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Chester Farrow, longtime scoreboard operator for the Oakland A’s and an East Bay teacher and concert promoter, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer. He was 77.
The Pittsburg native began keeping score for the A’s in 1969, which was the club’s second year in Oakland, after the team relocated from Kansas City.
“Nineteen people tried out for the job,” he said in a 2012 interview with this newspaper. “This was March 1969. You were supposed to know baseball scoring, know computers and be able to type 90 words every minute. I knew one (of those things) … and was given the job even though I hunt and peck (at typing) and knew nothing about computers.”
At the time the A’s hired him, Farrow was already working as a teacher at Monte Vista High School in Danville. He taught such multimedia subjects as TV broadcasting, video editing and live performance production in a career that spanned 32 years, before retiring in 1999. He believed that some of the qualifications for operating the scoreboard overlapped with those needed to be a teacher.
“Teaching demands confidence, alertness and patience,” he said. “Those traits directly correlate to scoreboard operating in the majors. You must believe your eyes, know what to do and do this in a room full of chatter, visitors and high drama, while remaining fully in control.”
He also began promoting concerts while at Monte Vista during the 1970s, booking such major local acts as Journey, Greg Kihn and Huey Lewis to the school’s theater. Although he loved working with the musicians, he grew tired of dealing with their managers and business associates and eventually gave up the practice.
There was, however, one major exception to the rule: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Recital, an annual concert showcase for the students of popular East Bay guitar teacher Bruce Hock. Farrow organized the event from 1999 to 2015 and had hoped to keep it going longer.
“It hurts me to stop doing this,” Farrow said in a 2015 interview, citing a decline in area guitar students and recital attendance. “But, it has to be.”
While Farrow was the driving force behind the recital, he certainly had lots of help putting it on from a number of former students who gladly volunteered their time to help with the event as a way to show their gratitude for their teacher. One of those was Seth Worden, a 1986 Monte Vista grad who did sound and video work for the recital.
“Most of his students would take a bullet for him, I’m sure of it,” the Diablo resident said at the time of the last recital. “He just engenders that kind of loyalty. He was a singularly amazing teacher, in my opinion, and his students just love him.”
Farrow loved to talk music, but it was baseball that really seemed to make his eyes light up. That’s why the gig with the A’s was so perfect for the Walnut Creek resident, who played shortstop at Pittsburg High School before graduating in 1961. It was a thrill to hear him talk about all the legends to take the field in Oakland and which one he considered the most dominant Oakland A’s player of all time.
“Rollie Fingers. Eck (Dennis Eckersley) was great, but Rollie often pitched two, three innings for the save,” Farrow said in 2012. “He was a true workhorse. His control was off the charts. He was fearless. When Rollie came in in the seventh… game over.”
He’d stay behind the scoreboard in Oakland for over a half century, collecting four World Series Championship rings alongside the 1972-74 and 1989 teams as he became the longest tenured scoreboard operator in Major League Baseball. He’d work for A’s into the 2019 season, before his battle with cancer forced his retirement.
“I feel very fortunate to be here this long,” Farrow said in 2018. “I’m what you call an ardent fan, in that I have to watch every pitch. But here’s the thing: What do I want to do at a baseball game? I want to watch every pitch.”
Farrow is survived by longtime partner Wendi Leyba, son John, daughter Debbie, sister Madeline Sally and Aunt Francie. He was proceeded in death by his father John, mother Mary and first wife Sharon. A memorial for Farrow is expected to be held at a later date.
