Tom Hanks’ iconic memories of Oakland Coliseum will hit A’s fans in the feels

Tom Hanks is many things in this world. He's a two-time Academy Award winner. He's the star of films like Big, Forrest Gump and the baseball classic A League of Their Own. He's also a renowned humanitarian, a husband and a father of four. Hanks also happens to be a native of the Bay Area who went to high school in Oakland and worked for the Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum as a vendor in his youth.

The Philadelphia actor has been a lifelong fan of the Athletics as well (in addition to the Raiders, at least when they were in Oakland). So he, of course, was among the many in the Bay Area who saw John Fisher rip the organization away from the city and the final game be played in the Oakland Coliseum back in September, a somber scene.

One journalist in the area, longtime San Francisco Chronicle photo-journalist Scott Strazzante is in the process of trying to capture that in a photo-essay book called, fittingly, "Baseball's Last Dive Bar". But on Sunday night, he posted an incredible story that involved Hanks and, in turn, the forthcoming book.

Strazzante reached out to Hanks "on a whim" with some of the old photos of the Oakland Coliseum in addition to a "request" for Hanks to write a foreword for the book. While Hanks may not have intended to write the foreword, he responded to Strazzante with a one-page, type-written note that speaks right to the hearts of A's fans.

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Tom Hanks writes down epic memorial for Oakland Coliseum

Here's what Hanks wrote back to Strazzante, which should definitely be the foreword of the book that the author was hoping to get:

"Those images and memories of the Oakland Mousoleum (remember that [joke]?) were melancholy memories...

"The A's meant everything to Oakland for so many years. Joe Rudi. Reggie. Catfish, Campy. Sal Bando. Mudcat. That bastard Charley Finley. Bash [Brothers].

"Loving the kelly Green, and the poor design and engineering of that ballpark, the 1960s version of what other cities have as landmarks. Not Wrigley or Fenway. But nor Three-Rivers or the Cleveland Municipal Lakefront Stadium. And, f--k Candlestick.

"Being a vendor there was a personal disaster for my 14-year-old senses. But, have I forgotten a moment of those days? I worked the Vida Blue Opening Day, clearing maybe all of 12-bucks.

"Don't ever sell soda. Go for dry good[s] — peanuts. Popcorn. And quit after the 7th inning stretch."

Those aren't the words of a man who doesn't have a deep tie to the Bay Area, to Oakland, to the A's — that's a beautiful memoriam for a ballpark that was beloved by the fanbase and had a team stolen away from them.

Tom Hanks is many things. And his latest achievement may be perfectly encapsulating what the Oakland Coliseum meant to generations of fans of the Athletics. You don't even have to be a fan of the A's for that to make it feel like someone is cutting onions out here. But if you are a fan of the kelly Green, then this one probably hit you like a ton of bricks.

The famed actor may not be the first or last to write down how he'll remember the Oakland Coliseum, but chances are that he might've done it best.