In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been nearly 240,000 games over the last century and a half. Baseball was played as early as the 19th century, during two world wars and various other uprisings and conflicts. Games have taken place during and around assassinations and terrorist attacks. Players have taken the field in front of more than 100,000 cheering fans and played games with barely a single fan in the seats. And yet, of all these encounters, there was probably none that was less exciting than the last game at the Oakland Coliseum between the (for now) home A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays.

As most baseball fans know, the A’s are apparently playing as Oakland’s team until the end, with the franchise set to move to Sacramento for the next three seasons before settling in Las Vegas in a ballpark that has not yet been designed, on too small a lot, with funds not approved by the state legislature. Fans in Oakland have expressed their displeasure by either not coming to games or coming in droves to commit a “reverse boycott.”

The A’s currently sit last in the AL West at 54-72, which is to be expected. The visitors, however, are a respectable 63-62, fourth in the highly competitive AL East, and are now 6.5 games out of the third Wild Card spot. Simply put, there was no good reason to go to the A’s game against the Rays on a Tuesday night in August. And so only 4,377 people decided to go.

What did these brave (crazy?) fans get for coming in on that clear 75-degree night in Oakland? They saw a total of one run and six hits. From the first pitch to the last out, they (thankfully) only had to sit through 114 minutes of baseball.

The good news is that there was a runner on base in each of the first eight innings. The bad news is that between two double plays and seven left on bases, not much happened. In the eighth inning, Jose Siri kept this battle from going into overtime by hitting his 15th home run of the season. It was the fifth hit of the night and the only run scored.

Perhaps most shockingly, this was only the A’s 11th worst game of the season. And it’s nearly double the 2,488 who attended a game against the Rangers in 2022. But of 10 other games with fewer than 4,377 fans, all lasted longer than two hours (the shortest was 2:17) and all featured at least three runs scored. On May 7, the A’s even lost 15-8 to the Rangers in a game that lasted over three hours. At least those 3,965 fans got their money’s worth.

But one run, six hits, two extra-base hits, a single batter (Brent Rooker) with an OPS over .900 and another single batter (Brandon Lowe) with an OPS over .800 in less than two hours of play were not worth the price of admission.

The A’s have 18 home games left this season. The final two series are against the Yankees and Rangers and are sure to draw a lot of fans. That gives the A’s 12 more chances to top themselves. However, it’s really difficult to play nine innings of baseball and score less (1 run total) in a shorter period of time (1:54). From a paying fan’s perspective, the game on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at the Oakland Coliseum may have been the worst game ever.