Oakland Makes Bad Situation With the A's Even Worse

Messing with the A's is sort of like messing with my emotions.

A friend of mine who likes the Raiders, A's and Warriors is fretting that Oakland will lose ALL our major league franchises because we just keep screwing up! You may remember just before Christmas a story about Lew Wolff, the A's owner who wants to move the team to San Jose, writing a letter to the city offering to renew his lease with the City of Oakland to keep the American League West Division champions at the Coliseum for another five years.

I remember feeling a sigh of relief. At least five more years for the A's in Oakland, especially after the sensational 2012 season. Right?

Then it turns out that City Administrator Deanna Santana accused Wolff of leaking the letter to the press about the lease renewal instead of sending it to city, county and coliseum officials. Wolff got furious and produced proof that he had sent this letter to Major Jean Quan, the council and public officials.

Now Ms Santana is eating crow with an apology that due to "human error" she missed Wolff's email when it was sent on Dec 21. So on Monday night she takes a shot at Wolff, telling Oakland boosters Wolff never sent that letter to Oakland leaders, he just released it to the press. Then on Tuesday Wolff refutes Santana with proof he did what he was supposed to, not what she had accused him of doing. Today we're back to the negotiations the A's and City and coliseum must navigate to keep this wonderful team in our city.

What is wrong with our city leaders? How can they be so bloody-minded, taking unnecessary shots at our A's?

The Mercury News has an account of this shabby affair. I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts on this turn of events. I'm a little too sick to my stomach to write more about it right now (yes, I *do* take baseball a little too seriously, I know). PS - as I finished up this piece and went to the little "tag" box to categorize this piece, I see I'm clicking "Oakland" and "Baseball" and "A's" and..."City Council" and "Politics." It's a little telling, and even more frustrating to me...politics shouldn't get in the way of baseball. Grrrr.