Follow The Bouncing Ball

 The Raiders left. 

The Warriors left. 

Now it looks likely that the Athletics will be leaving. 

Sports. Who really needs them, after all?

Ask the families of the folks who work at any of the venues at which these teams play their games. The security. The parking attendants. The lady who sells those foam fingers that every kid has to have once. Revenue that used to come pouring through the pipeline into Oakland-based coffers has now ceased. A couple of preseason and eight regular season games for the Raiders. Forty-one regular season NBA games are now being played across the bay in San Francisco. The Oakland A's are the holdouts. But for how much longer?

Not every city with a major league sports team has a relaxed and supportive relationship with one another. Tax breaks and zoning and all that fiscal stuff has to be discussed and agreed upon in order for a show as big as major league anything to take place on a regular basis. Anywhere. There are plenty of cities that are anxious to see an established team move from its home and take up residence in their back yard, even if means a little inconvenience like constructing a new stadium near public transportation and existing revenue streams that won't get choked with all that sports money when it starts flowing through. 

I was never a fan of the Oakland Raiders, but I did find my way to a few games over the years. I was a lot more interested in the Golden State Warriors. I confess that they did "The Town" proud by bringing a few championships home, and they generally seemed interested in their place within the community. The Oakland A's were the first major league sports team that I made a habit of attending their games. It became a bit of a tradition that my son and I would catch at least one game a season, around Father's Day, at which point we would drag home a couple souvenir plastic tumblers to add to our collection. Maybe even a bobblehead. 

Now the city and the Athletics' ownership can't seem to figure out a way to stay together. It's not like this was a forever thing in the first place. The team was established in Philadelphia back in 1901, where they played until 1955 when they made the jump halfway across the country and landed in Kansas City. It wasn't until 1968 that they became the Oakland Athletics. Fifty years and a few World Series later, it would appear that it may be time to pack up the bats, balls, and gloves and head to more favorable climes. Somewhere like Portland, or Nashville, or Montreal. Or maybe just down the highway to a new baseball only stadium on the Oakland waterfront. How hard could that be? If you could figure out the infield fly rule, why couldn't you figure out a way to stay put? 

To paraphrase Robert Frost, "nothing green and gold can stay."