World, this is Walter Haas Jr.
Haas bought the A's in 1980 for around $12 million. The A's were, at the time, the worst team in baseball. (In 1979, they went 54–108.) They had baseball's lowest attendance. The Coliseum, now 14 years old, was drab and showing wear. Oakland, meanwhile, was corkscrewing. The city was bleeding employers. Crime was surging. And its most important institutions all seemed to be abandoning it.
Charlie Finley—the man Haas bought the A's from—had been trying for several years to move the team to Denver. Al Davis was in the middle of suing the NFL for the right to move the Raiders to Los Angeles.
Things seemed bleak. Just a few years prior, Oakland had been the most successful sports town in America. Now it seemed to be dying. Many outside observers wrote both team and town thoroughly off. No doubt casual fans around the country would have bought the idea that the Oakland Coliseum was no longer a place worth investing in.
Haas—former president and CEO of Levi Strauss and Co.—said fuck that. He spent his own money to upgrade the Coliseum. He built up the organization, hiring the likes of Sandy Alderson, Andy Dolich, and, later, Billy Beane. He invested in the community. ("We built 10 little league fields in and around Oakland,” Dolich, an Executive VP, told me, for my book. “Reading programs. Affordability programs to bring little league groups and schools to games. We were partners with the Oakland Zoo. We tried to immerse ourselves in the community. That stuff makes people proud.”) And he compiled a roster full of stars (Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, hometown heroes Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson).
By the end of the 1980s, the A's were the very best team in baseball. They had baseball's second highest attendance. They had baseball's highest payroll and among its highest revenues. They went to three World Series in a row, beating the Giants in one. In 1987, Oakland hosted the All Star game.
Health failing, Haas sold the A's in 1995 for $85 million. The price was laughably low—Haas offered buyers a discount, in return for their promise that they keep the A's in Oakland—but it still constituted a massive return on that initial $12 million investment.
The idea that the A's, just ten years later, were not an organization worth investing in—that both baseball and business success could never be had in East Oakland—betrays an ignorance of history and a lack of imagination.
Fisher could have spent money on players in Oakland. He's a billionaire (richer than Haas was) who collected revenue-sharing checks nearly every year of his tenure. In 2017, he could have built a new stadium right at the Coliseum site. The Raiders were gone (again). He had the historic East Bay market to himself. He could have had what Haas had. He could have given Oakland what he's now giving Las Vegas. Oakland would have rewarded him for it.
Let us be frank about what happened: he chose not to.
That choice should not be accepted at face value. As Walter Haas's son, Wally, once told the @sfchronicle, it was, rather, "unforgivable."
I appreciate Evan's reporting here. It's an incredible about-face we're witnessing. But the history that was thrown away in Oakland is an important part of this story. Without it, the story's incomplete.
Republicans are launching yet another attack against former Special Counsel Jack Smith, this time for obtaining the phone records of U.S. Senators who tried to overthrow the government on January 6th.
RETWEET if you stand with Jack Smith against these unpatriotic attacks!
BREAKING: A Republican federal judge rubber-stamps a company's shocking plan to dump RADIOACTIVE waste into New York City's biggest river — over 45,000 gallons of the toxic stuff.
And it gets so much worse...
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has ruled that New York's "Save the Hudson" bill is unconstitutional and that the state does not have the power to block the company Holtec International from dumping discharge from a decommissioned nuclear facility into the river.
The incredibly popular and now-overturned bill was signed into law by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and banned the discharging of radiological substances from the Indian Point nuclear power plant. It was passed unanimously by both chambers of the state legislature.
According to Karas, that kind of life-saving regulation can only be enforced by the federal government. Given the fact that our federal government is controlled by Donald Trump, the most pro-corporate president in history, it's unlikely that the White House will step in.
Holtec may now proceed with its plan to dump 45,000 gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River even though over 100,000 Americans get their drinking water from it. A far better option would be to store the water in sealed containers at the site of the facility, but Holtec isn't interested in that option. They'd rather dump it and let innocent American citizens bear the cost. Of course, they insist that it's perfectly safe. If you believe that, we've got a bridge to sell you.
"The Hudson is the lifeblood of our region, a source of recreation, natural beauty and economic vitality, and we cannot allow it to become a dumping ground for radioactive waste," said Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. "Westchester residents, and all New Yorkers on both sides of the Hudson River, deserve better."
Rockland County Executive Ed Day pointed out that the "Save the Hudson Bill" has been a godsend for the local environment, and has contributed to the return of "bald eagles, sturgeon, and even dolphins."
"It's living proof of the river's remarkable recovery and ongoing health. Allowing Holtec to discharge contaminated water would undo decades of progress and be nothing short of a travesty for our environment, our communities, and future generations," he added.
It's grimly fitting that a Republican-appointed judge would deliver a ruling that endangers bald eagles. Conservatives love to drape themselves in the iconography of our country while actively working to destroy the country itself.
If America keeps electing Republicans, we can look forward to more and more of these kinds of corrupt rulings. The ultimate goal of American conservatism is to hand the country over entirely to corporations. They want to privatize profits while forcing the costs onto innocent Americans.
Please retweet and ❤️ if you will NEVER vote for a Republican!
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on today’s ruling: “We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.”
RETWEET if you stand with Justice Sotomayor!
@APompliano I don't get why you want to die on the no inflation hill... The pain has already started and it will continue as the tariffs seep into the cost of everything. https://t.co/Q5Y46jaHtu
Come and see the future (Now) of the proper application of blockchain technology!
Blockchain is for solving problems. This solves a BIG one. And it's easy, and obvious.
Really want to help us out tonight? Like/Retweet, but mostly just drop a comment! The algo it what it is!
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@DPodocasts Totally get it! Can't wait to see the final version! I tried out one of the beta versions about 6 months ago. I'm sure it's come a long way
They tell you that we have a spending problem, that we must suffer some pain to get our economy on track, and that we need to raise the retirement age, cut Medicaid, and cut food assistance to address our deficit.
Those are lies.
🧵
Let's put some $JKL to work! I will give 100GB of storage on https://t.co/VFK5DtZLqV to 100 people, forever, but as it is work on my end, will be some on your end as well. Simply need to like this tweet, comment, and make sure I have a way to contact you. No catch. None.