Stirring the Beane pot
- 08.25.11, 22:40
- 126 Comments
A few Bay Area writers are talking up Billy Beane possibly leaving for Chicago’s North Side, with the rationale being that Brad Pitt’s alter ego will exit stage right after having experienced too much frustration regarding the A’s low revenue status.
All this sounds fascinating given the A’s record and the lack of resolution on the stadium front. However, it falls apart once you scratch the surface.
First of all, while the story has created something of an echo chamber effect here, there are no media reports emanating from Chicago about Beane being a candidate, speculation or otherwise. There are several “hot” candidates who are either younger or easier to get contract-wise. Dozens of articles have been written about the purported frontrunner for the Cubs’ GM job, current White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn – who just happens to be a Chicago native and a lifelong Cubs fan. Then there’s the status of wunderkind Rays GM Andrew Friedman, who is currently working year-to-year with no contract. Ned Colletti and Brian Cashman have been discussed as well. On the other hand, Beane is signed through 2014, and even though Lew Wolff would let Beane go if he asked, figuring out how to properly terminate the contract (ending in 2014) and have Beane divest his 2.5% stake in the A’s/Quakes is another matter altogether.
Then there’s a simple matter of timing. Chances are that Cubs owner Tom Ricketts will want to get his new GM in place no later than October, so that his new hire will have a fighting chance in the free agent market (there are some first basemen who may catch Ricketts’ fancy). It’s highly unlikely that we’ll hear a decision on Santa Clara County territorial rights by that point, leaving Beane and the rest in ownership in limbo. Beane would effectively be basing his decision on a hunch, and as we all know, Billy’s a little more empirically driven than that.
For his part, Wolff has been pretty straightforward on this semi-issue (from Shea’s piece):
“I would never inhibit anybody from bettering themselves because of a contract,” said Wolff, who had lunch with Beane on Wednesday and said no team has called regarding his GM. “Billy is fantastic and, to me, indispensable. My hope is he will be here a long time. I did promise Billy and all the guys we would have a venue so they would be able to further execute their abilities, and I think that will happen.”
Sounds optimistic.
“I have to be,” Wolff said. “There is no choice for us, for the good of baseball. It’s sad it’s taking this long.”
He added, “I’m going to build a new stadium for the A’s, and if I’m not, someone will,” but he was quick to point out he didn’t mean he’d move the club or sell to out-of-town interests, instead mentioning his son, Keith (vice president of venue development) as a possible baton receiver. “We’re working every day. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll go to Plan B, which I don’t have.”
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that despite the A’s revenue problem, Beane likes his life. He oversees two franchises by day and pals around with venture capitalists at night. Not to say that he couldn’t get some of that in Chicago, but really, porkbellies aren’t as interesting as tech. And I have to think that as a particularly driven guy, he might not feel his work is done just yet. Just a hunch.
Correction, they still spent their private money on their public park despite it being publicly owned.
No cash to do anything (land acquisitions, business relocations, infrastructure improvements, construction financing) = not viable.
@ eb – why do you continue to play the “oakland hater” card, just because someone doesn’t share your same views (especially pertaining to ownership)? And on top of that trying to reach out and correlated it with SJ partisans? /sigh . This “woe is me, i’m an pro-oakland guy” attitude is getting real old, real fast especially when oakland guys haven’t done squat to show feasible plans to stay (plans?financing?hello mcfly! /crickets still chirping away)
@ dan – sorry, if i’m in a rental house (as i was before), i wouldn’t spend a dime trying to improve it just so someone can take it over and i get nothing out of it. also, likewise as pjk stated, the aforementioned nats and gnats had new homes on the horizon to look forward to. Do the A’s in their present limbo state? please name another team in the exact same situation as the a’s (need a new ballpark, has a new one identified in a new city, can’t move because of tr’s, and present city doesn’t have a plan for a new stadium). interestingly enough, the closest situation we had of such a renovation would be from the raiders….and look at how that turned out, especially now that they’re trying to build a new home while the city foots the bill for their old mt. davis debacle. having said that, now if the a’s get the go ahead on sj or vc for that matter, then i think things will change dramatically altogether. As for the player salaries, i thought i presented to you with concrete data that in the LW regime, they spent more than before, but you are ignoring this and speculating hypothetical what if scenarios all on the basis of a decrepit stadium?! And you would like to put it on his shoulders? Did LW build the Mausoleum? Who won a lawsuit against the city of Oakland again for Mt. Davis? What has Oakland done again to ensure that the A’s get a new home in the past 15+ years? I’m no LW apologistt, but as ML has continually said, the blame goes both ways for a renovation of the coliseum with both sports team and the city to blame.
LS, What does it matter that they have a “jewel” of a park across the bay. They should improve their current situation to keep what few fans they have left if nothing else. And ideally a few touches to fix up the place might actually bring back some of the people that have been lured and/or driven away over the last 10 years that the “jewel” has been open. Because right now the “we’re cheaper” route alone isn’t working. They have to add a few things to the park to make it worthwhile to visit. Put some new scoreboards in, add a small museum on site even if it’s just in a small room, take the damn fences down on the concourse to open it back up a bit, paint some of the exposed concrete to make it a tad more inviting, make sure all the lights are working in the light towers, clean up the parking lot, etc… Little things. Things they honestly should have done already.
…what did the Giants do with Candlestick after the Magowan ownership took over? They put up some aluminum bleachers beyond the outfield fence, spruced up the food court, and, as a joke aimed at the Diamondbacks new ballpark, put a hot tub in the stands. I’ll bet they didn’t spend much on any of this. These kinds of improvements would do nothing for the Coliseum – it needs to be replaced.
@Anon Typical name calling. Almost anytime someone on here bags ownership he/she is jumped on by a predictable few and yet, you are speaking on sharing differing views? Please. A’s fans should be able to express frustration with management on here and you should also have the right to combat those beliefs if you so choose. I just don’t understand the need to insult other posters and name call.
@pjk The Oakland A’s playing in SF? No thanks, I’ll stick with the Coliseum. That would be a trippy scenario.
@eb – pot calling kettle black….crickets still chirping away. /signed one of those SJ guys. :X
@dan – attendance has historically trended w/ the filed on the team. even during the haas years when the ballpark wasn’t so bad, attendance tanked after 95 to even levels below of today. i don’t think you can necessarily say firmly that “putting lipstick on a pig” mentality will actually do anything drastic to the attendance itself. now, if you want to call out on other merits including fanfest, then you may have some basis there. all you’re offering at this point is based on pure speculation that actual #’s (player salaries, attendance figures, etc.) don’t support.
Anon, if the A’s are as you say “in a limbo state” then there is even more reason to spend a little on their current home. Because right now it’s their one and only home. And they’re at minimum going to be there well into the latter half of the decade. Why not spend a little now on their “rental.” I mean you use the rental house analogy, fine. You didn’t spend any money on your rental structurally, but I bet you put a better TV in it than the one it didn’t come with. I bet you put up new shower curtains and laid down some throw rugs. I bet you put up pictures and paintings on walls. I bet you even painted a wall or room to your liking for the duration of your stay. I rent too, and I’ve done all of the above to my rental to make it more livable. The A’s should do the same thing. Because for the time being at least the Coliseum is their one and only home.
New scoreboards? Painting? A museum? Throwing good money after bad. Let the city and county, the owners of the stadium, pay for this. And we don’t know if the A’s will be in Oakland after 2013. That’s when their lease runs out and I’m not hearing of any progress on an extension. if Oakland says no lease extension without a commitment long term to Oakland, then, Houston, we have a problem. I don’t know if that is the situation here or not….In my 7 years in my apartment, I spent $0.00 on new rugs, nothing on painting, nothing on plumbing. Why spend my hard-earned money to fix up somebody else’s building? (I did buy a TV, which I took with me when I moved)
@ dan – bad analogy there: yes, i may have spent on a new TV and maybe some curtains, or throw rugs, but i was also able to recoop those costs to my new home when i took them with me. you’re still avoiding my original answers to you regarding your statements about player salaries and attendance. and the problem with your new line of thought is if i was in a place i hated (been there, done that), but couldn’t go where i wanted to for one reason or another, i always had the option to move to another place that may not be as good, but would do for the time being (this is the sid scenario). your line of thinking seems to be that oakland is entitled to the a’s and that they’ll be there forever regardless if the coliseum is run to the ground. i don’t share those views unfortunately, and as i said before a shining example of renovating the coliseum only resulting in a dismal failures is the oakland raiders. i would rather spend the money that has direct correlation to attendance such as players themselves and the recent salary figures of years past has shown LW has tried to do this, albeit unsuccessfully at times (see Beltre).
@Dan- As I said before, I think Selig was almost ready to allow the A’s to move to SJ before Oakland woke up. If Wolff knew this, there would have been no point then in doing any upgrades at that time. Can they still do upgrades? Yes, the scoreboard will be upgraded soon. But I think part of the reasons that many upgrades haven’t been done is because they don’t plan on, or hadn’t planned on, being there much longer.
The reason AT&T park matters is that everyone is still going to see that as the premier park in the area no matter what upgrades you do to the Coli. You need a major rehaul to change that train of thought.
Maybe if the A’s owned the place or had a better relationship with Authority things would be easier, but they don’t.
@pjk- “That’s when their lease runs out and I’m not hearing of any progress on an extension. if Oakland says no lease extension without a commitment long term to Oakland,”
They may be letting time tick to create more of a pressure situation on the A’s. I don’t doubt that they would pinch them for every penny and may try to use the desire for a longer term contract as a negotiating ploy to get more out of the A’s vs their desire for a short term lease. I highly doubt that no deal is made, and I’ll say it again: If the Authority can’t work out a deal for what is essentially free money, they should be fired.
…If the A’s go to San Jose, there is already a precedent for a team hanging out as a lame duck in its present location for several years. The New Jersey Nets are moving to Brooklyn. But they’ve continued to play several seasons in New Jersey, first at the Meadowlands and then at Prudential Center, despite everyone knowing they would be gone.
“your line of thinking seems to be that oakland is entitled to the a’s and that they’ll be there forever regardless if the coliseum is run to the ground. ”
Anon, absolutely not. Oakland isn’t entitled to the A’s at all. In fact Oakland has done zippo to keep them and IMO deserves to lose them. But that doesn’t change the fact the team will be playing in the Coliseum for the next 3-5 seasons. Their current lease not withstanding. The simple fact is, there is no where else for them to go in that time span. They’ll be in the Coliseum. They know they’ll be in the Coliseum. Even if San Jose were approved tomorrow the soonest they’d leave is the 2015 season, and odds are it’ll be longer than that to say nothing of if San Jose is denied.
And you’re right, spending money on this alone won’t solve all the problems. But it’s a start. A modestly nicer Coliseum will be that much more marketable to fans and indeed to players. Will it lure everyone back, no. They’ll need to field a winner in conjunction with some modest improvements to lure fans and players back. It won’t be easy but it’s also possible. The alternative is to leave the team and stadium as is, and basically flounder for the next 3 to ??? years waiting for the SJ or other ballpark to open while fans continue to leave, and players continue to pass the A’s over. Is it fair to ask Lew to pay for all of this, no, but it wasn’t fair of San Fran to ask McGowan to make the same kind of improvements to Candlestick and his team as well while he was trying to build his private ballpark, but he did both anyway because he was a good owner committed to both the short AND long term success of the franchise. If Lew isn’t, then what’s the point of him owning the team right now and what’s the point of people going out to the ballpark now?
re: Oakland isn’t entitled to the A’s at all. In fact Oakland has done zippo to keep them and IMO deserves to lose them.
…exactly
re: Coliseum improvements. Lew Wolff already offers the cheapest prices in all of major pro sports in all of North America. He’s got $2 tickets, free parking nights (San Jose Giants A league parking: $10), free hot dog nights and fabulous giveaways, like the recent Kurt Suzuki jerseys. Yet, people still don’t come and would rather pay multitudes more to see the Giants, even when the A’s have a better team. Slapping a new coat of paint on the Coliseum is just driving home the point that the place needs to be replaced. Why throw anymore $$ into it?
@ Dan – glad we agree on the point of oakland entitlement. however, i will disagree with you on how to approach attracting more people. i think lew knows precisely what he is doing even if it is rather low key. if i had x amount of money to spend on attracting people, would i spend it on a facility that i don’t own and that is owned by a city that doesn’t care-want me? No, i would take that money and pass it on to the consumer, especially with my competition charging outrageous amount of money for the same 9 innings of the sport. i would make the venue one of the best values in baseball (as pjk alluded) based on my own criterias. while it may not make you happy for $2 tickets or free parking, it is luring/keeping fans as witnessed by the attendance figures. for the rest of my money, it is proven that winning on the field will attract more people, so the rest of my funds go there with lew hoping to catch lighting in a bottle once in a while (i.e., holiday). thinking of it is as the moneyball of baseball operations. while i would like a better stadium (damn troughs!!!! :X), i certainly won’t pay for the improvements in ticket prices. i would rather take a leak in its present condition if it means prices are affordable and saving that money for the new stadium. that is short term….as for long term, i think lew has already shown his commitment by spending millions on fremont and making it clear if sj is open, he will do whatever it takes to clear the final property parcels. his business decisions are sound. as for other aspects such as fanfest or going after 1 year rentals, i even have to challenge those….
@pjk-just because LW can’t show a profit over these little improvements at the Coil doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. If he was as great a guy as you guys all say he is, he should do a little more than fix “leaks and stuff. ” Just shows what a cheapskate he really is. Him and JF are sitting on a gold mine, collecting welfare checks every year that they don;t always spend on payroll; a team value almost doubling in 5 years, where everyone’s house and 401k are in the dumper the last 5 years. The city/county is broke, like most in the state and nation. The A’s and Raiders aren’t. They should share in some of the expenses, like 70/30 A’s on little cosmetic improvements, even if it’s for the next 4-5years.
@jk aka capt. ahab – who said he was a great guy? why hasnt al done anything, since oakland is tearing down the coliseum for him? and thats kool that you’re blaming him for the recession as well. anything else you want to lump in there? maybe poverty, world hunger, gas prices, wars? /facepalm
Catain Ahab? That’s not nice, dude. Please quit with the name calling. I’ve noticed you’ve been a lot more decent lately and less confrontational, but nothing last forever.
@ jk – sorry, that was inappropriate and leftover from our last dialogue, however it was just to point our your OCD with hating LW.
re: ust because LW can’t show a profit over these little improvements at the Coil doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done.
…then the city and county, which actually own the building, should get on with these improvements. Since when is a tenant on a lease responsible for building improvements? I know you’re still pining for the money-losing, charitable ownership of the Haas’s, but those days are over…I
@pjk–like I stated earlier, everyone’s broke but the uber wealthy. LW and JF fall in that category. They should chip in and do some stuff. Sometimes there’s more to life than stockpiling all your money and having to show a profit on every endeavour. Show a little Haas for these last few years at the Coliseum. Couldn’t be no worse than some of these FA signings that blew up on them the last few years.
In ML’s interview with LW, LW said that he heard that they’ll be new scoreboards put in soon. Doesn’t sound like he’s involved in that, so it is the city/county ponying up the cash for that? Those tiny, ancient boards are weak. That will be a big improvement for the fan experience. I hope not only better, but they’re bigger too. The signage overwhelms them.
Why don’t Wolff and Fischer be more like the charitable Haas owners and say, let fans in for $2 on some nights? Offer free parking sometimes? Free hot dogs? Why not, say, $38 to sit behind the dugout when it costs $150 for a similar seat for the Giants? Why don’t they have giveaways of bobbleheads, jerseys, T shirts, calendars? After all, they’re filthy rich and can afford it, right? Oh – wait a second. They’re already doing everything I just mentioned. Nevermind.
Why don’t Wolff and Fisher open up their wallets and try to land free agents like Adrian Belted!? For crying out loud!
Meant Beltre, not belted.
From SuSlu and the Chron:
“With Cubs owner Tom Ricketts in San Francisco this week, and Chicago looking for a general manager, there was rumbling that perhaps he’d meet with A’s GM Billy Beane while in town. A’s owner Lew Wolff said no teams have called about Beane, but Wolff reiterated that he’d allow Beane to pursue other opportunities if they arise. Beane was unavailable for comment.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/31/SPVB1KUG0O.DTL#ixzz1Wkiav7uH
in a logical world, bb potential jumping ship would only add fuel to the fire for building a new ballpark in SJ–he’s made it clear that the A’s need to relocate to be competitive—but I digress—forgot that bs has no logic…or balls…yet