It’s past time for league to let A’s move to San Jose

[JonLP24]

Over a three-week span, the Oakland Athletics traded 37 percent of their strikeouts, 37.8 percent of their wins and 64.9 percent of their saves from 2011. The frenzied fire sale that saw Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Andrew Bailey and Craig Breslow leave was expected, sure, but the speed with which the A’s eased them out of town felt sordid, the ugly consequence of baseball’s refusal to settle Oakland’s festering stadium situation.

Want to let us rot? Fine, the A’s are saying. We’ll make sure you bathe in the full funk of our putridity.

here are no winners here – not Major League Baseball, which has refused to dictate where Oakland’s future lies; not the A’s, who made $20 million-plus annually between 2009-11, according to Forbes, which throws a dubious shadow on Billy Beane’s claim the team lost money last season; and especially not A’s fans, a rabid but winnowing bunch that must dream about 2014 or 2015 instead of now.

Most of Oakland’s maneuvers looked more toward that future in a different ballpark – of Jarrod Parker (from Arizona in the Cahill deal), A.J. Cole and Brad Peacock (in Washington’s package for Gonzalez) and Raul Alcantara (the headliner from Boston for Bailey) anchoring a rotation going forward. Of Derek Norris (Washington) catching them, Collin Cowgill (Arizona) and Josh Reddick (Boston) running down fly balls in the outfield. Of something beyond 2012, which could be brutal.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-passan_hot_stove_daily_oakland_athletics_011112

[Auggie]

1. Who's going to compensate the Giants?

The A's can draw fans in the East Bay -- history has shown they can. They just need an owner willing to spend money. It's not fair to steal what has traditionally been a fan base from the Giants.

[KamaAina]

3. If the Giants really wanted to stop it, they'd move their AAA team in from Fresno

The proposed stadium site would accommodate an AAA-size stadium quite nicely. The city wouldn't need an additional piece of land owned by AT&T, which has been playing hardball (pun intended).

This also fits with a recent trend of teams moving their AAA affiliates closer to home, e.g., the Braves from Richmond to the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County.

[Auggie]

4. Heh -- that would be a

Giant (no pun intended) "fuck you" to Bud Selig. I like it.

[KamaAina]

2. "And the almost-certain use of public money to get it makes the situation... more revolting."

Indeed. Like most California cities, San Jose is tapped out. Oakland is in even worse shape. Both have been reduced to laying off cops.

Here's the money quote (literally): baseball has no future in Oakland, not with MLB’s commitment to publicly funded stadiums and the city’s unwillingness to bend.

So basically, this is all about $elig getting another nice wad of corporate welfare cash.

[HuckleB]

5. Fargin hell.

Screw their desire for more subsidies.

If US citizens don't wake up now, and make pro-sports pay its own way, then we're just pointless.