Senator Barbara Boxer, who is an Oakland resident, wrote the commish to bolster efforts to keep the A’s in Oakland. Here’s the full letter for your perusal: March 31, 2009 Allan H. (Bud) Selig, CommissionerMajor League Baseball245 Park Avenue, 31st FloorNew York, NY 10167 Dear Commissioner Selig: I appreciate the announcement you made yesterday that [...]

The Merc’s Andrew Baggarly had a chance to ask Giants owner William Neukom about the newly formed committee. MLB spokesperson Rich Levin told the Mercury News that territorial rights would be discussed by the commission, but Neukom said he did not believe Commissioner Bud Selig intends to challenge the Giants’ claim to the Silicon Valley. [...]

Chip Johnson has the scoop. Don Perata can’t stands it no more, so he’s throwing his hat into the ring to become the next mayor of Oakland. From an outsider’s perspective, Perata would have to be considered a favorite against Dellums (if he runs again) and anyone else in the City Council. The fascinating thing [...]

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s Katherine Conrad has an update on the Diridon South site acquisition process. Apparently redevelopment head Harry Mavrogenes and others within City Hall have been talking about squeezing a ballpark in without either moving or reconfiguring the PG&E substation on its northwest corner.In the past, I had said that doing this [...]

The commissioner has signed off on the creation of a committee to “thoroughly analyze all of the ballpark proposals that have been made to date, the current situation in Oakland, and the prospects of obtaining a ballpark in any of the communities located in Oakland’s territory.” Names are named, and the table is being set: [...]

Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. – Warren Buffett I reference the Oracle of Omaha not to bring up his home city again, though I once spent 10 minutes there over a decade ago during a brief stop on Amtrak’s California Zephyr line. Rather, it’s important to keep [...]

A Reuters piece projects that this season, MLB attendance will drop 5-10% from 2008. In the article is some information from Lew Wolff, which indicates how well/poorly the A’s may do at the gate: The A’s, who cut ticket prices by an average of 5 percent, are at 87 percent of their targeted budget for [...]

The Merc’s John Ryan has an update on the DirecTV-CSNCA stalemate: No news is not good gnus. It’s not an unfamiliar tale, as illustrated by the previously mentioned KJZZ-DirecTV tussle. Dish Network is also in the same situation. Sadly, the broadcasters and the distributors often have seen fit to turn these situations in long, draw [...]

I’ll let the text from David Goll’s SV/SJ Business Journal article speak for itself: Lew Wolff, co-owner and managing partner of the Oakland Athletics, said Thursday San Jose should have a professional baseball franchise, but stopped short of saying his team would fill that role. At a breakfast reception for the media at The Fairmont [...]

Earlier today, A’s GM/minority partner Billy Beane was interviewed by the Baseball Tonight crew on a range of topics, first being the state of the ballpark chase. When asked where Lew Wolff was going next, Beane kept the party line by saying Wolff was “looking at options.” Ooooookay. If you haven’t been living under a [...]