You'd think that by now there would be some major public outcry from city officials over the Oakland A's intentions to move the team out of Oakland.
Now there is. But it's coming from San Francisco city officials.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has sent a six-page, "I'll see your rear end in court" letter to Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, and former fraternity brother with Oakland A's owner Lew Wolff, the San Francisco Business Times reports. In it, Herrera cites a "grave concern" over the infringing on the Giants' territorial rights if the A's were to move to San Jose.
"Tampering with the Giants’ established territorial rights would be just the sort of action that the city believed Major League Baseball was in effect promising it would not do,” Herrera reportedly says in the letter. “I write to you now to make clear up front the legal concerns I have on behalf of the city should Major League Baseball tamper with the Giants’ territorial rights."
This is just the kind of fight East Bay fans have been itching for officials to pick. They just thought it might come form, you know, Oakland city officials. Chip Johnson pines for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to do just that in a Chronicle editorial.
"To date, Dellums has never identified a key issue and run with it from start to finish," Johnson writes. "But the ballpark issue is a chance to reinvent himself once more and salvage a victory from three years under a recession that began soon after he took office."
Expect to hear just chirping crickets from Dellums on this effort. The loud guy banging the drum in the stands at this game is San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera.
Sports
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who finds it curious that during this fight for the A's, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is doing holiday toy drives with San Jose sports teams.
