Did you ever have a girlfriend break up with you but then have the audacity to ask to continue living in your mutual home for a period of time while her new boyfriend builds their future love shack? Well, that is exactly what’s happening with the Oakland/Las Vegas Pathetics and I have just one thing to say to this franchise, the same as I would say to her, “Go away. Just get the fuck out right now. LEAVE.”
I’ve said it on this blog before and I’ll say it again–those crooks at MLB will never again get another penny from this slightly middle-aged, mean bastard. I will not be watching Pathetics games next season and I will not be supporting them in Las Vegas. I’ve said my mental goodbyes. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, losers.
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“Manfred and MLB’s other owners are co-signing John Fisher’s cynicism, his dishonesty, his narcissism and neglect. In fact, they’re affirming how fundamental these traits are to baseball’s business model.” –Dan Moore
“Sell the team, dude. Let someone who actually takes pride in the things they own, own something. There are actually people who give a shit about the game. Let them do it. Take mommy and daddy’s money somewhere else, dork.” –Former Oakland pitcher Trevor May on John Fisher
Coco Crisp's Afro 
I blame Selig; this is what he wanted when he stopped the Giants from moving to FL in 1992—one team to rule them all in the Bay, and he chose the much less-successful one at the time and helped them turn it around … while hurting the A’s at every chance.
I have packed up all my MLB stuff, too, for my grandchildren to have some day—except for one Oakland hat I will wear if someone invites me again to a game outside of the Bay, because I will not give any more money to MLB ever, either … let alone the crooked Giants.
Yeah, the Giants kind of screwed us with that territorial right thing. It’s really sad that it’s not even about baseball any more. Manfred has turned the whole thing into a soulless institution…quite the opposite reflection of how people want to see baseball. Dare I say that I’m kind of sick of it?
Same. All but 2 of the last 26 World Series winner have been big spenders, and one of the other two was the 2017 Astros—and we know what they were doing. Toss in all the systematic PED use, and one could argue 11 of the last 20 winners have been dirty in one way or another. Selig/Manfred have ruined the sport; I wish Bart Giamatti had never died.
It had become a oligopoly which runs antethema to the values baseball promotes.
Tough to “like” a post such as this one but I do so because I know how you feel. I watched the Montreal Expos play their final game and then leave for Washington. I have never watched a single Nationals game. The whole experience left an awful taste. I hope that the passing of time allows you to let your be heart broken by some other team, as I did with the Blue Jays (who haven’t gone anywhere but kill me yearly anyway).
There was talk about the Expos coming back but baseball doesn’t do anything logical or cool anymore so I doubt it. Thanks for stopping by, Tom.
As a D.C. guy, I lost two teams before the Expos were moved to Washington. I’m sure neither of us took any satisfaction from seeing our “old” teams win the World Series elsewhere
Cathartic, yeah?
I suppose. It goes back and forth from zen/being realistic about capitalism to eat the rich/f*ck everyone involved.
Manfred wanted this bad and so did the owner. Oakland couldn’t have given enough for them to stay…they were not going to stay. Just another reason to hate Manfred….like I need any more.
Well, they needed a team in Vegas because MLB is introducing a sort of MLB.TV strictly for gambling in a few years. It sounds boring to me, but whatever. I still believe this will lead to another Black Sox scandal. Manfred isn’t even a baseball guy he’s just some soulless lawyer.
They coud have given them a new franchise. Do you think Oakland will get a new Franchise team?
The Expos? Hahahahaha
That would probably be his suggestion!
I’m VERY sad to see that the Oakland A’s will be moving to Las Vegas….or ANY city for that matter.I still remember rushing home from school to watch the ’72,’73, & ’74 A’s win 3 consecutive World Series, & 5 straight pennants. They were the team that brought “coolness” into baseball….The colorful names, the long hair, the mustaches & those white shoes….every kid from the 60’s & 70’s had to like them, they were so uniquely different & just oozed coolness. Being a small market team with a certified whackjob, carpetbagger as an owner. Not to mention, Charlie O was the cheapest owner in any sport. Even though I WAS a die hard Met fan, what he did to Mike Andrews by practically booting him off the team and then gloating about it to any media outlet that would listen….that move pissed me off as a 12 yr old kid. Thank god free agency was on the horizon, & being the dictator that Finley was, he just couldn’t adopt to it. If only the A’s has a baseball man who owned the team, or even someone who cared, those 70 Oakland A’s teams would be right up there withthe NY Yankees, LA Dodgers, & Cincinnati Reds as one of baseballs greatest dynasties (I myself DO include them in that class, however I’m not sure the majority of baseball fans do) Ah, those Swingin’ A’s to the Moneyball A’s, this team & what it brought to baseball should never be forgotten.
Thank you for stopping by and posting, I appreciate it very much and I love your story.
Amen.
I can’t imagine how low attendance is gonna be if they’re playing in Oakland next year. What a shitshow. This whole series of events is just dismal.
There is already talk of people not attending Opening Day next year but instead boycotting in the parking lot. That would be comical (and kind of cool) if there were more people in the parking lot than in the stands.
I’ll be there. I hate Fisher and Kaval and now Vegas with a passion.
Hopefully it does, that would be really cool.
I concur. You expressed it perfectly.
I think neither the A’s owner or the Commissioner know, or care, about how much damage this is doing to the game that they (especially the Commish) are supposed to be stewarding. As a fan, a big part of my caring about a game’s outcome is my illusion that there is some personal connection between me and “my” team. A brutal “F you!” move like this makes it clear, even to the most deluded that the game does not love us back; that we are, in fact, chumps who have been played until there’s no more juice to squeeze out of us, and then it’s time to move on to another feeding ground.
I’m not sure how I’m going to get along without baseball, come spring, but I think all I’ll have to do is think about that unanimous vote, and I’ll find something else to do. Who knows? Maybe something that actually matters.
You’re absolutely right. Part of loving this game is romanticizing its quirks and hoping that the owners are stewards of a team because they love the game as much as we do, but when you get a soulless lawyer as commissioner and grifting billionaire owners who want public welfare checks then why should I care? In the end it’s just a goddamn game and rich people shouldn’t be asking for handouts anyway. Priorities, people. Let’s start with education because god knows we need ALOT more of that in this deranged country and a lot less of guys running around bases, spitting, and re-arranging their nut huggers.
Yeah, I’m going to shit if I find out that Oakland/Alameda County allows the Athletics to play at the Colosseum until the Las Vegas stadium is built.
I think they will next year for sure and then they’ll do some couch surfing for 3 years. The whole thing seems like a weird, wild, not well thought out dream. What a shit show. Just because you inherit a lot of dough doesn’t mean you know what the hell you’re doing.
I sometimes wonder if my interest in games from the 70’s over today’s games is due to the 70’s being my formative baseball years, some sort of nostalgia, but I now know that the situation in Oakland and other MLB screw ups is the real reason. Baseball is so much a part of my life making my lack of interest these days feel like an amputation. Thank god for books and you tube.
I agree wholeheartedly. For me baseball was a fun escape as a kid and now it just reminds me of greed and a lot of the ills in this country and I’m bummed because I miss the escape. Maybe that’s just “growing up.” Like you, I’ve turned to watching games from the 70’s and 80’s (also, the announcers were waaaay better) Amputation is an appropriate word because that’s how I feel. I don’t have a team to root for anymore so I’m sure my interest will wane.
I agree about the announcers being better. I got a Jimmy Piersall-Harry Caray White Sox game from 81 saved on you tube to watch this winter.
Totally agree, about the announcers of yore:
“I wasn’t even the best catcher on my BLOCK (growing up)”
~ once remarked 9-MLB-season-catcher Joe Garagiola
And in so many of those old games on YouTube, your mind recognizes the announcer’s identity even before you can recognize which teams are playing. (in considerable part due to the on-screen graphics not having been CONSTANT… and even “intermittent” was a stretch)
LOL – (switching sports, in case you’re not staying with me)
I’d much sooner watch “Halftime highlights” on MNF from the early 1970’s than most any 10 or 12 minutes of whatever is on MNF for that amount of time today.
Just the way Cosell would play-up just about every single yard gained AS IF each were significant… and of course he’s STILL about the only person who ‘accents’ EVERY syllable as he always did…
These days, maybe you hire an announcer based on how many DIFFERENT sports he can ‘fit into’ during the 12-month broadcasting season even when not working in his main ‘field’ of expertise…. so perhaps few or none are true “specialists”.
Cosell didn’t HAVE to be a specialist… he was merely “opinionated”… and they didn’t have Twitter/’X’ for that, in 1973, so it alone was entertaining.
~ SeaGuy
Shame on baseball for allowing this to happen. Of course, none of the people responsible have ever been within 100 miles of shame.
Shame is only for the poor, Darin.
Thanks so much for your comment.
Hi Gary. Any chance you’d be open to appearing on my podcast to discuss the A’s debacle? “Conversations with Sports Fans” https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thesportsfanproject
Sure, Douglas. You can contact me at: cococrispafro@gmail.com
There’s a part of baseball, in fact of all professional sports in the U.S., that you have to try to ignore if you’re ever going to enjoy a game. The fans ultimately get treated like shit. This is just one of the most blatant examples.
It seems to be baseball is just a microcosm of the bigger picture of insatiable capitalism and the decline of the middle-class. Seems like we all get treated like shit on an economic level unless we inherit money like that spineless, shit smudge John Fisher.
Thanks for stopping by, Ken. I appreciate it and your comments very much.
I hate it for you, Gary, and I don’t see things getting better for Oakland’s baseball fans. When the A’s left Kansas City for Oakland, MLB gave K.C. another franchise the next season. When the Braves left Milwaukee for Atlanta, MLB gave them another franchise after four seasons. The Pilots left Seattle for Milwaukee, but Seattle eventually got another team; D.C. now has its third team. Unfortunately, I don’t see this happening for Oakland as it seems that MLB never really embraced the A’s being there. Oakland ownership and MLB colluded to move the team to Vegas. The fans and the quality of the sport, unfortunately, are way down on Manfred’s list of priorities. And by the way, if I had a vote for AL manager of the year, I would have given it to Mark Kotsay. Him winning 50 games with the talent he was given in the atmosphere he dealt with is nothing short of amazing. Hang in there, my friend.
Thanks for stopping by, Hugh. I believe the move is due to MLB embracing the gambling aspect. They’re even introducing a channel similar to MLB.TV specifically for gamblers within a few years. Baseball feels really gross right now and something feels off. Expect another Black Sox scandal in the coming decade.
I’m not sure if I agree with you on the Kotsay thing, the guy is kind of a lunkhead. I believe he deserves a shot with a team that has some decent talent (and I loved him as a player) but that isn’t going to happen in the foreseeable future. Maybe even 4-5 years thanks to having the absolute worst GM in the league, a dogsh*t minor league system, and the inability to sign anyone with decent talent. The ineptness of this franchise is staggering on almost every level.
“Baseball feels really gross right now and something feels off.”
That’s it, exactly. Things just feel unsettled, unpredictable and fragile. The game is in the hands of people who do not know or love Baseball, and have no qualms at all about changing anything, if they think it will increase their profits. I’m hanging on by my fingernails, praying to the Baseball Gods that robotic umpires will not be moved, next season, up from the minors to the majors. When that happens, when bad calls at the plate are no longer possible, I’m gone. That will mean that The Powers truly do not understand the importance of human error to the game.
I’m halfway out the door now. Just waiting to see what happens.
Thanks for what you do.
Thank you as well, John. I appreciate your comment as I have for many years on this blog.
… ahh, good point about the present state of the Minor’s in the A’s franchise…
Back in the mid-late 80’s, the A’s had phenomenal successes top to bottom with their farm teams (in at least one year, nearly EVERY level A’s team won their league – and of course everyone knows about THREE consectutive AL Rookie-of-the-Year winners having come from Tacoma).
These days they have messed-up the WHOLE of minor league baseball SO much that to even TRY to have relative success there is the mis-prioritize your efforts.
To, uh, “minor” amusement, I have attended more minor league games since 2010 than I have major league games… and they are always nearer to “raw baseball” and less production than are the MLB counterparts.
(admittedly I would love to one day witness Scotty Pippen attend a home game of the Yakima Valley Pippins at which he would sit near mascot “Scott T. Pippin”)
(side note: Just one day in the entire month of July found high temps in Yakima lower than 90 degrees, and that was fortunately the one day I and a buddy went to “Bark in the Park” night at Pippins baseball some years back ~ daytime high about 83… and more ideal by 7:30 first pitch)
I WONDER IF the Mariners and the A’s could soon threaten the modern day attendance standard of “653” on a night when (most of you guys are out in the parking lot attempting to out-do the official attendance).
– SeaGuy
Like you, I am essentially done with baseball. I have no passion for the game anymore because of moves like this. On the other hand, I have become huge hockey fan over the years. Time to become a San Jose Sharks fan, perhaps?
There needs to be a better screening process to keep the grifters who have no interest in the sport out of the picture. I guess we have that self-congratulatory scumbag Bud Selig to thank for that. There is seemingly no end to the insatiable greed of the privileged class who never worked a day in their lives but would happily plunge a knife into someone’s heart for their last nickel.
Thank you for calling out the truth and the greed that now pervades the major league baseball establishment. Fisher is part of the greater problem found in MLB today, but the rest of the rewarded this bad behavior. The fans in Oakland were robbed and deserve so much more than this type of treatment. Manfred and Fisher belong together.
Hey, Hurry up and write something about the “Oakland B’s” !
And I think HERB Washington (aka – the “Designated Runner”) would be a better choice for A’s obscurity than is Claudell Washington… whose card likeness just happens to be near to my comment as I type.
– SeaGuy
PS – oh, wait, I see that there is an RIP there… so now I accept your selection.
PPS – My stance on the (Pathetics)… is that while the label is currently right in the strike zone…
All of the years of nostalgia still bond me to the troops… though I should hope there would be SOME continuity with the A’s of so many past locales. The worth of having had them win big when it counted most (one of the W.S. game 7’s of yore was on “Open House” night of 6th grade) (and the “1973 World Champions” pennant is still on the wall) remains so significant upon reflection that I need to ride the trAin a bit longer out of regard for nostalgia (if not much more than that). (Besides… and ‘OBviously’… at my age… and esp. at my 2028 LV Stadium age… “Nostalgia” means more and more with each passing month-if-we’re-lucky)
PPPS – Thankfully “Mr. Clark” did have a TV with the game on at open house.
Hey there SeaGuy. I understand the nostalgia thing but the A’s just won’t be the same for me. I’ll actually root against them as long as Fisher owns the team. I don’t wish that dirt bag success in any life endeavor. He’s already had it way too easy and obviously only cares about himself at all costs. Rich people are inhuman.Good riddance.
I’ve heard a little about the B’s but don’t know much about unaffiliated leagues. I think it’s great for Oakland but the games won’t be televised, so it’s going to be a problem for me to follow them closely in any capacity.
I will always remember the A’s fondly no matter where they take up residency. They were my team growing up (the Phillies weren’t exactly setting the world on fire when I was little). It was nice to see a headline a few days ago about an Independent League team coming to Oakland, the Ballers. Very happy baseball in any format is staying in Oakland!
I was happy about the Ballers as well. I feel like I’m slowly losing interest in corporate baseball as I get older and this move has made me look at MLB with disdain. It may be a few years before my cynicism passes, but I’m done buying gear, shirts, hats, etc. I watch the games for free anyway so they wont get a penny from me.
“Losing interest in corporate baseball” exactly describes the way I’m feeling. It started last year, but I couldn’t quite name it, but this year I finally understood that the team owners and the commissioner do not actually care about the game, at all- not the way fans do, not the way I do, and that realization has left me with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
For me, baseball is not “just a game”; it’s a metaphor for life. It’s, maybe, the closest thing I have to a religion. Baseball matters- but not to those charged with it’s protection.
So, yeah: to hell with it. I’ll seek out baseball- real, caring baseball- wherever I can find it: sandlot ball, college ball, softball, vintage baseball (which is a lot of fun; check it out). I’m particularly excited about the “Ballers”, and I’m looking forward to their games this year. But will I listen to Giants’ games? I don’t know if I can completely stop, as long as Jon and Dave are broadcasting, but I’ll never again feel about the game the way I have. Maybe that’s a good thing.
Well said, John. Listening on the radio is a great and relaxing pastime. I listen to old games at night sometimes and it knocks me out pretty quick!
As usual a good read. As a Houstonian who went through losing the Oilers, I know the depths of what you are feeling. Thought this was a well written article about the lame duck depths of the Oilers and how Bud Adams bought out their lease and played in Memphis for two seasons because things were so awful in Houston.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/houston-oilers-strange-lame-duck-season-gave-nfl-a-blueprint-in-how-not-to-do-relocation-192054953.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAF-AUHXSfOIu4an-3YUb1u8y6wD9fE9jonFKkuB1rQIZ8ob4R6zsq54vol0I2Pq6ULWOvgVflnlfIB5jPkOkLoQ9krnxfUEwLGgc-WofgG605VOQ6IWLGNcdYjJMy3IT0FHfmU7EqCnvzdESnynp8DSgcnx2eaHUCcogB28w5siq
It was so bizarre, because Texas is all about football and the team had always drawn like crazy even when they were not that great. But suddenly, it all went to hell in a hand basket.
Probably the craziest thing for me was when my favorite NFL team made it to the Super Bowl a few seasons after leaving Houston and there I was cheering against them winning it and feeling vindicated when they came up 1 yard short of a tie at the end.
Haha,,,I felt vindicated in a much different way as I am a Rams fan. Honestly, I don’t think it has much to do with attendance anymore and more to do with who can offer you the most. I have no doubt you’d see a MLB team in Chicken, Alaska if the pot was sweet enough. (yes, Chicken, Alaska is a real town) It’s bizarre enough that NFL teams move considering it’s insanely popular no matter what city it’s in. BTW…Las Vegas has the third lowest attendance in the NFL. What to make of that?
So sad! The A’s have been pretty successful…too bad the city won’t build them a stadium.