John Fisher’s legacy of failure in Oakland as A’s owner leaves with him
John Fisher’s stewardship of the Oakland Athletics as owner has been an unending streak of cheap choices and betrayal of fan loyalty and player effort. The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas was unanimously approved by Major League Baseball team owners, marking the team's first relocation since 2005. Despite this, John Fisher, the former owner of the Oakland Athletics, who bought the team in 2005, will be allowed to take with him several acres of dusty green tarp covering seats in the Coliseum’s upper deck and Mt. Davis in his final season as owner, Fisher's tenure saw him lose control of the team. He and his family made significant contributions to political campaigns, including at least $9 million in secret contributions to Republican candidates and to denounce Barack Obama when he ran for re-election. Despite these efforts, Fisher and Wolff have been criticized for failing to build a new ballpark anywhere other than Oakland.
Publié : il y a 2 mois par Scott Ostler dans Sports
Kenneth Jong carries a disappointed sign in the parking lot outside the Oakland Coliseum in the parking lot before the Oakland Athletics play the Cleveland Guardians on opening day in Oakland on Thursday, March 28, 2024. CORRECTS LAST NAME TO FISHER, NOT FOSTER AS ORIGINALLY SENT - Athletics owner John Fisher speaks during a news conference after a Major League Baseball owners meeting in Arlington, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023. The Oakland Athletics’ move to Las Vegas was unanimously approved Thursday by Major League Baseball team owners, cementing the sport’s first relocation since 2005. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Spectators in the 3rd inning during an MLB game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, April 03, 2024. The attendance of the game was less than 6,500 people. Empty sections in the 1st inning during an MLB game against the Cleveland Guardians at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, March 29, 2024. OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 28: A general view of the Oakland Athletics playing against the Cleveland Guardians in the second inning at Oakland Coliseum on March 28, 2024 in Oakland, California.
Fisher will, however, be allowed to take with him the several acres of dusty green tarp with which he covered the seats in the Coliseum’s upper deck and Mt. Davis, back in 2006, his first season as A‘s owner.
It would be impossible to quickly chronicle Fisher’s stewardship of the team he bought in 2005. But let’s take a quick swing at it. As John Cheever wrote, “What is the past, after all, but a vast sheet of darkness, in which a few moments, pricked apparently at random, shine.”
The purchase of the team was a gift to Wolff from his old college fraternity pal, Bud Selig, then MLB commissioner. Truly a sweetheart deal. Joe Lacob claims he got aced out of a promised deal to buy the A’s. If so, the Warriors and their fans are deeply grateful to Bud, Lew, John and the entire A’s wrecking crew.
Fisher made it his MO to fly under the radar. Which was fine, as long as the team was respectable. When things started going south, his reclusivity seemed more of a convenient way to avoid accountability for the crumbling infrastructure of the team’s soul.
For decades, Fisher and Wolff presided over a long series of failed attempts to build a new ballpark anywhere but Oakland. Their goal was to build in San Jose, but they were thwarted by the Giants, a messy episode that ended with San Jose (with the A’s tacit support) unsuccessfully suing MLB for the termination of baseball’s antitrust exemption.
Fisher and Wolff managed to convince Selig and MLB to grant them small-market status, putting them on the receiving end of up to $30 million per year in revenue sharing. Fisher plowed that money right back into his team, right? Yeah, not so much. His team payroll continued to decline, resulting in a team of minimum-salary temps.
What did Fisher do with the money he made on revenue sharing? Hard to say, although he and his family donated at least $9 million in “dark money” (secret contributions) to political campaigns in 2010 and ’12, to support Republican candidates and to denounce Barack Obama when he ran for re-election.
In 2020, when the pandemic shut down baseball, the A’s were the very first major league team (and maybe the only one) to announce that they were shutting off a stipend to their 200 minor league players, of $400 per week.