Baseball pundits predicted the A's would be mediocre or worse this season; the club is contending for a playoff berth instead. That unexpected success should have gotten the bandwagon rolling in Oakland, especially with the cross-bay Giants being, in fact, mediocre.
That hasn't happened. Attendance at the Coliseum remains low — Oakland is 14th among 15 American League clubs, averaging 18,409 per opening prior to Tuesday.
Some of the club's top players have taken notice.
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Third baseman Matt Chapman said it plainly after Oakland defeated the Mariners on Monday in Game 1 of an important AL West series.
"We're fun to watch, and we really want our fans to come out and support us. It would be great," he said in a postgame interview (per MLB.com).
First baseman Matt Olson and left-hander Sean Manaea (who earned the win Monday) seconded that emotion on Twitter postgame:
👇 yeah what he said https://t.co/oPdp39H8Ir
— Matt Olson (@mattolson21) August 14, 2018
Chapman stood by his comments Tuesday.
"We've been playing good baseball, and I feel like we're putting on good entertainment. I don't know what else people could ask for," he said, per MLB.com.
He received additional backup from one of the A's cornerstone players.
"I agree. I want to see the fans getting into it and seeing bigger crowds," DH/outfielder Khris Davis told reporters, per MLB.com.
"That puts a little more edge on our psyche and, for the opponent, it's intimidating here when there's a lot of fans."
The two largest crowds at the Coliseum this season have been 56,310 on July 21 for a reunion of the 1989 World Series championship team (and a game vs. the Giants); and 46,028 on April 17 to mark the 50-year anniversary of the first big-league game in Oakland (tickets to that game were free).
The two largest crowds after that were for this year's two other home games vs. the Giants. Attendance typically has been closer to the 10,400 that was announced Monday. (Attendance on Tuesday was 17,419 as the A's provided free parking.)
"When we have a full house here, it inspires us, and our fans are as loud as any in baseball," manager Bob Melvin told reporters, per MLB.com.
Ticket prices on the A's website started at $15 for the team's Wednesday matinee vs. Seattle and at $17 for the Friday opener of a weekend series vs. the first-place Astros.
Little progress has been made on the A's securing a stadium site elsewhere in Oakland or on renovating the half-century-old Coliseum after the NFL's Raiders leave for Las Vegas in two years.
For the near future, fans who want to come out to the ballpark will have to put up with an unpopular multipurpose facility that, at the moment, houses one of the best teams in baseball.