San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
A’s rivaling Lewis & Clark
John Fisher and Dave Kaval, the A’s owner and the team president, respectively, are the modern-day Lewis & Clark — on steroids.
I flunked history, but I’m pretty sure Lewis & Clark were sent to explore the western part of the continent because America wanted to expand into Mexico, but Mexico wouldn’t cut us a fair deal, making unreasonable demands about affordable housing. While negotiating that deal, our country decided to explore parallel paths, sending L&C West.
Brave fellows, Lewis & Clark, but they made only lousy journey. The A’s explorers have made Compared to Fisher & Kaval, Lewis & Clark were tourists in Bermuda shorts.
F&K hit Vegas on Wednesday and flew back to Oakland on Friday, in time for that evening’s A’s game against the Yankees.
The purpose of Expedition No. 5 was to expand the team’s horizons, adding at least one new site to the 20-plus sites the Oakland explorers have discovered.
There is an element of desperation to their search. The Coliseum site is shrinking, possibly due to global warming. The Coliseum once featured 9,000 parking spaces, but for a recent home game against the Giants, thousands of those parking spots had disappeared, forcing many fans to park off-site or wait hours in line.
Kaval said this was an example of “operational challenges” at the Coliseum, showing why the A’s “need a new ballpark in an urban site where parking can be dispersed, along with additional options for public transportation, bike and pedestrian traffic.”
Sure. When you go to a ballgame, concert, mall or big store, the last thing you want is to park right next to the place. You want to head out into the neighborhood in search of a dispersed parking spot. We, too, can be adventurous explorers!
Meanwhile, Oakland officials say the city and the A’s are super-close to a deal. One minor sticking point is which side will pay the $360 million for a community fund. Rock/paper/ scissors?
Until that minor detail gets ironed out, Vegas calls, and A’s fans will recall the reaction of Sacagawea, when Lewis & Clark told her the expedition would press on to the distant coast: “Seriously?”