The A’s Are a Mess – But Don’t Take It From Me

It seems like every day now I’m fighting the urge to post a “Fire Bob Geren” rant. I have to keep reminding myself that there’s only about 50,000 A’s fans in the world. I’d venture to guess that less than 5% of our readers even care about the A’s. Though as much as I want to talk about tonight’s Game 2 of the NBA Finals, all I can think about is this bad taste left in my mouth from being swept by the Yankees at home. The A’s didn’t even put up a fight. The only punch landed was a 2-run home run from Josh Willingham off A.J. Burnett that gave Oakland a 2-1 lead yesterday, but that didn’t last long. Willingham’s also been the only guy doing any fighting for the Green and Gold this year for the most part. Without looking, I believe the A’s were outscored 19-5 by New York this week. Well of course I’m still on board with the Fire Bob Geren Movement, but the Oakland Tribune’s Monte Poole pulled a different play out of the playbook. Now, you won’t hear me praise other writers too often, but everything Monte writes I tend to like. He’s like the anti-Tim Kawakami. Anyway, Poole calls the play action fake and goes after the A’s ownership tandem, Lew Wolff and John Fisher. He brings the heat with gems like, they (took) “what once was a good franchise with an engaged fan base and starve it into lethargic inertia,” and “They have become a wealthy guy (Wolff) and an obscenely wealthy guy (Fisher) who acquired a valuable property, neglected it outright and continue to reap profits. It’s the slumlord model.” To read it in its entirety (and you should) click HERE.

It takes me back to a conversation I had back in 2006 with one of the then new owners’ daughters. I asked, “isn’t your dad the one who just bought the A’s?” She sort of rolled her eyes, sighed, and let out a reluctant “yes.” I then asked, “oh, do you get that a lot?” Again, a sigh and a yes. I replied, “Alright then, I won’t tell you to tell him NOT to move the A’s from Oakland then.” Somehow I get the impression her dad would respond the same way.