The hot gossip at the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, Florida is that a ruling could come this week on the Oakland A's intentions to move the franchise to San Jose.
Baseball sleuths are sleuthing and gumshoes are getting their shoes gummed, as baseball writers and bloggers dig for dirt on whether the blue ribbon panel will give A's owner Lew Wolff the green-and-gold light to move his team to the South Bay.
One blogger at BallparkDigest.com says he's got the goods, and things don't look good for San Jose.
It's no secret that San Jose's Redevelopment Agency is in debt, while Oakland's is $20 million in the black. Because of this, BallparkDigest.com is reporting that the committee is leaning heavily toward keeping the A's in Oakland.
"That financing wherewithal is expected to carry a lot of weight," says the anonymous blog item. "The talk at the Winter Meetings is that an Oakland recommendation is now pretty much a done deal."
Major League Baseball immediately issued a strong denial of the report. "Despite reports or speculation to the contrary, Major League Baseball has not completed its study of the Oakland A's stadium matter," an MLB spokesman told the Chronicle's Susan Slusser. "No date has been determined for the committee to issue its findings."
The San Francisco Giants are strongly opposed to the A's move, as they own the territorial rights to the San Jose area.
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Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who doesn't understand why the Giants have the rights to San Jose when Oakland is technically the closer of the two cities.
