Mr. Commissioner, do something about the A's
The Oakland A's are moving to Las Vegas but the stadium won't be ready until the 2028 season. So the A's are playing before 3,000 fans and putting a minor league team on the field. Who thought that this was a good idea? I don't know, but fans deserve better than watching a team that rivals the 1906 Brooklyn Superbas. Let me explain:
After entering the game with an MLB-high eight errors through four games, the A's committed five errors before getting out of the third inning, contributing to an early 8-0 deficit en route to a 9-0 Red Sox win.
According to the Twitter/X account @MLBErrors, the A's have committed the most errors through five games since 1906.
Searching back through the game logs of that 1906 season -- who could forget it? -- it seems as though it was the Brooklyn Superbas who committed 13 errors through the first games that year. The Superbas had that team name from 1899-1910, becoming the Trolley Dodgers in 1911 and the Dodgers in 1913, the Robins from 1914-31, and the Dodgers again in 1932. If you're curious (I was) what "Superbas" was all about, that team was named after "a contemporary acrobatics exhibition" known as Superba, along the lines of what we'd now look at as Cirque du Soleil, according to a Fan Nation history of the Dodgers.
Well, let's hope that the A's get out of their defensive funk. As for their place in major league baseball:
First, why did they announce leaving Oakland before a stadium was ready?
Second, why not move the team to a Las Vegas minor league park and start selling the team there?
Third, why not take over the team and force management to put a major league product on the field? Yes, some teams have to rebuild with young players, like the White Sox and Rockies will do in 2024, but that's not what A's management is doing.
Fourth, why not move the A's to cities prepared to handle a team this season? Montreal. San Antonio. Move the A's to Montreal and then give Las Vegas a new franchise in 2028. I remember when the Seattle Pilots became the Milwaukee Brewers in spring training 1970. Milwaukee had a stadium ready and Seattle eventually got a team.
Something is awful in Oakland and baseball deserves better than an empty stadium or moving to Sacramento until the new park is ready.
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Image: Oakland A's