In the classic movie, Major League, team owner Rachel Phelps fires the whole Cleveland Indians team. She then replaces them with rookies and past their prime players. Her intent is to assemble a team so bad that she can move the team to Miami. While everything ended happily ever after for the fictional Cleveland Indians; the same cannot be said for present-day Athletics and the city of Oakland. I think Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher is the real-life Rachel Phelps.
Since Oakland last appeared in the playoffs, just like Phelps, John Fisher has either traded or not re-signed stars. Players like Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt, Sean Murphy, Matt Olson, Liam Hendriks, Marcus Semien, Sean Manaea, and more are no longer on the team. Like Phelps in the movie, Fisher replaced those players with rookies and passed their prime veterans. Even longtime manager Bob Melvin left the organization knowing he couldn’t take them much farther. Consequently, Oakland has gone from a playoff contender to a 100-loss team in just two seasons. It’s quite possible this season that Oakland may break the 1962 Mets record for losses in a year.
Fisher recently purchased land in Las Vegas to relocate the Athletics. He intends to build a stadium over there to be ready for the 2027 season. In response, Oakland mayor Sheng Thao ended long-standing negotiations with the A’s allowing them to leave for Vegas.
It’s been obvious for years that the Oakland Athletics stadium is a dump. The stadium has gotten so bad that it seems like every part of it is infested with rodents among other issues. Oakland’s stadium naming rights holder “RingCentral” has even canceled its deal. Major League Baseball even waived the relocation fee allowing the Athletics to essentially move to Las Vegas for free. In turn, Oakland is in last place in attendance, they’re only averaging 10,130 fans per game. At various points so far this season, it sometimes looks like barely any fans have shown up at all.
Whenever teams have wanted to relocate, they often have at least tried to be a competitive team. John Fisher has allowed the team to fall into despair on purpose. He is so hell-bent on leaving Oakland that he has refused to pay players and just pocketed MLB’s revenue-sharing money. For a guy who is the 16th richest owner in baseball, this is just sad. He essentially has conned MLB into thinking things are so bad that they have no choice but to let them leave.
Whenever the Athletics have had competitive teams, the fans have shown up to the Coliseum. There is no place more difficult to play in when the games matter than that stadium. I believe the situation wouldn’t have been any different had Oakland been competitive this season. Knowing that a competitive team would’ve made it harder for them to leave, Fisher purposely put together a poor team. The fans wouldn’t show up and in turn, it would make it easier for them to save money and relocate to Vegas.
Unlike the movie’s fictional Cleveland Indians, the Oakland Athletics story won’t have a happy ending. John Fisher won’t meet the same fate Rachel Phelps did. The Athletics won’t be staying and Oakland and their move to Las Vegas is all but inevitable. This will go down as the cruelest relocation in baseball history.
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