The A's president melts down, a top prospect goes under the knife, we have some historical TV criticism, some words on aging, and talk about the benefits of being a pessimist
They ought to be thankful that Bob Gibson isn't pitching anymore. (Sad, of course, since he is missed and was one of the greatest ever. But thankful, since he never ever put up with such a thing.)
If I understand correctly, he threw at the strike zone over the plate, and if you crowded the plate, so be it. As with these Mets, if you got hit, it was your own fault. (Not saying I hate that the Mets are getting free bases, mind you. But it's a stupid way to do it.)
I always thought that if any pitcher in the last half century ought to have a rep as a headhunter, it's not Gibson. It's Pedro Martinez.
Gibson never led the NL in HBP, and was only among the top 3 once, when he hit 13 batters in 254 IP in 1963. For his career, he only hit a batter once every 38 IP on average.
Pedro led his league once (in a season where he pitched only 144 IP!), and was in the top 3 four other times, despite low walk rates in each of those seasons and never being among the league leaders in wild pitches.
For his career, Pedro hit batters almost twice as often as Gibson, once every 20 innings. For a guy with such impeccable control when it came to avoiding walks and wild pitches, he sure seemed to "lose his grip" on a pitch surprisingly often.
Pedro hit 141 batters in his MLB career, and most of the guys ahead of him on the career list were either in the Dead Ball Era, or folks who racked up HUGE innings totals over long careers, or both. The only modern pitchers ahead of him on the list who didn't throw at least 500+ *more* innings than Pedro are:
* A.J. Burnett - who really did have control problems, as evidenced by his leading the league in walks twice and wild pitches three times
* Jamey Wright - who somehow plunked 155 dudes in a shade over 2000 innings, though again: 4.3 BB/9 over the course of his career. Control was not really his Thing.
Pedro may be funny and charming on those MLB network broadcasts, but the dude apparently had no qualms at all about taking someone's head off with a moving 95mph heater back in the day.
Amazingly, in looking this up, I discovered that Charlie Morton has only one fewer career HBP than Pedro, despite tossing ~1,200 fewer innings! Morton has led his league in HBP four times in 15 seasons, and has been in the top ten 5 other times.
In fact, Morton has never failed to have double-digit HBPs in a season where he pitched at least 100 innings. His career rate of one HBP every 11.7 IP means he rarely goes two weeks without plunking a guy, and this despite pretty decent walk and low wild pitch rates throughout most of his career.
That HBP frequency is easily the highest of the last century-plus for a regular starting pitcher. The only ones ahead of him are pitchers from the 1800s (when HBP rates were crazy high, for some reason) and relief specialists with funky delivery/control problems (Byung Hyun Kim, Randy Choate, Aaron Loup) but who obviously have a lot fewer innings under their belts. Also Victor Zambrano, who only pitched about 700 IP, but also had control problems.
So my question is: Does Charlie Morton have a reputation as a headhunter? Because if not, he definitely should, right? Or does that sharp curveball just get away from him once in a while? About 60% of his career HBPs are against lefties, so maybe that's it?
Generally I agree that hbp is more a function of the batter's set-up and ability to avoid getting hit than teams hitting them purposefully. Throwing at Arenado's chin because Davis got hit in the ankle is kinda laughable, imo. But 3 Mets have already been hit in the helmet (Alonzo, Lindor, and Alonzo again) and no team is going to just ignore that.
And btw, Aranado overreacted to a ball that didn't come all that close to his chin, when it was obvious that he was going to get moved off the plate was a little much, but that's baseball today.
The scary thing about Alonzo getting hit in the helmet was that the helmet came off his head before he got hit. In this instance, it saved Pete from a direct shot off his noggin, but in the future, it could go the opposite way and hit him directly BECAUSE the helmet came off. I'd be looking at a tighter helmet if I were him. The boys would probably not look kindly on him adding a chin strap!
Given all the pitch tracking we've got these days, it should be easy to check how many pitches are going astray or winding up in the dirt (even if there's no passed ball or wild pitch in the stats as a result). If there really is something about the ball this year, that's where it would show up.
For, pessimism includes a lack of hope. "Thing are bad, and will continue to be bad, and there is nothing we can do to change that." I know when I feel pessimistic, it's nearly impossible to see any room for hope. Though optimism is often nothing but false hope. So I try to steer between those moods, and just cope. I suppose you could call this realism, but I don't know what it is, really.
Anyway, I was optimistic about Carlos Carrasco till yesterday. His rather underwhelming performance was overshadowed by the brawls, but it was not a good day for him at all. Anyway, a 4-2 road trip is still pretty good, and it's time to come back to Queens and face the Phils.
Wacky aside: amidst a more complex set of dreams, I was watching the news and when they did a report about the Ukraine War, the graphic they used for Russia was the old Hammer and Sickle flag. Make of that what you will.
The Optimistic Realist. That was what I came up with after reading Old Gator's article. The author mentioned Hopeful Pessimism and discussed that. The Optimistic Realist boils down to accepting that life is going to shit on you sometimes. Sometimes it is a bird crapping on your shirt, other times it could be an Elephant getting ready to rain on your parade. For you truly cannot appreciate the good times in life if you haven't been to the bottom a few times. But even in the darkest hour you have to have hope and believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Between the Reds and A’s, this is really the season for team execs to show their whole ass, yeah? It’s too bad because the Reds still have reasons to have fans at the park (AKA Hunter Greene) and the A’s, they’re in Oakland until they’re not. This isn’t a team alienating its fan base in the final season and saying fuck it, we’ll have new fans in a few months. They’re not gonna be in Vegas or Nashville next year. Is it really worth looking like complete fools now?
But, I at least know a book/manifesto fans of both teams can read if they’re feeling conflicted about rooting for the Reds or A’s.
Has anyone else been following (and commenting) on the exploits of the Met's beat reporter for the Federalist as they play out on the twitter? The *gentleman* has hit quite a note. For those who enjoyed the Buster Olney and Peter Gammons "alternative" twitter accounts when they were more active, this account will also provide entertainment.
I feel bad for Will Venable, he’s been projected as a future manager. Maybe the Red Sox were just worried about the health of Cora over the past 7 games and were happy he was back, but that was a completely different team last night.
For the Red Sox analysis for the Sunday morning game on Peacock, has to be Eckerlesy, right? He’s their top guy and he did play 3 seasons in Chicago, albeit with the Cubs. If it is, should be interesting. He’s a smart analyst and really knows the game, especially pitching, but can be, shall we say, a bit over the top.
You'd think, since Youk doesn't quite seem ready for a national broadcast and we haven't even heard Millar yet. Plus, the Eck/Remy part of a three-man booth was a lot of fun - Eckersley just loves talking baseball and he bounces off another analyst well.
Stubby Clapp, has to be a good back story there? Maybe a late 40s early 50s heavy for a mid level mob boss out of Chicago that moves with his boss to LA to “take care of some business” and meets a struggling actress. He decides to stay in LA after the business is taken care of and try and break into show biz.
Meanwhile, a quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that he’s actually STUBBY THE THIRD, after his grandfather and father were also nicknamed Stubby. Talk about fulfilling your destiny…
Many years ago, my friend and I were at a Sky Sox game in Colorado Springs, sitting behind the visitor dugout. Stubby Clapp was playing for the Memphis Redbirds. Every time we saw him, we did the "Clapp on! Clapp off! Clapp on, Clapp off, the Clapper!" bit. About halfway through the game, half the stadium was going it too. Maybe not terribly original, but people (including us) were roaring with laughter. Eventually, he turned around and tipped his cap to us. He got the loudest ovation of the day. I don't recall who won the game, but the memory of that day never fails to make me smile.
Also, if he really did throw Pete Alonso to the ground in that scrum yesterday, that's pretty damn impressive.
Emblematic of the problems in Atlanta: that woeful 3-15 record for Cincy? Porkopolis is 2-2 against the defending champs and 1-13 against everyone else.
Good news: Atlanta just announced that Ronald Acuna is activated from the IL. Bad news: I am going to Gwinnett this weekend and, based on the old timeline, had expected to watch him there.
My friend told me yesterday that Peacock has a free tier.
I'm only on there because it's free with a Comcast subscription (and, I have to say, the uncut The Office episodes are *fascinating*, and has changed how I think of the production process, in a way), but will the games be shown at that level, or are they pay-gated?
Generally, sports (like EPL) require the paid tier. I haven't looked into whether (the) MLB has a deal like the Apple+ thing where the games will be made free to all. I'm on the west coast, so likely won't bother watching games that early anyway.
Man, I love Negative Creep. Bleach isn't better than Nevermind but it's a great album in its own right.
One check - Ryan Jeffers is not filling in for Gary Sanchez; Jeffers is the Twins regular catcher. Sanchez would be the normal DH and occasional catcher, when healthy. Come to think of it, have the Twins IRed Sanchez? He's been out for 6 days. The team has an old tendency to act like this, which most people chalk up to not wanting to pay a major league salary to the dude called up to take the IRed guy's roster spot.
Dave Kaval’s public trajectory as A’s president has been fascinating to watch. He came in a few years ago, all but anointed as “the guy who’ll get the A’s a new stadium”. He also put forth a fan-friendly persona, implementing suggestions from A’s fans on Twitter on how to make the aging Coliseum and the fan experience therein more palatable. Hell, he even had weekly “office hours” where fans could literally come to his office and pitch ideas.
He’s also hilariously fumbled the new ballpark bag by first publicly proclaiming that a site near Laney College would be where the A’s would build a new park. Inexplicably, he never properly coordinated with ANYONE. The college/land owners pushed back immediately and Kaval/the A’s blamed everyone else but themselves and slunked away. The current stadium push has seen Kaval outsource public relations to…A’s fans on Twitter, who spam/regurgitate Dave’s talking points (quite often taking it to the usual bullying) to local media, politicians and anyone who DARES tweet out that night’s paid attendance at the Coliseum.
I love my A’s, but Kaval is a fucking small-time, low-rent embarrassment.
There's a theory I've heard about the A's stadium efforts in recent years that I've partially added to that goes like this:
The A's want to move to Las Vegas like the Raiders for that casino cash and because they dont like he city of Oakland. MLB doesn't want them to go because they want to reserve an expansion team for Las Vegas and get paid a big expansion fee -- Manfred is thinking about the short term cash and not necessarily long time A's fans.
So MLB told the A's they had to make a good effort to work things out in Oakland. That meant bringing a new PR friendly guy in Kaval. But Kaval and Fisher didnt actually want to stay in Oakland so they just went through motions, acting disingenuously.
Now that the Oakland city council predicably didnt give the A's everything they wanted, Kaval is showing his true colors and trying to alienate A's fans and Oakland and push for a move to Las Vegas.
In that case, it’s fitting that the A’s and Raiders end up in Vegas since they’ve historically made plenty of long-distance moves already….and they’ll just move again in another 20-30 years or so.
Re-reading your previous comment, I’m now wondering if you were actually referring to Vega…which is the second brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and only 25 light years away. No planets found around it yet, but I suppose the Davis family still might consider it.
I wonder if Vegas would really be a good baseball town?
The Raiders might do okay because it's only 10 games a year so some of their old fan base might travel and they'll pick up some transient casino-goers with nothing else to do. The A's would have to do that for 80 games, which is a lot harder sell. I find it hard to believe that someone sick of the blackjack table is going to say "How about we go to the A's-Rangers game instead?"
The local base must be pretty small too. It seems like nobody was actually born and raised there, the time span when team affinity is created. It's kind of like Tampa/St Pete where 1/2 the population has moved there after retiring and still thinks of themselves as Red Sox or Blue Jay fans.
The story that's always pushed is that since Vegas is a tourist town anyway there will both likely be fans from City X in town when Team X shows up, and fans will make specific plans to travel since they can see their team AND Vegas at the same time.
That might happen for some weekend games but who's going to fill the stadium on a Tuesday night? Under a dome? In season 3, when the newness of it all has waned? The Diamondbacks have 2-3x the potential fanbase and never really have been able to do it.
I continue to wonder why so many people think Las Vegas is some kind of hot destination for sports franchises. Within the next 40-50 years, the place is going to look pretty much as it did in 1947, when Bugsy Siegel came to town. And then it will be abandoned entirely.
I think the A's want to make Oakland work. They've successfully lobbied state government to look the other way on some of California's more onerous time lines in getting shit like this done. Las Vegas is absolutely in play, but for now, it's a leverage play to get Oakland to (a) cough up tax revenue that ostensibly belongs to the city; (b) eliminate the "affordable housing" requirements and (c) surely let the A's off the hook when this deal inevitably goes sideways.
The county takes in much more property tax than the city, which is the standard in CA and many other states. Oakland has already agreed to cough up the tax increment in the Jack London area toward debt service for the project, but it will not come close to penciling out unless the Alameda County agrees. I forget the timing of that decision but I *think* it's June or July.
I assume that the White Sox analyst for that Peacock game will be Benetti's broadcast partner, the great Steve Stone. If not him, I hope they pull Ozzie Guillen, who is part of the White Sox TV post-game show and someone who is not afraid to speak his mind.
I think “one local analyst from each team” is the most-suggested national booth idea I’ve ever seen—and it’ll be great to see a national “broadcast” actually start doing it, especially with a wonderful pxp guy like Benetti.
The optimism/pessimism article is solid, but it's interesting/telling that it makes no reference to Gramsci, the first person who comes to mind on matters of this specific dichotomy. To wit:
"man ought to be so deeply convinced that the source of his own moral forces is in himself … that he never despairs and never falls into those vulgar, banal moods, pessimism and optimism. My own state of mind synthesizes these two feelings and transcends them: my mind is pessimistic, but my will is optimistic. Since I never build up illusions, I am seldom disappointed. I’ve always been armed with unlimited patience – not a passive, inert kind, but a patience allied with perseverance."
Gramsci. Ahh, takes me back to those glandular grad school days of sustained postcolonial discourse, sweet Foucault, and pre shocking revelations Paul de Man.
Oops, better stop there before I hit Adorno again....
Mets/Cards: "The teams meat again in mid-May in New York." The Mets all go to Peter Luger's. The Cardinals seem like Outback people. Thanks for the entertaining typo today.
I'm neither a pessimist or optimist, but I do feel one or the other from time to time. They are transient feelings.
But I am fatalistic. We all inevitably die. We all have a destiny based on the laws of nature. So it does comfort me to be aware of that.
Whether you die in a ditch, broke and homeless, or whether you die as a successful person surrounded by your loving family, you still die. It is your fate. But the journey is what is life is about. Discovering what your destiny is and how you mature and evolve as a person is what gives life meaning.
Ah Craigster, the bungled construction "the MLB" which, elsewhere, is merely indicative of low paid grade school teaching, is here in Macondo merely indicative of our propensity to translate Spanish constructions literally.
They ought to be thankful that Bob Gibson isn't pitching anymore. (Sad, of course, since he is missed and was one of the greatest ever. But thankful, since he never ever put up with such a thing.)
If I understand correctly, he threw at the strike zone over the plate, and if you crowded the plate, so be it. As with these Mets, if you got hit, it was your own fault. (Not saying I hate that the Mets are getting free bases, mind you. But it's a stupid way to do it.)
I always thought that if any pitcher in the last half century ought to have a rep as a headhunter, it's not Gibson. It's Pedro Martinez.
Gibson never led the NL in HBP, and was only among the top 3 once, when he hit 13 batters in 254 IP in 1963. For his career, he only hit a batter once every 38 IP on average.
Pedro led his league once (in a season where he pitched only 144 IP!), and was in the top 3 four other times, despite low walk rates in each of those seasons and never being among the league leaders in wild pitches.
For his career, Pedro hit batters almost twice as often as Gibson, once every 20 innings. For a guy with such impeccable control when it came to avoiding walks and wild pitches, he sure seemed to "lose his grip" on a pitch surprisingly often.
Pedro hit 141 batters in his MLB career, and most of the guys ahead of him on the career list were either in the Dead Ball Era, or folks who racked up HUGE innings totals over long careers, or both. The only modern pitchers ahead of him on the list who didn't throw at least 500+ *more* innings than Pedro are:
* A.J. Burnett - who really did have control problems, as evidenced by his leading the league in walks twice and wild pitches three times
* Jamey Wright - who somehow plunked 155 dudes in a shade over 2000 innings, though again: 4.3 BB/9 over the course of his career. Control was not really his Thing.
Pedro may be funny and charming on those MLB network broadcasts, but the dude apparently had no qualms at all about taking someone's head off with a moving 95mph heater back in the day.
Amazingly, in looking this up, I discovered that Charlie Morton has only one fewer career HBP than Pedro, despite tossing ~1,200 fewer innings! Morton has led his league in HBP four times in 15 seasons, and has been in the top ten 5 other times.
In fact, Morton has never failed to have double-digit HBPs in a season where he pitched at least 100 innings. His career rate of one HBP every 11.7 IP means he rarely goes two weeks without plunking a guy, and this despite pretty decent walk and low wild pitch rates throughout most of his career.
That HBP frequency is easily the highest of the last century-plus for a regular starting pitcher. The only ones ahead of him are pitchers from the 1800s (when HBP rates were crazy high, for some reason) and relief specialists with funky delivery/control problems (Byung Hyun Kim, Randy Choate, Aaron Loup) but who obviously have a lot fewer innings under their belts. Also Victor Zambrano, who only pitched about 700 IP, but also had control problems.
So my question is: Does Charlie Morton have a reputation as a headhunter? Because if not, he definitely should, right? Or does that sharp curveball just get away from him once in a while? About 60% of his career HBPs are against lefties, so maybe that's it?
Generally I agree that hbp is more a function of the batter's set-up and ability to avoid getting hit than teams hitting them purposefully. Throwing at Arenado's chin because Davis got hit in the ankle is kinda laughable, imo. But 3 Mets have already been hit in the helmet (Alonzo, Lindor, and Alonzo again) and no team is going to just ignore that.
And btw, Aranado overreacted to a ball that didn't come all that close to his chin, when it was obvious that he was going to get moved off the plate was a little much, but that's baseball today.
The scary thing about Alonzo getting hit in the helmet was that the helmet came off his head before he got hit. In this instance, it saved Pete from a direct shot off his noggin, but in the future, it could go the opposite way and hit him directly BECAUSE the helmet came off. I'd be looking at a tighter helmet if I were him. The boys would probably not look kindly on him adding a chin strap!
In Canha's case, that's a major part of his value. He'd be below average in OBP if didn't get hit so much.
Given all the pitch tracking we've got these days, it should be easy to check how many pitches are going astray or winding up in the dirt (even if there's no passed ball or wild pitch in the stats as a result). If there really is something about the ball this year, that's where it would show up.
For, pessimism includes a lack of hope. "Thing are bad, and will continue to be bad, and there is nothing we can do to change that." I know when I feel pessimistic, it's nearly impossible to see any room for hope. Though optimism is often nothing but false hope. So I try to steer between those moods, and just cope. I suppose you could call this realism, but I don't know what it is, really.
Anyway, I was optimistic about Carlos Carrasco till yesterday. His rather underwhelming performance was overshadowed by the brawls, but it was not a good day for him at all. Anyway, a 4-2 road trip is still pretty good, and it's time to come back to Queens and face the Phils.
Wacky aside: amidst a more complex set of dreams, I was watching the news and when they did a report about the Ukraine War, the graphic they used for Russia was the old Hammer and Sickle flag. Make of that what you will.
I have abiding faith that I too will be pessimistic some day.
I *am* a pessimist. I prefer that stance, because I am very rarely wrong, and when I am, I'm pleasantly surprised.
The Optimistic Realist. That was what I came up with after reading Old Gator's article. The author mentioned Hopeful Pessimism and discussed that. The Optimistic Realist boils down to accepting that life is going to shit on you sometimes. Sometimes it is a bird crapping on your shirt, other times it could be an Elephant getting ready to rain on your parade. For you truly cannot appreciate the good times in life if you haven't been to the bottom a few times. But even in the darkest hour you have to have hope and believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Between the Reds and A’s, this is really the season for team execs to show their whole ass, yeah? It’s too bad because the Reds still have reasons to have fans at the park (AKA Hunter Greene) and the A’s, they’re in Oakland until they’re not. This isn’t a team alienating its fan base in the final season and saying fuck it, we’ll have new fans in a few months. They’re not gonna be in Vegas or Nashville next year. Is it really worth looking like complete fools now?
But, I at least know a book/manifesto fans of both teams can read if they’re feeling conflicted about rooting for the Reds or A’s.
THANK YOU to Paper Lions for that essay. I'm so sick of the Polyannas with their toxic positivity, taking the tartar sauce as they go for the whale.
I will plead guilty to occasionally digging into the pile of manure in the stubborn belief there’s a pony in there somewhere.
Has anyone else been following (and commenting) on the exploits of the Met's beat reporter for the Federalist as they play out on the twitter? The *gentleman* has hit quite a note. For those who enjoyed the Buster Olney and Peter Gammons "alternative" twitter accounts when they were more active, this account will also provide entertainment.
I found him yesterday, and spent about 5 minutes trying to figure him out, and an equal amount of time laughing.
I feel bad for Will Venable, he’s been projected as a future manager. Maybe the Red Sox were just worried about the health of Cora over the past 7 games and were happy he was back, but that was a completely different team last night.
For the Red Sox analysis for the Sunday morning game on Peacock, has to be Eckerlesy, right? He’s their top guy and he did play 3 seasons in Chicago, albeit with the Cubs. If it is, should be interesting. He’s a smart analyst and really knows the game, especially pitching, but can be, shall we say, a bit over the top.
You'd think, since Youk doesn't quite seem ready for a national broadcast and we haven't even heard Millar yet. Plus, the Eck/Remy part of a three-man booth was a lot of fun - Eckersley just loves talking baseball and he bounces off another analyst well.
If Steve Stone does the White Sox analysis, it will be a full morning of pitching tales with Eck...
Stubby Clapp, has to be a good back story there? Maybe a late 40s early 50s heavy for a mid level mob boss out of Chicago that moves with his boss to LA to “take care of some business” and meets a struggling actress. He decides to stay in LA after the business is taken care of and try and break into show biz.
And he has three kids - Cooper (Stubby IV), Cannan and Crosbie. Come on, man. Cooper Clapp, Cannan Clapp and Crosbie Clapp? What a monster.
I always thought of Stubby Clapp more as a hideously disfiguring STD, but I think your version is more fun.
Rusty Kuntz? Pebbly Glasscock? Randy Johnson? Dick Pole?
Junior High version of me is still giggling.
Hi
You forgot Pete LaCock and the GOAT, Johnny Dickshot
I never realized just how stubby Stubby was.
Meanwhile, a quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that he’s actually STUBBY THE THIRD, after his grandfather and father were also nicknamed Stubby. Talk about fulfilling your destiny…
Many years ago, my friend and I were at a Sky Sox game in Colorado Springs, sitting behind the visitor dugout. Stubby Clapp was playing for the Memphis Redbirds. Every time we saw him, we did the "Clapp on! Clapp off! Clapp on, Clapp off, the Clapper!" bit. About halfway through the game, half the stadium was going it too. Maybe not terribly original, but people (including us) were roaring with laughter. Eventually, he turned around and tipped his cap to us. He got the loudest ovation of the day. I don't recall who won the game, but the memory of that day never fails to make me smile.
Also, if he really did throw Pete Alonso to the ground in that scrum yesterday, that's pretty damn impressive.
There are few things better than looking back at the dumb things we did when we were younger that at the time were TOTALLY HILARIOUS AND ORIGINAL
Good on Stubby for being a sport
He could have been from Miami and was called Chilli Palmer.
Emblematic of the problems in Atlanta: that woeful 3-15 record for Cincy? Porkopolis is 2-2 against the defending champs and 1-13 against everyone else.
Good news: Atlanta just announced that Ronald Acuna is activated from the IL. Bad news: I am going to Gwinnett this weekend and, based on the old timeline, had expected to watch him there.
My friend told me yesterday that Peacock has a free tier.
I'm only on there because it's free with a Comcast subscription (and, I have to say, the uncut The Office episodes are *fascinating*, and has changed how I think of the production process, in a way), but will the games be shown at that level, or are they pay-gated?
Generally, sports (like EPL) require the paid tier. I haven't looked into whether (the) MLB has a deal like the Apple+ thing where the games will be made free to all. I'm on the west coast, so likely won't bother watching games that early anyway.
Man, I love Negative Creep. Bleach isn't better than Nevermind but it's a great album in its own right.
One check - Ryan Jeffers is not filling in for Gary Sanchez; Jeffers is the Twins regular catcher. Sanchez would be the normal DH and occasional catcher, when healthy. Come to think of it, have the Twins IRed Sanchez? He's been out for 6 days. The team has an old tendency to act like this, which most people chalk up to not wanting to pay a major league salary to the dude called up to take the IRed guy's roster spot.
Dave Kaval’s public trajectory as A’s president has been fascinating to watch. He came in a few years ago, all but anointed as “the guy who’ll get the A’s a new stadium”. He also put forth a fan-friendly persona, implementing suggestions from A’s fans on Twitter on how to make the aging Coliseum and the fan experience therein more palatable. Hell, he even had weekly “office hours” where fans could literally come to his office and pitch ideas.
He’s also hilariously fumbled the new ballpark bag by first publicly proclaiming that a site near Laney College would be where the A’s would build a new park. Inexplicably, he never properly coordinated with ANYONE. The college/land owners pushed back immediately and Kaval/the A’s blamed everyone else but themselves and slunked away. The current stadium push has seen Kaval outsource public relations to…A’s fans on Twitter, who spam/regurgitate Dave’s talking points (quite often taking it to the usual bullying) to local media, politicians and anyone who DARES tweet out that night’s paid attendance at the Coliseum.
I love my A’s, but Kaval is a fucking small-time, low-rent embarrassment.
There's a theory I've heard about the A's stadium efforts in recent years that I've partially added to that goes like this:
The A's want to move to Las Vegas like the Raiders for that casino cash and because they dont like he city of Oakland. MLB doesn't want them to go because they want to reserve an expansion team for Las Vegas and get paid a big expansion fee -- Manfred is thinking about the short term cash and not necessarily long time A's fans.
So MLB told the A's they had to make a good effort to work things out in Oakland. That meant bringing a new PR friendly guy in Kaval. But Kaval and Fisher didnt actually want to stay in Oakland so they just went through motions, acting disingenuously.
Now that the Oakland city council predicably didnt give the A's everything they wanted, Kaval is showing his true colors and trying to alienate A's fans and Oakland and push for a move to Las Vegas.
In that case, it’s fitting that the A’s and Raiders end up in Vegas since they’ve historically made plenty of long-distance moves already….and they’ll just move again in another 20-30 years or so.
Re-reading your previous comment, I’m now wondering if you were actually referring to Vega…which is the second brightest star in the Northern Hemisphere and only 25 light years away. No planets found around it yet, but I suppose the Davis family still might consider it.
Another couple years of this, and Kaval's gonna have to start feeding Cha-Cha real dog food.
I'm not trying to upset anyone, but I dont think it's a coincidence the Raiders and Warriors have left Oakland in recent years.
Times change. It is what it is.
The 49ers left San Francisco for Santa Clara -- I still haven't been to a game there.
The Giants own Oracle Park and have been developing the surrounding area, so they've got it pretty good.
I wonder if Vegas would really be a good baseball town?
The Raiders might do okay because it's only 10 games a year so some of their old fan base might travel and they'll pick up some transient casino-goers with nothing else to do. The A's would have to do that for 80 games, which is a lot harder sell. I find it hard to believe that someone sick of the blackjack table is going to say "How about we go to the A's-Rangers game instead?"
The local base must be pretty small too. It seems like nobody was actually born and raised there, the time span when team affinity is created. It's kind of like Tampa/St Pete where 1/2 the population has moved there after retiring and still thinks of themselves as Red Sox or Blue Jay fans.
The story that's always pushed is that since Vegas is a tourist town anyway there will both likely be fans from City X in town when Team X shows up, and fans will make specific plans to travel since they can see their team AND Vegas at the same time.
That might happen for some weekend games but who's going to fill the stadium on a Tuesday night? Under a dome? In season 3, when the newness of it all has waned? The Diamondbacks have 2-3x the potential fanbase and never really have been able to do it.
I continue to wonder why so many people think Las Vegas is some kind of hot destination for sports franchises. Within the next 40-50 years, the place is going to look pretty much as it did in 1947, when Bugsy Siegel came to town. And then it will be abandoned entirely.
I think the A's want to make Oakland work. They've successfully lobbied state government to look the other way on some of California's more onerous time lines in getting shit like this done. Las Vegas is absolutely in play, but for now, it's a leverage play to get Oakland to (a) cough up tax revenue that ostensibly belongs to the city; (b) eliminate the "affordable housing" requirements and (c) surely let the A's off the hook when this deal inevitably goes sideways.
The county takes in much more property tax than the city, which is the standard in CA and many other states. Oakland has already agreed to cough up the tax increment in the Jack London area toward debt service for the project, but it will not come close to penciling out unless the Alameda County agrees. I forget the timing of that decision but I *think* it's June or July.
I assume that the White Sox analyst for that Peacock game will be Benetti's broadcast partner, the great Steve Stone. If not him, I hope they pull Ozzie Guillen, who is part of the White Sox TV post-game show and someone who is not afraid to speak his mind.
Slobbering Ozzie is still out there somewhere? Who'da thunk it?
I think “one local analyst from each team” is the most-suggested national booth idea I’ve ever seen—and it’ll be great to see a national “broadcast” actually start doing it, especially with a wonderful pxp guy like Benetti.
The optimism/pessimism article is solid, but it's interesting/telling that it makes no reference to Gramsci, the first person who comes to mind on matters of this specific dichotomy. To wit:
"man ought to be so deeply convinced that the source of his own moral forces is in himself … that he never despairs and never falls into those vulgar, banal moods, pessimism and optimism. My own state of mind synthesizes these two feelings and transcends them: my mind is pessimistic, but my will is optimistic. Since I never build up illusions, I am seldom disappointed. I’ve always been armed with unlimited patience – not a passive, inert kind, but a patience allied with perseverance."
Gramsci. Ahh, takes me back to those glandular grad school days of sustained postcolonial discourse, sweet Foucault, and pre shocking revelations Paul de Man.
Oops, better stop there before I hit Adorno again....
Yes. Going into a crappy situation with the lowest expectations sometime result in a surprise better than the anticipated outcome.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_TKXPPjhRk
Useful nuance from someone who died in a fascist prison.
Mets/Cards: "The teams meat again in mid-May in New York." The Mets all go to Peter Luger's. The Cardinals seem like Outback people. Thanks for the entertaining typo today.
Being in the heart of Queens, the Mets go to a popular Brazilian steakhouse less than a mile from the ballpark, I am sure.
You ain't kidding: https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/1511793524831883267
I would think the meat-sweats wouldn’t be ideal for someone who has to stand around outside for 3-4 hours
I'm neither a pessimist or optimist, but I do feel one or the other from time to time. They are transient feelings.
But I am fatalistic. We all inevitably die. We all have a destiny based on the laws of nature. So it does comfort me to be aware of that.
Whether you die in a ditch, broke and homeless, or whether you die as a successful person surrounded by your loving family, you still die. It is your fate. But the journey is what is life is about. Discovering what your destiny is and how you mature and evolve as a person is what gives life meaning.
Ah Craigster, the bungled construction "the MLB" which, elsewhere, is merely indicative of low paid grade school teaching, is here in Macondo merely indicative of our propensity to translate Spanish constructions literally.
- El Gator