An interesting column from Sonoma County's Press Democrat: "Wolff knows, right now, exactly what he wants to do with the Oakland A's. It's to move the team to Las Vegas unless the Bay Area trips over itself to keep the team...."

I share his conclusion that if Wolff cannot make an attractive deal for a stadium in the Bay Area, Las Vegas would be an excellent choice for their next home. Personally, since I spend time in both the Bay Area and Vegas, I would be happy either way.

Wolff's A's will gather no moss
Friday, April 1, 2005

By BOB PADECKY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

In Greek mythology Sisyphus is the sinner condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill, only to have the boulder roll back down every time he reaches the top.

Funny, but I don't see Lewis Wolff, the front man for the new Oakland A's ownership group, lasting that long with his boulder.

His boulder was Charlie Finley's, and Walter Haas', and Steve Schott's and Ken Hofmann's. His boulder, in general, is selling baseball in a non-baseball town, elevating it to an essential item of existence even though no one has done that. In the specific, it's believing a brand-new $300 million stadium is all that the Oakland Athletics need to get off food stamps and live in the high-rise like so many others, even though no one has placed their money alongside that vision.

Is Wolff willing to gamble he's the guy who can make all that happen? Well, Wolff didn't get to be a mega real estate magnate by gambling. He doesn't make it up as he goes along. He doesn't get trapped the way his old fraternity brother, Bud Selig, did a couple of years ago when the teams ran out of players at the All-Star Game and he threw up his hands, confused at what to do next.

Wolff knows, right now, exactly what he wants to do with the Oakland A's. It's to move the team to Las Vegas unless the Bay Area trips over itself to keep the team. It's not to play the fool. It's not to be Schott and Hofmann, whining they are tired of squeezing water out of a rock. Whatever joy the A's achieved by making the playoffs was crushed by Schott and Hofmann claiming they couldn't keep this up much longer.

It's not to be the Haas family, saying they poured millions into the franchise only for good money to turn into a bad investment.

It's not to be Finley who poured maybe a teacup of cash - and complained even that was too much.

Wolff is not likely to engage in such unending melodrama. He will not cry out for public money because he knows there is none, not after the Raider deal soured and closed everyone's pocketbooks in the East Bay. He will not clamor for San Jose unless he - and John Fisher, the money behind the new group - woo Peter Magowan with a $100 million donation to Magowan's favorite ballpark in the name of territorial rights.

Wolff will make himself a moving target, not a stationary punching bag. In the beginning, he won't bring up Las Vegas. He'll push Oakland and a new stadium to be built in the parking lot at the Coliseum. He'll say he has investors to put up the money and all he asks in return is someone help him with a new hotel near the Oakland Airport, so bereft the area is of a four-star hotel. It'll be good for the community, he'll claim. Create more jobs, tourist dollars and tax base.

Wolff will do all that lapel tugging until he's certain the A's, when the tire has to meet the road, do not have a grip on the community. Why build a new stadium to have 6,000 people in it because the A's that year happen to be 10 games under .500.

Wolff will remember those 1992 playoffs against Toronto when the A's failed to sell out a single home game. Wolff will remember that the A's couldn't even meet the Bay Area standard: fans show up only for winners.

Wolff then will decide he's had enough. Peter Gammons, in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, predicts it will happen by next winter.

The X Factor in all of this is that the A's have never been on the cusp of relocation. To this point, it's all been conversation. We know mountains can be moved if the moment is white-hot; look at what happened when the Giants almost were sent to Tampa.

So bet on this: Wolff will move quickly. He will make the moment white-hot. He's 69; he doesn't have time to fiddle. He's accomplished. He is not Sisyphus. One way or another, the boulder will be moved.