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A's Wolff to Giants: What's in a Name? |
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November 08, 2006 |
Los Angeles, November 8, 2006 – Is it true that the Pandora’s Box opened by Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim owner Arte Moreno is now ready to be exploited by A’s owner Lewis Wolff, who not only intends to move the team to a new stadium he will build in nearby Fremont, California, but will call it the “San Jose A’s of Fremont”? That way, Wolff gets the benefit of identifying his team with the largest city in the Bay Area, San Jose, and getting around the territorial claims of the San Francisco Giants to the San Jose area by placing his team in Fremont, now the fourth-largest city in the Bay Area and growing rapidly.
More A’s: do you remember that the A’s established a group to try and build a soccer-specific stadium with the idea of bringing MLS soccer back to the San Jose area . . . and that they opened an office in San Jose headed by longtime A’s marketing manager David Alioto? And where is that office? Right in the middle of downtown San Jose, where Alioto may be selling a lot more than soccer in the coming years!
>> More baseball: did you see that the Major League All-Star team of all American players – in shape and well rested – crushed the Japan All-Stars in a five-game sweep in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. Quite a turnaround from the World Baseball Classic, where Japan was crowned World Champion in March, but it’s worth asking if the host team was more interested in the parties than in the games!
>> Follow-up All-stars: Philadelphia first baseman Ryan Howard, still only 26, hit .556 against the Japanese with four homers in five games and won the Most Valuable Player award for the series. Howard is clearly the most underpaid player in the game at just $355,000 for the 2006 season in which he hit 58 home runs. Howard will be in his third year in 2007 and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2008 season.
>> Attention President George W. Bush: with the resignation of defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, can we suggest . . . New England Patriots coach Bill Belicheck? He’s an excellent leader, a good, meticulous planner and he never, never says anything of any interest to the press!
>> More NFL: the ESPN telecast of the Seattle-Oakland game on Monday night drew the smallest audience ever for Monday Night Football with just 9.9 million viewers. On a national basis, that’s a 6.8 national rating, but ESPN only reaches 72% of the nation’s households, so maybe it was actually worth a 9.4 rating over the entire nation . . . but then ESPN says it actually got an 8.2 in its own universe of addressable homes. Does this make any sense?
>> More NFL TV, true or false: the Oakland Raiders game at Denver on NBC on October 15 was the lowest-rated prime-time NFL telecast in history . . . so much for the Raiders as a Monday night draw.
>> Anniversary celebration: Banana Joe’s, the Tampa-area club in whose restroom two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were found canoodling one year ago, are offering free admission this week to anyone showing up in a cheerleader’s outfit!
>> More canoodling: ushers were on the lookout for any unusual activity at Seattle’s Qwest Field during the Seahawks game against Oakland last Sunday after an incident during the previous home game with Minnesota on October 22. Apparently, a local male deputy prosecutor was arrested after having an encounter in a women’s restroom stall! Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer looked into the matter and was told that a Sheriff’s deputy looked under the door after receiving a complaint and sure enough, there were four feet in there. Both the man and woman still had their clothes on, but the man was arrested for trespassing because as Moore was told, there’s no law against having sex in a restroom.
>> Last add, NFL, election results: Drew Brees’s mother, Mina Brees, was defeated in her race for a Texas appellate judgship against Republican David Puryear, losing 52%-48%. Ex-Tennessee star and Washington Redskins quarterback Health Shuler won election as a representative from North Carolina, and former Pittsburgh Steelers and USC star wide receiver Lynn Swann, running as a Republican, got skunked in the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race by long-time politician Ed Rendell.
>> L.A. story: a local referendum which would have allowed the Rose Bowl Operating Company to enter into a long-term agreement with the NFL was crushed by a 72-28% margin. Preservationists were against it because too much of the old bowl would be changed by an NFL-built stadium and residents near the stadium didn’t want any more events to inconvenience them on weekends. Preservationists may not be happy with what happens now, because the stadium faces severe funding and maintenance challenges with only a few events a year being held there: UCLA football, the Rose Bowl, the annual Fourth of July fireworks show and a few concerts.
>> College football team player: California’s Heisman Trophy-candidate running back, Marshawn Lynch, says he’s not that interested in going to New York for the Heisman Trophy award ceremony. Lynch told Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle that if he wins it, “I’d tell them to FedEx it to me.” Lynch, who told ABC television last week that his favorite book is Dr. Seuss’s “The Cat in the Hat.” is more proud of his 3.0 grade-point average at Cal since he barely maintained a 2.0 average in junior high school.
>> More Cal: Simmons asked some of the players their opinion of playing on grass at Arizona this week, a surface they haven’t seen since their disastrous loss at Tennessee in September. Most of the players weren’t worried, but offensive lineman Andrew Cameron had one concern: “If anything, it creates more work for our laundry people. Getting grass stains out can be tough.”
>> Coaching carousel: the tragic death of Miami Hurricane defensive tackle Bryan Pata yesterday is only another sorry chapter in the resume of soon-to-be ex-head coach Larry Coker, even though he had nothing to do with the incident. Is it true that there is a major split inside the office of Miami President Donna Shalala, whether to hire former Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez – who Shalala hired when she was Chancellor at Wisconsin – or previous Miami miracle-worker Butch Davis, who may take the open North Carolina job if someone from the 305 area code doesn’t start dialing fast!
>> Danger zone: 7-1 USC starts a very tough four-game run to end their season, but all of the games will be in Los Angeles. The Trojans play Oregon this week at the Coliseum, Cal next week, followed by Notre Dame at home and then UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Troy needs to win all four or they won’t be playing in January for the first time in six years. Even with an added BCS game this season, a Cal win puts the Bears in the Rose Bowl and even with a win over Notre Dame, a 10-2 USC squad is not as attractive as the 10-2 Irish for a spot in the Sugar Bowl. Bruce “the Moose” Tenen foresees Ohio State and Florida for the national championship, Cal and Michigan in the Rose, Texas and Boise State in the Fiesta, Notre Dame and Auburn in the Sugar and ACC champ Georgia Tech and one-loss Louisville in the Orange. All that would be left for USC would be a re-match with Nebraska in San Diego at the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl on December 28.
>> Counting the cash: in last night’s 95-88 loss to the Lakers, Minnesota’s 7-foot All-Star, Kevin Garnett played 39 minutes, had 26 points, nine rebounds and five assists. But he once again lacked enough support to make the Timberwolves a winner. Looking at the Wolves’ payroll, we noticed that Garnett will make $21 million this season and that the rest of his starting five: Mike James, Ricky Davis, Trent Hassell and Mark Blount, will make $22 million combined. Last night, while Garnett had 26 and nine, the other four starters combined for 31 points and 12 rebounds . . . at least for Minnesota, you get what you pay for.
~ Rich Perelman
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