As the regular season nears its conclusion, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Oakland says goodbye:
After 57 years playing host to the Athletics franchise, the city of Oakland says goodbye to its beloved baseball team today as the club plays its final home game in the city. The club will move to Sacramento starting in 2025, though that stay is only temporary as they work toward construction of a new ballpark in their long-term home of Las Vegas. The club’s final few years in Oakland have been frustrating ones, as the club has slashed its budget amid a teardown that left the team to lose more than 300 games in the past three seasons.
The A’s leave Oakland on a sour note due to the team’s lackluster performance in recent years and ownership’s decision to pull out of stadium negotiations with the city in order to pivot to relocation. Even so, fans of the club can still look back fondly upon the club’s best years in the city. In all, the team brought home 21 playoff appearances, six pennants, and four World Series championships during its time in the Bay Area, including their 1972-1974 teams that accomplished the exceedingly rare feat of winning back-to-back-to-back championships. Today’s final game in Oakland, which will see the A’s pit rookie J.T. Ginn (4.40 ERA in seven appearances) against Rangers youngster Kumar Rocker (2.57 ERA in two starts), begins at 12:37pm local time.
2. Rojas nursing injury:
Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas exited last night’s win over the Padres with what he and manager Dave Roberts described to reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and Rowan Kavner of FOX Sports) as an adductor issue that he’s been dealing with for several weeks. Rojas indicated that the plan is for him to get an injection in hopes of speeding up his recovery to allow him to get into a regular season game on Sunday, a path that would allow the Dodgers to make a more informed decision on whether or not he’s healthy enough to appear in the NLDS (or, should the Padres manage to run the club down for the NL West title, the NL Wild Card Series).
The 35-year-old Rojas began the season in a bench role but has emerged as L.A.’s starting shortstop, slashing a solid .283/.337/.410 to pair with his typical strong defense at the position. Tommy Edman figures to play shortstop in Rojas’ absence.
3. Orioles go for the sweep:
Both the Orioles and Yankees have clinched postseason spots, but that doesn’t mean the clubs have nothing to play for as the regular season nears its conclusion. The Orioles entered their series against the Yankees needing to win out for the remainder of the season while the Yankees lost out in order to run them down for the AL East crown. So far, they’ve taken the first two games of that series, keeping alive that long-shot possibility of Baltimore taking home its second consecutive division title. Today, the Yankees will look to finally clinch the AL East with ace Gerrit Cole (3.67 ERA in 16 starts) on the mound against Baltimore’s own ace, Corbin Burnes (2.95 ERA in 31 starts) in a game scheduled for 7:05pm local time. The winner of the AL East also earns a bye through the Wild Card round, raising the stakes of this evening’s contest even further.
2012orioles
Sad day in Oakland. Really have grown to root for this team and their fans. Hoping stuff falls through and they come back to Oakland where they belong.
Rsox
That won’t happen. If Vegas falls through they will either stay in Sacramento (which would at least keep them in Northern California) or explore options like Utah or Nashville
lesterdnightfly
Nashville is not MLB worthy.
Montreal would be better, and more justifiable.
hiflew
I doubt Nashville would be an option for Oakland because it would require realignment. The people of Nashville would not want to stay up for those West Coast road games that wouldn’t finish until after midnight on a regular basis.. Although I guess it could work if you swapped Colorado and Arizona with Seattle and the Angels. One of the Wests would have all California teams with Seattle and the other would have the two Texas teams, Nashville, Colorado, and Arizona. As a Rockies fan, I’d hate losing some of the rivalries, but I honestly would miss the late starts in SF and LA
johnsilver
Good point hiflew and could see league realignment happening again if teams moved like you mentioned,
There could be removing the so called central division, moving teams to either the east/west.
Other options include, like u mention moving other teams around. Cardinals, Texas teams, Colorodo etc. Not like ways couldn’t make it work, even either Marlins/Rays going west.
deepseamonster32
Realignment probably wouldn’t bar a relocation to Nashville. But if Vegas falls through and Oakland doesn’t get reunited, SLC and Portland are other Western options MLB would probably try for first.
But going to Sacramento and Vegas falling through, and Lacob buying the club then razing/replacing the Coliseum is the #1 goal, right?
jerseyjohn
I lived there in the 90’s and the Coliseum was a dump already. I hate ownership blackmailing cities for stadiums but… That situation is untenable. Shout out to my old Bay Area buddy and diehard A’s fan Cliff. The Yankees are accepting new fans, bro.
DarkSide830
Here’s to hoping Oakland gets an expansion team with a real owner.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
*if they somehow get approval to make a new stadium with that government of Oakland
This one belongs to the Reds
Expansion will never happen until a lot of other issues within the game are solved. I would not want to be the owner of an expansion team under this screwed up system.
Old York
@This one belongs to the Reds
Such as? We’re seeing that bad owners are just using their team to cash cheques being sent to them from the richer teams, instead of improving their team. Maybe MLB needs to reduce the number of teams/owners to only those teams/owners who want to compete?
This one belongs to the Reds
Sounds like the large markets propaganda is taking root.
The revenue disparity keeps small and now it seems mid markets from competing with teams getting hundreds of millions more in local TV money. The Bally RSN fiasco even has made it worse. That needs dealt with and quickly. MLB needs to just take it all on with no blackouts and divide the local TV money equally. You can’t grow a game by blacking out broadcasts for a team over seven states in some cases.
Three bad owners (allegedly) does not make 20 others in MLB bad as well.
Rsox
Manfred has said no expansion until the A’s and Rays stadium issues are solved. Probably because of the possibility of relocating to possible expansion sites. You can add the Diamondbacks to the list of teams with issues now and even though MLB launched an expansion committee you are looking at the early 2030’s at best before the league expands again
avenger65
Old York: I’m all for that. Getting rid of Reinsdorf and Fisher can only make the game better. Moreno and the guy in Colorado seem to want to be competitive, they’re just clueless as to how to do it.
johnsilver
Never happen OldYork and one can tell from how a lot of people post here.. It’s a handout country now and half the teams are handout oriented as well. They put enough on the field to appear to want to compete and no more, feeling it’s good enough. How to fix it? Well, it’ll never happen, but cut 10 or so teams and simple fact is it’s the lousy markets they are in.
johnsilver
Ah yes.. Someone has read well the communist manifesto and taken it to heart. Divide everything, earn or not.
lesterdnightfly
Sure, it was all about that dadgummed intransigent city and county gummint, eh?
No blame to the greedy ownership? Right.
draker
Yes it was. It’s easy to rail against greedy owners but in this case it’s the elected officials of Oakland and the Peralta Community College District that screwed the pooch. The District voted down an excellent proposal to build a stadium right downtown on the Laney College campus. The deal would have strengthened the perpetually weak finances of the District and construction would have been expedited without the multitude of agency approvals required by the waterfront Howard Terminal site. This was just one of several viable proposals raised by the team over the course of nearly two decades of efforts to stay in Oakland. Unfortunately, the insatiable appetite of the elected officials for greased palms kept it from happening. The fact that three professional franchises have left Oakland in less than a decade strongly suggests that something more than greedy owners is in play.
DashaToushu
@draker
“The District voted down an excellent proposal to build a stadium right downtown on the Laney College campus. The deal would have strengthened the perpetually weak finances of the District”
How do you know this?
Stadiums are almost always bad news for the communities that they move into.
Why was this plan different?
Why do you disagree with Laney CC?
DashaToushu
“For the different groups on campus, the A’s couldn’t sufficiently address concerns around the potential impacts of a new ballpark on the college and surrounding area
Community and faculty groups raised concerns on issues ranging from the effect of construction and game noise on classes to displaced housing and gentrification in the neighborhoods surrounding the college
…
Moore said whenever anyone raised concerns about traffic or displaced businesses, the team would make reassuring statements about mitigating any problems the ballpark would bring, but they did not provide details or research to explain how they would solve those problems.”
Can you address these concerns? Or indicate how the A’s addressed them?
From Inside Higher Ed’s story from 12/2017
BlueSkies_LA
It’s easy to understand why Oakland fans feel like collateral damage in this, because they are. But placing all of the blame on public officials doesn’t explain the outcome. Strange, because on the one hand I hear this complaint about how the city totally blew it, but on the other, I also often hear complaints when public funds are used to finance stadiums for billionaire franchise owners. Should Oakland have given up more to keep the A’s there, than Las Vegas was willing to pay to get them to move?
DashaToushu
@BSLA
It’s almost as though billion dollar deals are complicated and sometimes don’t work out for reasons other than one side being completely unreasonable
draker
I spent 14 years as a California community college administrator and am familiar with the financial situation of that district, which has been placed on probation multiple times by its accreditation agency in large part due to poor financial management. The stadium deal would have restored Laney College and the Peralta Community College District to financial health by virtue of the leasing of the stadium site, which sat on an underutilized portion of the Laney campus
draker
Yes, construction of stadiums is noisy, as are baseball games. I can assure you that it’s nice and quiet on the Laney College campus these days.
DashaToushu
@draker
You didn’t actually answer the question
DarkSide830
Eh, it’s John Fisher we’re talking about. I’d bet he asked for $5 billion in taxpayer funds to build a $4 million dollar trash heap. MLB will find a way to facilitate a team in Oakland, even if it has to be Oakland-adjacent. Would, say, Richmond be too far away to satisfy?
ChuckyNJ
Meanwhile the NL wild card chase has been affected by Hurricane Helene making its way toward Georgia. The rest of the Mets-Braves series in Atlanta has been postponed, to be completed as a double-header Monday afternoon (9/30).
Yankees still need 1 more win for the AL East since Baltimore has clinched the season series and thus holds the tie-breaker.
avenger65
Chucky: The Yankees can have the title and the momentum-killing week off.
Old York
Good. The A’s should never have left Philadelphia. They cursed themselves with having to move so many times.
Rsox
I kind of wonder if in todays game if Philadelphia could support two MLB teams, same with New York if they could support three teams in such close proximity to each other
Old York
@Rsox
I’m pretty sure NYC and area could support a third MLB team.
hiflew
It really ticks me off when people complain about their city having a second or third team when there are entire states which have none. Some people don’t even have a team within 150 miles of them. The league needs to work on spreading it around to everyone instead of splitting up already established fanbases. I am glad to see one of California’s 5 teams move to a state without one. I’d love to see the White Sox move to Iowa or Omaha or something because they will ALWAYS be Chicago’s #2 team. Same with the Mets in NY.
Old York
@hiflew
Agreed. The Mutts need to be moved.
C Yards Jeff
@hiflew;
Spoiled here in the BWMA. On a light traffic day, OPACY is a 20 minute drive, Nats Park 40 minutes. Ridiculous and obnoxious.
And how in the heck did DC, a 2 time franchise flunky, get a 3rd shot, anyways. Ponderous and odoruous.
avenger65
Rsox: Obviously it’s been done in NY. But the difference between now and then is territorial rights for broadcasting money.
Canuckleball
Population in millions:
8.1 New York
3.8 LA
2.6 Chicago
2.3 Houston
1.6 Phoenix
1.5 Philadelphia
1.5 San Antonio
I realize city population alone isn’t the only determining factor, nonetheless, Houston would be a better place for a second team then Philly. Given Texas’s total size and overall population gains, it feels like there should be a third team somewhere in Texas.
San Antonio has virtually the same population as Philly and no MLB team at all.
Bart Harley Jarvis
The population you’re siting for Philadelphia doesn’t consider the densely populated immediate suburbs of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Chester Counties, or South Jersey. You have to consider the entire metropolitan area.
Canuckleball
As I said, there’s more then just city population
letitbelowenstein
They should never have left Kansas City, but that dolt Charlie Finley wanted to act like a spoiled brat. His issues was attendance figures, but he never put a winning team on the field. I wouldn’t have gone to a game, either.
hiflew
It’s really weird that people still give the A’s flak for leaving Philly, but you never about the same thing with the Braves leaving Boston. The Braves basically had the same movements as the A’s. Moving from the East (Boston, Philly) to a Central location (Milwaukee, Kansas City) to their modern location (Oakland, Atlanta) Is it really the 4th move that gave them the “curse.”
Old York
@hiflew
No one is forcing the Braves out of Atlanta. But, if they do, I’d support a move back to Bahstun.
johnsilver
Every single time I read about complaints regarding a team moving, never, ever is the Seattle Pilots mentioned, who were only in Seattle 1 y before moving. the ultimate rip off for a city was done to them. Not Charlie O, not other franchise movers, but Seattle given an expansion franchise, then allowing it to move after 1 season.
no offense to u hiflew, many on this board probably have -0- clue the old Pilots even existed.
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
I wonder when the coliseum will get demolished, will it be in a year or lay dormant for years?
Rsox
Supposedly two pro Soccer teams are moving in so the Coliseum gets a stay of execution, at least for a little while
CaseyAbell
If ever a stay of execution was undeserved, it’s for that dump of a stadium.
Canuckleball
Sad thing is, it was once a half decent stadium. Back before ‘Mount Davis’ out in center field, there was a nice view of the nearby mountain range. If they had just spent the money on up keep and sensible renovations, it might still be decent.
johnsilver
Rsox- probably because it would cost the city of oakland too much to tear it down. the place is what?? Nearing 60y old? Built in..’67? 68? How much use can a mutant FB/baseball stadium have? Sports franchises ceased building those 40y ago because they didn’t suit either sport very well.
hiflew
When the Coliseum gets destroyed, the sewage clouds will be heavy that night.
This one belongs to the Reds
Condolences to Oakland fans. Sad they are victims of a city and team ownership not working it out to keep the team there. Enough blame to go around for both sides.
denistaylor
I thought there was still a chance they’d still play in Oakland next year since the Sacramento ballpark isn’t really major league caliber and adding the artificial turf as they’ve planned would exacerbate the possible triple digit temperatures that could occur during games.
avenger65
denistaylor: Kind of takes the “major” out of major league.
cooperhill
Rojas is seriously lacking wheels if he hit into a triple play!
underdog
He was literally injured. He’s been dealing with this injury for weeks. He’s not a fast runner as it is but has been slowed by this upper leg issue. It’s like you didn’t even read the stuff above?
BlueSkies_LA
He isn’t especially fast but he has enough speed to play excellent defense at SS. If he doesn’t show bunt on the first pitch and pull in the left side of the IF, and then hit the ball sharply right at 3B this play doesn’t happen. This play is about as likely as being struck by lightning.
DashaToushu
@cooperhill
Rojas isn’t exactly an elite runner (15th percentile sprint speed) but that triple play took just a fraction of a second longer than a double play.
Mikenmn
Baseball is a business. It has become a business that has huge cashflows and relies on enormous amounts of public money, public favors, publicly paid for land, infrastructure, zoning, etc. Both Oakland city leadership and Athletic ownership deserve blame. Stinks for the fans, but the power brokers, both in elected offices and boardroom suites, don’t really care about the fans. It’s all about the performative and (huge) bucks.
desertdawg
Oakland is in trouble as a city period, they have a lot of issues right now. Every pro sports team has abandoned that city now. What pro team will ever move to that city in the now let alone the future. Does the NFL, NBA, MLB ever see a team in Oakland don’t think so. Sports teams are having to find better deals to finance their teams, with high salaries, comes higher advertising cost, higher ticket prices, higher television cost, higher hotel and transportation cost, plus overhead of stadium rentals. So, when a city says nope you build your own ballpark, basically the city government has to look at their own costs to their constituents. That is where these other cities come in and snatch their teams up. These cities can right now afford to deal with a pro team, they have the money in their coffers, never had to deal with a pro team, will give anything the pro team wants including a great 30 yr lease on a new city built stadium, But what happens after the newness wears off, the team performs poorly, poor crowd attendance for 10 years of the 30 year lease, city is not getting their agreed upon extra dollars from that lease. The team is upset with the city, and the city is upset with the team, the fans become disenchanted, and the MLB just moves on to another city. Where does it end. That is the MLB in 2024, just move the team, as the people move out of the city.
deepseamonster32
A lot of memories of the Oakland A’s and the Coliseum.
As a Mariners fan, often they were crushing defeats, walk-off winners lessened slightly by the charming sound of Kool & The Gang.
Hope for one more Celebration today, and of course hoping and praying for the collapse of Fisher’s dumb Vegas plan so he can skulk the team back and sell it to a human being.
holecamels35
Gotta be a reason why Oakland can’t keep sports teams. I’d rather them move and be treated like a real franchise, making money, spending payroll, and getting larger crowds, then force a stay in the same poor situation.
Just hope the fans can watch the games.
JoeBrady
My view is that, if Oakland is a viable city for a baseball team, then it is almost guaranteed that someone will build there. If MLB opened up Nashville, SLC, or a couple of other sites, the bidding would be in the billions.
So if Oakland wants a team, and prospective owners see a fanbase, they will get a team.