I feel like it’s a short week, NFL-style, writing on a Thursday after just posting earlier this week. With Mother’s Day coming up, which will disqualify my editor from reviewing this and scheduled injections on Monday to alleviate muscular and neck pain which will prevent me from writing for a few days, I didn’t want to miss a chance to discuss a few things.
I have been following the machinations of the Oakland Athletics desperately trying to flee the smaller market which is Alameda County for the lure of the vast riches awaiting them in Clark County Nevada. Like their former companions in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the A’s ownership has seen the jackpot the NFL Raiders found in Las Vegas when they abandoned their founding city, and they want a piece of the action.
The negotiations between the team and Alameda County were a sham. I don’t have it on authority, but the A’s wanted out in the worst way—they had looked to move south to the San Jose area, like the 49’ers did, where they built a beautiful stadium which has hosted a Super Bowl.
Sure, there was political pressure and calls for reason here to keep the team in Oakland. A downtown ballpark had been proposed.
But look at the landscape. The Raiders left. The Warriors traveled over the Bay Bridge to tony San Francisco and the wondrous Chase Center opened to rave reviews—and another Golden /state NBA championship. The A’s did not want to be the last team standing in a situation where the rats had abandoned the ship—the decrepit stadium—where naming rights were procured in the late 1990’s, only to be decreed invalid by a California court.
Who wouldn’t want to be in Vegas? Besides the glitz and glamor of the Strip and the gaudy hotels, the A’s wouldn’t have to share the #6 San-Francisco-San Jose market with the more established Giants. Even if the Las Vegas market is number 40 in America, the fans went gaga over the very average to mediocre Raiders and the expansion Golden Knights. Who’s to say they won’t welcome the A’s the same way—even if right now the team is by far the worst in MLB?
The team has secured a potential location where the Tropicana Hotel and Casino stood for so many years. This site will ultimately cost the taxpayers less in funding when a proposal is finally submitted for approval. Because the A’s will be able to develop the area surrounding the stadium and perhaps even build a new casino.
Remember, not too long ago professional sports wanted no part of legalized gambling. Then, recognizing the windfall profits awaiting the owners, they pivoted to embrace legalized gambling nationally. Watch a sporting event and you will have Lisa Kearney promoting on line betting with her beautiful smile and her legitimacy as a former on-air TV sports host. Or the Mannings touting Caesar’s in a set of commercials.
It’s as simple as follow the money for professional team owners, and there is no place more associated with money than Las Vegas, save maybe New York. Plus casino owners have made the city a destination for families. Something for everyone and that looks like a retractable roof stadium for the A’s. On the strip. Not that far from the airport.
The A’s lease in Oakland expires after the 2024 season. No money is being poured into what has become a mausoleum to make the place appear better than it is. Not that the Coliseum ever was that pretty, with the widest stretches of foul territory, taking hits away from batters while making pitchers nominally better. And when Al Davis dragooned the city and county officials into building high-rising stands in center field so that he could increase his coffers, the place looked even uglier. When the Raiders left, the Coliseum was the last dual purpose stadium in use, and as I said before, it is really unsuited for baseball.
I have history with both the A’s and Las Vegas. Once known as the Philadelphia Athletics, with declining attendance and no more of the ancient Connie Mack patrolling the dugout in a tie and jacket, Shibe Park was left to the Phillies in 1953. I saw my first National League game in that ballpark.
In 1959, my father and I traveled across America by car, while the Interstate Highway System was being built. This meant that traveling through cities was the norm. One of those was Kansas City, where the A’s had taken up residence. We drove past the little park known as Municipal Stadium, with its grassy bank above the right field stands, which I had watched on Yankees telecasts that summer. Mercurial owner Charles O. Finley installed sheep to graze that turf, one of many gimmicks he used to get the fans into the seats. (Another was a mule, but I will not digress further)
Where did we stop over on this initial trip cross-country? Why Las Vegas, a sleepy, hot desert town back then, with nine real hotels and a lot of motels. What made Vegas was the air conditioning from electricity funneled from Hoover Dam over the Colorado River, 25 miles away. When it’s cool, the gamblers will escape the heat for long stretches of time. Fueled by free drinks, lured in with top entertainment like Frank Sinatra, they lost their sharpness and the house won even more. Legitimately, of course.
Las Vegas has had minor league baseball for years. Playing at night in the oppressive heat. The Mets even had their Triple A team there for a stretch. That heat was not a price the big league clubs wanted to face, night in and night out. Which left Las Vegas undesirable for major sports—-until gambling took off from Nevada and Atlantic City.
Should, or rather, when the move is finalized, it is expected that the A’s will play 2025 and 2026 in the city’s minor league stadium. If the team stinks now, do not expect it to get any better in those two years. When the new ballpark is opened, the A’s will get better. Because of the windfall of money they saved on lousy players and investing wisely in new construction, the A’s will be much richer and able to acquire name free agents. No more all market label for this franchise.
We will have our memories. Of the Oakland A’s with Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Joe Rudi, Ken Holtzman, and Vida Blue, who recently passed away, long with so many others, who helped the team win titles in the 1970’s.
I will have my memory of taking my family to a Yankees-A’s game in 1995, driving three hours in from Redding for a 12:30 start. Buying half-price tickets and roaming the virtually empty stadium, including sitting in the first row of the right field seats. I had my one and only look at the home of the Golden State Warriors, as we parked in one of the lots next to what became best known as Oracle Arena.
The game was forgettable—I just remember the Yanks lost and I was very unimpressed with the stadium. I thought of the good A’s teams, with Hall of Fame Ricky Henderson outfielder playing that day. That’s nearly 28 years ago.
I also have my memories of the Tropicana. I loved the Sunday brunch there—held in the same place where the night before the Folies Bergere danced and pranced on the stage, as the Tropicana was the show’s home for years. The brunch was one of my wife’s favorite Vegas highlights.
Now the Tropicana will fall with a wrecking ball’s loud thud. Probably not long after, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum will go the same route. The memories will remain in my mind. As they always do.
Major League baseball in Las Vegas. In a stadium with a roof to allay those hot nights in July. No more, at least in my lifetime, will the franchise known as the Athletics be vagabonds, traveling nomads of baseball.
I wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day. In Oakland, maybe?
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