BY-NC-SA My aunt is a lifetime Oakland A's fan. Sitting on the foot of her bed as Oakland native Rickey Henderson accepted his Hall of Fame speech, I could see her hard work paying off.
All those games: those foggy summer nights where you can see your breath in the East Oakland air, the smoldering spring training exhibitions in Phoenix in March, and even planning business trips in accordance with the Athletics traveling schedule. She was there.
She finds glory in wearing her green and gold in the fine new stadium of the Los Angeles Angles. She likes to refer to the success of the 20 game win streak the A's once had in the dog heat of August , and she never refers to the heartbreak of Derek Jeter making an unbelievable play to tag the un-sliding Jeremy Giambi in September. She's going to read this and laugh in embarrassment when I remind the world of how she, and the 12,000 other attendees used to do the macarena dance between innings during that one fine summer. When the team was young and shaky, she was there.
And when the team was solid enough to make it to the World Series, but the ground beneath the Oakland Coliseum shook due to the San Andreas Fault line, she was there.
If she ever got a tattoo, it would either be all four of the Oakland A's World Champion trophies, or the A's mascot "Stomper". or maybe Stomper holding all of the World Champion trophies.
She was at the game where Rickey tied Lou Brock's record for stolen bases in the modern era; she was also in attendance when he set the new record. She has been there for every time Rickey got treated like the
Oakland A's white elephant mascot, and passed around the league: the Blue Jays, the Mets, The Padres, The Yankees, and she even took note when Rickey made an appearance in the minor leagues at the age of 40 plus. My aunt has read Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Bean's book, and I wouldn't put it past her to be working on one herself!
She takes pride in watching African-American baseball players. Next to Jackie Robinson, Frank Robinson, and Joe Morgan; Rickey Henderson's name sits among the elite African-Americans that ever played the game in her book- and in the book.
The sports world is a soap-opera-athletic-drama. Like many sports fans world wide, my aunt's connection to her team runs deep. As we sat there watching Rickey in his sharp suit, my aunt grew even more proud of the progress Henderson's public speaking has taken.
We looked at the Athletics memorabilia in the crowd, and my aunt took note of the hats she had never seen. Then, the camera showed Henderson's longtime friend, and another African-American man out of Oakland who played professional baseball: Oakland Athletics legend Dave Stewart.
But when the cameras turned back to Henderson, she saw an individual from the team that she cares so much about receive the greatest single accomplishment: induction into the Hall of Fame. I know it's just another moment in my aunt's long list of special sports memories. It just felt good to see my aunt enjoy her favorite soap-opera-sports-drama come to a happy ending for one of her favorite characters.
As Henderson concluded his speech, and the crowd applauded, I pointed out the longtime A's fanatic and coliseum regular, The Banjo Man. The bearded white man, equipped with Oakland A's banjo on hip, was just a little reassurance that my aunt isn't the biggest A's fan in the world.
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