Arlos wrote:
Lastly, do you have an opinion on the whole Oakland stadium saga, and the lawsuit they just filed? Seems to me the Giants are being assholes about it, since the only reason they have any claim to the San Jose rights is because Oakland gave their OK for SF to potentially move there at one point. It's obvious Selig's "blue ribbon" commission never intended to actually do anything about it, given that it's been something like 3+ years since they first met. Thoughts?
-Arlos
I never did get to this. This is kind of a weird topic for me, because i am torn on it. I grew up a BIG Giants fan, and hated the A's (i was/is a Mariners fan). Will Clark was my favorite player, and i was giddy as a school girl when they signed Bonds for the '93 season. Ironically enough i work for the Dodgers now being the Giants biggest rival, and i was in the A's organization when i played my minor league ball.
I see both sides to the argument here. When the rights to San Jose where given to the Giants (by the A's) it was originally suppose to be a fall back plan if they couldnt get a stadium deal done in San Fran. At that time, San Jose was not a great market for baseball. San Fran established their minor league team there, and they have quite a bit of a fan base down there now. It turned a large portion of those people on to the Giants, because you could watch teh kids play there and then make their way to the show in SF. So those fans are a majority of SF fans, and with the A's moving there the Giants will take a HUGE hit as far as money goes.
For the A's there really isnt any place for them to go if San Jose doesnt go their way, which it wont anytime soon. Selig has pretty much washed his hands of it, he will not push for anything as he is retiring shortly. So its one of those "leave it for the next guy to do". Selig doesnt want any sort of decision like that on his resume.
The A's can feel a little slighted by the Giants because those territorial rights were pretty much given to them for free by the A's. The A's at the time were in negotiations for a new stadium and if the Giants moved out their fan base would expand dramatically in the area. Obviously it didnt work out that way, and now the rights that the Giants own are worth far more than when the A's owned them.
Are the Giants being dicks? Eh not really from a business standpoint. If someone gave you a shell of a 1967 shelby fastback because they didnt need it, and were never going to do anything with it. Then you took it, rebuilt it from the ground up and now you have a show car thats worth a TON of money. Would you just give that back to that person because now they wanted it back or sell it to them for a fraction of the perceived value of it? Not a perfect analogy but you i think it conveys the point.
There will be a deal met at some point, there has to be. But the A's are going to pay through the nose to do it. But it wont be in the next 2 years.