For decades, A’s team photographer and longtime Haight-Ashbury resident Michael Zagaris has lived and loved life as the eclectic Beatnik in jeans at the Oakland Coliseum.

That part of his life ended amid tears Thursday afternoon. It was 44 years old. Services will continue.

Zagaris was one of three career A behind-the-scenes workers whose time in the Coliseum after 44 years came to a somber end when the Rangers’ Travis Jankowski grounded to third base at 3:06 p.m., ending the game . A’s time here since 1968 – with a 3-2 win in Oakland.

Unlike Zagaris, both A’s vice president of stadium operations David Rinetti and visiting clubhouse manager Mikey Thalblum will stay with the club in Sacramento for a 45th season next year and beyond.

Traveling secretary Mickey Morabito, whose arrival in 1980 makes him the A’s longest-tenured with 45 years of service, also keeps his job when the team departs while he familiarizes himself with the quirks of another airport.

Zagaris, who will turn 80 before the A’s 2025 home opener at Sutter Health Park on March 31 against the Cubs, said it has been known for some time that Thursday’s Coliseum finale would be his last game with the A’s.

“Nothing is forever. It’s sad. But this was a great time in my life,” said Zagaris, who didn’t want to commute to Sacramento and back from his home in the city. “The (A) coaches have been trying all season to convince me to go, but I’m not going to Sacramento. That’s a two-hour drive that makes the 405 from LA to San Diego look like the German Autobahn.

“And I’m not getting an apartment in Sacramento when I’m 80.”

True to his counterculture upbringing, Zagaris doesn’t go out without sticking it to ‘The Man’ as he criticized the way A’s owner John Fisher had driven the team from its home base over the past 57 years.

‘This is about John Fisher. It’s about money and greed. He doesn’t care about the fans, he cares about making more money,” said an emotional Zagaris. “It’s sad. I think it’s a black mark on the sport. It’s not life or death. This is not us in a shopping center in Bucha (Ukraine) being bombed by Russians, but it is sad.”

Thursday was particularly tough for Rinetti, as some members of his security staff were told there were no jobs for them in Sacramento.

“This has been my life. I have spent more time awake here in the last 44 years than anywhere else, even in my house,” said Rinetti, who grew up in Oakland and whose wife and two children will remain in their East Bay home while he commutes to Sacramento. . “Nowadays you just think about all the things you’ve been through and cherish that.

“Just embracing these people, especially these last six games … a lot of tears. I’m Italian, I’m crying. And by the way, I’m not done crying yet, especially today.”

For Thalblum, staying at the Colosseum truly felt like a home away from home. Here he met his wife Janine. It’s even the place where he married her. Both of his boys have spent a lot of time by his side, working as A’s batboys.

“There are so many people here who are not just people you see. They became friends,” Thalblum said. “Some are like family, some were at our wedding here at the Westside Club.

“I compare this whole thing about leaving to people who have grown up in a house all their lives and all the memories they have there. Memories with their neighbors. And that’s what you’ll think about for the rest of your life.”

The A’s 4,495th and final home game in Oakland history was an occasion that former clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich couldn’t miss. Vucinich, who retired in 2021 after tying Connie Mack for the franchise record of 54 years of service, returned to pay his respects to departing friends while mourning the loss of baseball in the town where he grew up.

“It’s difficult. Seeing people who have lost their jobs has affected me the most,” said Vucinich, who sympathized with the financial hit the part-time security guards, ushers, ticket takers and vendors will take.

Vucinich was particularly shocked by the departure of A’s groundskeeper Clay Wood, whose job – along with those of his crewmates – was officially eliminated after 30 years following the game.

“The hardest one for me was Clay,” said Vucinich, who has purposely avoided his friend since hearing the news in August. “On Friday evening I finally saw him at the fireworks show. We had quite a cry fest. But it will be fine.”

Asked to reflect on the avalanche of unrest caused by the city losing the A’s, Vucinich paused for a moment before solemnly saying, “I wish this hadn’t happened.”