Long-time Athletics minor league roving instructor Ron Plaza passed away last night at age 77, according to a team media release. Plaza had been with the A's since 1983, and also worked for the Reds and Cardinals organizations during his 61-year career in baseball as a player, manager and coach. We at MLBTR send our condolences to Plaza's family, friends and colleagues.
Here's the latest from both the A's and the Giants…
- The Athletics aim to put their new stadium and proposed move to San Jose on the agenda for next month's owners meetings, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. By forcing the other owners to vote on the move, the A's would finally get some resolution on an issue that has dragged on for three years. Neither A's owner Lew Wolff or GM Billy Beane would comment on the story.
- One of Slusser's sources (Twitter link) isn't certain if the A's will be successful in getting their case heard at the owners meetings. It will ultimately be up to Bud Selig, who decides on the meetings' agenda.
- Madison Bumgarner's extension with the Giants is "a win for everyone involved," writes Dave Cameron for Fangraphs.
- The Giants now have greater cost certainty with Bumgarner and Matt Cain both locked up to multiyear contracts, which Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter) feels will make the team likelier to sign Tim Lincecum to a long-term deal "if he has a good year." Lincecum signed a two-year pact with the Giants in January that puts him on pace to hit free agency after the 2013 season.
The A’s need resolution one way or another, and, considering Bud has said this is a “front burner issue,” it damn well better make it on the agenda.
Just in from KNBR. The Owners will not address the issue in the next Owners meeting. The Owners keep putting it off.
Knbr is still around?? Surprised anybody still listens to them
He had a 61 year career at 77? What did he do at 16?
And Seligula strikes again
There is no need for the A’s to move to San Jose. They can have and have had a successful franchise in Oakland. The time the fans leave is when the ownership makes no commitment to putting an entertaining team on the field.
I’ve been an A’s season ticket holder on two occasions, and both times left because I didn’t feel like I was treated as if I was wanted by the A’s organization.
The A’s treat their fans poorly, put a sub par team on the field, and even when they succeed in putting something together that has promise, they blow it up to prepare for a season in a stadium that has yet to be approved.
KNBR’s Eric Byrnes compares this team to the Major League Indians and it’s 100% accurate. All Wolff and Beane want is out of Oakland. The money is there for the franchise to invest in itself as the Giants did with AT&T Park.A Jack London waterfront stadium would be an amazing boost to the City of Oakland and the franchise as well as for baseball fans across the Bay Area.
One last note, will San Jose build the A’s the stadium they want? The City of San Jose has yet to make any budget announcements in 2012, but in 2010 they cut 800 jobs, 2011 they cut 500. In 2011, every city employee took a 10% pay cut and services were cut across the board. Sound like a city looking to build a playground for millionaires and a club owned by a billionaire?
oakland is a hell hole. the main reason why this is an issue the a’s WILLINGLY gave the giants the rights to ensure them to stay in California. now it’s time the giants return the favor.
Every report I’ve seen has the proposed San Jose ballpark as being privately financed. The A’s would have to get permission and land-use rights, etc. from the city (since they’re constructing from the city), but would not use public funds to construct the ballpark.
Having a baseball team in an economically distraught area (Oakland is an arguable #2 to Detroit in terms of economically destroyed cities in the US) and building a stadium is automatic hostility and ill will inside the city. The economic base does not exist in Oakland to support a MLB team anymore; it better exists in San Jose.
You are wrong about the city of Oakland.
According to several published reports/articles (Wall Street Journal, Forbes), Miami is the #1 worst city economically in the United States. Yet they have a pretty nice new ballpark.
Oakland doesn’t rank anywhere amongst what you call the most “economically destroyed cities in the US”.
You might want to do some fact checking before you make such incorrect allegations.
OAK
“You might want to do some fact checking before you make such incorrect allegations.”
Excellent rebuttal, counselor. But luckily for melonis_rex, this is a baseball blog and not a United States District Court.
Oakland is far more than just the rundown neighborhood surround the current stadium.
North Oakland, Downtown, Jack London, Lake Merritt and the Oakland Hills are all thriving neighborhoods. Oakland in many ways is the Brooklyn to San Francisco’s Manhattan. Oakland is where many neighborhoods are seeing an injection of young residents and many neighborhoods are receiving makeovers.
Is East Oakland still a dangerous poor neighborhood that gets the most negative press? Yes, but no one is proposing a stadium there.
The Jack London site I mentioned wouldn’t generate any ill will as it’s part of a growing and thriving redevelopment of the waterfront. Additionally, the area is served by Ferry, Amtrak and BART, not to mention the fact that several Bay area freeways converge in the area.
When the A’s put a good team on the field and fans feel they can trust their owners, the fans show up. In the 90’s Oakland brought 3 Million fans a year to the stadium. Since 2009, the A’s have actually seen their attendance figures increase each year.
Don’t drink the Kool-aid that Wolff and Beane are serving up.