OAKLAND — For roughly three hours on Saturday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum, Jim Stewart Allen stood by his lonesome halfway up Section 234 and intermittently engaged in a tantalizing practice that has seldom been performed outside the bounds of the Pacific Northwest.
He danced with broccoli. While wearing a broccoli-patterned button-down. While rocking the "broccoli" haircut. Before the A's could depart Oakland, Allen, more affectionately known in the Seattle area as "Broccoli Guy," found it necessary to voyage south and bring his unique flavor of fandom to the Oakland Coliseum.
"The Athletics are special," Allen said. "They hold a special place in my heart. They've done a lot for Major League Baseball — the team and the fan base. There's no other fan base or team like it. I wanted to make it a point … to come down and support them for a few games before they left."
Allen, a 35-year-old substitute teacher at the Puyallup School District in Washington, has become one of Seattle's most well-known super fans in recent years, consistently appearing at sporting events in the Seattle area with broccoli in hand and a smile on his face. His joy is infectious. His presence is authentic. His broccoli is fresh.
The tradition of dancing with produce at sporting events began with a less colorful vegetable: potatoes. At the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl between BYU and Western Michigan in January 2020, Allen garnered attention online as he moved and grooved with a spud in each hand.
Shortly after his maiden vegetable voyage, Allen decided to swap out potatoes for his favorite vegetable, one that already looks like "a natural pom-pom." He debuted the Broccoli Guy persona when the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL played their first home game in franchise history on Feb. 15, 2020. He recalled being nervous, but figured that with the Sea Dragons being a brand-new team, he could help create a brand-new tradition.
"I figured that they would see it and go, 'I guess this is what we do now,'" Allen recalled. "I tried it out there and it went really well. People really enjoyed it, so I kept doing it."
Just as Seattle was beginning to learn of Broccoli Guy, the COVID-19 pandemic put sports on hold and prevented Allen from continuing the routine. The inability to attend sporting events in person allowed Allen to venture into the realm of the existential. Why, exactly, did he like this so much? What was the point?
"Of course, part of it is getting attention," Allen mused, "but most of it is about spreading joy and positivity."
Added Allen: "This is a privilege that I get to bring broccoli into a stadium. That's what I always look at first before anything else. It helps ground me in a way, too. It's always cool to get on the jumbotron, but I always go back to it being a privilege to be here, to get to dance with broccoli in the stadium."
Over the last half-decade, Allen has had plenty of opportunities to keep spreading that joy and positivity in his own unique fashion. By this point, the security guards at Seattle's stadiums know Allen; if he happens to get stopped by one guard, another will quickly explain Allen's schtick. There have been moments, though, that required ingenuity.
When the Seattle Seawolves, the city's Major League Rugby team, made the championship game in 2022, Allen traveled to the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey to carry on his tradition. Allen learned beforehand that the venue wouldn't allow broccoli. So, he snuck the broccoli in by breaking it up into florets. Once inside, he used a rubber band to mend it back together.
Allen couldn't help but laugh as he recalled the story, but Allen's perpetual positivity briefly faded away when contemplating the future of the green and gold. The lifelong Mariners fan appreciates what Oakland's team and the fan base have brought to the sport over 57 years in the East Bay. While Allen hopes to bring his broccoli to an Oakland Ballers game at some point, he's unlikely to make an appearance in Sacramento.
"It's not that Sacramento doesn't deserve it. It's that this ownership doesn't deserve it with this situation that they've put the Athletics in," Allen said. "Oakland deserves this, so that's why I'm here in Oakland doing this. But yeah, they goofed up. They really goofed up. … It's never going to be the same, and Major League Baseball is never going to have a team like this again."
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