San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)

Fisher’s baseball legacy rests on where A’s end up

- JOHN SHEA

Will A’s owner John Fisher join the list of owners who yanked their profession­al sports teams from California regions for greener and greedier pastures?

Oakland has already lived this nightmare, twice, thanks to the Davis family — with Al moving his Raiders to Los Angeles and his kid, Mark, pulling a like father, like son job by relocating the Raiders to Las Vegas.

Donald Sterling, one of the most appalling owners in history — any era, any sport — and Dean Spanos moved the Clippers and Chargers from San Diego to Los Angeles, and Georgia Frontiere took her L.A. Rams to St. Louis long before they became the L.A. Rams again.

Except for Al Davis, none were in it for their love of the game, and in each case, fans got burned. Now Fisher either wants to join this ensemble or simply is threatenin­g to do so to claim a sweetheart land developmen­t deal from Oakland and its citizenry.

Fisher’s legacy in the Bay Area will be solidified soon enough as he decides whether to stay in Oakland, save baseball in Oakland, embrace Oakland, empower Oakland ... or follow Mark Davis to the desert.

Friday, Oakland revealed a financial plan drasticall­y differing from the team’s proposal, especially regarding infrastruc­ture financing tax districts and affordable housing. A vote is set for Tuesday for the City Council to decide whether it backs the team’s plan for a waterfront developmen­t project.

A “no” vote would give Fisher an excuse to bail on Oakland. Unless he’s bluffing. Or unless he concludes it won’t work for him in Oakland and he decides to sell the team and pocket another billion dollarsplu­s.

That might be a perfect scenario for A’s fans and Major League Baseball and give way to a strong and dynamic leadership group — perhaps one featuring Dave Stewart — that would be loyal to Oakland and interested in making the team something other than a constant underdog at every level.

However, Fisher has given no indication he wants to sell, which means the A’s could continue working as a lowrentdis­trict outfit, even in a new ballpark generating highrentdi­strict revenues.

We’ve seen no other side of Fisher, who hasn’t come close to giving a contract to a player as big as one his predecesso­rs gave Eric Chavez, $66 million over six years. That deal was consummate­d an alarming 17 years ago, and it remains the largest in franchise history.

The latest example of Fisher’s nickelandd­iming prompted popular shortstop Marcus Semien (now an AllStar with Toronto) to exit. It could push Matt Olson and Matt Chapman out the door, too, a case of history repeating itself for a team that remains savvy on the baseball operations side but has much to learn about marketing and PR.

Fisher continues to sit back and watch Dave Kaval and even MLB Commission­er Rob Manfred speak on his behalf. That’s a questionab­le way to win people over if the aim is to be rooted in Oakland — as opposed to being uprooted from Oakland.

We’re still waiting for a decent explanatio­n why a ballpark village wouldn’t work at the Coliseum site. We’re still waiting for owners around baseball to say they support turning over all of Northern California to the Giants. We’re still waiting for reasons why it’s wise to move a team from the sixth largest market to the 40th largest.

On the other hand, if Fisher works out an agreement for Howard Terminal that doesn’t further bankrupt Oakland (a la Al Davis), and if his project leads to needed jobs in the community, revenue for the city and a thriving waterside hub, and if he dumps money into payroll to genuinely compete with the Giants for Bay Area entertainm­ent dollars, then he would deserve praise.

But if Fisher fails to get it done and blames the city for not delivering him his waterfront palace, he’ll forever be remembered as the guy who lost the A’s, wiped out an East Bay institutio­n and turned his back on Oakland.

Charlie Finley, Horace Stoneham and Bob Lurie are the only other local baseball owners to threaten to let their teams bolt from the Bay. All stayed, so their legacies are intact here, though maybe not in Kansas City for Finley and especially not in New York for Stoneham, the cities from where the A’s and Giants came.

Before any teams could exit Oakland or San Francisco, investors stepped up and kept them in place, so the owners’ names aren’t mud.

The future of the A’s are in Fisher’s hands, and if he determines the Bay Area is an exit and not a destinatio­n, and if he wants to be in company with the Davises, Sterling, Spanos and Frontiere, that’s entirely on him.

 ?? Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics/Getty Images 2016 ?? A’s owner John Fisher has let sidekick Dave Kaval and Commission­er Rob Manfred do his talking.
Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics/Getty Images 2016 A’s owner John Fisher has let sidekick Dave Kaval and Commission­er Rob Manfred do his talking.
 ?? Michael Zagaris/Getty Images 2018 ?? A’s owner John Fisher has stayed largely out of sight during the team’s latest ballpark saga.
Michael Zagaris/Getty Images 2018 A’s owner John Fisher has stayed largely out of sight during the team’s latest ballpark saga.

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