OT - The Oakland A's

[Figrating]

SF Chronicle scribe Ostler does extreme journalism as he explains what we're watching and how it came to be: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/ostler/article/bud-selig-bungled-a-s-sale-17858602.php

There might be a math term to describe the depth of betrayal here because words surely fail. As Commissioner of MLB, you are expected to promote, preserve, protect, grow and do everything in your power for the benefit of the game. That would include taking sufficient care to insure that franchises go to ownerships that will COMPETE, and not to ownerships that will refuse to compete, do not care a whit for MLB, are only in it for the money and treat the franchise like a security. The Karma Bus MUST be in transit for Selig and Fisher, two men who can not be sufficiently despised. I feel bad for Oakland, the city that just got mugged.

Fisher may find new motivation to compete when he meets his new masters in Vegas. He may continue to hold the franchise but it's unlikely he will be free to pull the same crap there that he has in Oakland.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

 

[jimmyNU]

I assume they will change the name from the A's to the Aces.

This seems utterly ridiculous given the long-term drought situation in Las Vegas.

 

[DarkSide576]

SF Chronicle scribe Ostler does extreme journalism as he explains what we're watching and how it came to be: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/ostler/article/bud-selig-bungled-a-s-sale-17858602.php

There might be a math term to describe the depth of betrayal here because words surely fail. As Commissioner of MLB, you are expected to promote, preserve, protect, grow and do everything in your power for the benefit of the game. That would include taking sufficient care to insure that franchises go to ownerships that will COMPETE, and not to ownerships that will refuse to compete, do not care a whit for MLB, are only in it for the money and treat the franchise like a security. The Karma Bus MUST be in transit for Selig and Fisher, two men who can not be sufficiently despised. I feel bad for Oakland, the city that just got mugged.

Fisher may find new motivation to compete when he meets his new masters in Vegas. He may continue to hold the franchise but it's unlikely he will be free to pull the same crap there that he has in Oakland.

Crap or no crap, Fisher will get what he wants. He will get new stadium. He will get a market to himself (no more Giants). He will get a novelty factor. I cannot access the article behind the paywall. However, in my humble opinion, the Giants are culpable, too. They could have allowed the A's to go to San Jose years ago. The Giants wanted the market to themselves.

 

[eastbaycat99]

As a longtime A’s fan, the sale of the A’s engineered by Bud Selig to his Wisconsin frat brother Lew Wolff and John Fisher generated enough contempt to last several generations. While Wolff eventually stepped back, the strategy of the pair was to use the team as leverage to get a sweetheart real estate development deal (first in Fremont and then in Oakland, as land values were going through the ceiling) while getting a small operating profit by taking the small market MLB subsidy while investing nothing in the team. The fact that. Selig basically shut out Joe Lacob’s group as an apparent favor to Wolff so Wolff and Fisher could do what they have done is mind boggling.
My fervent hope is that 26% of MLB’s owners will realize they won’t get their cut of an expansion fee for putting a team in Las Vegas and will block the move, forcing Fisher to come crawling back to Oakland to negotiate a lease extension for the Coliseum when the lease expires in 2024.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

Mark Davis is not a fan.

 

[DarkSide576]

Mark Davis is not a fan.

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Comedy gold