On his way out the door as Major League Baseball commissioner, Bud Selig admitted the committee he formed to study the Athletic’s relocation to San Jose was an all-around bust.
Selig told to the San Francisco Chronicle that the three-man advisory group “pretty much disbanded” sometime in the last six years. The comittee never issued a public report and Selig admitted it might have served a different purpose than originally intended. The A’s, of course, remain stalled in the same place they started—the crumbling, sewage-flooded O.co Coliseum.
The admission on the eve of Selig’s retirement proves what most suspected—that MLB’s promise to at least consider allowing the A’s to move to the South Bay amounted to nothing more than a diversion, a long-drawn-out time-suck to give Oakland a chance to get its act together. Of course, that still hasn’t happened.
A setback in San Jose’s antitrust lawsuit against MLB—the recent rejection by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals—was spun as a chance to take the case to a higher court, giving the city renewed hope for some headway. But now, baseball’s new commander in chief, Rob Manfred, says Oakland is and always will be the best option for the struggling A’s.
The Giants continue to win, the A’s continue to suffer and San Jose, with its chunk of prime downtown real estate optimistically reserved for a new ballpark, wiles away in limbo.
I’ll be happy when this stupid idea finally dies. There’s no doubt that taxpayers would be on the hook for the stadium’s costs, even if the subsidies are indirect.
Hahahahah….. MLB was flipping Chuck Reed a “double bird” while simultaneously blowing “raspberries” to set a new world record! Now Selig begins down the road to the world’s longest “nose thumb” directed at the former mayor!
I always knew Selig had some redeeming qualities! Thank you Bud!
You know what’s going to be sad though?
1000’s of die hard rabid sports fans will still hold out hope that this will happen. They’ll still say, “BUT THIS COULD HAVE SAVED SAN JOSE!” They will still see it as the magical elixer to fix all of our financial woes, instead of one of many bad decisions that put San Jose in the Red.
Now hopefully we can sell off that $20m in parking lots, and take care of our police again. Just this week, 2 strongarm bike robberies in broad daylight at the park on the corner of Cherry and Hillsdale.
agreed
If you’re curious about the 2 bike thefts…
http://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/2twuhs/stolen_bike_help/
and
http://www.reddit.com/r/SanJose/comments/2r27b9/stolen_bike_specialized_06_sx_trail_all_black/
Trying to get a posse together now. I want to get these guys.
Buying up all that land downtown, for a baseball stadium, was crazy. Now what do we have to watch for? Reed, Licardo, and the rest of them Knucleheads, are looking like kids with their hands in the cooky jar!
Go San Jose Giants
The header doesn’t fit the story. The story makes it clear no time was wasted–the committee didn’t spend much time on the issue at all.
Make up with son if want to be viable commentator, or you’re just full of hot B.S. that just whine all the time and complain.
Bud Selig was a waste of time for Downtown San Jose!
Love how people keep saying the Coliseum is “sewage-flooded” when that is 100% false. Way to not look up that the “flood” was caused by an object being shoved in a pipe, NOT the age of the Coliseum.
But its ok, San Jose was never going to get the A’s anyway. Put keeping smoking that crack pipe and thinking that wet dream will ever happen San Jose. Keep allowing peeps like this writer and Marine Layer to fill your minds with BS when there has never been any problem with Oakland and Oakland HAS actually been getting things done.
Keith Salminen
Producer, A’s Fan Radio
Board of Directors, Save Oakland Sports