Opening Night in Oakland. Does anyone care?

Posted on April 6, 2012

Fans of the Oakland Athletics celebrate after the game against the Texas Rangers at O.co Coliseum on September 22, 2011 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

The 2012 Oakland Athletics open their regular season tonight (I don’t count the two ridiculous games in Japan) at the Oakland Coliseum when they host the Seattle Mariners. First pitch is 7:05pm. Plenty of good seats still available. There will be the usual opening night festivities and the A’s will be trotting out a lineup that includes some hungry young talent, especially their new Cuban center fielder Yoenis Cespedes. There will be much excitement at the park, and I will be watching on television. Unfortunately for the A’s and Major League Baseball there will also be plenty of empty seats tonight, and many more for game two tomorrow night. Worst of all? The young and eager A’s have zero chance to compete in the American League West thanks to bad ownership. A’s fans deserve better.

What is happening right now in Oakland is a crime and the good east bay fans who bleed green and gold are sick of being shit on year after year. Ownership claims they have no cash. Ownership trashes the crappy stadium. Ownership hates Oakland. Ownership has alienated a great group of fans. The ownership is full of crap. They have tons of cash. They do not even have to sell a ticket this season and they will be profitable. Between revenue sharing, national television money, and the income from owning 1/31st share of MLB.com they are laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of their fans. Add the recent record-setting sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers for over $2 billion and the A’s ownership made a few hundred million bucks last week while stadium workers cleaned off the upper deck tarps in preparation for the new season.

Do the A’s need a new ballpark? Sure they do. Should they be able to build a new park in San Jose. You bet. I think MLB’s Blue-Ribbon committee should come out of their three-year hibernation and come up with an easy cash settlement to the Giants so the A’s are free to build. But you know what? I still don’t think the A’s could get a shovel in the ground in the south bay. They have screwed up every which way you can in the past several years, and they are now stuck with a crappy team playing in a crappy stadium in front of 7,200 a night. If they are lucky.

I grew up a Giants fan in the east bay city of Fremont, 20 miles south of Oakland. Everyone around me was an A’s fan as they were busy winning three World Series titles in a row in 1972, 1973, and 1974. At the same time my Giants sucked. It was hard. I HATED the A’s. I do not hate them anymore. In my older age I have grown to appreciate how lucky we are to live in a place with two teams to follow. As a photographer I am extra lucky to have two teams and both leagues to photograph every day for six months. As a baseball fan I believe the loyal A’s fans deserve to be treated better by ownership. I feel that they deserve a new stadium they can call their own. Many of my good friends are A’s fans. They always have been, and they always will be. Through thick and thin, from Mike Gallego to Daric Barton. From Dave Stewart to Tim Hudson. They have stuck by their club and I admire them for that, just like I always stuck with my club when they were shitty.

This past winter the A’s gutted their team, getting rid of some terrific young talent to lower the payroll. Again. It is so hard for A’s fans to have a favorite player. Once they grow attached he will get shipped out of town for four prospects to save money. Now the A’s start this season at a serious disadvantage as the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels made some HUGE off season additions to their clubs, spending tons of cash in the process. These two teams will battle for the division crown as the A’s and Mariners battle it out for the cellar. The good news for the A’s? The super-crappy Houston Astros will be joining their division next year, allowing the A’s to pad their won-loss record against a club that might be worse than theirs.

I wish the A’s luck this year. Their fans deserve it. First pitch is just a few hours away. I know I will be watching on TV.