Tom Hanks.Photo:AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

Tom Hanks, wearing a baseball cap of the Yomiuri Giants, throws the first pitch before the start of Japan’s professional baseball game between the Giants and the Chunichi Dragons at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan

AP Photo/Koji Sasahara

There’s no crying in baseball, but you can curse the owners of your favorite team all you want.Tom Hanks, a noted Oakland Athletics fan, did just that during an appearance last month at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles while promoting his new book,The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece.During a Q&A portion of the event, an audience member asked Hanks if he would buy the A’s in order to keep his favorite team in their longtime home. In recent years, the city of Oakland and the A’s have struggled to reach an agreement on building a new stadium, resulting in the team’s ownersplanning to move the team to Las Vegas.The move would make the Athletics the third major sports team to leave Oakland in recent years, following the Raiders’ move to Vegas in 2020 and the Warriors relocating to a new stadium across the bay in San Francisco at the beginning of the 2019-20 season.“We’ve lost the Raiders, the Warriors moved to San Francisco, and now they’re going to take the A’s out of Oakland,” Hanks responded to the fan, shrugging with his hand.

Then Hanks quipped: “Damn them all to hell.”

When the moderator John Horn pointed out that “there’s only like 2,000 people showing up to games” in Oakland this season, Hanks said, “The greatest fans in all of baseball.” (Many have noted that the A’s have struggled to draw fans because management traded many of the team’s established players, and the team’s stadium hasfallen into disrepair.)

Tom Hanks.AP Photo/David Dermer

Tom Hanks throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cleveland Guardian

AP Photo/David Dermer

Tom Hanks.Snap/Shutterstock

FILM STILLS OF ‘LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN’ WITH 1992, BASEBALL, GEENA DAVIS, TOM HANKS, PENNY MARSHALL

Snap/Shutterstock

The exchange, which waspostedto social media last week, drew laughs from the crowd, who might not have expected sports talk at Hanks’ appearance for his new novel. Penguin Random Housedescribesthe actor and best-selling author’s new book — released last month — as “a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film…and the humble comic books that inspired it.”

But Hanks played ball when asked about his favorite team. As a teenager,Hanks worked as a vendorat the Oakland Coliseum, selling peanuts during Athletics games.

TheA League of Their Ownactor said he had a tough time dealing with the vendors who were older than him: “I came across professional vendors, who did not like the fact kids were there,” he recalled. “I’m 14 years old and a guy, probably in his late-50s, is yelling [at me], ‘Hey, kid, that was my sale!’”

Now, fans are asking the two-time Academy Award winner to get involved with the biggest sale in Oakland A’s history. “If Ryan Reynolds can do it in soccer, you can do it in the major leagues,” Horn said to Hanks, referring to Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenneybuying the Wrexham FC soccer team.“I haven’t donethatwell, guys,” Hanks said.

source: people.com