Brodie Brazile and Bip Roberts on the A's postgame show on NBC Sports California after the final game at the Oakland Coliseum. Brodie Brazile and Bip Roberts on the A’s postgame show on NBC Sports California after the final game at the Oakland Coliseum. (Awful Announcing on X/Twitter.)
Local NetworksMLBBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The Oakland Athletics’ final game in Oakland Thursday drew a lot of discussion. And it was particularly interesting how the local broadcast on NBC Sports California handled it.

Many, if not all, of those broadcasters may be moving with the team to their planned temporary home in Sacramento, and then their planned permanent home in Las Vegas. So that certainly adds some potential challenges for what they could say. But, despite that, they still had notable comments on the emotions of leaving Oakland and the Coliseum, where the franchise had played since 1968 and had won four World Series titles. To start with, here’s analyst Dallas Braden on discussing this with his daughters:

The broadcast did a good job of showing some of the emotion around the final out and beyond:

And play-by-play voice Jenny Cavnar and Braden had an notable eventual signoff, particularly with Cavnar’s “A fanbase that will stand the test of time,” and then Braden’s decision to stay quiet and let the fans’ chants be heard:

After the game itself (which the A’s won 3-2 against the Texas Rangers), the studio team of Brodie Brazile and Bip Roberts showed their own emotion. Roberts in particular was certainly feeling the emotion, and frequently had to go to the Kleenex box on the desk:

The A’s local broadcasters were in a ridiculously difficult situation here. Their affiliation with the team certainly made it hard for them to go in on the criticism delivered by other media figures, including ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Buster Olney. But they did a strong job of bringing and presenting their authentic emotions despite that. And those emotions certainly resonated with many fans who were watching this.

[Awful Announcing on X/Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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