Reggie Jackson may be wearing a New York Yankees cap on his badge in Cooperstown, but he spent nine of his 21 Hall of Fame seasons in Oakland with the A’s.
Jackson was a perennial MVP candidate with the A’s, winning one in 1973. His number 9 is retired by the organization with which he won three straight World Series from 1972 to 1974.
But the A’s will soon be history in Oakland, and they’re headed to Las Vegas.
The Athletics follow the NFL Raiders to Las Vegas. The Raiders moved there in 2020 after spending the previous 25 seasons in the Bay Area. They called Oakland home between 1960 and 1981 before moving to Los Angeles.
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Reggie Jackson carries the World Series trophy during a ceremony honoring the 50th birthday of the 1973 World Series champion Oakland Athletics before an A game against the New York Mets at RingCentral Coliseum on April 16, 2023. , in Oakland, Calif. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
The A’s had long been rumored to leave the city of Oakland as the team and city have been unable to come to an agreement on a new stadium. Once a sports town with three teams, the NHL’s San Jose Sharks are less than an hour’s drive from Oakland, it will soon have zero.
An Oakland legend, Jackson took the city by storm, hitting 146 of his 563 career home runs for not just losing his A’s, but everyone else.
«You’re going to lose the team,» Jackson told Sportico in a recent interview. «The city, I thought, really needed to do something. Save the A’s. You lost the [Golden State] warriors You lost the Raiders. What the hell happens to you? Can’t you see it coming? The fans don’t deserve that. I blame the people running the deal. You have to maintain the equipment for the benefit of the city. They lost all three.»
The team signed a binding agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas with the intent of building a new ballpark.
Oakland Athletics logos on the sidelines before a game against the San Francisco Giants at Oakland Coliseum on July 22, 2018 in Oakland, California. (Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
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A’s president Dave Kaval told the Las Vegas Review-Journal a $1.5 billion investment, 30,000 seat baseball stadium with a partially retractable roof it would be built on site.
«For a while we were on parallel paths (with Oakland), but we’ve turned our attention to Las Vegas come to an agreement here for the A’s and find a long-term home,» Kaval told the Review-Journal on Wednesday. «Oakland has been a great home for us for more than 50 years, but we really need this 20-year saga to complete, and we believe there is a way here in southern Nevada to do it.»
Reggie Jackson addresses the crowd during a pregame ceremony introducing the first ever Oakland A’s Hall of Famers before a game between the A’s and the New York Yankees on September 5, 2018 in Oakland , california. (Michael Zagaris/Oakland Athletics/Getty Images)
«It’s really exciting to have a site,» Kaval said. «We spent nearly two years doing our due diligence, working with community leaders, elected officials and everyone in the city to really determine a location that could be a win for the A’s, as well as for the community and public officials.»
«We support the A’s focusing on Las Vegas and hope they bring this process to a close by the end of the year.» MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred he said in a statement provided to the Review-Journal.
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The A’s, who are 4-16 and on their way to 32 wins this season, aim to call Nevada home by 2027.
Fox News’ Joe Morgan contributed to this report.