Background: Jon Allen was born in 1986 in Orange County, spent a bit of time in Minnesota before moving to the East Bay at 3 years old. He went to college at Chico then lived back in the Bay Area. He then moved to Reno about four years ago with his wife, Ali, and twin daughters.
Choosing A’s or Giants, Raiders or 49ers
Who or what got you started with baseball?
“I mean, I feel like when we were growing up, kids did sports and that was all there was to do. And so I did every sport. I was never really that good at anything. But when it was time to start t-ball, you started with t-ball. That's what everybody else is doing and then I went through the progression up the different leagues and divisions. That was how I started playing baseball basically. And then, you know, you're a kid, you're a boy, it's like, well, you got to figure out what your favorite sports teams are pretty quickly. My whole family was Giants fans, except for me. I’m the rebel.”
Well that paid off. Which sport was your favorite to play then?
“I think basketball was my favorite just because up until high school, the height advantage really worked in my favor. (note: yes, he was taller than everyone through middle school and little 5’1” Graig couldn’t get a layup in around him). But I was never really good at any of those sports, really. And so you reached that point where skill outweighs physical dominance.”
What position would you have wanted to play as a pro?
“I always liked playing catcher. I know it's weird, but I mean, I probably wouldn't have because I'm super tall and that seems like it would be uncomfortable now, but that was always the position I wanted to play.”
So your family was all Giants fans and you were the A’s. Did you go to more Giants games growing up?
“Yeah we went to Giants games because the company that my dad worked for, he was eventually the CEO, and they had a couple seats at the new, whatever it's called today, PAC Bell, AT&T, Oracle.”
Oracle I think, for now. (note: he forgot SBC!)
“The Ballpark on Embarcadero Street.” (this one’s good, I’m gonna start using it).
“Anyway, they had season tickets there, for wooing clients. And so every now and again if they weren't being used, we would use them and go and I mean it's obvious why most people want to go to Giants games, their stadium’s way nicer. Especially when at the time, that was a brand new place and it's like the place to be. I was always an A’s fan and even before the Giants moved out of Candlestick, you can't tailgate at Candlestick very well. We would go to A's games through a team activity or outing or whatever, like Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, that kind of stuff. I was involved in all of that. We'd go to A's games probably because they were cheaper, to be honest, not because there was any particular love for the A's. There was one time where I threw out the opening pitch at some random A’s game and that kind of sealed the deal. It's like, well, I got to do that so now I'm stuck.”
How old were you when you did that?
“Like 12 or 13.”
Wow. That's the dream.
“Yeah, it was pretty cool, but it all goes back to my dad and the company that he was the CEO for. They're called Core-Mark and it's a wholesale distribution company, they distribute everything that you see in convenience stores, so every 7-Eleven and Kwik-E-Mart, all the chips, the cigarettes, the drinks, the candy, all that kind of stuff for most of the western United States. My dad's company got mad at Nabisco and so Nabisco's way of saying we're sorry was to put us in a suite at the A’s game and I threw the opening pitch. So it worked out pretty good for me.”
And did that salvage their relationship?
“I have no idea, I do know that I got to do that. And so that was cool.”
So when did you start really getting into the A's?
“Once I could actually get out there on my own without my parents, like 16 to 18. Then a little break for college. But after that, we used to go, me and a group of my friends, we’d go like once a week. You're young, had no kids. You know, we're just working and they did those cheap nights, like $2 Tuesdays like free parking Tuesdays. So it's like, well, shoot, we’re gonna go out on a Tuesday because we can. And it's free! We got to take advantage of a lot of those things. My group of friends, we were all lucky enough to be able to root for the same team.
It's definitely something that brought us all together, you know, even especially as things in life started to happen, you know, you grow up, you move. You know, we don't live together anymore. We got our own places. Girlfriends, wives, blah, blah, blah. You know, it's not like we have to argue about which bar we go to. Let's all go to an A’s game. Everybody will be happy. And once upon a time, the A’s were half-way decent.”
“I just think the atmosphere is, after the Raiders left, some of it died. There's so many people that are A's/Raiders fans. That’s the breakdown in the Bay Area, like A's/Raiders 49er/Giants. You don't see a lot of Giants/Raiders or A’s/49ers. And so some of that energy left at that point.”
“Other than that, even just the energy of the stadium, the tailgates in the parking lot, like they’re something else. I haven't been to a lot of other tailgates, but that was just always something growing up and every time we went, that was always the plan. It was almost never where we were gonna just show up and goin. We always were going a couple hours early so we can do some tailgating in the parking lot and hang out with everybody and see what there is to see.”
What was your favorite time to be an A’s fan?
“I would say back when the last time they actually made it to the playoffs was pretty exciting because the place was packed. (He’s referring to the 2006 season when they made it to the ALCS). And I remember being there with my friends. And as soon as we knew that they were going to win we ran to the kiosk to buy tickets for the next game. And I was like, this is so awesome. They're actually doing something. And then they lost the very next game and it was all over.”
Reno
“We have a triple-A team (Reno Aces) out here, which we just finally started going to, which is really fun actually. There’s like a presidents race where these guys are all wearing these silly costumes that they're stuck in and they have no arms and they gotta run. They're doing some remodeling this year and they're gonna expand the back grass area and make that more fun and expand the kids area.
It's fun to go and start getting our kids exposed to baseball. We've only been to a couple. They're still at an age, mean, sitting still is impossible, you know? So we do a lot of walking around and see what's going on. We only went to a couple last year. We'll try and go to a few more this year once they start again.”
“It's 15 minutes away. I can drive to the stadium in 20 minutes and the games go quicker. I think that's probably just the nature of triple-A ball in general, but you got like a couple hour game and then you can go on with your day, especially if it's like an 11:00 start in the morning.”
Would you ever try to take the twins to a game solo?
“Well, there's no way that you're gonna get a four year old to sit in a seat for very long. And so then your kid’s like around and you’re like, ‘Hey, stop it!’ And I got it times two, at the exact same time. Like I’d see people that have kids that are like 4 and 2 or, you know, 6 and 4 or 7 and 5 or whatever. They have no idea what it's like having to do the same thing at the exact same time.
It's tough. When we took them to their first game, it was an A's-Giants game. And even my parents came with us on that one. Now that they like doing activities and stuff like that, you know, and when games start up again, we're definitely going to be go to that and seeing how it goes.”
Would you be taking them to A’s games if you were still in the Bay?
“I guess it really depends on where we would be living and how challenging it is with the traffic and all that, because it's out of control. It's so bad. It's only been four years since we left, and the company that I was working for previously was based in San Francisco. Even after we moved, I was constantly going back. It would depend on the traffic and like where we lived, but if they didn't suck so bad and the stadium wasn’t in complete disrepair... yeah, totally.
But you know, I don't want to go because it's depressing for me. It wouldn't be a good environment to introduce baseball to kids either. There’s 2,000 people in a 50,000 seat stadium. It's not a great place to be anymore.”
And the minor leagues are much friendlier and affordable.
“I think a big part is time. And another big part is cost. The reality of having children is you can't go to a baseball game and not buy a bag of peanuts or a thing of cotton candy or a hot dog or whatever. You know what I mean? It's part of the whole deal. You’re gonna be there for three hours, you need some food. And it's not realistic to think that you can get away with not having those things. Then they fuck up and they drop their hot dog on the ground after they took one bite of it. Or they knocked their drink over and it spills all over the place and like, well, there goes 20 bucks. You just have to go get it again.
I mean, even if you could just bring in like water, your own water bottles or whatever or a sandwich. I mean ‘cause I remember we used to do that too for A's games. I don't know if you still can, but we used to get a footlong Subway sandwich or something from TOGO’s and just bring that with us in our backpacks to the game. Now you can't even do that.”
The Black Hole
Were you always a bigger football fan?
“No, I mean I would say it was more baseball. Just because I played baseball, so I was more interested up through high school. I didn't really get into football as much until probably 8 years ago. When I met my wife, she knew I was a Raiders fan, and for some reason she decided to get us season tickets in the Black Hole. And so after that, the rest you know, the rest is history. If you’ve never been to the black hole it's fucking awesome.”
Was she a sports fan?
“No, not really.”
So she didn't know what she was putting you guys into?
“No, she had no idea what she was getting into. We didn't go that extreme. I mean we had Raiders gear and stuff but no face painting. It's just wild, everybody there is so crazy and so into the game. You have all the crazy people in their costumes and stuff like that.”
Takeaways
I’m starting to sense a pattern with the people I grew up with and their relationship with the A’s. They all seem to have moved on and for both different and similar reasons. There’s the team being bad (not just bad, but intentionally sabotaging themselves with low payrolls), the state of their stadium, all the threats and votes to move. And that’s on top of the reality of life as someone in your thirties.
By now, most of us have a career, a marriage, kids (usually younger) and so when the sport isn’t making an effort to reach out and keep you hooked, then the fire goes cold. You can tell it’s not out, like I can see Jon’s passion for baseball getting reignited at the Aces game this summer. I’d bet on that. Minor league baseball today is what everyone talks about Major League baseball used to be. Bring the family, wander around, have some food, enjoy a summer day and then go back to your busy lives after a refreshing break. But for an MLB family, that involves almost 10x the money, bigger crowds, restrictions on large bags in the stadium (which, really? still?) and metal detectors.
My other big revelation is that Jon is one of the last people I ever would’ve pictured as a Black Hole season ticket holder. But then again, even the most innocent among us could secretly have a Raider alter ego, like this lady: