Another tremendous article from Tim Keown

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  1. >**IN APRIL** **2024**, when the A’s announced their three-year stutter-step in West Sacramento on their way to the permanence of Las Vegas, [Sacramento Kings](https://www.espn.com/nba/team/_/name/sac/sacramento-kings) owner Vivek Ranadive — also the owner of the Triple-A River Cats and Sutter Health Park — claimed the A’s were now the proud possessor of “the most sought-after ticket in America.”

    How did he say that with a straight face?

    >There are unique challenges that come with navigating the game-day experience for an organization with such a fraught recent past. The game-day employee says an edict came down early in the season requiring anyone who works with the team’s elephant mascot, Stomper, to be on the lookout for anyone wearing SELL shirts or pro-Oakland paraphernalia such as shirts inscribed with “I’d Rather Be At The Coliseum.” The team felt it became necessary after several fans made it through the line either wearing the shirts or removing jackets that revealed them while posing with Stomper, then posing them on social media.

    >”Stomper got in a little bit of trouble for that,” the employee says. “It wasn’t Stomper’s fault, though. Stomper can’t really see.”

    >After that, the employees who surround Stomper are responsible for scouring the crowd around the mascot. “If you see someone halfway through the line with a SELL shirt, call it off,” the employee says. “Make up a reason, like, ‘Oh, sorry everybody, Stomper has to go back now.’ It doesn’t seem like it should be part of anyone’s job to watch out for shirts that tell us to go back to Oakland, but that’s where we are.”

    This is straight-up clown shit.

  2. The whole (great) article in a nutshell:

    >”I feel like we’re to blame,” Zambor says. “Honestly, I feel foolish. I can’t believe I fell for it, knowing who we were dealing with. I just could not wrap my head around the idea that they could screw this up any more than they already have. And they have, in glorious proportion. It would have been so easy for them to embrace this community and watch it embrace you back, but Fisher is salting the earth here, just like he did in Oakland.”

    >”I would just say we’re pleased with the interest we’ve got in the team,” [Sandy] Dean says. “In general, we feel the fans are enjoying the benefits of the ballpark, the staff and the opportunity to see Major League Baseball.”

  3. I haven’t checked the Sac sub but people are probably still blaming Oakland and the East Bay for this summer.

  4. “Attendance is lower than it was last season, and the lowest in the big leagues despite Tampa Bay having less capacity at George Steinbrenner Field.“

    “I feel like everyone is laughing at us,” he says. “I don’t even bring up that I’m a season-ticket holder anymore. It’s embarrassing to admit. It’s hard for me to get past how excited I was at the beginning and how let down I’ve been by the organization.”

  5. And it’s only going to get worse until Jeff Fisher sells the dang team to someone who cares.

  6. There’s a lot of “if only someone could have seen this coming” sarcasm going around these days. Whiny trust fund crybabies who’ve never accomplished anything on their own and yet think they were born on 3rd base are becoming the bane of American’s existence. Both folks I’m referrring to know deep down inside that they are total losers and yet, need to lie and cheat because they aren’t capable of changing that trajectory by actually accomplishing something positive.

  7. Damn. If only all the owners of baseball realized how bad Fisher and Manfred are for the sport. If only all sports fans realized how easy it would be to force owners to do what the fans asked by threatening to not attend games. If only…..

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