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The shame of Oakland

Related Topics: Oakland, Al Davis

This column originally appeared in Read & React, Yahoo Sports' daily newsletter. To subscribe, click here.

On April 1, 1996, the Oakland A’s opened their season at home … in Las Vegas. Their true home, the Oakland Coliseum, was undergoing renovations at the tip of a spear held by Al Davis, who demanded more seats or else he wasn’t moving the Raiders back north.

By April 19, the A’s were back at home, where they’d play the remainder of their season in a literal construction zone, complete with hard-hat-wearing workers eating lunch in the outfield as Mark McGwire stepped into the batter’s box against the Angels’ Jim Abbott.