How Dumb Are the A’s?
If you want to alienate your fan base AND disillusion the future in your organization the Oakland A’s have nailed the exacta cold. They refused to pay their rent at the O.Co and now they are cutting off the young players in their organization by stopping their weekly stipends. I could kind of see the A’s cutting off the day to day staff that work for them. They don’t care about parking lot attendants or food vendors. But come on man, these are your freaking players! This is your future!
If I owned the A’s (and was worth 2 billy) not only would I not think twice about keeping their glorified food stamps of $400 a week coming but I would hire each of them a nutritionist to go to their house every day and make sure they’re eating properly. Hell, provide the food and a chef too. When we finally come out of quarantine you’d think they would want their players properly fueled up. Abandoning them and basically turning them into homeless people seems like a suboptimal way to build a successful program……
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Sad. We were discussing this guy earlier in the pandemic if you recall
https://www.si.com/mlb/braves/news/biff-pocoroba-dies-at-66
Are you sure you’re not confusing him with Kat’s beloved John Boccabella?
Not surprised. The A’s have this history of shoe-stringing it across the organization. Bunch of cheap fucks on that side of the bay. It is sad, as the Oakland fans (any fans) deserve better.
On the flip-side, it could be a good case study on how to NOT run your professional sports franchise.
L L L Losers…
I’ve seen the term “taxi squad” used to describe as many as 20 players a team could have in reserve to potentially use to replace roster players as needed.
But how/where would they keep active? .Not to mention this adds another 400-500 to keep safe.
Have a hard time seeing any union, including MLBPA, as too powerful. In MLBTR story I read on J D Davis of Mets, he is making league minimum, had a great season at plate, and is under team control until 2024.
The A’s, like a lot of teams, have luxury of not having to pay their best young players like Olson and Chapman very much at all until arb hits after this year, based not on quality of play, only years of service.
Seems like extreme benefit to ownership.
NoMoneyball!
hah!
looking up numbers on J D Davis, traded by Stros to Mets (the MLBTR story was on how deal worked out for both teams), he had .895 OPS in 400 ABs last season. Not eligible for arb until 2022 after next season, under team control til 2025 when he would be 31.
6 years of team control??? yikes.
Also Sac guy from Elk Grove HS, like Bill Cartwright.
In his NY days he was nicknamed “Mr. Bill” after the unfortunate SNL character.
DK if that followed him to Chicago…
A’s management probably tells the 20 taxi squad players u all have to stuff in 1 taxi 🚖 to get to the decrepit rotting away stadium due to additional budget cuts!
Kinda like Major League when that bitch owner made major cutbacks to try and break the teams morale,like a outboard motor used for a hot tub massage, are a rundown smoking engine vibrating prop plane with 2 rows of seats, no stewardess, so no dinner/snacks,and the team is wondering if they’re is even a pilot on board..
Many of the worst things in modern professional baseball can be traced to Charlie Finley and Sandy Alderson.
IMO, in MLB the guaranteed contracts are out of control and I don’t like the free agency system either. The NFL is set up much better with the salary cap (as opposed to luxury tax) and franchise tag system where a team can keep a player it drafted and developed if it is willing to pay fair market price. Much better format for all teams to be competitive, unlike MLB where the haves have a way better chance of winning than the have-nots.
Agree, SanD. Not that I have a ton of love for the owners who typically are making money hands-over-fists, but I do believe the luxury tax needs to go, and MLB needs to move to a cap model.
All good points. I like the NFL system too with limitations on what is guaranteed and agree on ability haves/have nots to be competitive especially if you draft well.
The owners’ insistence on a salary cap was the primary reason for the 94 strike. Back then, the owners had something of an argument — many small-market franchises weren’t making much money. (SF, in a large market, wasn’t making much, yet. But the owners were investing . . . .) The owners really wanted to grab more cash. Today the sources of revenue are manifold and every franchise has soared in value. The owners are still just as avaricious but they’re far less frightened. You’d think they could come up with a high salary cap and a minimum salary floor that would accommodate big salaries for some players and still give pennyball teams like the a’s incentives to spend some effing money.
As to franchise player tags and guaranteed portions — I don’t see why mlb needs those gimmicks. In the NFL they make some sense, perhaps.
You might get the players to go for a cap if it’s not just a max cap but includes a minimum one as well. But you know the teams (owners) that benefit from the luxury tax would also be the ones that would vote down a minimum cap.
I’m not sure what all y’alls issue with FA is. I know I’d think about a different career if playing baseball meant I was stuck on one team, without any bargaining rights and that’s after spending years in the bus leagues making less than the checker at Safeway.
Lots to catch up on and said before MLB should take the As away from its owner…
But will comment later on other Flap updates but wanted to congratulate Stix and his freedom. Allowed me to save my pardon chit for the second term!!
My current rank of Flappers getting pardon priority:
1) DracuLoo
2) Flav
3) Dirt
4) Blade
5) Chia
6) Dawg
Rank of Flapverse based purely on the probability of potential need of a presidential pardon…
you’re gonna have some ‘splainin to do to Stix when he finds out you could have spoken to Trump about a pardon years ago but chose silence instead.
What Flav said. And, to be clear, I will not need a pardon from that POS/Clown (no offense to Bozo) currently masquerading as president.
All about timing…after get past re-election before the pardons for helicopter shooting just misunderstood pardons start flying…
Thanks, man!
Should the Dear Idiot’s bid to stay out of state criminal trials for tax fraud and other financial crimes (otherwise known as his re-election campaign) fail, he will pardon himself, his criminal family and his favorite lackeys (Rudy, Pompeo, Flynn, Stone, etc.) from all federal criminal liability on the morning of inauguration day 2021. Book it…
I think that’s a good bet. But everyone I know (and this is admittedly a very small sample size) who has spent time in a minimum-security federal prison, and time in a state-prison hoosegow, preferred the fed. We can hope.
I would LOVE to see trump’s sorry ass go to prison. That would be epic! And he is one cocksucker who is definitely deserving.
Nixon was pardoned to spare the country more unnecessary post-Watergate drama and allow it to focus on the more important issues of the time. I think that was a good decision and should apply today as much as ever.
The country is divided enough…
I think Nixon was pardoned by his successor because that was part of the deal he made when he agreed to resign. And I think the point was to heal the republican party, not the country. Spend a few years licking the wounds and then roar back to grab more money and power asap.
I’m with Michael Moore. I don’t think Trump will go willingly. Declare martial law, postpone the election after he gins up some excuse. If it takes place and he loses, some shit will happen in Florida that gives him an excuse to cancel the result, throw it in the courts, etc., etc.
Loo, this country is going to really split when that happens.
As you state snarkk has to be federal no one can be pardoned for state criminal trials…but I figure by 2025 and the end of the 2nd term a lot will have passed….
Chi you are risking your pardon ranking!!!
A’s owner bills his players for electricity use.
I think the expanded roster and taxi-squad scheme would be enjoyable. Moves up and down the roster would be constant. We’d see many actual prospects more often, I suspect.
Yes arb clock rules notwithstanding. but what are the taxi squad guys doing? Could they work out earlier in day before regular ML games are played? Another layer of testing (coaches involved too), locker room procedures, facilities yada yada. Just curious about this as I haven’t seen proposed guidelines for how they could be kept ready.
I think all of that would be necessary and with any luck our local sports station will broadcast the workouts. As to arb rules, the stroke of a pen could adjust that problem for this “year.”
The minor leagues suck for players, they don’t make a dime even in a a normal regular season!
If I were a low minor leaguer with zero chance of making it to the show, I would hopefully have a backup plan moving forward and just give up your dream in baseball..
Heard more teams are doing what the A’s are about to do.Orioles recently dumped 37 players and the Whitesoxs 25 in their minor league systems and scouts too are on furlough..Baseball is dying!
impossible to argue with this. Not paying them and not letting them work elsewhere is nearly identical to slavery
Baseball is looking like a microcosm of the state of our country. The haves shitting on the have-nots.
How bout them Lotte Giants??? Got to watch my first game. ESPN 2 ran a recorded game yday afternoon and then re-ran it this morning. Caugh 6 innings last night and finished it now and great to watch some ball…Dan Straily was our starter and got through 6 1/3 shutout ball and the Giants finagled a run in the bottom of the 8th for a 1-0 win!! Straily was hitting low 90s and probably could be used in the MLB apparently overcoming an injury from last season.
Guy who looks like the right-handed Korean Babe Ruth came through with an rbi base hit and Dixon Machado (a former mlb prospect but still young) closed it out starting a game-ending DP from short…after starting the season 5-0 the Giants stumbled going 4-8 and now winning back to back games and now sporting a 10-8 record.
Forgot about a game they had this morning getting shellacked 11-1 now sporting a 10-9 record….did not realize until recently that Matt Williams is managing the KBO KIA Tigers…did not know he was the A’s third base coach either last year…
Management and the Players fighting over money again is most unbecoming, especially given the circumstances we’re in. I really don’t see the point in all of this. Whatever baseball product that would result even if they agree on a money split — seems to me will be la ludicrous form of the game anyway. The nation doesn’t “need” bastardized baseball, it needs to fight this virus until a vaccine is distributed. Just call the season off…
I agree with calling the baseball season off.
And resuming the NHL & NBA at this point is stupid, too…
I am betting $100 that not a single active professional athlete on a US sports team in our major sports mlb, nba or nfl will die this year of the virus if they resume playing….ill make that bet to one Flap taker…
Just play ball!!! Tastes great:)
I just need to be entertained and willing the risk the life of a highly-paid pro athlete to get there.. 😉😁🤗🤔😷
excellent points Snarkk, but it’s out of our hands. No matter what hypothetical version of the social contract a person may favor, no such thing is gonna show up in the USA today. If a truncated season moves forward, I’ll watch it just because I love to watch live baseball being played. I even love to watch it being practiced. The drama of the pandemic will add a macabre touch, I suppose. We’re in deep shit with a totally incompetent fool in charge. Memorable times, if we survive.
Trump mocking Biden for wearing a mask reached even a new level of stupidity for Trump.
Trump has an infinite ability to be even more stupid than he was the day before. His stupidity stretches out on a line into infinity.
I don’t get the necessity of the whole tweetstorm vibe. On any news blog like Chron online you’ll see comments railing at SF progressives or the more moderate Mayor Breed, supporting police, ridiculing City’s attempts to help homeless yada yada. Everyday people with implicit biases.
But Trump is POTUS, and he openly picks fights with anyone and everyone who questions him up to and including the national news station that blindly parrots most of his opinions. He’s just the most unfit person to hold such an office.
MLB Network broadcasted the Ishi game this week.
I’m not really gettin’ the whole “call the seasons off” take. Why do that? If they can work it out and agree to willingly go back to work with sensible precautions then we get sports again. I want that.
What’s a minimum number of regular season games, though?
Winning a World Series is so cherished because it’s so hard to do. If a team can make the playoffs by winning 40 games, then that’s not acceptable to me. I’ll watch it all, but it would be a giant asterisk of a season. Astros-level asterisk.
i could care less about who wins the series this year. Of course there would be an asterisk and it would and should be valued less than teams who win playing 162+. I just want to see some ball every night.
But there wouldn’t be an asterisk. Maybe in your mind, there would be one—but in reality there would not.
I read an article this week about some of the MLB players and managers/coaches that have preexisting health conditions. And some of the managers and coaches are 70+ years old.
Some of the umpires are not at optimal weight.
Dave Roberts, a cancer survivor, said he’s been working out hard, and has improved his diet. He said he’s lost 15 pounds.
There’s risk to these folks, regarding the virus.
https://oneflapdown77.com/2020/04/11/name-game/
Loo, in the main thread I posted a screen shot of what I’d been googling that day. Biff is right at the top of my searches
Sorry. My memory is very shaky…
I’m a “cancel the season” guy cuz I don’t like watered down seasons, I hate gimmicky ideas like playing without fans, and it just doesn’t seem safe.
Let’s see if we can maybe make football work. Cancel everything else. And if football seems risky, blow that out too.
Paul in Asia—I feel like we need closure on the missing bar discussion. Was The Golden Gate Grill the place you were trying to remember? That place was always my favorite of that group.
If ML baseball is back for half a season, with Johnny Cueto on mound dueling Buehler and facing off with Cody Bellinger and his hated buddies, I’m watching it.
What if the Dodgers win 50 regular season games and go on to win the World Series? That will be an unpleasant pill for me to swallow.
What if the Astros win 45 regular season games and win the World Series? They’re going to act like it validated them in some way.
I agree with Zum on those points and I hope they cancel the season. But, if they do barf up a mini season, I’m not saying I’d go so far as to boycott following it at all.
I’m just saying I hope they don’t play at all this year.
could have happened any time in years past. How many did they win last year and look what happened (insert smiley face here).
Astros winning this year only applies to this year. As motivational factor I wouldn’t discount, “everyone hates us”.
I cringe at both those thoughts Zumiee!
One thing I love about baseball is the best team on paper doesn’t always win a World Series!
That’s why I lmao 🤣 when the Dodgers keep CHOKING in the Playoffs/WS !!
Same when Seattle won 116 games and got bounced in the 1st rd.
Speaking of the Astros’ cheating scandal . . .
https://www.nj.com/yankees/2020/05/nj-brewerys-new-beer-perfectly-bangs-away-at-astros-cheating-scandal.html
lulz!
I’ll have some of that! And again, I think going forward the Giants should offer condolences to the dodgers for their 2017 WS loss to the Houston cheaters by banging dugout trashcan lids once in while, just as a dodger pitcher goes into his windup. Certainly when Kershaw’s on the mound.
I just don’t see how they can make the game safe enough to play for any length of time. What are we looking at? Between the players, coaches, umps, training staff, medical personnel, cooks, transpo, etc for 30 teams, there would need to be what? 4,000 people in isolation of some kind?
Not to be forgotten in the Ishi game are the cool things that happened in the top of the 9th.
Cards’ rally is basically thwarted when a ball deflects off the glove of a diving Sandoval to Craw deep in the hole, and Craw throws and gets the force at second. Then the final out is a ball hit back to Affeldt as his momentum is taking him to firstbase and he just keeps running and steps on the bag himself, and doesn’t have throw. And we all know what an adventure an Affeldt throw to a base was.
If there was ever a time to test out robo-umps this is it…
I bet Manfred is chomping at the bit to get this thing rolling so he can “test” some of his grand ideas out. DH for both leagues, time clocks, no spitting or arguing balls and strikes. Throw in the extra inning tie game where each team gets to trot some fucker out to second to lead off their half inning. No fans in the stands to boo at that shit. Sounds like a win-win for the Commish.
Did any of you guys ever see Jai-Alia? When I moved to Tampa in 1978 this was big time down there.. Legal to bet- -tri-fectas, quinellas – – the whole deal. Great sport but no more in US. (Spelling not confirmed)
It was a huge deal in Connecticut some decades ago, but I never made the trip.
Horses were enough for me…
Stan- i used to love going to the games in CT. I only lived there for a couple of years but i went quite a bit. Loved the quinellas. i still remember my lucky #’s 3/5 saved my ass a bunch of times
Can’t imagine an easier sport to fix – and they did…
John Facenda with the narration!
I went to Jai Alai in Tijuana several times in the 80’s and 90’s. It was a hoot. Some guys were skillful, played the angles, and made great catches. Others were less skilled and just reared back and threw gas. The stadium aka Fronton is still there at the end of the old main drag in TJ, but they have long since stopped playing games there.
It is a concert venue now. A friend of mine saw Morrissey there.
Looks like there’s still Jai Alai being played in Florida — and Texas:
http://www.fla-gaming.com/jai-alai-frontons-in-the-usa/
Wow! Mac, I didn’t know that was still going on.. A Miami “High class” sport to a loss-leader at a poker parlor.
Still better than re-runs.
BTW, did anybody notice that Japan announced the 2021 games MAY happen! First govt. official that has the balls to level with the public………..(This depressing bit of news is brought to you via your favorite Cassandra, OSF.)
if the Dodgers win 50 games and win the WS that’ll be hilarious. Nobody will give it the same credit as winning it over 162. Of course I’d like to see their streak of failure continue but watching them over-celebrate a hollow victory like that would be fun, too
They were 63-47 when they won it all in strike shortened 1981…
You all probably know this: the Reds won the most total regular season games in MLB that season and….didn’t make the playoffs.
The strike was in the middle of the season, so the playoff setup was first half division winners vs. second half division winners. The Reds finished in second place in the NL West in both halves.
Apologies to Flappers who couldn’t possibly care less about the Cow Hollow bar discussions, but yeah, need to resolve this. 🙂 Yes Dawg, one place was the Golden Gate Grill, I’d forgotten that one. Charlie, I don’t remember the Dartmouth, maybe it was called something else when I was living there. In that one block on Fillmore between Filbert and Greenwich was Desert Moon and the Balboa on one side, and Pierce St. Annex and a couple of others that are fuzzy in my memory on the other side. In the next block heading toward Lombard was Plumpjacks and something across the street. One place on the corner of Greenwich became East Side West, a pretty good oyster bar, but at that point Cow Hollow was losing most of its dive bars to upscaling. Also spent time at the Bus Stop on Union, the Horseshoe on Chestnut, and Barca Lounge on Lombard, probably the last divey bars in the Marina….
Closure! Thank you Paul. My memory is there was clear triangle between Balboa, Pierce St. and GG Grill.
Desert Moon was up the street. I believe you and I have discussed our fondness for that place in the past.
crazy, it’s really looking like they aren’t gonna get this done.
I think the offer made to the players was fair. You’re playing half the games and there is no gate revenue coming in, your gonna have to take a steep pay cut. Scaling it so players making less kept a higher % was a great move as well.
Players don’t want to accept it? Fine, I support their right to do that as well. Stay home and play video games and lets try this again in 2021. Works for me.
No one in the convo seems to give a shit about covid.
Forgot about the Golden Gate Grill. Desert Moon was great. Spent more time down south of market at the Oasis, DNA Lounge, DV8,Mabuhay. Just heard the Stud was closing . . .
True. That amazes me too.
Uhh wasn’t that a gay bar Chuck?
Well, that would explain this previously unseen photo from last year’s Flapalooza…
Yes Dawg, that was indeed the *triangle*, it was the GG Grill that I couldn’t remember as the 3rd point. And yeah, I remember us talking about Desert Moon. Great little bar. When I first moved to Pixley, Desert Moon was the first place I went. Bartendress all tattooed up wearing a skimpy halter top gave me my first beer for free. Such a shame they closed and it became Comet Club, a useless yuppie enclave.
If I’m a player of any of these sports, before agreeing to anything, I would want MLB, NFL, etc., to construct a model of exactly how isolating/quarantining would look when the games weren’t being played. If it meant being holed up in a hotel room or otherwise not being able to do what one normally does during down-time between games, I don’t think I’d be too up for that….
I would live in a ditch for the major league minimum…
Yeah 563k could get you a nice ditch with running water as well..
Passan was dooming players acceptance of the proposal too. He said the players absolutely think that after 6 years of team control FAs should be entitled to whatever contract $$$ they can get. To take large pct away(20 mil from Trouts and Coles of world) from those who have achieved that status was not OK.
Said he thought things had to get sorted out quickly; and there were health issues as well.
As always the only people that lose between Owners and Players are…The Fans
Loo, I watched 94 game 6 playoff game btw Devils-Rangers at Meadowlands. Wow very exciting comeback W for NY to force game 7 after being down 2-0 early. Messier gets 3 in a row (last one long empty net vs. 6 on 4 to seal it) in 3rd period, fights all over ice as game ends. They kept showing news headlines with Messier pic where he guarantees win ala Namath. Also the 4 guys sitting together in white tee shirts with individual number 1-9-4-0. good stuff
when I’m bored I’m lucky all the sport channels are right next to each other. Tennis (showing French open 2019) baseball nba football hockey.
All-time great series – did you see game 7?
Studios are figuring out how to start up TV and film production in time to continue the efficient release of content, and Netflix has already resumed filming on shows in Iceland and Sweden. Here’s what a day on the set looks like for actors:
•Voluntary testing for Covid-19
•Temperature tests every morning
•Self-quarantining for 14 days before shooting
•Isolating with crew for the duration of the two-week shoot
•Boxed meals instead of buffets
•Single-use, disposable makeup applicators
•Visual effects swapped in for some live scenes
That’s for movies with a limited cast. Imagine what it would be like for a 50 man squad playing another 50 man squad- -each week! Sure- -it’s going to happen.