The Oakland A’s have become infamous for their embarrassing attendance at home games at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, ranking dead last in MLB this season with an average of 11,580 fans per game.
But there’s one spectator who’s become a regular.
One the A’s can’t seem to get rid of, in fact, and it’s starting to become problematic.
And smelly.
There’s apparently a possum living in the visitors’ television booth, and it remains on the loose despite stadium staff setting traps along with other efforts to wrangle the marsupial.
Although nobody can seem to capture the possum, they certainly can smell its presence.
During the Mets’ 17-6 win over the A’s on Friday, SNY’s Gary Cohen and Ron Darling called the game from an auxiliary booth, as the stench from possum’s droppings made the visitors’ television booth untenable.
“[SNY’s tech crew] walk in the booth and were immediately met by the stench of the possum having, you know, done his business in the booth,” Cohen said on SNY broadcast Friday evening. “Apparently, the booth reeked so badly of possum leavings that an executive decision was made to move us to this booth, which is somewhat smaller and has a few impediments, like there’s a pole right in front of me.”
As the broadcast zoomed out and showed Cohen and Darling in their makeshift booth, Cohen could be seen seated directly behind a pole and needing to lean on either side to see the field.
The SNY crew had to choose “between possum and pole,” Darling added.
The obstructed view was seemingly a small price to pay in order to avoid the possum smell.
The team’s home since since the A’s moved from from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968, Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum is one of the most dilapidated venues across MLB.
Owner John Fisher has been public about his desire to move the team into a new stadium, either staying in Oakland or moving the team to Las Vegas.
Commissioner Rob Manfred even declared the A’s “need a new stadium” when asked about the team’s exploration for a new home site in either Oakland or Las Vegas while speaking with reporters in April.
Cohen began his story by saying that old friend Wayne Randazzo had warned them about the possum.
Randazzo previously served as the Mets’ second play-by-play broadcaster alongside Howie Rose in the team’s WCBS radio booth, and this past offseason left to become the lead television play-by-play announcer for the Angels on Bally Sports West’s broadcast.
“So the Angels played here at the beginning of the season,” Cohen said. “They were the first team in. Wayne Randazzo, our friend, is now the television voice of the Angels, and he told us in the opening game of the season, the possum who apparently lives somewhere in the wall behind that visitors TV booth made an appearance during the game in their booth.
“It was just crawling around, minding its own possum business, walking across the counter. He wasn’t trying to horn in on the broadcast. He was just doing his possum things. Anyway, so they set traps for this possum, but he’s proved elusive.”
It’s not exactly a new problem for the A’s.
Possums were spotted on the field at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in both 2014 and 2015, and just last year one was seen in the press box.
Beyond being seen, the possums are now letting their presence be felt in other, grosser ways.
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