Sympathy for Oakland

Over the past week, we’ve all read multiple accounts of the last Athletics game in Oakland. In a nutshell, it’s been a colossal mess, a mess that could have and should have been avoided. In World War II parlance, it’s FUBAR.

The city of Oakland and A’s ownership have been negotiating on and off for over a decade without success. The centerpiece of the argument has always been about the A’s wanting a new stadium. And who’s going to pay for it? Ah, there’s the rub. The city of Oakland, and the club’s ownership, should have figured this out by now and had a new stadium built. I’m not going to rehash their misadventures.

For brevity, I’m going to call the old ballpark the Oakland-Alameda…