It was an emotional day in Oakland as the A’s said goodbye to the city they have called home for 57 years.
Ahead of Thursday’s game against the Rangers -- the last at Oakland Coliseum -- the club welcomed back some of the greatest players to don the green and gold in the Bay Area. That included Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart, who threw out ceremonial first pitches.
You’d think Barry Zito, another A’s legend, would be a natural choice to throw out a first pitch. But he had another prominent pregame role: The 2002 AL Cy Young Award winner sang the national anthem.
It was Zito's first time performing the national anthem.
And he rocked it.
"Man, he nailed it," A's manager Mark Kotsay said after the game of his former teammate. "And for someone who’s never sung the anthem, I was scared for him. I was! That’s the toughest song. You see professionals -- and he’s a professional singer -- sing the anthem and they can butcher it. He was amazing. Very, very fitting."
Zito’s singing chops shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who have followed his post-baseball career. Soon after the left-hander retired following one final season with the A’s in 2015, he turned his attention to songwriting and released his first record in 2017.
Zito went 102-63 with a 3.58 ERA in eight seasons with the A’s. He won four postseason games, recorded a 3.25 ERA across seven starts in the playoffs and represented the franchise in the All-Star Game three times.
But Zito’s final appearance inside the Oakland Coliseum truly hit all the right notes.