Proud Past Gives A’s Fans Much To Hope For

There’s no denying it. Oakland A’s fans need some cheering up.

Last weekend Oakland’s disastrous MLB season rolled on in the east. The Baltimore Orioles swept them in three games. Onward to Kansas City, it was for the game’s team with the worst win-loss record. The A’s limped into their three-game series with the Royals at 35-90.

Throughout my career covering baseball, there has not been a season or team that stacks up as having as much negativity surrounding it as is the case this season in Oakland. As a lifelong New York Mets fan, I have experienced my share of suffering. I know from what I say when pouring my sympathy out to all Oakland fans.

Here’s how bad the sinking ship known as the Oakland A’s has been allowed to get:

A divisional championship? Forget about it. Wild Card berth? Please. Currently, Oakland is in fifth place in the American League’s western division. This is last place, but saying fifth place distracts from the obvious. The A’s are a whopping 36 games behind division leader Texas Rangers. Mercifully, there are but 31 games left on Oakland’s schedule.

In checking where the A’s stand in attendance, it is no surprise that the team ranks dead last. After 63 home dates at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the A’s have attracted a pathetic 10,655 faithful each game. While playing on the road, the A’s nearly doubled their crowds to 18,412.

When checking out team payrolls, it is no shock that Oakland is (drum roll, please) - in 30th place; last.

With a total payroll of $59 million, A’s ownership spends $10 million less than 29th-place Pittsburgh Pirates. In contrast, the New York Mets plopped down more than $343 million this season (as MLB’s biggest spender).

As if the A’s misery could not get worse for its fan base - wrong. It has.

Apparently, the team is on the move, and not on the base path.

Is the team picking up their equipment and moving to Las Vegas? It is in the works. At least, that is what is being reported in the media. This past April, the team announced they plan to build a new stadium near the famous Las Vegas Boulevard Strip.

Is this a done deal for the A’s?

The ebb and flow on the A’s future is still murky. With five weeks of this season still to play, and given the team’s mediocre performance on the field, how could the organization expect to sell season tickets for 2024? More importantly, where will these tickets be honored?

What a mess Okland’s principal owner John Fisher finds himself in. Fisher is a smart businessperson. A graduate of Princeton and Stanford, Fisher should know how to operate a baseball organization profitably. Should.

Fisher’s parents, Donald and Doris Fisher, founded GAP, Inc.

With his multitude of millions behind him, Fisher, who has been Oakland’s majority owner since 2005, has dabbled in ownership of other sports franchises. Currently, Fisher operates the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, and the Celtic Football Club of the Scottish Premier League.

With all his business gamesmanship, why is Fisher allowing his historically proud franchise to go to ‘hell in a handbasket’?

There are 63,000 seats in the A’s home ballpark. Why does it seem that Fisher isn’t doing all he should for the A’s community to make them successful?

It has been a few decades since Oakland has had a baseball season to cheer about. They last won a World Series championship in 1989. The A’s were the best in all of baseball for three consecutive seasons back in the 1970’s, when winning the World Series trophy in 1972-1974.

Over the years, since relocating to Oakland from Kansas City for the 1968 MLB season, the A’s have developed their share of hall of famers in Cooperstown. Reggie Jackson, Jim Hunter, Rickey Henderson, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckerley, and manager Dick Williams all enjoyed their careers’ finest days while wearing an Oakland A’s uniform.

Plus, who could forget their late owner, Charlie Finley? Owner of the A’s for 20 years, for every positive move he made in acquiring players, Finley was scrutinized for a variety of decisions made surrounding the organization.

There was the designated runner role on the successful 1970s teams Finley created. With the introduction of orange baseballs in spring training games, ball girls instead of ball boys, and offering cash bonuses to players who grew and maintained handlebar mustaches (see Rollie Fingers today), Finley never saw a gimmick that he did not embrace.

Oakland baseball grabbed headlines for winning.

Today, the A’s are the train wreck that many baseball fans offer their attention to for all the wrong reasons. Why Fisher does not sell the team worth $1.31 billion (about $4 per person in the US), to an individual or group that would invest in the on-field product remains a mystery. The game, the fans, and the players remain in limbo, all in full view of a decaying once proud franchise.

Why?

Until ownership changes or shifts course, the best Oakland A’s fans can do is embrace their past.