THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Once again, it didn't have to end this way

Watching the Athletics’ finale at the Oakland Coliseum on a beautiful Thursday afternoon, before a raucous crowd, triggered a range of emotions. 

Some sentimental. 

But mostly anger. 

Though not being on the same passionate rooting level as the 49ers, the A’s have been one of my teams since the 1970s. 

Reggie Jackson. Sal Bando. Gene Tenace. The three-peat in the 1970s. 

(Gene Tenace? IYKYK.) 

Billy Martin in the early 1980, making the playoffs but overusing his starting pitchers (one guy threw a 14-inning complete game, and averaged around 130 pitches per start).

The Bash Brothers, Rickey Henderson, Carney Lansford and the like, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 

In recent years, ownership just stopped trying, and the A’s are done in Oakland. The next three years are slated to be in Sacramento, where an “artificial turf expert told a Bay Area TV station that temperatures on the A’s new/temporary field could range from 160 to 180 degrees. Then it’s on to Las Vegas, just like the Raiders. At least that’s the plan. 

First the Pac-12 ... now the A’s. 

SO IT’S kinda ironic that the A’s and Mariners are concluding this season today in Seattle, the finale of a meaningless three-game series. 

The A’s season basically ended with “Celebration” blaring after their emotional victory over the Rangers on Thursday before a sellout crowd. 

The M’s second-half collapse also became official that day. 

But this weekend series gave M’s management three more chances to gouge their fans, again without delivering a playoff team to them. 

M’s cheerleaders love to thumb their noses at the A’s ballpark — and deservedly so, with its problems with rodents and sewage over the years. 

Meanwhile, the M’s ballpark is still shiny after all these years. 

BUT ON the field, the A’s have been the better team than the M’s over the past few decades, with more winning seasons and more playoff appearances.  

Despite their cheapskate owner and their aging ballpark, you could argue the A’s have done a better job drafting and developing players than the M’s — ownership just refuses to pay them, so they have to give them away instead.

The M’s have missed the playoffs every season but twice this century — which is hard to do. In an era where most teams are happy if their starter goes five innings, M’s starters often pitch deep into games. But they often waste these so-called “quality starts” due to lousy hitting. And what happens when those pitchers start getting hurt, which seems to happen to just about all pitchers eventually (ask the Dodgers). 

With their resources, the Mariners should be able to attract marquee free agents, but few want to come there for some reason. Or ownership doesn’t want to pay them. Or they don’t want to play half their games at 10 p.m. Eastern time (9:30 on weeknights). Or hit a bunch of fly balls to the warning track. Or all of the above. 

Either way, though both organizations have taken different avenues to get to this point, there are some similarities. One of which is ... neither team is headed to the postseason. 

Again. 

So enjoy today’s finale between the A’s and the M’s, at the intersection of Cheapskate Owner and Wasted Opportunities. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.