One of baseball’s cheapest teams isn’t living by that principle, with Athletics president Dave Kaval going after the Giants’ attendance at Oracle Park when Oakland visited San Francisco this week.
Kaval, who is effectively the face of the Athletics as John Fisher slowly recedes into the background (the Reds’ Phil Castellini comes to mind), seems very willing to play the Grover Dill to Fisher’s Scut Farkus.
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In a monumentally myopic move, Kaval sent out the following tweets about the Giants’ attendance:
Interesting observation! Never mind that the photo posted came before the first pitch. Or that the 32,898 fans who turned up for the game — which is a record low for a Giants-Athletics matchup in San Francisco since the Giants left Candlestick — make up just under 60 percent of the Athletics’ 55,598 total fans who have turned out so far this year. The decreased attendance could also be due to A’s fans being unwilling to hop over for the Bay Bridge Series, as their pseudo-boycott of the team continues.
As Kaval mocks a team with a payroll 38 percent higher than his own, the Athletics continue to have a staredown with Oakland that would make noted grifter David Samson – the chosen mouthpiece of the Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria from 2002 to 2017 and a key part of the Marlins securing public funding for their indoor-outdoor loanDepot Park – proud. The RingCentral Coliseum is a historical landmark, but part of history is knowing when to let it go. Oakland is desperately trying to get a new waterfront ballpark for $12 billion at a site at Howard Terminal, but an advisory board voted against the proposal in March, further hindering the process.
The Athletics are also exploring relocation as this goes on, clearly hoping to follow in the footsteps of the former Oakland Raiders to Las Vegas. After the advisory board voted against the Howard Terminal project, Kaval said: “…it demonstrates why it’s really been important for us to have parallel paths in both Las Vegas and in Oakland."
The reality is, Kaval knows what Fisher and the Athletics are doing is morally bankrupt. He’s currently riding around Oakland on a unicycle honking a bicycle horn hoping to distract from Oakland shedding payroll this offseason by trading Matt Chapman and Matt Olson, leaving them 29th in baseball in total payroll. Against all odds, the Athletics are 9-9 this year, but it’s not riveting baseball and they aren’t drawing attention.
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Kaval scheduled a debate with a local radio host to talk about how unfairly Oakland is covered in the Bay Area, he’s continuing to criticize media for unfair coverage, and as a quick aside he’s said the Athletics are choosing between a pair of sites in Las Vegas. That last part is probably unrelated to the media barrage he’s been going on.
All of this to say, Kaval is what happens when you put a frontman out solely to appeal to the lowest common denominator. He will continue to tweet from his bubble to try to distract from the insidious way the Athletics are operating their team. And he will continue to get dunked on, because that’s what Fisher wants from him. Regardless of how this plays out, Athletics fans deserve better. By extension, MLB fans do too.
