Thumbs up: An invite to the ballpark from the A's

Oakland sports fans have endured a lot of bad news and a lot of tough losses in the past few years.

Yes, the Golden State Warriors brought home two NBA titles in three years. But the team plans to decamp for San Francisco as soon as a new arena is completed. The Raiders, meanwhile, are making plans to move to Las Vegas, just as the team appears to rising from a decade of futility on the field. That will make twice that the NFL team has jilted its loyal fans in the East Bay.

Which brings us to the Oakland Athletics. They haven't done a lot of winning recently, and that includes their failed bids to relocate to Fremont and San Jose. But the A's are offering their fans something unusual, if not unprecedented, in this era of big-money pro sports: free admission.

To mark its 50th anniversary in Oakland, the major league baseball team announced that all seats will be free for an April 18 game against the Chicago White Sox. The team followed a few days later with an announcement that it had picked a site for a new ballpark - near downtown Oakland. That's two hits and no errors for the A's.