How embarrassing is it for both Major League Baseball and the Oakland A’s front office that fan groups are better able to organize efforts than either of their own public relations offices staffed with six-figure corporate shills who seemingly can’t do anything to cobble together a coherent message get out in front of this narrative?
Honestly, I was skeptical about how the Unite the Bay movement would play out. Sure, there are some San Francisco Giants sympathetic to their neighbor’s cause. Still, it was difficult to see this reverberating throughout the fanbase despite the franchise’s own near misses when it came to relocation.
That’s because the Giants and A’s rivalry isn’t that much of a rivalry. Giants fans think they are better than the A’s fans while A’s fans hate the fact that Giants fans look down on them with disdain. It was the same dynamic between the 49ers and Raiders, by the way. This isn’t for me to judge what’s right and wrong here but it’s just the way it is.
That is bad news for John Fisher, Rob Manfred and anyone supporting the Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas. Obviously, the optics on display here are terrible. Rival fans welcoming a team to an away game where they combine to jeer a sitting MLB owner and demand they sell the team is unprecedented. At least, it is at this scale.
At this point, the efforts of groups including Oakland68s, The Last Dive Bar and Uprooted as well as high-profile Athletics fans are spreading. This is no longer a minor, local issue. It has become a big deal that is growing. And that matters.
Usually, billionaires who do terrible things that draw the ire of the public will just go into ostrich mode and stick their head into the sand until things pass. The hope is that they can ride out some turbulence before people move on to something else.
The Sell The Team movement is not going anywhere. In fact, it is expanding. And that is why MLB must stop the Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas. If Rob Manfred doesn’t step up and do something, the plucky underdogs from Oakland will find new and innovative ways to get their message heard across baseball.
First Oakland, then Seattle during All-Star Weekend and on to San Francisco. It’s only a matter of time before Sell The Team chants start becoming audible during other A’s road games. And given the grassroots ability of these groups to mobilize everyone, these efforts will be significant and loud.
What’s stopping 500-1,000 A’s fans and sympathizers from buying tickets to some postseason game and having their voice heard? I don’t think they’ll do that, they have too much respect for the game, but it’s an idea that should be on the table.
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It’s time for MLB to stop the Oakland A’s relocation
Basically, anything Rob Manfred and MLB try to do between now and the end of next season threatens to descend into a farce. The commissioner can try to pretend that he didn’t see what happened at Unite the Bay, but we all know he is lying. He is a liar. It’s basically all he does.
There is one truth Manfred cannot escape, however. John James Fisher is becoming an increasingly large burden on the sport. That is a terrifying reality for him. No one is bigger than baseball. Letting the failed businessman’s continued presence serve as an embarrassing distraction that takes attention away from what happens on the field is bad for business.
A normal person in Fisher’s position would also see the ice getting thinner underneath them and try to chart a different course. That being said, we aren’t talking about a rational person. The Gap heir is an incompetent turd who seems like the type of fella who would stick his finger in a car cigarette lighter. He’ll press on with his full weight, ice be damned.
But eventually, the ice becomes so thin it breaks. And it feels as if Fisher’s tenure as Oakland A’s owner is getting dangerously close to that breaking point. If the Sell The Team movement continues to expand and spread, Rob Manfred and other owners aren’t going to have any choice but to intervene. And really, they should take action now before the situation gets worse.
Unite the Bay was an awesome moment for Northern California. But more importantly, it proves MLB must stop the Oakland A’s relocation to Las Vegas. Or maybe Manfred and Fisher continue keeping their heads in the sand without coming up for air over the next 18 months. And in that case, here’s hoping they choke on some sand while down there.
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