The Worst A’s of Our Lives by Hank Indictor

The Oakland A’s are a franchise that has dealt with turbulence up the wazoo. After all, they have been in existence for well over a century, have played in three different cities and now are in the process of becoming the first major league franchise to make it four because John Fischer attempts to be a real-life Rachel Phelps with his desire for Vegas (and spoiler alert, a certain gap-toothed moron is about to get roasted AGAIN for allowing this to happen. Are you surprised?! Of course not!!).

The following piece may sound like I have an axe to grind, but let's be real, I’ve never liked the idea of any pro sports team playing in Vegas, and even if it did deserve a baseball team, it's better off having an expansion team rather than taking one away from a city that is a far better baseball market!

On June 13, A’s fans staged a reverse boycott for a game that occurred hours after a bill was passed for the construction of a new ballpark, and thus they have taken another step in the moving process. On the surface, the idea of a reverse boycott seems like a crazy idea because you're still paying your way into the stadium and the shyster named Fisher gets your money. But ultimately the $811,107 that was made in ticket sales will be donated to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Oakland Public Education Fund. In other words, the more I think about it, I would say that the Oakland A’s fans were winners in this. Forget the fact that their team had an unlikely victory over arguably the best team in baseball the Tampa Bay Rays, in an unprecedented seven-game winning streak I might add, A’s fans showed that through all the cheap ownership that they’ve dealt with over the years, the cycle of good teams being built only to be destroyed because of free agency over the years, the politics and the gaslighting they proved once and for all that they were never the problem!

Well, over 27,000 people showed up to speak their minds over years of frustration and voice their displeasure towards management and I would be willing to bet my life savings that at least a good fraction of those fans were also there for some of the other best and worst moments that the franchise had ever seen. Now granted I don’t condone the idea of throwing garbage on the field in celebration of a victory, but having watched the game and seeing the playoff-like atmosphere of the crowd I have to admit that it gave me the chills.

But then Rob Manfred had to open his mouth.

"I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I do not like this outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do," Manfred explained, via The Athletic. "I think the real question is, what is it Oakland was prepared to do? There is no Oakland offer." OK? They never got to a point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site. And it’s not just John Fisher. … The community has to provide support. At some point, you come to the realization it’s just not going to happen.”

I’M SORRY, WHAT?!?!?!?!

This statement just absolutely reeks of bulls***, and once again Rob Manfred has admitted to the whole world that not only is he tone deaf but he is completely out of touch. He's a liar and of course, he’s the East End of a West Bound horse! It also sounds like he needs some sensitivity training courses, too, but that poor guy probably has to defend his wallet.

So let me get this straight, lots of people in the community can’t afford to attend A’s games (re: the economy of Oakland), but for Oakland to keep their team they have to support poor John Fischer who only has a crazy net worth of $2 billion. Ok cool, I got it!

But Just how tone-deaf was Rob Manfred? Well, when even the mayor of Oakland Sheng Thao calls you out then that's how you know you've done f****d up!

“This is just totally false," she said. “There was a very concrete proposal under discussion and Oakland had gone above and beyond to clear hurdles, including securing funding for infrastructure, providing an environmental review and working with other agencies to finalize approvals. The reality is that A’s ownership had insisted on a multibillion-dollar, 55-acre project that included a ballpark, residential, commercial and retail space. In Las Vegas, for whatever reason, they seem satisfied with a nine-acre leased ballpark on leased land.

If they had proposed a similar project in Oakland, we feel confident a new ballpark would already be under construction. Oakland showed its commitment to the A’s and that is why the A’s belong in Oakland.”

In other words, Oakland is struggling with a litany of economic problems and thus they can ill afford to have a billionaire steal money away from taxpayers to satisfy his wet dream of a new palace. And again to reinforce an idea that I’ve already covered in a previous post, nobody is arguing that the A’s need a new ballpark. It's well known that the place has outlived its expiration date but the fact of the matter is that Oakland fans are being done dirty because of greed, corruption and gaslighting.

How the hell do John Fischer and Rob Manfred sleep at night? The former may be a real-life and male Rachel Phelps while the latter might not be the most spineless commissioner (*cough cough Adam Silver*) but he's easily the most tone-deaf in all of sports!

CONGRATULATIONS DICKWEEDS!!!!!!