As the regular season nears its conclusion, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Oakland says goodbye:
After 57 years playing host to the Athletics franchise, the city of Oakland says goodbye to its beloved baseball team today as the club plays its final home game in the city. The club will move to Sacramento starting in 2025, though that stay is only temporary as they work toward construction of a new ballpark in their long-term home of Las Vegas. The club’s final few years in Oakland have been frustrating ones, as the club has slashed its budget amid a teardown that left the team to lose more than 300 games in the past three seasons.
The A’s leave Oakland on a sour note due to the team’s lackluster performance in recent years and ownership’s decision to pull out of stadium negotiations with the city in order to pivot to relocation. Even so, fans of the club can still look back fondly upon the club’s best years in the city. In all, the team brought home 21 playoff appearances, six pennants, and four World Series championships during its time in the Bay Area, including their 1972-1974 teams that accomplished the exceedingly rare feat of winning back-to-back-to-back championships. Today’s final game in Oakland, which will see the A’s pit rookie J.T. Ginn (4.40 ERA in seven appearances) against Rangers youngster Kumar Rocker (2.57 ERA in two starts), begins at 12:37pm local time.
2. Rojas nursing injury:
Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas exited last night’s win over the Padres with what he and manager Dave Roberts described to reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and Rowan Kavner of FOX Sports) as an adductor issue that he’s been dealing with for several weeks. Rojas indicated that the plan is for him to get an injection in hopes of speeding up his recovery to allow him to get into a regular season game on Sunday, a path that would allow the Dodgers to make a more informed decision on whether or not he’s healthy enough to appear in the NLDS (or, should the Padres manage to run the club down for the NL West title, the NL Wild Card Series).
The 35-year-old Rojas began the season in a bench role but has emerged as L.A.’s starting shortstop, slashing a solid .283/.337/.410 to pair with his typical strong defense at the position. Tommy Edman figures to play shortstop in Rojas’ absence.
3. Orioles go for the sweep:
Both the Orioles and Yankees have clinched postseason spots, but that doesn’t mean the clubs have nothing to play for as the regular season nears its conclusion. The Orioles entered their series against the Yankees needing to win out for the remainder of the season while the Yankees lost out in order to run them down for the AL East crown. So far, they’ve taken the first two games of that series, keeping alive that long-shot possibility of Baltimore taking home its second consecutive division title. Today, the Yankees will look to finally clinch the AL East with ace Gerrit Cole (3.67 ERA in 16 starts) on the mound against Baltimore’s own ace, Corbin Burnes (2.95 ERA in 31 starts) in a game scheduled for 7:05pm local time. The winner of the AL East also earns a bye through the Wild Card round, raising the stakes of this evening’s contest even further.
2012orioles
Sad day in Oakland. Really have grown to root for this team and their fans. Hoping stuff falls through and they come back to Oakland where they belong.
Rsox
That won’t happen. If Vegas falls through they will either stay in Sacramento (which would at least keep them in Northern California) or explore options like Utah or Nashville
lesterdnightfly
Nashville is not MLB worthy.
Montreal would be better, and more justifiable.
hiflew
I doubt Nashville would be an option for Oakland because it would require realignment. The people of Nashville would not want to stay up for those West Coast road games that wouldn’t finish until after midnight on a regular basis.. Although I guess it could work if you swapped Colorado and Arizona with Seattle and the Angels. One of the Wests would have all California teams with Seattle and the other would have the two Texas teams, Nashville, Colorado, and Arizona. As a Rockies fan, I’d hate losing some of the rivalries, but I honestly would miss the late starts in SF and LA
johnsilver
Good point hiflew and could see league realignment happening again if teams moved like you mentioned,
There could be removing the so called central division, moving teams to either the east/west.
Other options include, like u mention moving other teams around. Cardinals, Texas teams, Colorodo etc. Not like ways couldn’t make it work, even either Marlins/Rays going west.
deepseamonster32
Realignment probably wouldn’t bar a relocation to Nashville. But if Vegas falls through and Oakland doesn’t get reunited, SLC and Portland are other Western options MLB would probably try for first.
But going to Sacramento and Vegas falling through, and Lacob buying the club then razing/replacing the Coliseum is the #1 goal, right?
Fever Pitch Guy
hiflew – MLB plans to expand to 32 teams and increase the postseason to 14 teams. So the A’s moving to the East Coast wouldn’t matter
hiflew
FPG – It would matter for a few years. Much like when the Rockies and Marlins came in 1993 the NL and AL both went with 2 seven team divisions and didn’t change to the three division format until the next round of expansion in 1998.
kingbum
There’s also the Vancouver, Calgary, or Edmonton markets. Each city more than big enough to support a team, they are all in the West and it gives Canada a second squad in an area that isn’t French like Montreal. Vancouver and Seattle would be natural rivalries like the Nationals and Orioles.
uvmfiji
Taxes. See NHL
Rsox
Actually the three division format started literally the following season in 1994.
The original alignments were:
AL East
Baltimore
Boston
Detroit
New York
Toronto
AL Central
Chicago
Cleveland
Kansas City
Milwaukee
Minnesota
AL West
California
Oakland
Seattle
Texas
NL East
Atlanta
Florida
Montreal
New York
Philadelphia
NL Central
Chicago
Cincinnati
Houston
Pittsburgh
St.Louis
NL West
Colorado
Los Angeles
San Diego
San Francisco
The 1998 realignment had Tampa Bay replacing Detroit in the AL East, Detroit replacing Milwaukee in the AL Central and Milwaukee moving to the NL Central with Arizona joining the NL West
Dock_Elvis
The city/county has owned the Coliseum and it’s been sold for conversion to a soccer stadium. A new owner won’t have a say in demolishing it. But yeah..it’s pretty awful underneath and outside. And I say that as a guy who just flew half way across the country to see the final game
Dock_Elvis
MLB would actually like Montreal as a stepping stone to the European market. Those other places outside Vancouver are cold as hades hockey towns.
BaseballisLife
Other than the alignment of the lines on the grass, no physical changes are being made to the Coliseum. The two soccer teams, one men’s and one women’s, will only play in the Coliseum until their soccer only stadium is complete on the Malibu lot, one of the Coliseum’s parking lots. It is expected to be completed in time for the 2026 soccer season. That final game was emotional. Could have been a 55k sellout, but Fisher wouldn’t open up Mt Davis. He is a POS.
kingbum
They are hockey towns, you build a retractable roof stadium they can be baseball towns too. They have the media markets needed for a professional franchise. Calgary hosted an Olympic games before and is just a few hours north of the US border. Everything in that part of Canada is ìn English so Americans in Montana or Idaho wouldn’t have a problem getting up there to see a game. They could also try Winnipeg which is almost right on the US border. No one from Minnesota or North Dakota would have a problem seeing a game in Winnipeg.
BaseballisLife
Las Vegas is almost certain to fall through seeing as how Fisher cannot obtain financing to build the ballpark and Ballys cannot build the casino due to being nearly bankrupt.
The MLBPA has not given their ok on playing in Sacramento yet and won’t until upgrades are complete with artificial turf being a big stumbling block. Fisher’s incompetence shining through on that move.
There is a good chance that the players will refuse to play at Sutter Health Park and the A’s will be without a home park.
At this point, neither Utah nor Nashville are options for 2025.
jerseyjohn
I lived there in the 90’s and the Coliseum was a dump already. I hate ownership blackmailing cities for stadiums but… That situation is untenable. Shout out to my old Bay Area buddy and diehard A’s fan Cliff. The Yankees are accepting new fans, bro.
BaseballisLife
Prior to Mount Davis, the Coliseum was a great place to see a baseball game. It wasn’t until 2007 or 2008 that the park started to deteriorate and most of that was deferred maintenance. Whether that was because of Wolff/Fisher or the Coliseum authority is a good question.
jerseyjohn
I haven’t been since 1996 but I saw a lot of the Yankees getting thrashed in that building. The bathrooms were horrible and I say that as a dude who was only taking a waz in them. That is a good sports city, it’s a shame they’re losing another team.
DarkSide830
Here’s to hoping Oakland gets an expansion team with a real owner.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
*if they somehow get approval to make a new stadium with that government of Oakland
This one belongs to the Reds
Expansion will never happen until a lot of other issues within the game are solved. I would not want to be the owner of an expansion team under this screwed up system.
Old York
@This one belongs to the Reds
Such as? We’re seeing that bad owners are just using their team to cash cheques being sent to them from the richer teams, instead of improving their team. Maybe MLB needs to reduce the number of teams/owners to only those teams/owners who want to compete?
This one belongs to the Reds
Sounds like the large markets propaganda is taking root.
The revenue disparity keeps small and now it seems mid markets from competing with teams getting hundreds of millions more in local TV money. The Bally RSN fiasco even has made it worse. That needs dealt with and quickly. MLB needs to just take it all on with no blackouts and divide the local TV money equally. You can’t grow a game by blacking out broadcasts for a team over seven states in some cases.
Three bad owners (allegedly) does not make 20 others in MLB bad as well.
Rsox
Manfred has said no expansion until the A’s and Rays stadium issues are solved. Probably because of the possibility of relocating to possible expansion sites. You can add the Diamondbacks to the list of teams with issues now and even though MLB launched an expansion committee you are looking at the early 2030’s at best before the league expands again
avenger65
Old York: I’m all for that. Getting rid of Reinsdorf and Fisher can only make the game better. Moreno and the guy in Colorado seem to want to be competitive, they’re just clueless as to how to do it.
johnsilver
Never happen OldYork and one can tell from how a lot of people post here.. It’s a handout country now and half the teams are handout oriented as well. They put enough on the field to appear to want to compete and no more, feeling it’s good enough. How to fix it? Well, it’ll never happen, but cut 10 or so teams and simple fact is it’s the lousy markets they are in.
johnsilver
Ah yes.. Someone has read well the communist manifesto and taken it to heart. Divide everything, earn or not.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
I agree
I wonder what will happen in Arizona they just lost the coyotes they can’t lose the dbacks
Fever Pitch Guy
Rsox – Manfred also said he plans to have a 2-team expansion process in place by 2029. That’s plenty of time to resolve those two issues, and the Rays situation is basically already resolved …. new stadium right next to the current one.
Rsox
Which pretty much resolves nothing because they are not addressing the main problem for the Rays: the location of the stadium.
Even if they announce new teams in 2029 it would likely be until either ’31 or ’32 before they take the field
kingbum
Actually the best way to do it is to have a hard cap and a floor on player payroll. Like no team can spend less than 150 million a year or spend more than 300 million. You allow the big market teams to compete by improving facilities like the weight room or adding new whirlpools or something….You also implement penalties for consecutive years on the bottom 5 of payroll like loss of first round draft picks.
Fever Pitch Guy
Bum – MLB really should require publicized financials for each team, like they do with player payroll. Then they could put a stop to greedy owners making huge profits despite being revenue sharing recipients.
Forbes does a great job with team bottom lines, but it’s not “official”.
This one belongs to the Reds
You are making assumptions with your large market bias. Player salaries are just a part of team expenses. Smaller markets also spend more on things like Latin American scouting in order to have a chance because they can’t buy a pennant. They don’t have hundreds of millions in local TV money to fall back on.
You cite Forbes but they are only guessing and not exactly baseball savants. A team is only worth what someone will pay for it. No small market team was sold for a fortune recently, or at all.
kingbum
NESN and YES weren’t things until the teams made them. Cincinnati could very well establish the Cincinnati sports network and air Reds and Bearcat games. Has nothing to do with being in a big market. The Steinbrenner family and John Henry realized first that’s where the money is at.
Fever Pitch Guy
Reds – I have no bias, when teams like the Pirates, Reds, Mariners, Marlins and Rays make a huge profit like they did last year (and the Athletics had one of the largest profits in 2022) then they obviously shouldn’t be receiving revenue sharing.
Forbes is a finance savant, it’s absurd to question their projections. Attacking the source is a common approach for those who don’t like the data.
If the above mentioned teams are making less or losing money as you claim, why don’t they share their financials? What have they got to hide?
Fever Pitch Guy
bum – Exactly, and no matter what the market you’ve still got to put a good product on the field if you want to maximize profits. Fans in large market cities will spend their money elsewhere if the Dodgers, Yankees or Red Sox don’t put a good product on the field …. and John Henry is learning that now.
This one belongs to the Reds
Funny only large markets talk about doing their own networks and only large markets have their own networks.
This one belongs to the Reds
You said it yourself…projections.
Same thing the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs have to hide, I imagine. Those numbers would boggles your mind, and probably make this huge profit (as defined by you) look like chump change.
kingbum
Cincinnati has a metro of over 2 million people. Is it New York or LA? No but the Boston metro isn’t much bigger. Cincinnati if they had good ownership could take over the Louisville market and get a lot of fans in Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Cincinnati’s problem is cheap ownership without vision.
This one belongs to the Reds
Bum – actually they did back in the day but this cheap ownership and the Lindners before them lost a lot of them over the last several years.
Fever Pitch Guy
Reds – It’s called supply and demand.
The Red Sox network is also the home of the Bruins, the Yankees network is also the home of the Nets.
Fever Pitch Guy
Reds – All those numbers for every MLB team are provided by Forbes, there’s no need to guess.
lesterdnightfly
Sure, it was all about that dadgummed intransigent city and county gummint, eh?
No blame to the greedy ownership? Right.
draker
Yes it was. It’s easy to rail against greedy owners but in this case it’s the elected officials of Oakland and the Peralta Community College District that screwed the pooch. The District voted down an excellent proposal to build a stadium right downtown on the Laney College campus. The deal would have strengthened the perpetually weak finances of the District and construction would have been expedited without the multitude of agency approvals required by the waterfront Howard Terminal site. This was just one of several viable proposals raised by the team over the course of nearly two decades of efforts to stay in Oakland. Unfortunately, the insatiable appetite of the elected officials for greased palms kept it from happening. The fact that three professional franchises have left Oakland in less than a decade strongly suggests that something more than greedy owners is in play.
DashaToushu
@draker
“The District voted down an excellent proposal to build a stadium right downtown on the Laney College campus. The deal would have strengthened the perpetually weak finances of the District”
How do you know this?
Stadiums are almost always bad news for the communities that they move into.
Why was this plan different?
Why do you disagree with Laney CC?
DashaToushu
“For the different groups on campus, the A’s couldn’t sufficiently address concerns around the potential impacts of a new ballpark on the college and surrounding area
Community and faculty groups raised concerns on issues ranging from the effect of construction and game noise on classes to displaced housing and gentrification in the neighborhoods surrounding the college
…
Moore said whenever anyone raised concerns about traffic or displaced businesses, the team would make reassuring statements about mitigating any problems the ballpark would bring, but they did not provide details or research to explain how they would solve those problems.”
Can you address these concerns? Or indicate how the A’s addressed them?
From Inside Higher Ed’s story from 12/2017
BlueSkies_LA
It’s easy to understand why Oakland fans feel like collateral damage in this, because they are. But placing all of the blame on public officials doesn’t explain the outcome. Strange, because on the one hand I hear this complaint about how the city totally blew it, but on the other, I also often hear complaints when public funds are used to finance stadiums for billionaire franchise owners. Should Oakland have given up more to keep the A’s there, than Las Vegas was willing to pay to get them to move?
DashaToushu
@BSLA
It’s almost as though billion dollar deals are complicated and sometimes don’t work out for reasons other than one side being completely unreasonable
draker
I spent 14 years as a California community college administrator and am familiar with the financial situation of that district, which has been placed on probation multiple times by its accreditation agency in large part due to poor financial management. The stadium deal would have restored Laney College and the Peralta Community College District to financial health by virtue of the leasing of the stadium site, which sat on an underutilized portion of the Laney campus
draker
Yes, construction of stadiums is noisy, as are baseball games. I can assure you that it’s nice and quiet on the Laney College campus these days.
DashaToushu
@draker
You didn’t actually answer the question
BleedGreen
The truth is and will always be somewhere in the middle.
DarkSide830
Eh, it’s John Fisher we’re talking about. I’d bet he asked for $5 billion in taxpayer funds to build a $4 million dollar trash heap. MLB will find a way to facilitate a team in Oakland, even if it has to be Oakland-adjacent. Would, say, Richmond be too far away to satisfy?
BleedGreen
No but there are less and less areas to conveniently build on for the amount of traffic games would incur. And that’s not even getting into infringing on the beautiful and very well utilized Parks system that is already flourishing in that area.
BaseballisLife
They had an agreement on a stadium at Howard Terminal that included $600 million in taxpayer funding and hundreds of millions worth of land going to Fisher. Fisher backed out. It was the 3rd time Fisher had backed out of negotiations in the Bay Area at the 11th hour. All the issues are because of Fisher.
BleedGreen
As much as I would love to blame only Fisher (and Wolfe and Kaval) the city has had at least 30 years to even get something going. Ive lost count how many elections there have been since Jerry Brown left his upscale housing legacy on the city. I can also point to the Giants for not giving up their territorial rights to the South Bay (which was bestowed upon them so they wouldn’t move to Tampa Bay by guess who, the A’s former owners).
Fk Fisher
Fk the Giants and Fk Oakland
BaseballisLife
Fisher backed out in Fremont after having approval, at the site of the Coliseum after getting them to sell him 50% interest in the site, and at Howard Terminal after getting approval and $600 million in taxpayer funds approved. He was further along in the process than he is in Las Vegas.
Dock_Elvis
I don’t believe MLB wants two teams in the bay area. It all goes back to the Giants blocking San Jose
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
There’s a difference between the mlb wanting 2 teams there and the giants wanting 2 teams there
Of course the giants don’t want another Bay Area team because they want to be the only team there to get all of the fans
BleedGreen
Most of them refuse. You dont see many Raider fans now becoming Niner fans.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
This generation would always remember but when that generation has kids, that’s when things go down
Dock_Elvis
There is. But I don’t believe MLB does either because they’ve stopped moves in the past. They literally voted on it. And took away the massive expansion fee from Vegas. Waived money. Nope. They don’t want it. MLB owners had a say.
BleedGreen
Fisher is definitely a complete and utter jackhole.
Did you see Larry Beil going off on him during the newscast??
youtu.be/mOV4vo1eo1M
Go to about 2 minutes in for the goods.
ChuckyNJ
Meanwhile the NL wild card chase has been affected by Hurricane Helene making its way toward Georgia. The rest of the Mets-Braves series in Atlanta has been postponed, to be completed as a double-header Monday afternoon (9/30).
Yankees still need 1 more win for the AL East since Baltimore has clinched the season series and thus holds the tie-breaker.
avenger65
Chucky: The Yankees can have the title and the momentum-killing week off.
Old York
Good. The A’s should never have left Philadelphia. They cursed themselves with having to move so many times.
Rsox
I kind of wonder if in todays game if Philadelphia could support two MLB teams, same with New York if they could support three teams in such close proximity to each other
Old York
@Rsox
I’m pretty sure NYC and area could support a third MLB team.
hiflew
It really ticks me off when people complain about their city having a second or third team when there are entire states which have none. Some people don’t even have a team within 150 miles of them. The league needs to work on spreading it around to everyone instead of splitting up already established fanbases. I am glad to see one of California’s 5 teams move to a state without one. I’d love to see the White Sox move to Iowa or Omaha or something because they will ALWAYS be Chicago’s #2 team. Same with the Mets in NY.
Old York
@hiflew
Agreed. The Mutts need to be moved.
C Yards Jeff
@hiflew;
Spoiled here in the BWMA. On a light traffic day, OPACY is a 20 minute drive, Nats Park 40 minutes. Ridiculous and obnoxious.
And how in the heck did DC, a 2 time franchise flunky, get a 3rd shot, anyways. Ponderous and odoruous.
kingbum
I’m not sure the city of Omaha has the internal infrastructure to handle a major professional franchise. See that’s really the issue, how many cities in the US have the internal infrastructure to handle a professional franchise? Can they handle the extra traffic? Do they got enough hotels to handle fans that traveled to see the game? Do they have luxury hotels for the opposing teams and rich fans to stay at? Do they have the restaurants in downtown or around the planned stadium? It’s things like that, ultimately that will give Chicago 2 teams and Omaha none.
avenger65
Rsox: Obviously it’s been done in NY. But the difference between now and then is territorial rights for broadcasting money.
Canuckleball
Population in millions:
8.1 New York
3.8 LA
2.6 Chicago
2.3 Houston
1.6 Phoenix
1.5 Philadelphia
1.5 San Antonio
I realize city population alone isn’t the only determining factor, nonetheless, Houston would be a better place for a second team then Philly. Given Texas’s total size and overall population gains, it feels like there should be a third team somewhere in Texas.
San Antonio has virtually the same population as Philly and no MLB team at all.
Bart Harley Jarvis
The population you’re siting for Philadelphia doesn’t consider the densely populated immediate suburbs of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties, or South Jersey. You have to consider the entire metropolitan area.
Canuckleball
As I said, there’s more then just city population
Bart Harley Jarvis
Yes, but then you compared San Antonio to Philadelphia without comparing both city’s metro areas.
Just sayin’.
kingbum
Yeah San Antonio or Austin should get a team I wouldn’t mind the A’s moving there if Vegas falls through.
letitbelowenstein
They should never have left Kansas City, but that dolt Charlie Finley wanted to act like a spoiled brat. His issues was attendance figures, but he never put a winning team on the field. I wouldn’t have gone to a game, either.
shaft
Never put a winning team on the field? With three consecutive World Series titles from 1972-74 the A’s were easily the best team in MLB during the 70’s and one of only two teams in MLB history to win three WS in a row. The Yankees are the other. You must be new to baseball.
hiflew
It’s really weird that people still give the A’s flak for leaving Philly, but you never about the same thing with the Braves leaving Boston. The Braves basically had the same movements as the A’s. Moving from the East (Boston, Philly) to a Central location (Milwaukee, Kansas City) to their modern location (Oakland, Atlanta) Is it really the 4th move that gave them the “curse.”
Old York
@hiflew
No one is forcing the Braves out of Atlanta. But, if they do, I’d support a move back to Bahstun.
johnsilver
Every single time I read about complaints regarding a team moving, never, ever is the Seattle Pilots mentioned, who were only in Seattle 1 y before moving. the ultimate rip off for a city was done to them. Not Charlie O, not other franchise movers, but Seattle given an expansion franchise, then allowing it to move after 1 season.
no offense to u hiflew, many on this board probably have -0- clue the old Pilots even existed.
Bart Harley Jarvis
The Pilots-to-Milwaukee move was orchestrated by Bud Selig, who was really a bit of a soulless ahhsole.
Dock_Elvis
Sure did. With a dynasty in the 70s and 80s…and then the Billy Beane era. Connie Mack was a tightwad who trashed his own teams immediately after building winners. It’s quite a strong history to be honest.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
I wonder when the coliseum will get demolished, will it be in a year or lay dormant for years?
Rsox
Supposedly two pro Soccer teams are moving in so the Coliseum gets a stay of execution, at least for a little while
CaseyAbell
If ever a stay of execution was undeserved, it’s for that dump of a stadium.
Canuckleball
Sad thing is, it was once a half decent stadium. Back before ‘Mount Davis’ out in center field, there was a nice view of the nearby mountain range. If they had just spent the money on up keep and sensible renovations, it might still be decent.
johnsilver
Rsox- probably because it would cost the city of oakland too much to tear it down. the place is what?? Nearing 60y old? Built in..’67? 68? How much use can a mutant FB/baseball stadium have? Sports franchises ceased building those 40y ago because they didn’t suit either sport very well.
CCCTL
AASEG is now 100% owner. They bought out the cities 50% last year, and the teams 50% (that was supposed to ensure the team didn’t move) just a couple months ago.
BaseballisLife
Those soccer teams are building a soccer-only stadium in what is known as the Malibu lot that should be completed by the beginning of their 2026 season. The reprieve for the Coliseum will be short lived.
hiflew
When the Coliseum gets destroyed, the sewage clouds will be heavy that night.
This one belongs to the Reds
Condolences to Oakland fans. Sad they are victims of a city and team ownership not working it out to keep the team there. Enough blame to go around for both sides.
denistaylor
I thought there was still a chance they’d still play in Oakland next year since the Sacramento ballpark isn’t really major league caliber and adding the artificial turf as they’ve planned would exacerbate the possible triple digit temperatures that could occur during games.
avenger65
denistaylor: Kind of takes the “major” out of major league.
cooperhill
Rojas is seriously lacking wheels if he hit into a triple play!
underdog
He was literally injured. He’s been dealing with this injury for weeks. He’s not a fast runner as it is but has been slowed by this upper leg issue. It’s like you didn’t even read the stuff above?
BlueSkies_LA
He isn’t especially fast but he has enough speed to play excellent defense at SS. If he doesn’t show bunt on the first pitch and pull in the left side of the IF, and then hit the ball sharply right at 3B this play doesn’t happen. This play is about as likely as being struck by lightning.
DashaToushu
@cooperhill
Rojas isn’t exactly an elite runner (15th percentile sprint speed) but that triple play took just a fraction of a second longer than a double play.
Mikenmn
Baseball is a business. It has become a business that has huge cashflows and relies on enormous amounts of public money, public favors, publicly paid for land, infrastructure, zoning, etc. Both Oakland city leadership and Athletic ownership deserve blame. Stinks for the fans, but the power brokers, both in elected offices and boardroom suites, don’t really care about the fans. It’s all about the performative and (huge) bucks.
desertdawg
Oakland is in trouble as a city period, they have a lot of issues right now. Every pro sports team has abandoned that city now. What pro team will ever move to that city in the now let alone the future. Does the NFL, NBA, MLB ever see a team in Oakland don’t think so. Sports teams are having to find better deals to finance their teams, with high salaries, comes higher advertising cost, higher ticket prices, higher television cost, higher hotel and transportation cost, plus overhead of stadium rentals. So, when a city says nope you build your own ballpark, basically the city government has to look at their own costs to their constituents. That is where these other cities come in and snatch their teams up. These cities can right now afford to deal with a pro team, they have the money in their coffers, never had to deal with a pro team, will give anything the pro team wants including a great 30 yr lease on a new city built stadium, But what happens after the newness wears off, the team performs poorly, poor crowd attendance for 10 years of the 30 year lease, city is not getting their agreed upon extra dollars from that lease. The team is upset with the city, and the city is upset with the team, the fans become disenchanted, and the MLB just moves on to another city. Where does it end. That is the MLB in 2024, just move the team, as the people move out of the city.
This one belongs to the Reds
That is the MLB of 2024 for sure.
shaft
The Warriors left 10-15 years after a complete remodel of the Coliseum indoor arena after selling out games for 20 plus years. Now they’re scraping crap off their shoes in SF
deepseamonster32
A lot of memories of the Oakland A’s and the Coliseum.
As a Mariners fan, often they were crushing defeats, walk-off winners lessened slightly by the charming sound of Kool & The Gang.
Hope for one more Celebration today, and of course hoping and praying for the collapse of Fisher’s dumb Vegas plan so he can skulk the team back and sell it to a human being.
holecamels35
Gotta be a reason why Oakland can’t keep sports teams. I’d rather them move and be treated like a real franchise, making money, spending payroll, and getting larger crowds, then force a stay in the same poor situation.
Just hope the fans can watch the games.
JoeBrady
My view is that, if Oakland is a viable city for a baseball team, then it is almost guaranteed that someone will build there. If MLB opened up Nashville, SLC, or a couple of other sites, the bidding would be in the billions.
So if Oakland wants a team, and prospective owners see a fanbase, they will get a team.
BaseballisLife
As long as John Fisher owns the A’s that will never happen. The bad situation in Oakland is 100% the making of John Fisher.
Bart Harley Jarvis
Great day today at the Coliseum. Beautiful weather, as always, and a view that would’ve been even better if not for Mt. (f#€£ing) Davis. The A’s have some good young talent they’ll probably develop yet again.
A’s fans didn’t deserve this fate, and John Fisher is a complete shiece of pit. Hopefully, he’ll get his when all is said and done.
baseballandbrews
The scene in Oakland yesterday was surreal. 46,889 in attendance and 30 minutes after the last house (which was standing almost the entire game), you thought they all were there to watch them clinch a division they fiercely fought for. They were all there. Soaking in the moment. Great articles in Yahoo Sports that sum up the last two days. Cheers to the fans of Oakland!
Bart Harley Jarvis
It did have the feeling of a playoff game.
BaseballisLife
The A’s didn’t have to move and the fans there deserved better than John Fisher. He is a true POS.
BaseballisLife
You obviously have not paid attention to the situation. Every problem in Oakland is 100% on Fisher. He more than doubled the price of tickets in the last 4 years while selling off every decent player. He stopped doing maintenance on the stadium in 2006. The last time I was there this season, in the most expensive section in the park there was a folding chair because he refused to even fix the seats that broke. Threw 2 seasons before that we attended games with more than 40k fans and that was with Mt Davis closed. He backed out of 3 different deals for a new ballpark and announced 2 others knowing that in one he hadn’t even talked to the college about it and the other he knew he didn’t have permission from the league or the Giants so there was no chance to move there.
100% Fisher. 0% the fans.
Bart Harley Jarvis
And the customers (A’s fans) of the business tend to not buy the product when the owner runs the business (the A’s ) into the ground.
I’ve been attending A’s games for the past 8 years, and I’ve witnessed the downward glide path. The owner of the business is a disingenuous con artist.
BaseballisLife
You are a moron. They doubled prices while decimating the roster and completely stopping maintenence and closing concessions.
So just f right off.
Bart Harley Jarvis
I think somebody needs a hug. Get over here, you rascal!
shaft
The Haas (Levi’s) family shares some responsibility for the demise of the Oakland A’s. They literally handed over territorial rights to the Giants. Bud Selig and MLB aided this process. The Haas family, being true San Franciscans, sold the team shortly after this. My question is…Why would anyone buy a Professional Sports Franchise with limited or no territorial rights? Lew Wolfe and Fisher did. Why did MLB allow either transaction? This destroyed Oakland’s viability and chances for success. There is an underlying corruption here that needs some sunlight.
uvmfiji
Bring the team home to Philadelphia