Dubbed the “loneliest team in baseball” by the New York Times, a new baseball season came as a ray of hope for the consistently down-falling Oakland Athletics. But even with this shimmer of hope, the start of 2023 has failed to bring in large crowds at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. And today, the crisis is more felt than ever before.

Amidst empty stadiums and poor performances, bringing some solace to a rather depressing environment at the Coliseum, decked in the home plate umpire’s kit, was a kid, who rose to the occasion and entertained the metaphorically dead stadium.

A young child umpire is the only entertainment for the Oakland Athletics’ fans in a rather mellow Coliseum

With the release of Moneyball in 2011 featuring Brad Pitt, the Oakland Athletics were at an all-time high. But a decade later, with two consecutive postseason misses, and a deteriorating fan base, the tables have completely turned for the A’s. However, as first reported by the Athletics senior editor and writer Melissa Lockard, the kid, dressed as a home plate umpire, completely stole the show while sitting a few rows behind the home plate.

Miming the home plate umpire after every pitch in the game against the Cleveland Guardians, Barstool Sports contributed to the video going viral and took a dig at stained umpire Angel Hernandez. “This kid is already a better umpire than Angel Hernandez,” said Barstool in the caption of the video.

Read More: ?The Next Shohei..?- Oakland Athletics Send MLB Fans Into Frenzy by Signing Japanese Upstart Shintaro Fujinami

As the video went viral, fans had mixed reactions. Some questioned the kid’s dream of being an umpire out of everything, while others adored the video. This is how the fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/bryan98228140/status/1643768991465218048?s=20

https://twitter.com/oreosbed/status/1643811416758001665?s=20

Notably, the Athletics lost their first two series of the season. First, they lost 2-1 to the Angels at home, followed by a loss to the Cleveland Guardians, at home again.

Will the Oakland Athletics shift to Las Vegas?

The Oakland Athletics’ pursuit of a new home stadium has been going on for quite some time now. While Oakland continues to compete in the Athletics pursuit, Las Vegas entered the competition a few months back. While talking about their pursuit, A’s manager Mark Kotsay said, ?It?s been talked about for a long time. We continue to pursue both in Oakland and in Vegas. We call that the ‘parallel path.'”

Where do you think will the Athletics finally settle? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Watch this story:?From Aaron Judge to Rafael Devers: Ranking the biggest 2022 MLB off-season deals so far