Weekend BP: Hug the A’s fans in your life

Good morning, baseball fans.

It’s a sad day for baseball. Yesterday, every MLB ownership group voted to allow the relocation of the Oakland Athletics to Las Vegas to move forward, something that had already been endorsed by Commissioner Rob Manfred.

While the path is still littered with obstacles (such as where the team will even play after the 2024 season when their lease is up at the Coliseum) it seems as though owner John Fisher’s cash grab will likely go through.

Which is yet another gut punch to sports fans in the East Bay, who have already lost the Raiders and Warriors to other markets, despite having an excellent pedigree of success in the East Bay.

A’s fans never waivered in their consistent pressure to get Fisher to sell the team over the course of the last season, staging reverse boycotts and wearing “Sell The Team” t-shirts in every location one could be seen wearing one, from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to the World Series.

Selling the team to an owner willing to put forth the money to fund a new stadium in Oakland would be the decent thing to do. But no one has ever accused Fisher of being decent in his handling of the organization.

Though of course he’s convinced he’s doing the right thing, which was something he was overheard saying after he and Manfred issued half-hearted comments lamenting the move. The two claim that they wish they could have made something happen in Oakland, despite the fact that Fisher never seemed to negotiate in good faith with the city. He wanted the stadium to be paid for by taxpayers, because Mays forbid an owner invest actual money into their investment.

A’s fans have already started work on a boycott of Opening Day 2024, with many stating they would not pay to attend another game at the Coliseum at all, and some season ticket holders donating the money for their season tickets to an organization called Schools over Stadiums, an organization working to put a stop to the use of public funds subsidizing private stadiums.

Hang in there, A’s fans. I know we don’t get along on even the best of days a lot of the time, but your fellow baseball fans across the bay are in your corner on this one. The game is better for having baseball in Oakland, and will be worse for its absence.