Instead of condemning C.J. Wilson, maybe the Oakland Athletics should take a few notes on his critique of O.co Coliseum.
While he was introduced as the Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher Friday night, Wilson heard boos from the smattering of fans spread around the Coliseum.
After all, he was pitching on a mound that was rebuilt after an Oakland Raiders exhibition football game just 24 hours earlier and on a field where all of the yard markers were clearly visible on the grass. And those boos? They weren’t very loud.
His comments should sting only because they are, well, accurate. Sometimes the truth hurts like a ball-peen hammer on your hand.
This what Wilson said Wednesday in a rambling manner when asked by the Texas media about the ample foul territory at the Coliseum:
“I hate pitching there. The mound sucks, the fans suck. There’s no fans there. It’s too bad because the fans that are there are really adamant and they’re really stoked on the team and they play drums and they wave flags and that’s cool. But, you know, some games you go there and there’s like 6,000 people there. It’s kind of sad because it’s a major league team and there’s guys out there that are obviously pretty good players — guys like (Trevor) Cahill and Gio Gonzalez, obviously they are All-Star pitchers — and I just wish that the fan base supported them a little bit more.”
And what is the problem?
Everything Wilson said was accurate, give or take a few thousand on his attendance total. But he’s on the right track there, too, considering that in the past decade the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, who are 80 miles up I-80, have outdrawn the A’s on nights they were both home. The A’s attendance Friday sure seemed less than the announced crowd of 20,288.
Adding fuel to Wilson’s fire is beginning next season the A’s will be the only team sharing a field with an NFL team. That’s because the Florida Marlins will move into a new baseball-only facility in downtown Miami.
You can debate whether the Marlins, who draw fewer flies than the A’s, deserve a new ballpark. The fact is the A’s are left with the worst stadium situation in Major League Baseball. The Coliseum is neither historic (like Fenway Park or Wrigley Field) nor monumental (like AT&T Park or Petco Park). It is a concrete monolith. Yes, worse than the domed blunder in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The problem is that isn’t going to change any time soon. A’s owner Lew Wolff wants to build a baseball facility, but only in the south Bay. He has been waiting years for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to let him turn a shove. And after Oakland erected the Coliseum’s center-field stands for Al Davis almost 20 years ago, no one is giving the Raiders a new building – unless he decides to move back to Los Angeles for the new NFL stadium that recently got the green light in that city.
Regardless, the A’s and Raiders are stuck with each other at the Coliseum for at least the next few years, continuing to make a bad situation worse. Davis isn’t going to make any improvements for 10 dates a year. Any improvements at the Coliseum will be left to Wolff.
Yes, the General Manager Billy Beane tried to upgrade the roster before this season. Yes, A’s have marketed their butts off with deals galore to get the fans into the park. But the team is mired in another losing season with a the 29th worst home attendance in baseball – right above those darned Marlins.
So instead vilifying Wilson, maybe the A’s should listen closer to what he had to say. It wouldn’t hurt for hte A’s to hear a different point of view on their operation.
Hey, isn’t that how Beane made his reputation as a great G.M., building a team from a different perspective?
Rangers’ Wilson rips Athletics’ fans, mound [ESPN]
