Oakland A’s fans continue protests at All-Star Game, chant ‘sell the team’

Oakland A’s fans were vocal at the 2023 MLB All-Star Game in Seattle.

As the franchise prepares to potentially move from Oakland to Las Vegas, a contingent of fans has pushed owner John Fisher to sell the club and keep the team in the Bay Area.

Supporters made sure to make their voices heard at the Midsummer Classic at T-Mobile Park as one fan posted a note card to Twitter from the outfield bleachers titled “Sell The Athletics All-Star Game Protest #FisherOut.”

The other side of the card called for fans to stand up during the first at-bat of the top of the fifth inning before starting chants of “Sell the team.”

And sure enough, in the top of the fifth, fans were heard chanting just that.

But the noise didn’t stop there and continued in the following inning when A’s representative Brent Rooker stepped up to bat.

In the bottom of the sixth, Rooker stepped in against National League reliever Alexis Diaz and laced a double into right-center field over outfielder Juan Soto as the chants were renewed.

It wasn’t the first time in Seattle that A’s fans tried to make their voices heard.

At the first round of Sunday’s 2023 MLB Draft, fans started the same chant as the A’s selected Jacob Wilson.

In June, even as the team floundered in last place of the AL West, 27,000 fans showed up to the Oakland Coliseum as part of a reverse boycott that included coordinated chants, shirts and scores of signs.

Green Day frontman — and Oakland native — Billie Joe Armstrong even supported the movement.

A number of former and current major league players have spoken out against the potential move, including Bryce Harper, who is a native of Las Vegas.

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Harper told USA Today in June. “It’s just not right. They have so much history in Oakland. You’re taking a team out of a city. I’m pretty sad because of all of the history and all of the greatness they’ve seen there.”

The A’s have been in Oakland since 1968 but appear on a course to move to Las Vegas on the site of the Tropicana hotel.