It’s been a wild week for Carolyn Goodman. One would think that the mayor of the city hosting Sunday’s Taylor Swift Super Bowl would not have the bandwidth to discuss anything but football. But because Ms. Goodman is apparently one of us, she found the time to go on a podcast and tell the A’s to remain in Oakland.
"I personally think [the A's have] got to figure out a way to stay in Oakland to make their dream come true," Goodman told the Front Office Sports Today podcast, which aired on Tuesday. "[The A's] really want to stay in Oakland. They want to be on the water. They have that magnificent dream and yet they can't get it done.”
"I just think there's an appetite [in Oakland]. I run into people from Oakland all the time,” Goodman added.” They want to keep the team and it's just the government up there. It costs money. I love the people from Oakland. I think they deserve to have their team."
Can you even imagine how mad the A’s nepo baby owner John Fisher was when he heard this? Or how annoyed Rob Manfred must have been to have to take time away from hilariously disciplining the guy who used to run the Mets for faking injuries to deal with this mess?
The A’s—who still play in Oakland, I think— have been trying to soft-launch themselves into Vegas this winter. It has not gone well! Fisher’s awkward appearance at a local businessperson conference last month was such a dud that the emcee was forced to ask if anyone in the crowd was still alive. Earlier this week, a Nevada teacher’s union sued to block the state from using taxpayer dollars to build a new baseball stadium on the Las Vegas strip. Even if that stadium gets built, it won’t happen for years. In the meantime, the A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum is up at the end of this season, and nobody knows where they’ll be playing in 2025.
Manfred, Fisher or one of their underlings must have made a frantic phone call to Goodman, because she (sort of!) walked back her comments in a statement she posted on her social media accounts a few hours after the podcast interview ran:
“I want to make it clear that I am excited about the prospect of Major League Baseball in Las Vegas, and it very well may be that the Las Vegas A’s will become a reality that we will welcome to our city,” Goodman wrote.
“…it is my belief that in a perfect world the ownership of the A’s would like to have a new ballpark on the water in Oakland and that the ownership and government there should listen to their great fans and try to make that dream come true.”
I’ve lived through several New York City and Los Angeles mayors in my adult life, some good, most bad. I’ve never worried much about what they have to say because every one of them has used the job as a stepping stone to something bigger; none have stuck around long enough to make much of a longterm difference.
This situation is different. While researching this piece, I learned that either Carolyn Goodman or her husband, Oscar, have been the mayor of Las Vegas since 1999. The Goodman reign will end in June, as Carolyn will have to retire due to term limits.
Every town has its peccadillos. But no place in America is wilder than Las Vegas. There’s just no way that a husband-and-wife team could run Vegas for 25 years and *not* have their fingers on the pulse of what the powerful people in that town want. And what they apparently do not want is the Oakland A’s.
Maybe they don’t think there’s much of an appetite for a summer game in a place where it’s 120 degrees from June through September. Maybe they have taken a look at the rosters John Fisher has put together over the past two decades and said, no thanks! Perhaps after recently adding the NHL and NFL, local politicians don’t want to go to taxpayers and ask for money for a baseball stadium.
Fifteen years ago, all these leagues avoided Vegas like it was… well, Vegas. Now, it seems like only a matter of time until MLB and the NBA expand there as well. Athletes betting on sports is going to metastasize into a cataclysmic epidemic, but, hey, there’s money for these leagues to make in the meantime! Nosebleed seats to the Super Bowl this weekend at Allegiant Stadium are going for over $6,000 on StubHub right now, because it seems like most of the city’s casinos control all the tickets.
If this sports-hungry town doesn’t want this baseball team, that’s pretty embarrassing for the A’s. Maybe the next mayor will show up in a few months and sing a different tune. But, gosh. The A’s moving to Las Vegas looks a lot less likely than it did a few months ago.
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Stories you may have missed this week
Rob Manfred suspended former Mets’ GM Billy Eppler for a full season for fabricating injuries during 2022 and 2023. Every team makes up phantom injuries to clear roster spots. My guess is a Mets player was placed on the IL without his consent and complained to the league.
Shohei Ohtani reported to spring training today. He was greeted by 50 or 60 reporters, which is roughly the amount of employed baseball writers left in America.
The Orioles have a new owner. Will this unf-k the Nationals’ television deal?
MLB is hoping to have a streaming service that features two dozen teams next season. This would be different than the current package offered by MLBTV, because no fans would be blacked out.
The Tampa Bay Rays extended the contracts of president of baseball operations Erik Neander and manager Kevin Cash.
Netflix will follow the 2024 Red Sox for an all-access docuseries. Somebody said it would be a true crime documentary about how they let Mookie Betts get away.
Jose Altuve signed a five-year extension to remain with the Astros.
MLB batting practice caps for the 2024 season debuted online. The Phillies hat goes especially hard.
The 2028 Olympics could include baseball. Honestly, I’m fine with just keeping the World Baseball Classic as the sport’s Olympics.
SCOTT BORAS CLIENT WATCH
Cody Bellinger remains unsigned. He’s only really been linked to the Cubs this off-season, but ESPN’s Jeff Passan doesn’t think the Cubs are desperate enough (yet) to meet Boras’ price.
Jordan Montgomery is also still a free agent. The Rangers are thought to be in the lead to re-sign him, but Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning Herald has his doubts on a reunion.
The Angels are keeping tabs on Blake Snell, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Heyman reports that the Yankees are out on Snell after he declined their initial offer.
The New York Post’s Mike Puma reports the Mets have been in touch with JD Martinez
The Giants are looking at Matt Chapman, according to Heyman. And his old manager Bob Melvin “would love him.”
GREAT BASEBALL NAME
The Reds have signed a prospect named Ichiro Cano Hernandez
That’s all for this week! I’ll see you guys in the Lab over Zoom tomorrow at noon PT.
Wellll ... You may well be right. But I think there's something that people may not be aware of. Carolyn Goodman is indeed the mayor of Las Vegas. In that position, that means she has nothing to do with the Strip. The Strip is not in the city of Las Vegas. It is in an unincorporated township, created in 1950 when the operators of the first hotel-casinos along the highway to LA, some of them mobsters, didn't want the city to annex them and didn't want to pay higher municipal taxes and fees. The unincorporated township actually is called Paradise--really!
Now, as mayor, she is a member of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which is important to this process. And she might have some influence there. But there's also a history of the mayors not being big fans of the Clark County Commission, which is the governing body with the most to say about this issue.
No community wants a bad team poisoning the well. Ms. Goodman has spoken favorably about Las Vegas as a baseball "expansion" city in the past, so it isn't about having a team. It is about having that particular owner coming in and stinking up the joint. To further touch on Mr. Green's point below, the city of Las Vegas has offered a different site for a stadium that would be in the city itself, rather than the unincorporated area along the Strip. So, there is a little unfriendly competition going on there as well.