The A’s Are MLB’s Surprise Hot Story: Winning Games, Losing Stadium Fields

As the Oakland Athleticstheir fans and the team owner are all staggering blindly into the great unknown, which we know:

The A’s became America’s team.

The sports world is suddenly interested in what has been brewing – or escalating – in Oakland for years. National experts intervene. Major media outlets, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, are reporting on the ground.

The reason for this increased focus on the A’s isn’t just that it’s a fun story about a team of scrappy underdogs losing games at an epic rate. It goes much deeper, to the heart of what is wrong with sports and America in general.

Who doesn’t love those A’s? They represent all the underpaid bastards working for an abusive boss. They represent every person struggling to avoid falling into the growing chasm between rich and poor. They represent everyone who is subjected to dysfunctional policies and bad products being shoved down their throats by clueless billionaires.

And it’s all wrapped up in a crazy drama between two vibrant examples of American culture, good and bad: Oakland and Las Vegas.
Who needs “Succession,” “Ted Lasso,” or “Yellowstone” when you have OakVegas A’s?

The A’s, a story that has been building for a long time, are exploding this week, on these four fronts:

In an absolutely crazy development, the A’s entered Monday’s game with a 17-50 record, but on a five-game winning streak.

Does the streak damage the A’s chances of breaking the 1962 Mets record for modern futility in Major League Baseball? Not necessarily. These Mets, an expansion team, finished 40-120, MLB’s worst record of the 20th and (so far) 21st century. The A’s, despite this five-game streak, were nevertheless two games worse than the Mets’ 67-game pace (19-48).

Oddly, losing works in favor of the A’s and Oakland. The loss brought negative attention to team owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval, whose cheapness and incompetence brutally handicapped their ballclub and drove away fans. Losing also makes these A’s beloved by sports fans around the world, who come to appreciate the courageous crew of this doomed ship.

Manager Mark Kotsay set the tone for his players two weeks ago, saying in this column that he and his team refused to accept sympathy. He challenged his A’s to forge a different kind of winning legacy: tenacity, professionalism and good humor in the face of adversity. In other words, three things you won’t get from owning the A.

Tuesday’s A-Rays game at the Coliseum is Reverse Boycott Night.

This is a fan-made, fan-driven event, with A supporters encouraged to brew the joint and let the world know that even if ownership tries to kill fan interest, there is life after the death in Oakland.

This event will receive serious national media attention, which should cause the commissioner of baseball and 29 other team owners to ask the big question: How much more of this embarrassing bullcorn are we going to put up with. from Fisher and Kaval?

The city faithful won’t pack the House of Tarp, but there will be enough fans chanting, waving banners, and holding up “SELL” T-shirts to drive home the point: As bad as the A’s play, they won’t will never play this bad. as Fisher owns it.

Importantly, this will be an Only in Oakland event, a demonstration of what makes the city one of the greatest sports cities in America.

The Nevada state legislature resumed its special session Monday to decide whether or not to hand over the $380 million (plus bonuses) to the A’s to move to Las Vegas, where the team claims to the gullible that she’s sure to fill the house every night, pouring money into areas like public education, where Nevada ranks lowest in the United States.

The vote promises to be very close. Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a staunch supporter of the A’s, has reportedly taken key bills political hostage, perhaps tipping the scales in favor of the A’s.

With a positive vote, the legislature can pull off this grand slam: screw up Oakland, expose Nevada and Las Vegas to major financial risk, richly reward the most incompetent team owner in American professional sports, and give Vegas what it lacks – a boring show on the tape.

Behind the scenes in Oakland

Mayor Sheng Thao and the Oakland City Council are on red alert, no doubt strategizing in case Nevada rejects the A’s, sending Fisher/Kaval back to Oakland to reopen negotiations for a rough.

In this case, Thao and the council should consider telling FishKav to take a long walk from a short loading dock.

If Fisher has no realistic chance of building a stadium in Oakland, nor any place to play beyond 2024 (if the city refuses to extend the team’s lease on the Coliseum), he might find the situation untenable and looking for a buyer right here in the Bay Area.

Refusing to deal with the A’s would not be a malicious move on the part of Oakland’s leaders, but a wise decision. Losing the A’s to Las Vegas would be sad for Oakland, but much more tragic would be keeping the A’s – new approximation or not – with Fisher and Kaval still in charge.

These two probably won’t be at the game on Tuesday, but they might watch it on TV. Maybe they can read the writing on the T-shirt.

Contact Scott Ostler: [email protected]; Twitter: @scottostler