Can the A's Succeed in Oakland?

During the Giants and A’s series in San Francisco, KNBR host Damon Bruce posed this question to the Saturday morning audience:  "What will it take to make the A’s work in Oakland." The idea of the A’s leaving Oakland is not feasible right now. No city, not San Jose, not Fremont, can take on the multi-million dollar project of building a stadium and infrastructure to lure a professional team, not with the current state of local economies and budgetary constraints. So how can the A’s thrive in the City of Oakland?

The first answer is the one everyone’s been screaming for years. The A’s need a new stadium. This is without a doubt the number one issue facing the A’s. Anyone who loves baseball, or even casually likes it, can tell you the Coliseum is a horrible place to watch baseball. The outfield sight lines are horrible. The infield seats, while providing a great view of the game, are too distant from the field, especially for today’s fans who are accustomed to breathing on the batter’s neck. While the atmosphere of the stadium doesn’t take away from the stadium, it definitely doesn’t add anything. Let’s not mention the neighborhood in which the ballpark resides. Definitely not conducive to the modern baseball fan’s desire to visit restaurants, shop and hang out around the park before and after games.

But a new ballpark only does so much. New parks with empty seats are scattered across the country. Fans will come to see the new digs, try the new entertainment options, and take pictures around the new landmarks for the first season, but come season two, there has to be something keeping them coming. This something has to appeal to casual fans because die-hard fans can be counted today in the 7th inning of a windy night game when the Royals are in town.

To succeed in a new park, the A’s need a product on the field that appeals to family of 4 who may only watch 2-3 games a year. The A’s need a team who has identifiable players, charismatic players who fans want to hang out with as much as they want to see play a game. (Speaking of which, why is Coco Crisp not on every billboard in Oakland, on every commercial during an A’s broadcast? Is there a more underrated spokesperson for a team than Mr. Crisp? The name, the smile, the hair and he’s an exciting ballplayer. Get this man some press!) The A’s need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. No, I’m not talking about "sex"-ing up the team, but my solution may be just as controversial.

Fire Billy Beane.

Let me explain before the torches are lit. Billy Beane is an amazing baseball mind. Moneyball changed the way baseball teams were run. The string of success he experienced with the Big Three can’t be overstated. He handled soon-to-be free agents just about as well as any GM could have hoped. Today, the A’s are poised to make a run at the West despite a payroll that ranks last in the division (less than half of the Angels payroll) and 21st in the Major Leagues.

Then again, he hasn’t been perfect. He chose one big name to keep around from that first era, and Eric Chavez wasn’t the correct guy. Who would have been best is hard to say, but Chavez wouldn’t be in the debate. Also, for a team who’s struggling to score runs, it’s hard to defend a GM who traded away Andre Ethier and Carlos Gonzalez for players who aren’t making any contributions to the current club. Even harder to defend when the team hasn’t made the playoffs in 5 years.

But why replace him? Billy Beane is a smart guy. He’s always after a challenge. One of the reasons he’s stayed in Oakland is that challenge. He likes to build a winner without a budget. Having a $100 Million dollar budget (modest in today’s landscape) would take all the fun out of it for Beane. He wants to be the smartest guy in the room, the guy who raced your brand new Ferrari with a car he built in his garage and won. There’s nothing wrong with that, and for loyal fans who watch 162 games a year, it’s endearing. He’s busting his ass to make this team what it is, and you can identify with that.

The problem is the casual fan doesn’t know that. The casual fan doesn’t know that Josh Willingham could be Jayson Werth in disguise (this year they look surprisingly similar, not in a good way). The casual fan doesn’t know that Anderson-Cahill-Gonzalez can compete side by side with any Lincecum-Cain-Sanchez, Greinke-Marcum-Gallardo or (dare I say) Halladay-Lee-Oswalt. The casual fan looks at a roster of names they’ve never heard (although that Coco Crisp sounds familiar) and a team that’s hovering around .500 in a stadium that no one likes. The casual fan will never understand or care about the principles of Moneyball and the craft of building a competitive team with a small budget.

Beane needs to embrace the idea of spending money. He needs to bring in a face for the franchise, or at least develop one and pay him. Beane needs to allow the payroll to grow, to play on the same field as other teams, even if it’s only in the middle of the pack and not at the front. The problem is, that’s not what Billy Beane wants to do. Sadly, that’s why Billy Beane needs to be fired for the A’s to succeed in Oakland.

Mario Rubio is a lifelong Giants fan and A’s season ticket holder. Normally, you can find him writing about craft beer but his love for baseball as well as beer inspired this piece on the A’s.