It's almost summer and in the US
that means baseball.
We are six days away from the start of summer. Here in Paris, the weather has been gorgeous. Radio Roland Garros kept saying over and over that the two weeks of near-perfect weather were heaven-sent. I have a large terrace with doors from both my bedroom and living room. From mid-May to the end of October, and sometimes longer, it’s like having a large extra room in the apartment. I have a dining table, a chaise longue for reading, and a planter garden full of hortensia (hydrangea) and geraniums. It’s very hard to be dissatisfied with life when the weather is like this. Wearing a linen sundress and sandals is a reason for huge smiles.
I write this newsletter/blog 1—to keep my friends appraised of what I’m doing. 2—to let Americans into secret parts of Paris that most tourists don’t have time to discover, and 3—to reflect on the US from over here. Usually, that means politics. I guess what I want to talk about - baseball - is also politics.
I am an Oakland Athletics (A’s) fan. Before I moved to Paris, I had season tickets on the lower level near home plate. If you go to enough games over a season and you know your baseball, you soon get to know your neighbors, and the section or a couple of sections become a baseball family. It’s a community. God knows we all need some type of community in our lives. My baseball family was extremely passionate about the Oakland A’s. Many had been fans and season ticket holders since the A’s moved from Kansas City in 1968. Many of us were like little kids wanting autographs, getting to know the players, and going to Spring Training for as long as work would allow.
In the 1980s, the A’s were owned by the Hass family (of Levi Strauss fame). They were golden years for the A’s. They got Manager Tony La Russa from the White Sox, Dennis Eckersley from the Cubs, and Dave Stewart from the Texas Rangers when he was almost out of options. All three got MVP of something while they were with the A’s. The team went to the World Series three times in as many years and won against the Giants in 1989 after the games were interrupted by the earthquake. The Haas family seemed to love the fans. They treated fans, players, front office with respect, with courtesy. Everyone had a good time.
When the Haas family sold the A’s, things started to go downhill. The owners held on to their money rather than investing in good players. They complained about the Coliseum but wanted the city of Oakland to do something about it. In 2003, Michael Lewis wrote his famous book Moneyball: The art of winning an unfair game. The book showed how Billy Beane, the general manager, used statistics to find and hire players with very little money (in the world of baseball, a little money would be a fortune to most of us.) A movie was made starring Brad Pitt. The movie centered around the 2002 season when the A’s won 20 games in a row breaking the American League record and tying the baseball record.
When I volunteered in the Mayor’s office of Jean Quan, I got to meet and talk to Lew Wolff, the managing owner of the A’s at the time. The silent partner was John Fisher. Everyone was miserable. The owners hated the coliseum and wanted a new stadium. Wolf was beyond frustrated with the city of Oakland. The fans hated ownership because everytime they had a good player, the owners traded him. It was a nasty time with a lot of nasty things said.
In 2016, Lew Wolff stepped down as a part-time owner. Dave Kaval took over as team President pushing Michael Crowley aside. ‘Kaval said the A's are committed to staying in Oakland, per John Hickey of Bay Area News Group. Kaval said the team is looking at several potential sites but likes the idea of a "ballpark village" concept, according to Joe Stiglich of CSN Bay Area.”—Adam Wells, 2016
.
Smart A’s fans knew better than to believe that. They were cautiously hopeful as the City of Oakland began pushing for a spot near Jack London Square, Howard Terminal. Earlier this year, Kaval said he was going to sit down with the Mayor and work the Howard Terminal deal out. A week later, the A’s announced they were moving to Las Vegas. There was no intention to work with Oakland only empty words now knnown as False News. It is VERY clear that the only important thing to the ownership of John Fisher is money. He refused to give money for players, ticket prices doubled and attendance went way down. There are many who believe that was the point—show Major League Baseball that the fans won’t show up (and that had to be manipulated) and they would give their blessing to moving the A’s to Money Land following the Oakland Raiders.
Then came a one man group known as Rooted in Oakland. He tweeted that he thought A’s fans should form a reverse boycott: pick a day and all fans show up, show MLB and Fisher what the fan base looks like if you treated them well. More die-hard fans joined him, they raised $25,000 on Crowd Funding to make T-shirts that would say SELL on them. They picked a weekday night for the boycott. The game couldn’t be against one of the Big Four that have large fan bases everywhere: Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Giants. They picked June 13, 2023. As the day drew closer, the A’s started winning. They no longer have the worse record in baseball history. I wish I could have been there. Over 27,000 fans came out. They stopped at various places in the parking lot and picked up their free Tshirts, put them on and entered the park. They roared for their team. I heard that, at one point, the catcher turned around and had a huge smile on his face. The A’s won 2-1 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The A’s have won seven games in a row.
“Mother and son Leslie and Justin Lopez walked together in their SELL T-shirts reflecting on how much the A’s have meant in their lives — 27-year-old Justin has been coming to games since he was 8 months old. He is devastated every year watching All-Stars depart to bigger markets in free agency or all the other stars get traded away.
“It’s been so sad to witness. We feel like the historically disenfranchised,” Justin Lopez said, embracing his mom.”—Janie McCauley, AP
When I volunteered in the Mayor’s Office and truly believed that my love of baseball could make a difference, make some kind of change, would help to keep the A’s in Oakland, someone much wiser than me said: “Sara, baseball is a business. They don’t care about the fans. It’s sad but it’s true. If you don’t remember that, you will have your heart broken over and over.” I heard him. It didn’t slow me down initially. When I decided to stay in Paris, people would ask me “What about your A’s?” Yeah, what about them? When you keep getting your heart broken, it’s a good idea to step out of the ring. Apple TV shows a daily baseball wrap-up. Today, I watched the highlights of Tuesday’s game. I saw the massive amount of kelly green T-shirts that said SELL. Fans were standing behind the batter’s box and every T-shirt said SELL. Not one word was said in explanation. Can you imagine if Trump went somewhere and not one word by the media was said. How MLB pulled off silencing everyone, well I did say at the beginning of this blog that it’s all about politics.
A bientôt,
Sara
We were in Amsterdam and Paris in May. PHS’65
Sara,
I grew up on baseball, one of three girls in my St. Louis family, because my father loved the St. Louis Cardinals. Dad was himself an athlete who was scouted by the farm team of the Browns, the Cardinals' predecessor, and at least auditioned, if not played a bit. My dad had me going to games, and he stayed in his own world keeping a crackling transistor radio always pressed to his ear to hear his favorite sportscaster Harry Carry call the game and masterly fill in the gaps with jabber about sports greats, gossip and arcane trivia. The girls, as we were called, were too often called into action whenever Dad's season tickets were about to go to waste. I remember not liking baseball games, being bored and too hot to care about anything but the tedium. I stewed and whined over extra innings and the ridiculous timeouts that made no sense, all of which amused Dad. Surprisingly though, when I'm now offered a ticket to the game, I go, and I liken it to a gift to my dad. I loved reading Moneyball and loved the film - Brad Pitt was pitch perfect.
So, thanks for writing about your team love, however unrequited.
D'accords, John Fisher! What a disappointment, and doesn't he lack the integrity, and has he not an ounce of romantic lore about this famous American sport; and sired by such a famous San Francisco family, the Fishers of the GAP empire. Sad.
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/john-fisher-is-redefining-sports-owner-malpractice-as-he-spitefully-tries-to-move-his-oakland-as-to-las-vegas/