and that since the team rakes in pretty good money through broadcasting, owner Lew Wolff's cries of poverty are not quite the case.
Still, I can understand not breaking the bank on free agents. But it comes at a risk. What Bruce Jenkins writes from September of last year is even more spot-on after the off-season:
This type of revolving-door thinking can play hell with the fan base. For those aware that the A’s make a ton of money, and have an obscenely wealthy co-owner in John Fisher, the endless transition is inexcusable. But there are matters of the heart, as well.
In the wake of the Céspedes trade, Berkeley resident Walt Cecka wrote in an e-mail, “My two middle-school girls have grown up as A’s fans these last three years, and all of a sudden, the buzz is gone. All of their Oakland-born and raised friends feel the same way. Not only did they lose the player that brought the cool and the buzz, but they lost faith in the family aspect of a team. The next generation of A’s fans doesn’t care about OPS, or WAR, or name your sabermetric.”
A longtime Oakland resident, Gail Erb, wrote, “I never get too attached to any A’s player, because I know what’s going to happen. I don’t feel so tentative about becoming attached to Buster Posey or Madison Bumgarner or Joe Panik. Chances are good I’ll be seeing them in black and orange. I just really enjoy rooting for specific players and watching them develop — or self-destruct — over the arc of their careers.” Those are words ownership needs to hear ...
Beane has been remarkably lucky to reload on what seems to be a whim, season after season. As Jenkins concludes:
... but the standings in recent years speak volumes about the Beane-Melvin partnership. And don’t forget that the heart of the A’s fan base is as loyal and passionate as anything the Warriors have experienced over the decades. When the A’s landed in Oakland after being swept by the Angels in Anaheim last month, they were greeted by hundreds of green-and-gold-clad fans in a “welcome home” mood outside the terminal gate — and a lot of those people go back to 1968, the days of Danny Cater and Chuck Dobson, when the team arrived from Kansas City.
If they win, all will be forgotten I guess.
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