Barry Zito’s best baseball skill may have been his gravity-defying curveball. But the former Cy Young Award winner can also sing a song – and for this reason he was once again the focus of Oakland Athletics fans for a short time.

Zito played the national anthem before the Athletics’ final game Thursday in Oakland, part of a series of pregame celebrations that featured the return of the senior national team’s all-time greats. Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart each threw a ceremonial first pitch before the game began against the Texas Rangers.

The Oakland Coliseum has been the home of the A’s since the franchise moved from Kansas City in 1968. However, starting next season, the team will play in Sacramento as plans to move to Las Vegas are finalized.

The crowd cheered at the surprise appearance by Zito, who has pursued a professional music career since retiring from baseball in 2015. At the end of the performance there was a flyover and a loud “Let’s Go Oakland” chant. Fans waved Zito’s hats in the air.

Former A’s ace Barry Zito sings the national anthem 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/wDDw9Vwf3Z

– One on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) September 26, 2024

Henderson and Stewart, both franchise icons and Oakland natives, were also major attractions for fans. Before the A’s and Rangers began the game, both Henderson and Stewart formed long lines of fans asking for autographs.

The 46-year-old Zito was part of a dominant Oakland rotation that helped the team to four American League West titles in seven years. He made All-Star appearances in 2002, 2003 and 2006 and won the Cy Young in 2002, winning 23 games for an A team with a record of 103-59.

The left-hander spent his next seven seasons across the Bay with the San Francisco Giants before returning to the A’s for his final season in 2015.

The A’s will move after 56 years to the state capital, about an hour and 30 minutes northeast. The team will play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. Sutter Health is home to San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate, the River Cats. The move comes five years after the Raiders — who played at the Oakland Coliseum from 1966 to 1981 and 1995 to 2019 — left for Las Vegas.

Oakland is 68-90 in its final season in the city, a record that trails only the Los Angeles Angels (63-95 as of Thursday) and the Chicago White Sox (38-120 as of Thursday) in the AL. Both the Angels and White Sox set franchise losing records this season.

Fans paint a sign before the Athletics’ final home game in Oakland. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

However, the A’s had a better record at home (37-43) than away (31-47). And while Thursday’s stakes were meaningless in the eyes of the Major League Baseball playoffs, A’s fans packed the Oakland Coliseum for one final, sentimental ballgame – their signs displaying a mix of sadness and disdain for their home team’s departure.

A’s rookie right-hander JT Ginn’s first pitch was a strike at 12:37 p.m. local time.

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(Photo: Eakin Howard/Getty Images)