‘We all have our fingers crossed for him:’ California wildfires threaten home of A’s coach

Quality control coach Mark Kotsay filled in as the first base coach Thursday and Friday.

That’s because Mike Aldrete, the A’s first base coach, was not with the team. His home is close to the wildfires that are tearing through Northern California.

“It’s close enough to where we all have our fingers crossed for him,” manager Bob Melvin said.

Reminders of the nearby disasters hovered over the Coliseum this week; the A’s were hitting balls through a smoky haze.

“It’s just sad,” A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said. “Obviously being from California I know what that means and it just means that the fires are getting worse … It’s something that’s definitely serious and it’s just sad.”

Melvin said Aldrete’s experience has put baseball in perspective.

“It’s just some heavy hearts for what’s going on here right now,” Melvin said prior to Thursday’s game. “It is so sad. Especially the people that have been here and grew up here and see what’s going on here. It’s just an awful feeling. And we pray for everybody out there.”

As for the smoke at the Oakland Coliseum, Melvin says possible game postponements are entirely dependent on whether team doctors on site determine the air to be healthy or unhealthy AQI levels.

The AQI levels haven’t been close to high enough for game postponement, Melvin said, believing a 200 AQI to be the limit. He was told the AQI reached 150 or 160 at the Coliseum.