Do we have proof of BO’s claim or are we just taking their word for it that they didn’t just wait until the last minute and get denied or forgot altogether?
Ooh… I didn’t think of that. I only have a verbal assertion. I’ll edit that sentence.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Also, I’d be curious to hear some of the anecdotes from your Queer Psych class version. In all honesty, I was kind of hoping to hear some of that as part of your write up here given our “not really always about sports” centricness.
I’ll post it here, but I’m busy pretty much the rest of the week with class, a discussion group, library resource workshops, and hosting a dinner party.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Did you get the sense that Forst believes the A’s projection systems are superior to PECOTA, or do you think he recognized that he can’t stand up there and say, “We’re probably gonna crash and burn with this group because they all overachieved at the same time”?
Also, your question to BoMel was awesome. I love you, Kay.
If I had to answer your question, I would say that I think he believes in the A’s projection systems. I did not get a sense from anyone involved that they had a fear of the A’s crashing and burning this year. Bob Melvin added a few cliched qualifiers, but as I stated above, they seemed out of humility rather than prescient fear.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I would say from the few player interviews I saw, there seems to be confidence as well as knowing how much they have to keep working to get better. The bullpen panel, in particular, gave a pretty good feel for the core coming back strong, including Balfour who wasn’t there but they talked about a fair amount. Cook & Doolittle seem like they’re working out and focused on coming back strong, while also loving being with a loose group who enjoy hanging out together.
I’ll say this about BaseballOakland, and I’m sure if anyone from the site is reading this I’ll get a highly opinionated rebuttal that’s long on rhetoric and short on substance, but it’s clear their overall agenda is more anti-owners than pro-Oakland or anything else. Whenever I’ve seen something put out by them, it’s been high on that particular bias whether it’s justified or not. In some cases it is, but in many ways it’s just full of one-sided opinions.
To me, they go so far in pushing their agenda that they ignore the reality of a number of things, not the least of which is the City of Oakland’s own mishandled role and fault in the team/stadium mess. It may be true that Wolff ultimately wants out of Oakland, but the way some people have reacted to it you’d think he wanted to move the team to Alaska.
So often, all I hear is how awful and evil Wolff is, how much he hates Oakland, the fans, the stadium, whatever. Rarely do I hear about how the city itself has had chances to move forward with their attempts to secure a legitimate ballpark site. The latest? The city not even doing the EIR yet for the Victory Court site. Without that, that location is not even on the map. The city itself has botched a number of thing for years where the A’s are concerned, especially when the Raiders came back, and it’s no wonder there’s little to nothing going on between the A’s and the city. I’d still like to see the A’s stay in Oakland if something realistic can be worked out, but I’m more concerned with them being a successful franchise than I am about whether they’re in Oakland or San Jose.
As for FanFest itself, I don’t think BaseballOakland’s overall agenda of being anti-ownership fits the purpose of the day. It’s supposed to be a celebration of the team and the fans, a way to get excited about the new season – especially after last year – and it’s not a time to talk about San Jose this, Oakland that. No doubt, if it’s true the team denied them access to the fanblog side of things, it’s because they did not trust them to refrain from playing politics at a time it’s inappropriate to do so. As it is, where fanblogs are concerned the team has a right to say no if they don’t like the message being pushed by that site. Nobody is entitled to special access simply because they run a site.
Kay, good work with the summary and giving a bit of a glimpse into what was discussed with Melvin, Forst and Gallego. I don’t really have much to add to it aside from that, but I’m glad you got to be a part of it.
Even if Fanfest is supposed to be a booster event, the blog panel was separate from Fanfest proper. Since it seems to be the only time of the year when writers from small sites can talk to people in the organization, I think it would be useful to have critical voices there. That said, I don’t think that Melvin, Forst, and Gallego would have much useful to contribute on the new stadium issue.
Being critical is perfectly fine, being insanely disrespectful (which they can at times be very trollish) is whole other thing that I’m sure they don’t want to subject their on field staff to. Sure it comes with the job in many respects, but it would make it harder to get players to show up (not that one actually did this year) for that if that’s the environment they’re jumping into. This is a situation where they really are volunteering their time and don’t have to come out for.
If you’re talking about linusalf below, I think he’s already written me off as a blind supporter of Lew Wolff simply because I’m okay with the A’s moving to San Jose (even if I’d prefer Oakland). Unlike the people who have decided they’ll no longer be A’s fans if they leave Oakland, the fact of the matter is as much as that team helped give Oakland something of an identity over the years, the A’s do have a history of moving places.
Philly to KC? 1125 miles.
KC to Oakland? 1800 miles.
Oakland to SJ? 40 miles.
There are already A’s fans in San Jose who have supported the team for years and gone to Oakland for games, but the pro-Oakland/anti-Wolff contingent acts like there’s only ever been one side to blame for where things are: Wolff and San Jose.
We got complaints that FanFest was canceled, which I agree were warranted. It was a bad move to ever do away with it in the first place. And yes, the team has often looked bad when it comes to how and who they market themselves to.
We can talk about whether or not the A’s were trying to lose to make the fans stay away and give more credence to an excuse to move to San Jose, but they put together a team that ended up being damned good. Did they overachieve? Probably, but there was magic there and we all saw it. People love to say that Wolff doesn’t try to win but I don’t think you’ll find him ever acting like he doesn’t care about winning (even if you suspect it’s all a show). We all know how competitive Beane is.
Well, now they brought FanFest back and held it indoors at the arena the last two seasons because the Coliseum was being used for other things. linusalf likes the #demandbetter hashtag and applies it to everything the A’s do that he dislikes. It’s FanFest in the arena. It’s FanFest being limited to 10,000 tickets. It’s FanFest not being held on a different date. It’s FanFest being packed with the lines (what FanFest isn’t?). It’d probably be the A’s having no control over the Coliseum itself.
What does #demandbetter not seem to include? Holding the inept Oakland politicians to the fire. Recognizing how much the way the city bent over to bring Al Davis and the Raiders back screwed the A’s down the line when it came to negotiations with the city for anything. Going after the city in how hard they’ve pushed for what they claim are viable ballpark sites, yet the city’s never reached the point of doing the required work to make them viable.
Instead it’s just “Lew Lied, He Never Tried,” all day, every day. It’s “Lew Wolff Is The Worst Owner In Sports.” It’s “I Won’t Go To Any Games If The A’s Move To San Jose.”
That’s the pro-Oakland side, a side that lives in a fantasy world where the City of Oakland can do no wrong and the whole thing is solely the fault of Lew Wolff. Reminds me a lot of the Oakland A’s Fan Coalition. They can talk all they want about how great Oakland is, how vibrant it is, how it’s up-and-coming again, and that may be true.
Hey, Jean Quan even made herself look good by spending a night in the RF Bleachers with the fans. But that’s all it was for – to make herself look good. I still don’t see any evidence of her having done anything that actually makes it likely any of the proposed sites will ever be viable.
You are a blind supporter of Lew Wolff; at least, you’re 100% consistently happy to take him at his word every time, while treating his critics exactly the opposite. Lew Wolff has lied to you and yet you regurgitate the same bullshit. Fool you once, shame on Lew, fool you several dozen times…
I know almost all the “A’s in Oakland” advocates personally. Exactly none of them give the City a pass.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
You’re trying to equate Wolff to someone who James has actually met, spent time with, and had a personal relationship with. The more you get to know someone the more you’re going to be blind to their flaws and the more likely you’re going to be to defend them whether they deserve it or not. The same could be said about your relationship with the Oakland supports you spoke of before. When you know someone, anyone, on a personal level, it’s very difficult to know where a bias begins and ends. There are a number of people in my life who I know I can’t give a fair, honest and unbiased opinion of for that very reason.
Look…I’m not going to pretend I know I’m right in this whole thing. I could just as easily end up with egg on my face if Wolff turns out to be as bad as some people think, but no matter what’s happened between him and Oakland I do believe his ultimate goal is – aside from making money – to have the A’s in a new ballpark, yes, in San Jose, and be successful. I don’t believe people who say he doesn’t care about winning.
Everyone’s got some sort of bias in this whole thing, myself included. I just don’t automatically see the worst in most things, which is what I feel a lot of the anti-Wolff crowd does. It’s just a lot more complex than pinning it on any one side.
We got complaints that FanFest was canceled, which I agree were warranted. It was a bad move to ever do away with it in the first place. And yes, the team has often looked bad when it comes to how and who they market themselves to.
So you agree with most of the argument you are slamming?
People love to say that Wolff doesn’t try to win but I don’t think you’ll find him ever acting like he doesn’t care about winning (even if you suspect it’s all a show). We all know how competitive Beane is.
And yet chasing down the AL West Crown they were unwilling to sack up and take on money for at worst an long term stopgap for one of the A’s two black hole positions on the roster.
Recognizing how much the way the city bent over to bring Al Davis and the Raiders back screwed the A’s down the line when it came to negotiations with the city for anything.
The A’s make money on all the concessions at Raiders games. Its a huge revenue source. The A’s sought to maximize short term value when they negotiated with the JPA not long term viability, which makes too much sense considering the A’s ownership at the time.
That’s the pro-Oakland side, a side that lives in a fantasy world where the City of Oakland can do no wrong
I don’t know anyone who thinks the City of Oakland can do no wrong. However, the only thing that would make sense for a ballpark either place is if the City bends over backwards and takes it in a Miami style. SJ has pretty significant problems which is why it hasn’t been approved. Selig is more than fine with ignoring territorial rights (See Nationals, Washington and Oriels, Baltimore). Marine Layer and his ilk have an agenda pushing SJ, and as far as I can tell everybody is fucked with Oakland generally being broke but having the land to build Coli City, and SJ who is broke and there not being a ton of land left to buy.
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
And yet chasing down the AL West Crown they were unwilling to sack up and take on money for at worst an long term stopgap for one of the A’s two black hole positions on the roster.
Hanley?
And I have to say: mikev is one of my favorite people on here
-slusser.
Um, the O’s had no territorial rights and it still took 3 years to get it done. You’re (continuing) to make some pretty big assumptions of what Selig thinks of SJ. And as nice as the deal the A’s have with the Coli looks on paper with the concessions, that’s not going to make up for the lost attendance from a shitty stadium with few premium amenities. And oh yeah, that deal is set to expire with no deal in place. In other words, if they’re making some money (but not a lot) they’ll soon be making even less.
The O’s were appeased by the TV rights, sure. But they never had Territory Rights over DC so it’s not a similar situation as the A’s are in wrt to SJ. As for the A’s, the A’s have fked up themselves both on and off the field, no doubt. Where others want to see maliciousness, I see incompetence. And the A’s have shown plenty of that on top of making some really bad gambles.
Hey, Jean Quan even made herself look good by spending a night in the RF Bleachers with the fans. But that’s all it was for – to make herself look good. I still don’t see any evidence of her having done anything that actually makes it likely any of the proposed sites will ever be viable.
They have ordered an EIR on Coli City btw so your facts are wrong.
In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor
He was referring to the JLS EIR that was also approved but never carried out. And they’re paying for the Raiders centric Coli City EIR by taking the money from the Coli score board upgrade budget. There’s still no A’s centric EIR in the works despite countless location changes made by the city.
Yeah, there’s a lot of talk with little action with them. In fairness, they don’t have a whole lot of money to actually work with and they really are a bad position of having to make difficult choices. They’d do themselves a bigger favor if they openly just gave up on the A’s & W’s (at least for now) and simply focused on the one team that’s shown an interest in staying. Instead they continue to act as though they can keep them all and it’s doing themselves a disservice as a result. They set the expectations and unfortunately they’re not dealing with achievable expectations in their current circumstances.
That’s not correct. The City of Oakland is spending $3.2M on Coliseum City…$1.9M for an EIR, and $1.3M for pre-development work under an ENA with Forest City and HKS. That started last spring and is ongoing. None of that spending is specific to or even vaguely leaning towards any one of the three current teams. Coliseum City is an area about 5 times the size of the Coliseum acreage and includes a lot of uses. Doing an EIR for that a huge boon for anyone who might develop later, including but by no means limited to sports teams. It’s a big commitment, one that the City of Oakland is getting roughly zero amount of credit for.
You’re confusing last week’s totally separate move by the Coliseum JPA to spend up to $1M on two studies, basically trying to figure out whether a football stadium deal could generate enough revenue to be worth it for the JPA, and if so, what would that physically look like and entail. The studies will look at alternatives with one, two, and three facilities on them. Football is #1 to be sure, and the Raiders are paying some of those study costs…The Raiders are the only Oakland team actually trying to stay in Oakland.
And no one’s building a new scoreboard in the old Coliseum without a long-term tenant, that would be idiocy.
"Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
Amen! Promiscuity does not always equate to conquest.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Yeah, I was censoring myself and did a bad job substituting “conquest” for whatever it was I had originally thought of (and I don’t even remember what it was!) — something more vulgar but with less of an implied power dynamic.
You’re right in that I was confusing the two. But they were attempting to make a deal with the A’s over the scoreboard situation. Something that has been ongoing for about two years. I have no doubts that they wouldn’t move forward without a tenant (it would be more than idiocy), but they are using funds that would go towards that for their study instead. Whether that’s smarter use of their money or not, who’s to say. One would think they’d put more effort into figuring out if they’re going to have either team in the Coli in the short term before worrying about whether or not they’ll be able to afford a new stadium deal in the long term.
Oh, no doubt. There’s definitely a respectful way of being extremely critical. Hell, quite a few on FK fit that category and would be able to do exactly what you’re wanting.
Hey our name is being brought up here. I feel like I should say something We applied, and got rejected laughed about it and moved on. I believe that was our same attitude when we came to the FK tailgate as well. It really was no big deal to us. If accepted we weren’t planning on playing politics there as we are just as excited for the upcoming season as any other fan.
As far as some of the other accusations go, a better place to get an impression of us is on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BaseballOak where we update it regularly with a variety of topics that are about Oakland and the A’s.
That’s pretty much what I was trying to do, too (apply and get rejected).
What is the name of your contact at the JPA again? I apologize for being a bit buzzed and forgetting.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Your dark chocolate cookies were amazing, as your treats always are.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Kay, it was really great to see you and hang out yesterday, and for everybody who was not at the tailgate and didn’t get to hear the book report version of this, they really missed out!
I’ll be around a little more this year than last, although I said that last year too and only made it out to Oakland twice.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I love it when stuff pops up there from you or Dan.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
Let a few more newspapers die and we’ll revisit this again in a few years.
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
\"Weren\'t you already aware the Kay is already writing everyone\'s story? We\'re all just characters who believe we are real. Things make more sense now, don\'t they. Be honest.\"- DMOAS
I’ve FINALLY had time to read this! Woohoo! That was fun… thanks, Kay! I’d also like to join the throngs wanting to read the piece you write for your class.
Sorry I missed out on the tailgate… I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again :)
There's a wild thing in the woolshed and it's keeping me awake at night.
Do we have proof of BO’s claim or are we just taking their word for it that they didn’t just wait until the last minute and get denied or forgot altogether?
Ooh… I didn’t think of that. I only have a verbal assertion. I’ll edit that sentence.
I think the sad thing is I wouldn’t put it past BO to falsely make that claim any more than I wouldn’t put it past the A’s to actually do that.
Why are you so mistrustful of the president?
I thought we were talking about body odor!!!
Oh, that makes even less sense. These pits don’t lie.
So these pits like big butts?
Makes ’em wanna do some bagpipin’.
Also, I’d be curious to hear some of the anecdotes from your Queer Psych class version. In all honesty, I was kind of hoping to hear some of that as part of your write up here given our “not really always about sports” centricness.
I’ll post it here, but I’m busy pretty much the rest of the week with class, a discussion group, library resource workshops, and hosting a dinner party.
Cool. No rush. The post itself was interesting enough on it’s own.
Thanks for that. And thanks for this version.
Yeah, I want to read the other version once it’s done, too.
Thanks Kay!
Did anyone who was there take any photos that they want to share?
Did you get the sense that Forst believes the A’s projection systems are superior to PECOTA, or do you think he recognized that he can’t stand up there and say, “We’re probably gonna crash and burn with this group because they all overachieved at the same time”?
Also, your question to BoMel was awesome. I love you, Kay.
If I had to answer your question, I would say that I think he believes in the A’s projection systems. I did not get a sense from anyone involved that they had a fear of the A’s crashing and burning this year. Bob Melvin added a few cliched qualifiers, but as I stated above, they seemed out of humility rather than prescient fear.
I would say from the few player interviews I saw, there seems to be confidence as well as knowing how much they have to keep working to get better. The bullpen panel, in particular, gave a pretty good feel for the core coming back strong, including Balfour who wasn’t there but they talked about a fair amount. Cook & Doolittle seem like they’re working out and focused on coming back strong, while also loving being with a loose group who enjoy hanging out together.
And thanks for the write-up Kay, great job.
are probably the least successful way of predicting outcomes
Great stuff Kay! These feel like excellent depictions of all the relevant characters. Too bad Parker had to call in sick.
I’ll say this about BaseballOakland, and I’m sure if anyone from the site is reading this I’ll get a highly opinionated rebuttal that’s long on rhetoric and short on substance, but it’s clear their overall agenda is more anti-owners than pro-Oakland or anything else. Whenever I’ve seen something put out by them, it’s been high on that particular bias whether it’s justified or not. In some cases it is, but in many ways it’s just full of one-sided opinions.
To me, they go so far in pushing their agenda that they ignore the reality of a number of things, not the least of which is the City of Oakland’s own mishandled role and fault in the team/stadium mess. It may be true that Wolff ultimately wants out of Oakland, but the way some people have reacted to it you’d think he wanted to move the team to Alaska.
So often, all I hear is how awful and evil Wolff is, how much he hates Oakland, the fans, the stadium, whatever. Rarely do I hear about how the city itself has had chances to move forward with their attempts to secure a legitimate ballpark site. The latest? The city not even doing the EIR yet for the Victory Court site. Without that, that location is not even on the map. The city itself has botched a number of thing for years where the A’s are concerned, especially when the Raiders came back, and it’s no wonder there’s little to nothing going on between the A’s and the city. I’d still like to see the A’s stay in Oakland if something realistic can be worked out, but I’m more concerned with them being a successful franchise than I am about whether they’re in Oakland or San Jose.
As for FanFest itself, I don’t think BaseballOakland’s overall agenda of being anti-ownership fits the purpose of the day. It’s supposed to be a celebration of the team and the fans, a way to get excited about the new season – especially after last year – and it’s not a time to talk about San Jose this, Oakland that. No doubt, if it’s true the team denied them access to the fanblog side of things, it’s because they did not trust them to refrain from playing politics at a time it’s inappropriate to do so. As it is, where fanblogs are concerned the team has a right to say no if they don’t like the message being pushed by that site. Nobody is entitled to special access simply because they run a site.
Kay, good work with the summary and giving a bit of a glimpse into what was discussed with Melvin, Forst and Gallego. I don’t really have much to add to it aside from that, but I’m glad you got to be a part of it.
Even if Fanfest is supposed to be a booster event, the blog panel was separate from Fanfest proper. Since it seems to be the only time of the year when writers from small sites can talk to people in the organization, I think it would be useful to have critical voices there. That said, I don’t think that Melvin, Forst, and Gallego would have much useful to contribute on the new stadium issue.
Being critical is perfectly fine, being insanely disrespectful (which they can at times be very trollish) is whole other thing that I’m sure they don’t want to subject their on field staff to. Sure it comes with the job in many respects, but it would make it harder to get players to show up (not that one actually did this year) for that if that’s the environment they’re jumping into. This is a situation where they really are volunteering their time and don’t have to come out for.
This is such a bunch of crap. What, they’re going to start hounding Mike Gallego with stadium questions? I don’t think so.
With BO, honestly, I wouldn’t put it past them. They’re a rather obnoxious, trollish bunch.
At least one of them used to post here sometimes, and I met him in person a couple of times, and that was not my experience at all.
Not everyone within the group needs to be crazy for the habits of the group as whole to be.
Or possibly you’re the unreasonable one of this subject.
Okay.
haha wow. ok.
If you’re talking about linusalf below, I think he’s already written me off as a blind supporter of Lew Wolff simply because I’m okay with the A’s moving to San Jose (even if I’d prefer Oakland). Unlike the people who have decided they’ll no longer be A’s fans if they leave Oakland, the fact of the matter is as much as that team helped give Oakland something of an identity over the years, the A’s do have a history of moving places.
Philly to KC? 1125 miles.
KC to Oakland? 1800 miles.
Oakland to SJ? 40 miles.
There are already A’s fans in San Jose who have supported the team for years and gone to Oakland for games, but the pro-Oakland/anti-Wolff contingent acts like there’s only ever been one side to blame for where things are: Wolff and San Jose.
We got complaints that FanFest was canceled, which I agree were warranted. It was a bad move to ever do away with it in the first place. And yes, the team has often looked bad when it comes to how and who they market themselves to.
We can talk about whether or not the A’s were trying to lose to make the fans stay away and give more credence to an excuse to move to San Jose, but they put together a team that ended up being damned good. Did they overachieve? Probably, but there was magic there and we all saw it. People love to say that Wolff doesn’t try to win but I don’t think you’ll find him ever acting like he doesn’t care about winning (even if you suspect it’s all a show). We all know how competitive Beane is.
Well, now they brought FanFest back and held it indoors at the arena the last two seasons because the Coliseum was being used for other things. linusalf likes the #demandbetter hashtag and applies it to everything the A’s do that he dislikes. It’s FanFest in the arena. It’s FanFest being limited to 10,000 tickets. It’s FanFest not being held on a different date. It’s FanFest being packed with the lines (what FanFest isn’t?). It’d probably be the A’s having no control over the Coliseum itself.
What does #demandbetter not seem to include? Holding the inept Oakland politicians to the fire. Recognizing how much the way the city bent over to bring Al Davis and the Raiders back screwed the A’s down the line when it came to negotiations with the city for anything. Going after the city in how hard they’ve pushed for what they claim are viable ballpark sites, yet the city’s never reached the point of doing the required work to make them viable.
Instead it’s just “Lew Lied, He Never Tried,” all day, every day. It’s “Lew Wolff Is The Worst Owner In Sports.” It’s “I Won’t Go To Any Games If The A’s Move To San Jose.”
That’s the pro-Oakland side, a side that lives in a fantasy world where the City of Oakland can do no wrong and the whole thing is solely the fault of Lew Wolff. Reminds me a lot of the Oakland A’s Fan Coalition. They can talk all they want about how great Oakland is, how vibrant it is, how it’s up-and-coming again, and that may be true.
Hey, Jean Quan even made herself look good by spending a night in the RF Bleachers with the fans. But that’s all it was for – to make herself look good. I still don’t see any evidence of her having done anything that actually makes it likely any of the proposed sites will ever be viable.
#demandbetter, indeed.
You are a blind supporter of Lew Wolff; at least, you’re 100% consistently happy to take him at his word every time, while treating his critics exactly the opposite. Lew Wolff has lied to you and yet you regurgitate the same bullshit. Fool you once, shame on Lew, fool you several dozen times…
I know almost all the “A’s in Oakland” advocates personally. Exactly none of them give the City a pass.
This is false. I don’t give Wolff a blind pass, but I’m not the kind of person who sees the worst motives in whatever he or the front office does.
Swap out “Wolff” and insert “Nico” and that could have been 100 other posts you made once upon a time.
Wow. Sure didn’t take you very long to go there, did it?
I considered it in my first post. You have a type.
Which may be true but it is also an argument stemming from a logical fallacy.
Goes to credibility, susceptibility to the blandishments of pleasant-seeming smooth talking dirty old men.
You’re trying to equate Wolff to someone who James has actually met, spent time with, and had a personal relationship with. The more you get to know someone the more you’re going to be blind to their flaws and the more likely you’re going to be to defend them whether they deserve it or not. The same could be said about your relationship with the Oakland supports you spoke of before. When you know someone, anyone, on a personal level, it’s very difficult to know where a bias begins and ends. There are a number of people in my life who I know I can’t give a fair, honest and unbiased opinion of for that very reason.
Reasonable enough. Invoking Nico was a low blow. Sorry James.
Apology accepted.
Look…I’m not going to pretend I know I’m right in this whole thing. I could just as easily end up with egg on my face if Wolff turns out to be as bad as some people think, but no matter what’s happened between him and Oakland I do believe his ultimate goal is – aside from making money – to have the A’s in a new ballpark, yes, in San Jose, and be successful. I don’t believe people who say he doesn’t care about winning.
Everyone’s got some sort of bias in this whole thing, myself included. I just don’t automatically see the worst in most things, which is what I feel a lot of the anti-Wolff crowd does. It’s just a lot more complex than pinning it on any one side.
So you agree with most of the argument you are slamming?
And yet chasing down the AL West Crown they were unwilling to sack up and take on money for at worst an long term stopgap for one of the A’s two black hole positions on the roster.
The A’s make money on all the concessions at Raiders games. Its a huge revenue source. The A’s sought to maximize short term value when they negotiated with the JPA not long term viability, which makes too much sense considering the A’s ownership at the time.
I don’t know anyone who thinks the City of Oakland can do no wrong. However, the only thing that would make sense for a ballpark either place is if the City bends over backwards and takes it in a Miami style. SJ has pretty significant problems which is why it hasn’t been approved. Selig is more than fine with ignoring territorial rights (See Nationals, Washington and Oriels, Baltimore). Marine Layer and his ilk have an agenda pushing SJ, and as far as I can tell everybody is fucked with Oakland generally being broke but having the land to build Coli City, and SJ who is broke and there not being a ton of land left to buy.
Hanley?
Thanks, and go As.
Yup
While that was bullshit, I still think they had a deal in place and then LA swooped in and assumed the whole contract at the 11th hour.
Thanks, and go As.
And the only smart baseball decision would have been to do the same thing.
Sure, if they had a chance. Who knows.
Thanks, and go As.
Um, the O’s had no territorial rights and it still took 3 years to get it done. You’re (continuing) to make some pretty big assumptions of what Selig thinks of SJ. And as nice as the deal the A’s have with the Coli looks on paper with the concessions, that’s not going to make up for the lost attendance from a shitty stadium with few premium amenities. And oh yeah, that deal is set to expire with no deal in place. In other words, if they’re making some money (but not a lot) they’ll soon be making even less.
It was apart of the TV rights.
Like I said the A’s made a shitty decision. Blame the A’s on that. No one looks good in this. Everyone has shit on their face.
The O’s were appeased by the TV rights, sure. But they never had Territory Rights over DC so it’s not a similar situation as the A’s are in wrt to SJ. As for the A’s, the A’s have fked up themselves both on and off the field, no doubt. Where others want to see maliciousness, I see incompetence. And the A’s have shown plenty of that on top of making some really bad gambles.
They have ordered an EIR on Coli City btw so your facts are wrong.
He was referring to the JLS EIR that was also approved but never carried out. And they’re paying for the Raiders centric Coli City EIR by taking the money from the Coli score board upgrade budget. There’s still no A’s centric EIR in the works despite countless location changes made by the city.
The last JPA meeting I went to said that the EIR was expandable. That was a while ago tho.
Yeah, there’s a lot of talk with little action with them. In fairness, they don’t have a whole lot of money to actually work with and they really are a bad position of having to make difficult choices. They’d do themselves a bigger favor if they openly just gave up on the A’s & W’s (at least for now) and simply focused on the one team that’s shown an interest in staying. Instead they continue to act as though they can keep them all and it’s doing themselves a disservice as a result. They set the expectations and unfortunately they’re not dealing with achievable expectations in their current circumstances.
That’s not correct. The City of Oakland is spending $3.2M on Coliseum City…$1.9M for an EIR, and $1.3M for pre-development work under an ENA with Forest City and HKS. That started last spring and is ongoing. None of that spending is specific to or even vaguely leaning towards any one of the three current teams. Coliseum City is an area about 5 times the size of the Coliseum acreage and includes a lot of uses. Doing an EIR for that a huge boon for anyone who might develop later, including but by no means limited to sports teams. It’s a big commitment, one that the City of Oakland is getting roughly zero amount of credit for.
You’re confusing last week’s totally separate move by the Coliseum JPA to spend up to $1M on two studies, basically trying to figure out whether a football stadium deal could generate enough revenue to be worth it for the JPA, and if so, what would that physically look like and entail. The studies will look at alternatives with one, two, and three facilities on them. Football is #1 to be sure, and the Raiders are paying some of those study costs…The Raiders are the only Oakland team actually trying to stay in Oakland.
And no one’s building a new scoreboard in the old Coliseum without a long-term tenant, that would be idiocy.
If they made FSU the mayor of Oakland I would move there. Someone should study the economic impact of that.
PBR sales through the roof?
French girls would flock to Oakland’s shores.
In other news Ive got a date with one of them for the Noir City festival on Sat.
brown chicken brown cow!
The new version of this map would have just as many dots, but each would represent a DFA conquest.
And just after I wrote this I saw Oaklandish’s limited-edition Valentine’s shirts.
Lol.
Though I don’t think of them as conquests. They’re people and/or great stories.
Amen! Promiscuity does not always equate to conquest.
Yeah, I was censoring myself and did a bad job substituting “conquest” for whatever it was I had originally thought of (and I don’t even remember what it was!) — something more vulgar but with less of an implied power dynamic.
I thought it was hilarious.
However, I just don’t want people thinking that I do it for sport.
#Win
Either he or Bryan would do wonders for the city.
You’re right in that I was confusing the two. But they were attempting to make a deal with the A’s over the scoreboard situation. Something that has been ongoing for about two years. I have no doubts that they wouldn’t move forward without a tenant (it would be more than idiocy), but they are using funds that would go towards that for their study instead. Whether that’s smarter use of their money or not, who’s to say. One would think they’d put more effort into figuring out if they’re going to have either team in the Coli in the short term before worrying about whether or not they’ll be able to afford a new stadium deal in the long term.
At least two good points here. I guess I just want more opportunities for ownership to get grilled by a critical, but not paranoid, questioner.
Oh, no doubt. There’s definitely a respectful way of being extremely critical. Hell, quite a few on FK fit that category and would be able to do exactly what you’re wanting.
Hey our name is being brought up here. I feel like I should say something We applied, and got rejected laughed about it and moved on. I believe that was our same attitude when we came to the FK tailgate as well. It really was no big deal to us. If accepted we weren’t planning on playing politics there as we are just as excited for the upcoming season as any other fan.
As far as some of the other accusations go, a better place to get an impression of us is on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BaseballOak where we update it regularly with a variety of topics that are about Oakland and the A’s.
That’s pretty much what I was trying to do, too (apply and get rejected).
What is the name of your contact at the JPA again? I apologize for being a bit buzzed and forgetting.
It was great to see you guys yesterday! Please keep coming to our tailgates.
Amen to that!
This plus a million!!
Kay, this was great. I so enjoyed reading this AND hanging out with you yesterday!
Your dark chocolate cookies were amazing, as your treats always are.
I am so fucking jealous.
Why? I wasn’t there.
I said jealous, not elated.
You wanna be jealous, be jealous that none of us have to wear a shit brown bridesmaid dress.
Is this the wrong time to say brown chicken brown cow?
Is there ever a wrong time?
This time.
Lies.
Yes.
ALL LIES!
My apologies then.
Don’t let her push you around like that.
Great stuff Kay. Thanks so much, especially for getting the chance to hear a little of this from you in person yesterday. You rock.
Kay, it was really great to see you and hang out yesterday, and for everybody who was not at the tailgate and didn’t get to hear the book report version of this, they really missed out!
Sure, rub it in why don’t you.
(cries into his tapas)
Crying? There’s no crying in Baseball!
It was good to see you too.
I’ll be around a little more this year than last, although I said that last year too and only made it out to Oakland twice.
yay
Great writeup, Kay! It was enjoyable to see you again at the tailgate.
Likewise.
Thanks so much, Kay!
I’m glad you liked it.
One of the reasons I’ve missed time here lately is that I’ve been writing and photographing a lot.
Here is the latest THT piece
Yay!
I love it when stuff pops up there from you or Dan.
Definitely your “harmonic mean” weighting scheme. Gaussian statistics FTW!
http://clubhouseconfidential.mlblogs.com/2013/01/29/its-almost-baseball-season-bloggers-unite/
Who is the hot chick next to Rickey blogging for?
Also a piece of advice for all the “journalists” there (you don’t hold your recording device in your hand, you leave it on the desk)
That’s a dude with long hair.
Can I have yo’ number? Can I have it?
This.
Then again, these are bloggers and not exactly “journalists.” I honestly don’t mean that derisively.
Neither did I
Let a few more newspapers die and we’ll revisit this again in a few years.
:-(
Live or die, what does it matter? They’re all running the same articles anyway.
this.
Then you are either reading the wrong newspapers or not taking enough time to read them
Perhaps. Or the problem could be this.
That’s part of the problem. But media consumption is a little different these days, too.
GREAT READ Kay!!!! Thank you for doing it, GREAT job and obviously it was and is always DOUBLE GREAT to see you.
I will count you in for the Space Program when the Red Sox come as we discussed.
Yay! It’ll be epic!
I’ve FINALLY had time to read this! Woohoo! That was fun… thanks, Kay! I’d also like to join the throngs wanting to read the piece you write for your class.
Sorry I missed out on the tailgate… I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again :)
Yeah! What she said!!
This.
Well done, Kay.
I too only got to this now. Amazing write up! So glad you were the FK rep.