Korach reflects on A's history in Las Vegas, upcoming move

LAS VEGAS -- For Athletics broadcaster Ken Korach, this week’s Las Vegas Series marks a return to where his career with the club began.

Due to ongoing renovations at the Oakland Coliseum, the A’s began their 1996 season with six games in Las Vegas at Cashman Field, then home of the Las Vegas Stars, now the club’s Triple-A affiliate Las Vegas Aviators, whose home of Las Vegas Ballpark is being occupied by the A’s this week.

Korach was hired by the A’s in November 1995, which meant his first six games would come at the same Cashman Field where he called games for the Stars from 1989-91. MLB.com caught up with the legendary broadcaster, now a Southern Nevada resident in his 31st year with the A’s, to look back on that special series three decades ago.

MLB.com: When you got hired, did you know they would open the 1996 season in Las Vegas?

Korach: No. They didn’t have a tremendous amount of time to get ready, so I think we were all kind of thinking that, even though [the Coliseum] was a work in progress still, it would be ready. I don’t remember the exact date they announced they’d be playing games here, but we didn’t have a huge amount of time in advance.

MLB.com: Do you know anything about how they decided on Vegas being the place where they’d open the season?

Korach: There’s been a relationship forever between the A’s and [Las Vegas Aviators president and chief operations officer] Don Logan and the staff here. I think that relationship had a lot to do with the A’s playing those games there, and Vegas is a place that can make it happen.

MLB.com: What was your reaction when you showed up to call your first Major League game with the A’s in the same ballpark you spent years calling Minor League games?

Korach: This is not to disparage [Cashman Field] in any way, but when I was trying to get a job in broadcasting, I sat in the stands at the Oakland Coliseum with a cassette recorder. I was making audition tapes during A’s games around 1979 when there weren’t many people going and I had a whole section to myself. I’d look up at the press box and it was this magical place, like, ‘Well, I’ll never have a chance to be up there.’ Once I got hired, I did think a lot about how my first A’s game is going to be at the Coliseum. So, people were saying, ‘Wow, it must be really cool that you’re doing your first game at Cashman Field.’ And I was thinking, ‘Well, it wasn’t exactly the way I envisioned this.’ But it was a trip. It was surreal. I was literally sitting in the same seat.

MLB.com: What do you remember from those six games in Las Vegas?

Korach: The A’s were 1-4 going into the last game on that Sunday, and Gerónimo Berroa hits a walk-off home run. It was a bookend, parenthetically. Berroa hit the last A’s home run in Vegas, and [Shea] Langeliers homers to start the game [this week on Monday]. There was my first triple play I ever called in that Sunday game with Ernie Young sprawling on the warning track. It was fun.

It was really interesting, because the A’s were a team in transition. The new ownership group had come in and that was their first year. [Manager Tony] La Russa had moved on to the Cardinals and it was Art Howe coming in. There were remnants of the great teams of the late '80s and early '90s like [Terry] Steinbach, but a lot of those guys had moved on. Mark McGwire was hurt, so he didn’t play. … They wound up having a decent year and hitting a lot of home runs.

Working with Bill [King], that was really special for me. I idolized him, and now you’re doing Major League games with him. It’s hard to quantify what that meant. Then just the logistics. Both of the TV crews were working from a restaurant behind home plate. They made it work.

MLB.com: Obviously, there’s a buzz around here now that we know the A’s are moving to Las Vegas. What’s it like now calling games here before the eventual move?

Korach: A lot of momentum has been built here in the last few months that you can feel. ... The A’s have sent a really positive message to people here. To see the stadium being built, it’s real. The other thing is, I’m never going to forget the fans in the Bay Area and how great it was. I’m trying to embrace the tradition of the club and have some kind of continuity in a way, which may sound disingenuous. But I hope that people can recognize that -- it’s still the A’s. That’s very meaningful for me. … We still have a good group of people who try to embrace the history.