June 13, 2023: Oakland fans stage ‘reverse boycott’ as A’s beat Rays at the Coliseum

Lifelong Oakland A’s fan Jeremy Goodrich had an idea. Sure, the A’s had not been playing well in 2023, or drawing well, and the owner was planning to move the team to Las Vegas. But what if the Oakland fans staged a reverse boycott – showing up en masse on a random weeknight to show the baseball world that the A’s still had a loyal fan base? The idea caught fire on social media, and the date of Tuesday, June 13, was selected.1

As one would expect from a fan-initiated plan, it wouldn’t just be encouraging the fans to show up on a Tuesday night. There would be tailgating, 7,000 custom A’s-green “Sell” T-shirts and “We Are Here” signs to be distributed, as well as plenty of homemade signs.2 The backs of the “We Are Here” signs included instructions on how the fans should synchronize their protest chants. A crowd of 27,759 showed up, exceeding even Oakland’s Opening Day total of 26,805.3

Despite a six-game winning streak, the A’s were deep in last place at 18-50, 24½ games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the American League West Division. The visiting Tampa Bay Rays were leading the American League East at 48-21. The A’s had won the first game of the three-game series the night before in front of a crowd of 4,848.

Oakland rookie pitcher Shintaro Fujinami (3-6, 11.12 ERA) had five starts in his 21 previous appearances. After his first four starts left him with an ERA of 14.40,4 the A’s used him as a one-inning opener or reliever.5 Against the Rays, Fujinami’s “opening” went well – all he allowed in the top of the first was a two-out single by Harold Ramírez. It could have been charged as an error since the ball bounced right past third baseman Jonah Bride on the infield grass, but the official scorer apparently decided that Ramírez would have beaten the throw.

The Rays sent Jalen Beeks (2-2, 6.12 ERA) to the mound. Of his 24 previous appearances in 2023, only six were starts. Those six appearances were only two or three innings each, meeting the Rays’ definition of an “opener.”6

Beeks’ bottom of the first was much more eventful than the top half, but the Rays did not score. Brent Rooker and Ryan Noda notched one-out singles and advanced on a wild pitch. Beeks escaped by striking out Ramón Laureano and inducing a groundout from Bride, with help from a missile thrown by third baseman Isaac Paredes from beyond the foul line.

Rookie Hogan Harris, making his fifth major-league appearance, took the mound as the A’s “bulk reliever”7 and worked a one-two-three top of the second.

Beeks faced three batters in the second (striking out two but walking Aledmys Díaz) before being replaced by the Rays’ bulk reliever, Yonny Chirinos. Chirinos induced a fly out from Shea Langeliers for the third out.

Both pitchers worked clean halves of the third inning, and all Harris allowed in the top of the fourth was a one-out single by Ramírez.

The A’s threatened in the home half of the fourth but didn’t score. Seth Brown hit a two-out single and moved to second when Chirinos plunked Aledmys Díaz, but Jace Petersen grounded back to Chirinos to end the threat.

The Rays were the first to break the shutout in the top of the fifth. José Siri opened with a double, advanced on Taylor Walls’ fly out, and scored on Manuel Margot’s single. Harris limited the damage to that one run – Francisco Mejia popped out to the shortstop and Yandy Díaz grounded out.

The bottom of the fifth had plenty of drama – but no scoring. With one out, Esteury Ruiz was awarded first base on catcher’s interference. He attempted to add to his major-league-leading 31 stolen bases, but Rays catcher Mejia got the throw off in time and caught him – instead adding to Ruiz’s league-high caught-stealing total.8 A’s manager Mark Kotsay challenged the call, but it was upheld on review. Rooker walked and advanced to third on Noda’s single but wasn’t able to score as Laureano grounded out to third.

Harris pitched clean sixth and seventh innings for the A’s. The A’s also went one-two-three in their half of the sixth, with the first out against Chirinos and the next two against 36-year-old Jake Diekman.9

Robert Stephenson – appearing in his fifth game as a Ray after a June 2 trade brought him from the Pittsburgh Pirates – relieved Diekman for the bottom of the seventh with the Rays still holding a 1-0 lead. Peterson worked a walk on eight pitches. Stephenson got the next two outs, but Rooker hit the first pitch he saw deep down the left-field line for a game-tying double. Noda grounded out to end the frame.

Harris allowed a double to Margot to open the eighth. Margot took third on Mejia’s sacrifice, but Yandy Díaz popped out in foul territory and Wander Franco lined out to strand Margot.10

Colin Poche became the Rays’ fifth pitcher of the game in the bottom of the eighth. Laureano singled and advanced to second on Bride’s bunt just in front of home plate. Backup catcher Carlos Pérez11 pinch-hit for left-fielder Brown. With Pérez at the plate, Laureano stole third. Rays manager Kevin Cash challenged the “safe” call but it was upheld on review.

Pérez grounded between third and short. The ball bounced off diving third baseman Paredes’ glove onto the dirt. Shortstop Franco scooped the ball and fired to first in time to nip Pérez while Laureano scored. Aledmys Díaz flied out, but the A’s had a 2-1 lead.

A’s newly appointed12 closer Trevor May pitched a rocky top of the ninth but ultimately prevailed, earning his third save. Ramírez lined out for the first out. May walked Randy Arozarena on four pitches. With Paredes at the plate, Arozarena was caught trying to steal second.13 Tampa was out of challenges, so that was the second out. May walked Paredes on four pitches but got the third out by striking out Siri to give Oakland its seventh straight win.

So how did the reverse boycott work out? The fan energy was at a level usually reserved for the postseason. Video showed the fans wearing the green “SELL” shirts and holding up “SELL,” “Stay in Oakland,” or other signs, only some of which were suitable for public viewing.14 Sheet-sized signs with similar messages were draped over the stands. Following the instructions on the signs that had been distributed outside the ballpark, the fans chanted, “Sell the team” during the first at-bat of the top of each inning, and “Stay in Oakland” in the bottom of each inning.

To mark the 55 years of the A’s in Oakland, after a moment of silence at the top of the fifth inning the crowd stood in unison and chanted “Sell the team!” They were so loud that the Oakland pitcher and catcher had to call time as they could not hear the pitch com over the crowd.15 The Wave circled the ballpark for several minutes during the game – fitting, given that one of the stories of the origin of The Wave has it originating in Oakland. Local charities benefited as well – the A’s donated the ticket proceeds from the game to two local community organizations. Unfortunately, the event ended on a sour note: Fans threw trash on the field after the game.16

Oakland’s seven-game winning streak ended the next day with a 6-3 loss to the Rays – before a crowd of 7,055. Their next-longest winning streak in 2023 was three games (September 1-3).17 The A’s finished 50-112, 40 games behind the Houston Astros, for the worst record in the majors. As 2025, the Athletics18 were still scheduled to move to Las Vegas in the future but were playing in Sacramento temporarily.

The Rays finished second in AL East, but their time in the postseason was brief as they lost the AL wild-card series 2-0 to the eventual World Series champion Rangers.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Mike Huber and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photos courtesy of Jacob Pomrenke.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. for box scores/play-by-play information, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting game logs, and other data. The author reviewed the available MLB video, which was only the highlights, as MLB had overwritten the June 13 game audio and video files with a duplicate of the June 12 game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK202306130.shtml 

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2023/B06130OAK2023.htm 

Notes

1 Melissa Lockard, “A’s Fans to Take One Last Stand Against Relocation With Reverse Boycott: ‘It’s Gonna Be a Fun Party,’” The Athletic, June 12, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4601879/2023/06/12/oakland-athletics-reverse-boycott/.

2 Lockard.

3 The only A’s home game with more attendance was the first of the two Bay Area rivalry games against the San Francisco Giants, which drew 37,553 on Saturday, August 5.

4 He had pitched for 10 years for the Hanshin Tigers in the Japan Central and Western Leagues, where his statistics were much better – 3.38 ERA in 16 appearances in 2022. Associated Press, “A’s Finalize $3.25M Deal with Pitcher Fujinami of Japan,” Sacramento Bee, January 15, 2023: B6.

5 In July Oakland traded him to the Baltimore Orioles for pitcher Easton Lucas, who had not yet made his major-league debut. Fujinami put up an ERA of 4.85 in 29 2/3 innings pitched for Baltimore in 2023. He spent 2024 in the minors in the New York Mets’ system.

6 BR Bullpen, “Opener,” Baseball-Reference.com, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Opener, accessed January 18, 2025.

7 The Rays were a pioneer of the “bulk reliever” strategy: an “opener” who would pitch one inning followed by a “bulk reliever” who was expected to pitch several innings. Ted Berg, “‘This Could Change the Game’: Rays’ ‘Openers’ and ‘Bulk Guys’ on Their New Pitching Strategy,” usatoday.com, August 23, 2018, https://ftw.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/08/23/tampa-bay-rays-openers-bulk-guys-mlb/81694907007/.

8 Ruiz led the majors in caught-stealing with six entering the game. He also led the majors in HBP with 12. He finished 2023 with 67 stolen bases (the American League record) and 13 caught-stealing (second most in the AL).

9 Diekman had been released by the White Sox in early May and was picked up by the Rays. He was a rare 12-year veteran on an otherwise relatively young Rays pitching staff.

10 Two months later, on August 13, Franco was placed on the restricted list because of an investigation into a relationship with a minor in the Dominican Republic. As of 2025, he had not appeared in the major leagues again and was pending trial in the Dominican Republic on charges of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of a minor, and human trafficking.

11 Pérez was back in the majors after a four-year (2019-2022) sojourn in the minor and Venezuelan leagues. He was certainly flexible – he played 31 games at catcher, 15 at first base, 14 as a DH, 17 as a pinch-hitter, once in left field, and pitched twice in blowout losses. 

12 Jeurys Familia notched two saves in April, then was designated for assignment and released on May 6. He did not appear in the majors again. May was credited with 21 of the A’s 29 saves for 2023. Given that the A’s won only 50 games, that statistic indicates how many of those wins were within three runs. May hung up his spikes at the end of the year.

13 At this point a fan ran across the field – he was captured by security as he tried to climb back into the stands in the left-field corner. “My WILD Experience at Oakland A’s Reverse Boycott – The Coliseum Got Rowdy / Trash & People on Field,” YouTube video (TheDailyWoo), 34:02, accessed April 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP4gXhblPaU.

14 “The A’s Reverse Boycott Was a Chaotic Spectacle,” YouTube video (Stupendous Sports), 4:39, accessed April 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xwb8UjMnZGk; “My WILD Experience at Oakland A’s Reverse Boycott – The Coliseum Got Rowdy / Trash & People on Field.”

15 “Oakland A’s Fans Chant ‘Sell The Team’ During Reverse Boycott Night,” YouTube video (Baseball Maniacs), 1:45, accessed April 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb6psaZDo7o.

16 Lockard, “A’s Fans to Take One Last Stand Against Relocation With Reverse Boycott.”

17 They had had an 11-game losing streak May 17-28.

18 Although they played in Sacramento in 2025, they did not use a city designation, so they are just “The Athletics” instead of “Sacramento Athletics” or “Las Vegas Athletics.”