This is from a May issue of The Sporting News. It shows the Mariners and A's playing to (get this) 653 total attendance on April 17, of 1979.

This is a tradition I think the A's would like to forget.

A man has to have goals- for a day, for a lifetime- that was mine, to have people say, "There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived." - Ted Williams

AsMariners1979.gif (115 KB, 77 downloads) A's Mariners 1979

Wow, 653? They must have had a post-game fireworks show!

Those were pretty bleak days for the A's. It was toward the end of the Finley years, and he wouldn't spend a dime on marketing. There was no radio contract for most of the year, even though they did have a TV network. Marvin Davis of Denver tried to buy the team and move it, but Kuhn blocked the sale. It's beyond belief that the team survived all that and plays on in Oakland to this day. After all that's happened to the Expos, imagine what BS would have done with the '79 A's!

San Francisco Giants - 2002 National League Champions!

There was no radio contract for most of the year,
They were on a college radio station with 2 students doing play by play one season...The stations power was so bad (10 WATTS!) you couldn't even pick up the game in the Coliseum itself...

Here is an excerpt from the KALX website...

In April of 1978 KALX became the first college station in the world to act as a flagship for a major-league sports franchise. Larry Baer (now a VP with the San Francisco Giants) and Bob Kozberg broadcast the Oakland A's opening game from Anaheim, CA. By May of that year, A's owner and showman had found a commercial station to take on the broadcasts, and KALX bid farewell to the A's. It was an exciting time, running the board in the studio and answering the phone calls of irate A's fans who couldn't pick up our 10-watt signal in Oakland!

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SodoDavo and the 1991 National Champion University of Washington Huskies RULE...

I remembered reading in the Angels History that they played to some bad crowds in Chavez Stadium (sorry Matt but no Halo fan would refer to it by that other name) in the early 1960's here is a story on it..It makes 653 seem like a sellout..


» September 19, 1963: At Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, 476 lonely fans watch the Angels and Orioles game. The Angels win, 7–2, behind Bo Belinsky.

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SodoDavo and the 1991 National Champion University of Washington Huskies RULE...

Are you sure it's not a behind the plate scene of that DC pic I post last week?

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SodoDavo and the 1991 National Champion University of Washington Huskies RULE...

... despite attendance like that at a FEW games (not all) because costs were lower. Expenses of running a por sports franchise have risen so much than major league baseball teams are struggling to make despite drawing 25-35,000! If costs are kept low enough, they can all survive; if costs continue to climb, we're going to see (sadly) the folding of some storied franchises.