LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: House of Mouse

I’ve said it before, I don’t hate the A’s. I rooted for em when I lived up in the E Bay. I have loved having a rival who we are so evenly matched record wise with historically, where every game seems to be a deathlock. The best part being that they are a rival who is far less hateable than the Mariners, Red Sux, Yanks etc. Having our traditional division rival be a fairly likable team/fanbase allows MY fandom to not be mixed with bitter hate for “them”. Oakland isn’t New York or Hollywood. The A’s history is cool. Elephant. Nice. Could live without the drum guys, but if that’s as bad as the fans get, OK.

The A’s started looking for a new home when I lived up there IN THE LATE 1990s. Many of their explored options looked good. Jack London, Howard Terminal, San Jose, that spot on the East side of Lake Meritt. But if you look at the Bay Area as a woman that the A’s were trying to woo it was just too damn hard. It wasn’t just expensive, it wasn’t that there were constant obstacles from seemingly dozens of interest groups. It was that there was no indication that the expenses and obstacles would ever end. The A’s realized that they would always be asked for just a couple hundred million more dollars…. and more low income housing…. and a free park…. and a community center…. and what ever other political footballs could be shoved into their hands.

All this headache for the city of OAKLAND. Not Nashville. Austin. Charlotte. Oakland’s fat bloated broke ass. The ass was gonna keep getting fatter and the hand was gonna stay out before, during and after the stadium complex got built. In a city that isn’t getting better, it’s getting to be Baltimore West.

It doesn’t matter which site the A’s settled on. They spent 100M failing to get Howard Terminal locked down. Look how fast and easy things are working in Nevada, even if they have to pay more than initially expected. THAT is why they are leaving California. They were gonna spend billions to be locked tight to Oakland and California’s govt long term and they realized that was a bad plan even if the E Bay is a large market.

As a team I have always thought they deserve to see what their methods produce when they spend some money and don’t play in a toilet bowl. Sure, their owners are pricks who threw a decades long tantrum and suppressed payroll trying to get a new stadium. Owners are pricks. They own businesses and want to make money. This is a fact. a fact that cities have to work with if they want sports teams. Oakland seemed to treat the A’s more like the A’s should be desperate to stay there and get bled…. and they weren’t. The actual site didn’t change any of that, the A’s met a girl who was actually nice to them and that was the end of that.