FILE - The Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics stand for the national anthem at the Oakland Coliseum prior to an opening day baseball game in Oakland, Calif., in this Thursday, March 29, 2018, file photo.Major League Baseball instructed the Athletics to explore relocation options as the team tries to secure a new ballpark it hopes will keep the club in Oakland in the long term. MLB released a statement Tuesday, May 11, 2021, expressing its longtime concern that the current Coliseum site is “not a viable option for the future vision of baseball.” (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
Ben Margot / Associated PressOakland police are investigating an incident at Sunday’s Oakland Athletics game at the Coliseum as a possible lewd act in public.
A video clip posted to social media Sunday afternoon shows two people involved in a possible sexual act in the top row of a section in the upper deck of the Coliseum.
The short clip appears to have been recorded from a different area of the stadium and shows most of the seats in that section empty except for two other people seated near the front of the section.
“The Oakland Police Department was not alerted to this incident until after the game and we were advised that A’s staff/cameras did not capture video of this during the game,” a police department spokesperson said in an email on Monday.
Police have initiated an investigation, but “the parties have not been identified and no one has been cited/arrested,” the spokesperson said.
The A’s did not respond to a request for comment.
Bullpen move: On the baseball front, the A’s added reliever Joel Payamps, claimed off waivers Saturday from the Royals, to their active roster for Monday’s series opener against the Marlins. To clear a spot, reliever Austin Pruitt was designated for assignment.
Pruitt, 32, had a 4.78 ERA in 27 appearances for the A’s, occupying a versatile bullpen role. His outings ranged from one-third of an inning to 4 ⅓ innings. He recorded the final two outs of Oakland’s win Sunday over the Mariners to record his first major-league save since 2018.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked him,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “In terms of knowing (Pruitt) and what he can do and looking at that (bullpen) group that’s a little younger, we’re still kind of grooming them and finding out their identities and whether they can have success for an extended period of time here. I think that was pretty much the decision.”
Payamps, 28, had a 3.16 ERA in 42 ⅔ innings for the Royals this season before being designated for assignment. The right-hander had a 3.33 ERA in 70 major-league games entering Monday. He offers length out of the bullpen; 17 of his outings this season have spanned multiple innings.
Payamps would be the 56th player used by the A’s this season. That would tie the franchise record set in 1915.
Fish stories: Kotsay said managing against the Marlins, the first team he played for in the majors, “brings back memories. … That organization will always have a good place in my heart, and I was disappointed to be traded from there as a young player and (from) a group that was coming up together, that ended up eventually winning a World Series (three) years after I left.”
Kotsay played from 1997 to 2000 with the Marlins before being traded to the Padres. His first manager was Jim Leyland. Kotsay recalled arriving at Pro Player Stadium for his major-league debut in 1997 at around 12:30 p.m. and seeing Leyland.
“He asked me what I was doing there,” Kotsay said. “I said, ‘Didn’t you call me up to play?’ And he said, ‘Well, you’re hitting second tonight and you’re facing a pretty good pitcher — you know his name?”
Kotsay said he did — Curt Schilling — to which Leyland replied: “Yeah, you scared?”
Matt Kawahara covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle.
