Interview #19: Jeff Aspland - Danville, CA
Direct Quote: "Baseball is my yoga"
Intro
I’ve known Jeff for 25 years, going back to us growing up in Danville and then now both living in Arizona. He was born in 1986, so we were the same age and played lots of sandlot baseball and tennis court roller hockey. He’s as big an A’s fan as our generation has produced and thanks to a prematurely receded hairline, could always be found in a fashionable A’s hat. Also, when he mentions Blackhawk, just picture a gated country club community in the 17th wealthiest town in America.
Talking to him, I realized some of my assumptions were wrong that I had growing up. We always knew he was an above average athlete, but he came off as lazy at times. Like, he wasn’t someone who would always say yes if he was asked to go play hockey or baseball or basketball or any of that. But when you read about him growing up and trying to get good at baseball, and never quite reaching the level he thought he could, it was less laziness and more like, he was the youngest kid in his family by 10 years.
So by the time he’s able to really learn sports, his brothers are out of the house. The same ones he’s watched star in sports his whole life. And his parents were much older than most parents he grew up with, so they were less active by then. His dad served in Vietnam, my dad was in high school when that ended. It sounded like he was left to figure it out himself or with private coaches. So I think having a decorated athletic family before him and then not being to reach those same levels or even get the same attention probably led more to apathy than laziness.
But it didn’t kill his love of baseball and sports in general. Much of his life to this day still revolves around sports, especially with his stepson being a high school senior playing hockey. And he married a sports fan, stays friends with other sports fans and listens and watches games year-round.
He goes on to capture the essence of the Oakland Coliseum as well as an ASU-educated Design Management major can. And now he is in the middle of reflecting on all the questions and concerns regarding his future baseball fandom and what to do in this window where the A’s are in limbo. Enjoy!
Jeff walked in wearing an A’s hat with duct tape over the logo with #SELLTHETEAM written on it.
“I got some great compliments as I walked in. The bartender wanted to read it and he thought it was funny. Other people were like, ‘Is that the Moneyball team?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And his wife was like, ‘Is that the Oakland A’s?’ and I was like, 'Yeah, for now.’”
Growing up in a family of star athletes
What’s your favorite baseball memory from childhood?
“I do often think of us in Blackhawk. Those fields that we had in Blackhawk, and we had the Little League home run fences. The one thing I could do in baseball was hit the ball and could I throw? No. Did I know the game that well when I was young? No. But with you guys hitting home runs, having home run derbies, those were fun.
I mildly remember you talking a lot of baseball shit to me. And me hitting dingers meant so much more because of that. I enjoyed your trash talk. I love sports trash talk. It motivates me to try harder, I don’t know why. If I can make you eat your words, that is fun for me.”
“I honestly don't know why I was bad at baseball, but I was ignorant to how bad I was.”
How long did you actually play Little League?
“I played ‘til about 10 or 11 years old, and I remember being on a team with kids 2 years younger than me. At tryouts, I thought I did great. My throws went where they were supposed to, I hit the ball a bunch. But I made the lowest level I was allowed to make. So I never really understood why I wasn't good at baseball or why no one really gave me that support to tell me what I was bad at.
I have a big separation in age from my brothers. One brother was really good at baseball but didn't necessarily like it. He had a perfect game in high school. He got yelled at and got kicked off the varsity baseball team and then threw a perfect game in the JV game. He probably could have played baseball in college, but he was a hockey player. He loved hockey. My dad had his high school number retired for baseball. I just never asked for help or figured that out, and as a player, I didn't really enjoy it. But then as a fan, it was my favorite thing to watch.”
So you have two brothers, one is really good at sports. What about the other one? How much older than you are they?
“Both of them were. They’re 10 and 12 years older. So I didn't really have their influence when I was learning. My dad worked a lot. My mom was very supportive. She got me private lessons. You would never know because I was that bad. I thought I was doing better at baseball, but I wasn't making the better teams or playing the better positions. I’d be in right field or first base.”
So you come along and you were not as prolific as them?
“I don’t think I had the drive that they had.”
Do you think if you did, you would have been better?
“I do. And I think if I would have taken lacrosse seriously, I could have gone somewhere with it. Basketball, too. I probably wouldn't play college but I could’ve been pretty good on the De La Salle team if I had put effort in. I was a tall kid in 7th grade. In 9th grade, I wasn't a tall kid anymore. In basketball I was always the center and that didn't play out well for me. So if I would have been a well-rounded basketball player and not just focused on that position, I probably could have gone further with it.”
Did that bug you? It seemed like it was in your DNA that you would be great and you seem like you were athletic. You played lacrosse in high school and that's not an easy sport.
“I don't know why I got passed over. I never really understood why I was not good. By 8th grade, I was a top basketball player. In lacrosse I was averaging a goal a game. I was pretty good. But for baseball, it was like, smaller kids were passing me by. Kids I grew up with were playing travel baseball. I'm just like, I don't get.”
Were your parents into sports, too?
“So my parents are huge athletes, sports fans, right? My mom played basketball and she was a cheerleader and loves every sport. My dad was an all-American for football, baseball and basketball.”
Where did they grow up?
“Long Island. My dad's been a member of the New York Athletic Club since the 1960’s. He loved his time in the army. He was in Vietnam and he loved it, because every minute he wasn't working, he got to play sports. He's playing basketball and baseball at the base. He was on the sports board for Georgetown for a long time, played basketball at Georgetown, played football at Georgetown. And you know that he's got a long record of being a great athlete. And my mom was a great basketball player in her day.
I grew up in a house where sports was on at all times. My mom loved going to baseball games, taking me to baseball games. My dad knows everything about sports. He played baseball because the coach, who was also the basketball coach, had made him play. He was the athlete of the school. He got an offer from the then-Brooklyn Dodgers.
My mother kept score. I would go to the games with my mom. My mother knows sports much better than most other people that we would think of. She could explain 90% of most sports to you. She knows it. First time she met Caden, she taught him how to shoot a basketball correctly. And she married a man that was great at that kind of stuff. For Valentine's Day, for her birthday, get her sports tickets. She loves it. The thing my parents do together is watch sports.”
A’s and Coliseum Memories
“One of the fond memories that I have of baseball is walking into the Coliseum, when you walk down that main hallway and you would see the mural of the players. There were a lot of characters, the A’s were known for caricatures. Special haircuts, big muscles, like every generation had a thing. We had Coco Crisp. We had the Bash Brothers. We had Eckersley, Rollie Fingers. Even Catfish Hunter, he had a weird mustache too.
The A’s fans were extremely blue collar. It was fantastic. It's the same reason I, like, I'm not really a football fan, but I grew up with a lot of kids that were Niners fans. I went to a couple of Niners games. I got great seats. But I've never really liked the Niners because they didn't feel blue collar. That’s a wine and cheese crowd and the Raiders weren't. They've changed since going to Vegas, but that was one of the reasons I liked the Raiders, they felt a lot like Oakland.”
So what draws you to that? You grew up not having to worry about money or food or anything. You didn't grow up blue collar.
“It felt more real. It felt more, I don't know, maybe more punk, is a way to look at it. I’m a beer drinker, I don't like wine. I've been told that I don't act like a Blackhawk kid sometimes. I was a little ignorant to what my family had and how successful my family was. My parents are very frugal. They sent me to a good school, but I would say even the kids at De La Salle didn't know that I lived on a hill in Blackhawk until they came to my house. That's where I started actually figuring out that I wasn't just another family. People would come to the house and be like, ‘You live on top of a hill? Behind a gate?’
We grew up in Pleasantville, basically. Where we could ride our bikes and no one worried. I mean, there's a lot of drugs, but for some reason we were either smart, or dumb, enough not to do it. I definitely took advantage of energy drinks, that was a vice. But you know, I had a lot of friends that smoked pot. I remember driving around friends who were on shrooms. I was at the parties that had a lot of it. I knew a lot of the drug dealers. Maybe it was my Catholic Irish guilt, a mother's guilt? I don't know, but sports kept us out of that, I think. And we just did it together. It wasn't organized sports. It was just us hanging out, playing sports.”
What is it about baseball that you love the most?
“I love hot dogs.”
I like food a lot - Jeff Aspland
That’s the worst answer I’ve heard. Come on, try again.
“If you had a hot dog at an A’s game, the Miller Hot Dog is a great hot dog. It's part of it. You know, I like food a lot. Let me elaborate. My A’s games started in the box seats, so we had this luxury experience with free hot dogs. OK, in my mind it's just like, oh, there's hot dogs right here. I can eat as much as I want, I can enjoy the game, I’ve got a great view of the whole field behind home plate.”
So you’re Homer Simpson in that doughnut machine just being stuffed with hot dogs.
“To me, baseball is like yoga. It’s nice and long, if you miss an inning it’s not a big deal. I enjoy the slower game. When I was coaching lacrosse, I would get kids from baseball that couldn’t handle that slowness. But for me, it was just enjoyable. I have great memories with my mom taking me there. My parents are big into, you know, go to the game, enjoy the game, have a hot dog at the game and a drink.
My mother grew up a Yankees fan because… so my mother's father was an orphan, an Irish orphan in New York City. At 16, he was on his own during the Great Depression. I have stories of my grandfather would climb a tree to watch Babe Ruth play. My dad's been to Ebbets Field, my dad grew up in a Brooklyn fan. He was born in Brooklyn. My mother was a Yankees fan because, hell, my grandfather got to watch the history of the Yankees. I'm not a Yankees fan, but we both loved the history of sports and history of baseball. I love the history of baseball and how American it is and I think that’s had something to do with why my love’s continued. I’ve been a fan for a long time.”
Besides now, was there ever a time when you were not as into baseball?
“Probably the really bad 90’s A’s teams. We didn't go as much, our connection had kind of dropped off… but I was always an an A's fan right? But that era, JT Snow and Barry Bonds kind of took over my household. My parents weren't too specific because they were New York fans. So they’d watch the team that was more entertaining. My parents didn't really throw too much at either one. And my mom took me to A's games because she got free tickets. It had fallen off the 90’s somewhere and picked back up in 2001 when I could take myself to a game.
I would definitely say high school brought me back. I had friends that liked the A's and liked baseball. Me going to ASU probably saved my love for baseball because of the spring training and the cheap Diamondbacks tickets. It kept the momentum going to where I was like, I can go to a baseball game. And they were $8 StubHub tickets or scalper tickets. They were kind of near the pool, actually. Just 8 bucks! I got a ball thrown to me by Bartolo Colon one year, he was on the A’s at the time. I got to sit behind some of the best dugouts the Giants have ever had. All those teams (2010, 2012, 2014), I can appreciate how good the Giants were then.”
What if you’d been 16 in 1996? So you can go to games, but they’re terrible. We had the sweet spot of the 2000-2004 A’s.
“(sarcastically) Probably would’ve done drugs. When you say, what's that one moment that I love about baseball? There's so many. Like dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun… Tejada! And the Bernie Lean. We had closer songs that include MC Hammer with 2 Legit 2 Quit legit clip and we literally had it on the Jumbotron, the hand. Those moments are fantastic and uniquely Oakland.
So I feel like our diehard fans are more diehard. I remember being in Ireland in 2007 at the Cliffs of Moher, which is a very touristy area. Probably top three areas in Ireland to go to. I remember taking a picture of a guy wearing an A's Tim Hudson T-shirt. So here's trivia that you might now know. Did you know there's a Facebook group for the history of Irish baseball. They're more than just Facebook, but it's all about, like, Irish baseball players. It's an interesting crew of people.”
The A’s break up with him
“I would say since COVID (my fandom) died hard.”
Why is that?
“The A’s being terrible. The continuation of just being shat on, losing players, you can't buy a jersey because the guy will be gone. It's a sad piece to the game. I used to get a new A’s hat every season. I changed my college schedule for spring training. Like one of the great things about ASU is spring training baseball, so my spring semester I would be like, I need to have my classes done by 11 so I can make it to the baseball game. I think my height was 18 games during college.
I’m more than a casual fan. I can’t love it as much as Graig does (🤷♂️). But I think I'm stronger than a casual fan and I love the history of the A's and everything about it. And over the years, that love has grown.
And it’s just been ripped out of me.
The more I think about it, the thing that got me into baseball, kept me hooked, was the atmosphere at the Coliseum. I didn't get that feeling in the few Giants games I went to at Candlestick and the few games I've gone to outside the Coliseum. So the Coliseum, you got the drums, you've got meeting Stomper as a little kid… I remember back when it was clean and you could see the Oakland hills and the banjo guy. There's a lot of little stuff like MC Hammer as a kid was a bat boy for the Oakland A’s, and that's very Oakland. I feel very at home in that atmosphere and that has a lot to do with what grew my love for baseball and strong loyalty to the sport.
I do think baseball is kind of my, like, yoga. I can zone out, relax and take in the atmosphere of the game. All of it. I want a popcorn. I want fries. I want a hot dog. I want baseball. Even when it got real bad and real empty, I still remember a lot of those games.
I'm gonna air some grievances. How many teams can say they have a world renowned movie, a rap album dedicated to it, The Unofficial Bash Brothers by the Lonely Island Boys, A Netflix special, a 30 For 30? They’re top four in World Series wins, with nine. They're one of the oldest teams in the league, going back to the Philadelphia and Kansas City days. The majority of their success is in Oakland. When a fan, though, very famous now, makes a whole rap album about the A's and a specific time frame of the A's. Shit, man, they referenced Blackhawk, they reference Round Table Pizza, the beats are so Bay Area rap that it's unbelievable. The A's hat is iconic. The A’s hat has pop culture relevance. How many ball teams have a Simpsons reference? The ‘72 Oakland A’s and they all pull up in the car. Recently there's been a lot of, like, the A’s don't have real fans, they don't have this, all that bullshit.”
What stage of grief are you in?
“I'm in disbelief. I’m in mourning, I would say is the best way to put it. I have 20 A’s hats that I don't know what to do with. I've got A’s jerseys, I have an A’s memorabilia wall. And when I go home (to the Bay Area), I'm gonna have this decision of like, should I go to the game? To get one last one in? To bring my daughter to a game? My son's gone to a game. My wife's been to multiple games with me. Or do I stand in solidarity because I fucking hate what's happening.”
If you could go back and talk to yourself in high school, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?
“I dunno if I like that question, Graig. Because my high school self would say, ‘It won't happen.’”
No, you’re high school self would look at you and say, “Where did my hair go?!”
“No, I didn't have that much to begin with. There was no surprises with where that was going. I would have gone to more games, that's probably what I would’ve done. In the early 2000s, absolutely. I would have definitely put more effort into getting to games. I feel like that’s the only thing I could do. That or try to figure out some way to get Fisher out of there earlier.”
If you sat next to John Fisher on a plane, what would you say to him?
“I would try to understand him. If he was actually being honest. I wouldn’t yell. How many times have you actually seen me angry?”
Once.
“Yeah, and did that have anything to do with a hockey stick being broken over my leg?”
Maybe. (note: our friend Sean once two-handed Jeff in the back of the knee while playing hockey as kids. I am unsure as to what caused it, I plead the 5th)
“I would first try to understand how terribly he's run the Gap Corporation. I used to enjoy Banana Republic and now I don't shop there because of him. He's literally the first person that I've taken an actual stand against and boycotted. I don't understand the strategy that he's ever taken with the Oakland A's in his ownership. So, trying to understand, or get clarity or confirmation. I want honest answers. When you look at the comparison of the Warriors and the A's, which is a great thing that you can compare. New ownership comes in, the A's went one direction, the Warriors went an entirely different direction They were a great ownership. I would say that change in ownership.”
Being a fan with a wife and kids
Did baseball or sports help you bond with Caden when you met Liz? (his step-son)
“When I first met Liz, he was about 6. So I really jumped into his life. I started taking him to baseball games and spring training games. The only sport he's doing is like $5, once a week karate. Very, very affordable, but I could kick the ass of the teacher. And Caden likes it. I was like, we need to try some other things. So we get him into a couple camps. He learns how to ice skate and starts loving it, really liking it. I put him in basketball camp, the local Y type of basketball camp. Community Center basketball. The kid is ambidextrous when it comes to dribbling the basketball, he is fantastic, a natural. I didn't teach him anything. He's great at it. But at six years old, he’s like, I don't want to do this. I'm gonna be too short for basketball. So he's a smart kid, too.
I remember watching a game, Chad Bradford was pitching. He had a really unique throwing motion where he’d submarine and scrape his knuckles on the dirt. I remember, I'm watching the game and it's a save situation, so it’s all about the pitcher. And he's watching the game and duplicating the pitcher movement as a six year old. And I get really excited. Like, oh, we're going to start baseball now. Let’s get after it… no interest. No interest in baseball. None.”
Is Liz a sports fan?
“Yeah. She’s someone I think you should interview. I met Liz, one of the first things I learned about her is she owns a Coyotes jersey. That was a win. And she understood baseball and enjoyed it. And proved it by saying, ‘Yeah I was there for the World Series when they won.’ She happened to be working for the Diamondbacks, but, whatever. I was maybe not the best dude to take her out on dates because I had season tickets to the Coyotes when we met, so she went to a lot of Coyotes games. She went to a lot of spring training games with me. She went to a lot of Diamondbacks games with me. And I could always say, ‘Hey, do you want to go?’ and she'll say, ‘Probably.’ She’ll most likely be willing to go and she’ll have a good time. She understands the sport, doesn't hate it like some dates that I've had.”
You think you'll take your daughter to more games (the 6-year-old)?
“She had an okay time. It's the other stuff that keeps her entertained. So we went to one game down the third base side, right? The other seats I had were really close to home plate. So her being able to see where the guy swings and where the pitch is coming from, where the real action is for the majority of the game. That's helpful and it kept her in it longer. She's like, ‘He's gonna hit it…. now!’ That anticipation keeps you entertained. When we moved out to the third base seats, it's harder to capture the game. If you're not a true fan, that's a problem. Like, to me, that is a problem. The majority of the game happens on a very small part portion of the field. We're in an era that’s a pitcher’s paradise. It's a little negative for the overall fan base.”
Nobody's as good a fan as they were as a kid, but how are you keeping up today?
“I had the MLB package all through college. I had it for most of my marriage. I forget when that changed, but something changed in the MLB package and I don’t get it anymore. I probably would watch 60 games, either A’s, Giants, or Cubs. Those are the three teams I watch and enjoy.
One of the things I really liked about the MLB package was I could throw on the radio broadcast. I did that in my corporate job when I had a cubicle job, I would listen to any game that I knew the announcers well or I had an opinion about either team. I've listened to the Giants over the years, great announcers. I love the A's announcers, and then, I've made friends with a lot of Cubs fans and, pre-World Series win, Cubs fans were probably the best fans in baseball. The real deep Cubs fans are very similar to Oakland fans, in my opinion. I got to Wrigley Field before they renovated it and I loved it. I loved every second of Wrigleyville.”
Wrigley Field
“So one of my best friends in college, she's from Chicago. Her and her mom are Cubs fans, the rest of the family is White Sox fans. She loves baseball, it's probably a big piece of why we became good friends. She went to a lot of spring training games with me, that kind of thing, and she moved to Wrigleyville after college. So, six months into dating Liz, no, three months in, very early on, I'm like, ‘I'm sorry, honey. I have been planning a trip to Wrigley Field where I'm going to stay at a girl's house so that we can go to a baseball game.’
Soon after that was when I started saying I love you to Liz because she did not make a fuss and she's become very good friends with that girl, Mary. I went with Mary's whole family because I was the extra brother. We went to the game. I ran into my cousin, who lives in Georgia, at the game.
Getting drunk at Wrigleyville is one of my favorite going out moments. Everyone's there for baseball. It's a unique atmosphere of bars that just line up to the ballpark, it's got history galore. It's got the nets to keep the old stadium from falling on you (note: that’s been fixed since then). It had a lot of the Coliseum feel to me, but with history. I got great seats under the old beams. I don't remember who they were playing. I don't remember the game that well. I remember enjoying my Old Style, enjoying the atmosphere. I’m an atmosphere baseball fan, I think we made that clear now. That one ball game is probably one of my favorite ball games I've ever gone to. The whole day, one of my best days of my life as a sports fan.
But I've never been to Fenway, which I need to. And for some reason, I want to go to a a game in Canada. I want to go to a Blue Jays game. I don't know why, but baseball in another country seems fun.”
How many stadiums have you been to?
Oakland, San Francisco, Diamondbacks, Angels. Basically all the spring training parks except Surprise and Maryvale. Except for surprise. I've never really gone to a minor league game. If it actually happens, I will go to an Oakland Bees game (note: at the time, the Oakland Bee’s of the Frontier League were looking to play at the Coliseum, but the A’s have currently kept that from becoming reality.). I’d invest. That might just be, you know, the angry ex type of thing.
Obviously you and I are very different people, but like, I think the reason our sports association being friends has turned into what I think is actual friendship is, one, your level of enjoyment of the game, we appreciate different parts of it.”