When Vince Cotroneo joined the A’s broadcast team in 2006, he hoped for just a stretch in Oakland.
Controneo ultimately called 19 seasons that coincided with some of the most impactful moments of his life: raising his family, walking his daughter down the aisle, welcoming a grandchild, and his son embarking on a broadcasting career.
“It’s hard to say goodbye — for everybody,” Cotroneo said. “We all have stories. For my youngest daughter, she was mad at Billy (Beane) for trading Yoenis Cespedes. She was 13 at the time… We all have those stories — all the people that are in this building, right now, have some kind of connection to players, coaches, managers, seasons moments.”
Those types of memories are front and center for Cotroneo and broadcast partner Ken Korach as the club plays its final homestand in Oakland.
The duo will be no more when the A’s season ends Sept. 29. The A’s did not renew Cotroneo’s contract as the club readies for a temporary relocation to Sacramento before a planned move to Las Vegas.
Korach and Cotroneo have built their own legacy as a strong pair in a storied Oakland booth, whose alumni include legendary Bay Area broadcasters Bill King — a Frick Award winner — and Monte Moore, who broadcasted Kansas City and Oakland A’s games for 25 seasons.
Korach, part of the A’s booth since 1996, called games alongside King — one of his sportscasting idols — until King died in Oct. 2005. Cotroneo, who previously broadcasted the Astros and Rangers, was selected to replace King.
It was never Cotroneo’s goal to be King, telling A’s fans in his first spring training broadcast that he wasn’t Bill and felt for fans because they “never got a chance to say goodbye, and that’s painful.”
Korach and Cotroneo knew each other from the minor leagues before working together in Oakland. Korach said Cotroneo’s ability to “work his but off” was one reason he was hired.
“I can always rely on him,” Korach said. “Even last night (against the Yankees), it was a 10-0 game and those last three or four innings can really drag. You’re grinding to think of something to talk about in the eighth and ninth inning. But he’s always there. He always has something interesting to talk about and brings it every game.”
A’s manager Mark Kotsay has worked with Korach and Cotroneo as a player and manager, saying his relationship with them evolved into a friendship over the years. As a player it could be difficult to understand the value of a relationship with broadcasters, he added, but as a manager, he has realized the pair “want nothing more (than) for you to succeed.”
Pitcher Joey Estes said he often talks with Cotroneo, who has taken him “underneath his wing.”
“I know he’s a legend here, and I grew up hearing his voice,” Estes said. “It’s really cool to see him in person and have that relationship.”
Cotroneo and Korach’s tenure has featured four AL West titles, three Wild Card berths, three no-hitters, and a perfect game. Both picked the 2012 regular-season finale, the only day the A’s were atop the AL West the entire season, as their favorite call.
The key moment came when Texas’ Josh Hamilton dropped a routine fly-ball, allowing the A’s to score two runs that paved the way to a dominant win and division title. The emotion of that season “felt like a giant wave that was coming to shore,” Korach said.
Other standout memories include calls with Ray Fosse, who won the World Series as an A’s player in 1973 and 1974 before broadcasting the club’s games for 36 seasons. Fosse would scream on walk-offs or home runs, Cotroneo said, embracing “pure, unadulterated joy.”
The season’s defining moments — no-hitters, playoff games, et cetera — are great, Cotroneo said, but it’s the games between that carry the most weight.
“But the Tuesday night when you’re losing 9-1 and you’re in Kansas City and the team’s not playing well, and you’re still enjoying each other’s company and still telling stories and trying to have fun and be entertaining — those games are as memorable as any Kotsay inside-the-park home run or Hamilton drops the ball or walk-off capital.”
“All these moments that I was fortunate to be behind the mic for — those are all indelible. I’m very thankful fans remember those. But there’s 162 of these every day and, if you’re lucky, you get to play more than that. And you just get a chance to tell the story.”
Korach will remain part of the A’s booth, but saying goodbye to Cotroneo and Oakland marks the end of an era. He sat in the Coliseum stands recording audition tapes with a cassette recorder when he arrived in the Bay Area in 1979 before joining their broadcast crew 17 years later.
The endings pile up in Oakland as fans attend final games, employees work final shifts and players make final starts. Korach said he and Cotroneo have focused on Coliseum history in their last few calls at the Coliseum, including recently highlighting the A’s 2001 regular season series against the Yankees.
Cotroneo wasn’t in the A’s booth when iceberg plants sat outside the Coliseum and the Oakland Hills were visible in the distance. But they’re part of the ballpark’s history he’s reflected on in its final days hosting the A’s, saying the Coliseum is not “appreciated enough around the country.”
As the venue’s MLB days wane, Korach and Cotroneo agreed: there’s no place to call a game like Oakland.
“The Coliseum has always had this kind of irreverent streak,” Korach said. “You know, you have the banjo guy. There’s a uniqueness to it… People have a lot of passion that come to the games.”
Charlotte Varnes is a sports journalist who has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Tampa Bay Times. In her free time, she enjoys attending concerts, going to the beach and hiking.
