OAKLAND — For decades, A’s team photographer and longtime Haight-Ashbury resident Michael Zagaris has lived and loved life as the eclectic Beatnik in blue jeans at the Oakland Coliseum.
That part of his life ended amid tears on Thursday afternoon. It was 44 years old. Services will be ongoing.
Zagaris was one of three behind-the-scenes, career A’s workers whose time at the Coliseum came to a somber close after 44 years when the Rangers’ Travis Jankowski grounded out to third base at 3:06 p.m., ending the game – and the A’s time here since 1968 — with a 3-2 Oakland victory.
Unlike Zagaris, both A’s vice president of stadium operations David Rinetti and visiting clubhouse manager Mikey Thalblum are staying with the club for a 45th season next year in Sacramento and beyond.
Traveling secretary Mickey Morabito, whose arrival in 1980 makes him the Athletics’ longest-tenured staff member with 45 years of service, is also keeping his job when the team departs, while familiarizing himself with the idiosyncrasies of a different airport.
Zagaris, who’ll turn 80 years old before the A’s 2025 home opener at Sutter Health Park on March 31 against the Cubs, said he’s known for a while that Thursday’s Coliseum finale would be his final game with the A’s.
“Nothing’s forever. It’s sad. But this has been a great time in my life,” said Zagaris, who had no desire to commute to Sacramento and back from his home in San Francisco. “The (A’s) coaches tried all season to convince me to go but I’m not going to Sacramento. That’s a two-hour commute that makes the 405 from L.A. to San Diego seem like the German autobahn.
“And I’m not getting an apartment in Sacramento at 80.”
True to his counterculture upbringing, Zagaris isn’t going out without sticking it to “The Man” as he decried A’s owner John Fisher for uprooting the team from its home of the past 57 years.
“This is on John Fisher,” said Zagaris. “It’s about money and greed. He doesn’t care about the fans, he’s all about making more money. It’s sad. I think it’s a black mark on the sport. It’s not life or death. This isn’t us in a Bucha (Ukraine) mall being bombarded by Russians, but it’s sad.”
Former Oakland Athletics player Vida Blue, left, walks with Athletics Vice President of Stadium Operations David Rinetti during a ceremony honoring the Athletics’ 1973 World Series championship team in Oakland on Sunday, April 16, 2023. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
Thursday was particularly rough on Rinetti, considering a few of the members of his security staff were told there’s no job for them in Sacramento.
“This has been my life. I’ve had more waking time in this place than anywhere else for the last 44 years, even my house,” said Rinetti, who grew up in Oakland and whose wife and two children will remain in their East Bay home while he commutes to Sacramento. “These times you just reflect on all the things that you’ve been through and you cherish it.
“Just embracing all these people, especially these last six games … a lot of tears. I’m Italian, I cry. And I’m not done crying, by the way, especially today.”
For Thalblum, being at the Coliseum has truly felt like a family home away from home. It’s where he met his wife Janine. It’s even where he married her. Both of his boys have spent a lot of time at his side, working as A’s batboys.
“There’s so many people here that aren’t just people you see. They’ve become friends,” Thalblum said. “Some are like family, Some were at our wedding here at Westside Club.
“This whole thing about leaving, I compare it to people who grew up in a house all their lives and all the memories they have there. Memories with their neighbors. And that’s what you’re gonna think about the rest of your life.”
Mikey Thalblum, visiting clubhouse manager, is photographed inside his office at Oakland Coliseum, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
The 4,495th and final A’s home game in Oakland history was an occasion former clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich couldn’t miss. Vucinich, who retired in 2021 after tying Connie Mack for the franchise record of 54 years of duty, came back to pay his respects to departing friends while mourning the loss of baseball in the town where he grew up.
“It’s tough. Seeing people that have lost their jobs has affected me the most,” said Vucinich.
He sympathizes with the financial hit the part-time security guards, ushers, ticket takers and vendors will endure. Concessions workers told ABC 7 that they were informed this week they wouldn’t get severance pay or health insurance after Thursday’s game.
Vucinich was especially shaken by the departure of A’s groundskeeper Clay Wood, whose job – along with those of his crew members – was officially eliminated after 30 years following the game.
“The toughest one for me was Clay,” said Vucinich, who purposely avoided his friend since hearing of the news in August. “I finally saw him at the fireworks show on Friday night. We had quite a cryfest. But it’s going to be OK.”
Asked to reflect on the avalanche of upheaval caused by the city losing the A’s, Vucinich paused for a few moments before solemnly saying: “I just wish it didn’t happen.”
