Free For All Friday #25

Hello and welcome to Free For All Friday.

This week, paid subscribers received two newsletters. On Monday, I wrote about how rare Fernando Tatis Jr'.’s transition from a decent shortstop to Gold Glove outfielder is. On Wednesday, I praised new Cubs manager Craig Counsell for asking for and getting the most lucrative manager contract in MLB history.

A’s fans, Oakland mayor make last ditch plea to MLB owners to keep the A’s in Oakland

ESPN’s Tim Keown reports that MLB owners are scheduled to vote next week on the A’s request to move from Oakland to Las Vegas. Owners will be convening in Arlington, Texas for their annual winter meeting.

Keown notes that an MLB source told ESPN in September that the owners wouldn’t be in a position to vote on the relocation request without detailed ballpark renderings and a plan for where the A’s would play between 2025 and 2027—after their lease at the Coliseum expires and before the ballpark is built.

The A’s have not released detailed renderings to the public. There have been no reports indicating that the A’s have shared updated renderings with MLB owners. Howard Stutz, a reporter for the Nevada Independent, posted on social media yesterday that the A’s had shared new renderings with the CEO of MGM Casino & Hotel.

Casey Pratt, a producer for the local ABC affiliate in the Bay Area and an ardent supporter of keeping the A’s in Oakland, noted on social media that the A’s have no choice but to push forward with a vote next week because the A’s deal to purchase land from Tropicana Hotels is contingent on approval from MLB owners by December 1.

In advance of the owners meeting, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao sent a package to 15 MLB owners that she believes may be open to rejecting the A’s proposed move. Owners who have or will receive Thao’s package include John Henry of the Red Sox, Hal Steinbrenner of the Yankees, and Ray Davis of the Rangers.

The substance of the package is a letter from Thao that details, according to Keown, how prepared Oakland is for a new ballpark to be built in the city with hundreds of million of dollars in funding for on-site and off-site construction. Thao’s letter also points out that waiving the A’s relocation fee—which Commissioner Rob Manfred already agreed to—makes no economic sense for the other owners.

There’s more to the package than Thao’s letter. The fan groups that sprouted up to try to keep the A’s in Oakland—the Last Dive Bar, the Oakland 68’s, most notably—produced a video message and included a bunch of A’s related gear designed just for the last-ditch push.

In related news, a Nevada trial court judge ruled this week that a ballot referendum proposed by the group Schools Over Stadium was legally deficient and would need to be rewritten. The ballot referendum seeks to strip the $380 million in funding approved by the Nevada Legislature to defray the cost of constructing a new A’s ballpark on the Las Vegas strip. Schools over Stadiums must now decide whether to appeal the ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court or rewrite the referendum language.

While Schools Over Stadiums considers its legal strategy, it also sent a letter to MLB owners this week making it clear that it will get a referendum on the ballot for the November 2024 election to strip the A’s ballpark funding.

Given Rob Manfred’s total commitment to see the A’s move to Las Vegas, this all seems like it might be naught. I hope that’s wrong. I hope the owners ask tough questions about why they should subsidize the A’s move by waiving the relocation fee, why they should approve a move from the 6th largest media market to one of the smallest, and why they should give a windfall to an owner that’s done nothing but devalue his own franchise.

They shouldn’t do any of those things.

Rewatching the 2010 World Series

Warning: Giants-specific content

After the Texas Rangers won the World Series with Bruce Bochy at the helm, I decided to rewatch the 2010 World Series. Not the highlights. Every pitch of every game. I wanted to see how much “Bochy as a postseason genius” was on display even then. And I wanted to relive the glory of that first San Francisco championship.

So many moments from that first World Series run are indelibly inked in my brain. Tim Lincecum’s 14 strikeouts in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Braves. The Giants winning that game 1-0 on a run scored by Buster Posey after Posey stole second base on a play that most assuredly would have been overturned had video review been in use back then. Brooks Conrad’s many errors in Game 3 and 4 in Atlanta. Cody Ross absolutely owning Roy Halliday. The benches clearing in Game 6 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

But my memories of the World Series games were blurry. I don’t know why. I’m sure I watched them as intently as I watched the NLDS and NLCS. I knew the Giants won in 5 games. I remembered that Cain pitched pitched a masterpiece in Game 2 and that Ian Kinsler hit a double that bounced off the top of the outfield wall and back into play, instead of over the wall for a home run. I remembered that Bumgarner pitched a masterpiece in Game 4 on Halloween at age 21 and that Edgar Renteria hit the game-winning and series-winning home run in Game 5 and was named the World Series MVP.

The other game details were fuzzy.

Now that I’ve re-watched all five games, here are my takeaways:

• Giants infielders played absolutely stellar defense. It’s the sort of thing we all remember about the 2012 and 2014 runs with Brandon Crawford at short, Brandon Belt at first, and Marco Scutaro/Joe Panik at second. I just didn’t recall that Juan Uribe at third, Renteria at short, and Freddy Sanchez at second stopped anything and everything from getting through the infield.

• Renteria hit two critical home runs. We all remember the game-winning homer in Game 5. But he also put the Giants on the board with a solo shot in the fifth inning in Game 2. The game was scoreless until then with Matt Cain and CJ Wilson locked in a great pitchers duel. The Giants blew the game open in the eighth inning but it was a tense, close game until then.

• Freddy Sanchez was an offensive force. Sanchez had four hits in Game 1 to fuel the Giants’ win over Cliff Lee and took great at-bats the rest of the series, even if they didn’t result in hits.

• Pat Burrell was definitely not an offensive force. Burrell had 0 hits and 11 strikeouts. Bochy kept dropping Burrell in the order and benched him in Game 4 in favor of Nate Schierholtz, who also went 0-for-4, but at least he played great defense. Burrell had been such an important part of why the Giants made the postseason in 2010—he hit 18 home runs in 96 games after coming over from the Rays—but I wonder whether 2023 (or even 2014 Bochy) would have stuck with Burrell in the lineup with that kind of performance.

• Aubrey Huff was good. I’ve tried to erase everything and anything having to do with Huff from my brain because he’s shown himself to be a misogynist pig and terrible human being in retirement. But his offense was important, especially with Burrell being a big black hole.

• Guillermo Mota? I had no recollection that Mota was part of the bullpen in 2010 and that he played an important role in the postseason. That’s what all the hagiography about the Core Four—Sergio Romo, Jeremy Affeldt, Javier Lopez, and Brian Wilson/Santiago Casilla—does to your memories.

• Blackberry was still a thing.

• Javier Lopez sported a goatee.

• Joe Buck and Tim McCarver sounded like they couldn’t care less. Buck’s voice betrayed the excitement of what was happening on the field. McCarver couldn’t stop spouting off on the good ol’ days. It was worse than I remembered.

• Bochy was a genius even then.

Have a great weekend everyone. Wishing your favorite team an exciting and productive hot stove season.

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