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There are plenty of words you could use to describe the current state of the Oakland Athletics—including one that was inadvertently emblazoned across the front of a baseball hat that was removed from the MLB store after catching the attention of the internet.
The Oakland Athletics are on the verge of playing their final game in the city they’ve called home for close to 60 years, and fans who’ve remained loyal to the franchise despite John Fisher’s best efforts to alienate them have been forced to endure yet another disappointing season where they’ll likely be finishing with at least 90 losses based on the 68-89 record they’ve posted while missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
As things currently stand, the A’s will be temporarily relocating to Sacramento and sharing a stadium with San Francisco’s AAA affiliate ahead of a permanent relocation to Las Vegas tentatively slated for 2028, and the franchise.
The A’s certainly won’t be leaving Oakland on a high note, as Fisher’s tenure has been defined by the cheapness and dysfunction that inspired members of the team’s fanbase to organize an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get him to sell the franchise to an owner that actually cares about it.
That brings us to an incredibly on-the-nose piece of apparel that was available for purchase on the MLB Store as of Tuesday afternoon, and you don’t have to be a genius to figure out why the “Shadow” design the folks at New Era whipped up for the A’s is no longer listed on the website due to the message that was accidentally plastered across the front.
Oh no
There’s an actual Oakland Athletics hat on the actual MLB shop that just says ASSSSSS 😭 pic.twitter.com/QnE3JR2trp
— Not Gaetti (@notgaetti) September 24, 2024
Part of me feels like whoever was responsible for coming up with that motif knew exactly what they were doing, but I have a hard time imagining that was actually the case.