It has been announced that the soon to be former Oakland A's will temporarily relocate to Sacramento while a planned new stadium is being built in Las Vegas. The A's will have something in common with Sacramento's only major league sports team, the NBA's Kings in that they both spent time as a Kansas City team.
The team will play in Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento for three seasons with an option for a 4th.
The park is currently home of the Triple A Sacramento River Cats.
I wonder if the Players Association may protest this. When the Mariners had tiles fall in the Kingdome in 1994, as memory serves, the American League would not let the team play in Cheney Stadium in Tacoma because it is a minor league field.
The San Francisco Giants played in Seals Stadium, a minor league field, in 1958-59 while Candlestick Park was under construction. In 1969, the Seattle Pilots played in minor league Sicks Stadium and had planned on staying there for several years until the Kingdome was ready when the team was sold in 1970, and from 1969-76, the Montreal Expos played in Jarry Park from 1969-76 before moving into Olympic Stadium in 1977. There are precedents, so I don't see a problem with it, at least from a historical perspective.
ReplyDeleteI do, it's a much different era, and players are much more pampered. I would say, this scenario is less likely to in the late 70 or early 80s on.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I'll refer you to the Mariners when the tiles fell in the Kingdome. The AL, not the PA ruled against it. As such, the Mariners played the rest of the season (which was shortened by a strike that nearly killed Baseball, and cancelled the playoffs and World Series).
The A's have the lowest payroll in baseball. Their players are just happy to be playing in MLB. I don't think they have to worry about them walking off in protest of the field conditions.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's true that there haven't been very many temporary homes in MLB for quite some time, there is some recent precedent in the NFL. The Chargers played 3 seasons in a soccer stadium that seats about 1/3 of the NFL average stadium capacity while their new stadium was being built. Besides, the A's/American League don't really have a choice. Staying in Oakland wasn't an option and Sacramento is close to what little fan base they still have.
Having said that, the A's have screwed up this stadium situation/franchise relocation big time.
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ReplyDeleteThey have had a tradition of cheap owners going back to the Connie Mack days.
ReplyDeleteThey have won several World Series Championships, AL pennants and division championships.
I think they won in spite of ownership.
Other seasons, they were just plain terrible. I think the bulk of their success was in Oakland.
Without looking it up, I think you're right about the bulk of the A's success coming from their years in Oakland back in the early 70's. But I don't think you can blame their lack of recent success on cheap ownership. Free agency and the structure of MLB that gives a huge advantage to big market teams like the Yankees and Dodgers severely hampered the A's. It's no coincidence that the A's best teams were during the years just prior to free agency.
ReplyDeleteMay I correct myself, I did a little more research and found the A's did go to a number of World Series games in the Philadelphia-Connie Mack days. Quite an accomplishment when you consider the domination of the Yankees during that period. In fact, Mack lead teams won 9 pennants and 5 world championships.
ReplyDeleteThe A's did not win any pennants in KC, but the Royals took care of that in later years.
https://www.mlb.com/athletics/history/philadelphia-athletics
Here is more info on the A's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Athletics My memories of them include the players growing mustaches in their dominant period of the early 70s and the Earthquake Series of 1989.
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