The A's Belong in Oakland

             

            Written By: Spencer Teman, of Swish Tribune

            For the past 55 years, since 1968, the Athletics have called Oakland home, but now in 2023 their home is in jeopardy because of their owner Mark Fisher not taking the proper measures to stay in Oakland and is trying to relocate his team to Las Vegas. 

            In recent history, the city of Oakland has seen two of its three major sports teams move away from the city. First, it was the Golden State Warriors moving from Oakland to San Francisco, then the Raiders moving from Oakland to Las Vegas. The only team currently left in Oakland is the Athletics and this may not even be the case in a couple of years. 

            There a plenty of fan bases throughout America in each of its professional sports that leave it all out on the table for their teams and the A's fanbase is one of them. They showed their passion last night when the fans showed up to the game in a "reverse boycott" to show that they are not the problem, the problem is ownership. The city of Oakland has too good of a fan base to lose all three of its teams in the span of a decade when they have been cheering them on for many decades before. 

            The simple answer is fans haven't been showing up to games because the team is horrible. After last night, the A's are now on a seven-game winning streak, but they are still the second-worst team in the league sitting at 19-50, well out of wild card contention. 

            For starters, the A's have the lowest payroll in baseball by a wide margin. Some teams have players that are making more money that the entire 26-man roster of the Athletics is making in a year. This is because of their owner not wanting to spend money on his team to make it better and we have seen this for a long time. 

            The movie, Moneyball, was based off of the Athletics motto of not spending money, while still having success competing with the larger payrolls. Although this movie is one of the best sports movies of all time, the A's have been unsuccessful trying to copy it in the past couple of years. 

            The A's have developed lots of great talent in recent years, but have had to trade it all away because of their money constraints. They simply do not have the money to re-sign the guys that helped the team succeed and instead let them go in exchange for minor leaguers who don't cost anything currently. 

            If they were willing to spend this type of money, on the other hand, then they would've retained their star players and actually have a chance at competing instead of being the doormat in the American League. They need an owner that wants to spend money, not one that is going to retain his money and prove each and every year that the team is not capable of competing at a major league level. 

            Sure there are some teams that have low payrolls and succeed like the Tampa Bay Rays, but where the A's are standing with their payroll, it just isn't a fair competition. Baseball is the only American professional sport where there is no salary cap and teams are able to spend as much as they want in shaping a team.

            It has been displayed for a long time and history tells us that you need to spend money to have success in the big leagues. It is impossible to think that the A's could be able to compete with teams such as the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Padres who have payrolls that are more than five times larger than theirs. It's like they are playing a totally different sport. Until the team is sold or until Mark Fisher decides to spend some money on the A's, they will continue to be the laughing stock and doormat of baseball.

            When people think of baseball history, they think of the Yankees with Murderers' Row, or the Brooklyn Dodgers, or the curse of the Great Bambino with the Red Sox, but what they don't think about is the history of the Oakland Athletics because of how irrelevant the team has been made in recent history. 

            The A's have had large success in their history, with nine World Series titles, hall of famers such as Ricky Henderson, Reggie Jackson, and more. This history all derives from Oakland and being able to play in that city. Whether building a new ballpark is an option in Oakland or staying put at the Coliseum, the A's need to stay in Oakland, not just for their fans, but for baseball as well.