OAKLAND A’S BLOCK OAKLAND B’S
THE A’S AND B’S OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
Gary Norris Gray- Staff Reporter
OAKLAND- East Bay baseball fans were looking forward to a new team replacing their old team with its debut January 4, 2024 at Laney College baseball field with a press conference. The press conference went on but it created more questions than answers. The old team continue to try to blocked the new teams existence. The Oakland Athletics will not leave the Bay Area quietly and stand in the way of the minor league Oakland Ballers.
DON WAKAMATSU AND MICAH FRANKLIN
The B’s their nickname hired an African American Micah Franklin as manager. He had a cup of coffee(short stay) in the majors with the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals at the end of the 1990’s. Franklin is also a Bay Area resident from San Francisco. The Ballers added Don Wakamatsu as Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and one of the first Asian American managers in the United States with the Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers.
The Major League Baseball team Oakland Athletics blocked the agreement with the exclusive rights holder of the coliseum field to the Oakland Ballers, not giving the B’s the right to play at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.
The B’s are an expansion club of the Pioneer League and wanted to start ticket sales for the Northern Colorado Owlz game in June. The Ballers are not affiliated with Major League Baseball. So the question remains why are the Athletics having a difficult time with this arrangement?
After 30 years of going back and forth with the city of Oakland, the past five Oakland mayors, and the Alameda County Coliseum Commission, coming to impasse after impasse. Nothing was done and the A’s are moving to Las Vegas in the 2027-2028 season. The A’s will play in Northern California for the 2024 season and they do not want to share the field with the Ballers.
The A’s are making a final stab, a final blow at baseball fans in the east bay with this nasty act. MLB and the San Francisco Giants blocked the green and gold move to Fremont, California 30 miles south of Oakland 35 years ago. The team tried a waterfront stadium, that failed too because it was difficult for the fans to enter or exit the purposed complex with or without limited public transportation.
The Coliseum Commission did not want to allocate the monies to renovate the old building with was literally falling down and the fourth oldest park in baseball, something had to be done. The Ballers have plans to re-new parts of the stadium with their own monies.
The Oakland B’s were to take the Coliseum field in late June with a fan feast on January 4th. Hold on Bobba-Louie the A’s said not in my house with the exclusive rights clause which expires at the end of 2024. This is just plan nasty and vindictive but what else would you expect from this dysfunctional organization.
The question still remains did the Ballers organization do their homework before signing a contract with the Coliseum Commission?
Oakland baseball fans have come a long way from the Charlie O. Finley three-time World Champion and 5-time Western Division winner days of the 1969-76 to becoming one of the worst teams in baseball in early 1978-85 to the Bash Brothers championship days 88-91 back to the downfall and return to the worst team from 1993-until today.
The Oakland B’s could be out of a ballpark until 2025. The tentative plans are now to host games at Laney College in downtown Oakland along the Lake Merritt (BART) Bay Area Rapid Transit train line. Parking could be a mess in the 12th street and Downtown Oakland China-town area at night with unwanted visitors on week nights of games.
The Oakland A’s planned a “Fan Fest” on February 24th with members of the 1980’s playoff team. The question will be how many fans will show up and how big will the protest be on opening day. Fans are already planning a tailgate party and not going to the first game.
The Ballers continued their negotiations this year and signed a contract with the Coliseum Authority only to be blocked by the Athletics two days after Christmas. Talk about being a mean Grinch this is it.
Co-founders Paul Freedman and Bryan Carmel of the Ballers have not given up with the help of ASM Global and the Coliseum Authority. There will be minor league baseball at the Coliseum but it might be later than expected.
The Oakland Athletics are leaving a very ugly legacy just as they started in California in 1968.
Gary Norris Gray – Writer, Author, Historian. Gibbs Magazine-Oakland, California and New England Informer- Boston Mass. THE GRAYLINE:- The Analects of A Black Disabled Man, The Gray Leopard Cove, Soul Tree Radio In The Raw, and The Batchelor Pad News Network Disabled Community Activist. Email at
glcgray@gmail.com
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