzel Clarke, and Jacob Lopez. The fans have been used to the roster churn of the franchise (for better or worse) and had always latched on to the new stars in every cycle.

It's just that every roster churn (andthere have been quite a few in the past two decades) left the team with fewer and fewer returning fans.

It's unfortunate that because of the actions of the franchise, the fans that have supported this club will be missing out on the next wave of what should be an exiting young team in the very near future. It's also hard to blame them for making that decision.