Bob Melvin returned to the Coliseum for the first time in two years, this time managing the San Diego Padres against his former Oakland club.
Melvin caught up with plenty of familiar faces and knew that would be the case all weekend.
“We saw him last year in the uniform but to be across the dugout from him and what he’s meant to my career and the impact he had on me when I was here as a bench coach, quality control and third base coach under him, the knowledge he passed along, I don’t think I’d be sitting here today without that,” second-year A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I can’t thank him enough for it but obviously I want to beat him tonight.
“I loved it,” Melvin said of working in Oakland. “Just coming back into a place that I’ve been as early as 12 years old, so this property has been very important in my lifetime.” Melvin has ditched his superstitious ways this season since he found his routines such as eating candy in certain planned innings just wasn’t working during San Diego’s struggles.