While Oakland’s termination of Bob Geren earlier this week has some observers wondering just how much longer Billy Beane will remain interested in his current position, the SF Examiner’s Glenn Dickey saves greater ire for A’s owner Lew Wolff, whom he dubs “the worst owner in modern Bay Area sports history.”
Wolff and John Fisher, his money man, have taken the A’s from a perennially contending team which drew more than 2 million people a year and turned it into an also-ran which is near the bottom in attendance each year. Not easy, but Wolff has been determined to run down the franchise so he can argue that he should be allowed to move to San Jose.
This is the way Wolff wants it. He’s done everything he can to force attendance down, closing off almost all the upper deck, ending the popular Fan Fest, sending out media emails prior to seasons saying he has no interest in Oakland. Though he and Fisher are, according to Forbes magazine, the fourth-richest owners in baseball, they’ve spent no money on comforts for fans, content to collect revenue-sharing money from other clubs each year.
The South has tornadoes, the East Coast has hurricanes, Oakland has Lew Wolff.
A’s players should blow that pic of Wolff up to a lifesized cardboard standup and strip off pieces of his clothes every time they win a game.