Scott's Blog
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Musings about Baseball and Other Stuff
Scott's Blog
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So Long, Silver and Black
The big news here in the Bay Area this week has been the overwhelming approval (31-1) of the NFL owners for the Oakland Raiders’ move to Las Vegas. A lot of folks around here are not happy. As a relatively recent transplant to the area, I admit to having very little emotional attachment to the Raiders – or to the 49ers, for that matter, who, despite playing 52 miles away, purport to represent the city in which I live – but I still think this sucks. Raiders fans are some of the most passionate in all of sports, and they’ve been burned twice now. They lost their team to Los Angeles in 1982, only to get it back 12 years later. Most forgave that time, but surely many will not a second time. It’s easy to be cynical about pro sports teams. Guys paid a lot of money to wear a uniform compete against guys paid a lot of money to wear another uniform, and we’re supposed to care because one of those uniforms happens to have the name of our city embroidered on it. Next year a lot of those guys will be wearing a different city’s name. But there’s more to it than that. Sports teams create a sense of community; a shared experience. A local news report featured a Raider-themed bar in an Oakland neighborhood, where many friendships have been forged over a shared passion for the team. The Raiders were a triangulation point to bring people together, and how could that be a bad thing? I suppose that bar will still show Las Vegas Raiders games on Sundays, and some folks will still get together to watch, but I imagine it will never feel the same. Fan sentiment has ranged from “I’ll back the Raiders wherever they play” to “I will never watch another game or spend another dime on them.” The move is still at least one, and possibly two, seasons away. It will be very interesting to see what happens to their usual sellout crowds in the meantime. Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was the only No vote at the owner's meeting. He said, "My position today was that we as owners and as a League owe it to the fans to do everything we can to stay in the communities that have supported us until all options have been exhausted." It's tough to say whether Ross is the only one who gets it or the only one who doesn't get it. Of course, this is all about money. On the one hand, it’s hard to fault a business owner for making a decision that will help the bottom line. On the other, that business owes its very success to the loyalty of its fans, and taking their team away is a just plain shitty thing to do. People are saying that the Raiders will have a hard time growing a local fan base in Vegas (the same thing they’re saying about the new NHL team), and maybe that’s true. But when going to a pro football game becomes one more thing to do in Sin City, people will come. Al Davis and the Raiders will be fine. But a lot of people in Oakland will be hurting over this for a long time.
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Another Season in the "Other" City by the Bay
Today’s the first day of Spring and less than two weeks to Opening Day. And two days ago, I officially began my fourth season as a member of the Oakland Athletics team. After moving to San Francisco and needing to find a job, I was looking through some postings on Craig’s List and came across something called “Oakland Athletics Event Staff.” Intrigued, I sent an application and, long story short, I got the job. The position has evolved a bit over the years. I’m now known as a “Guest Services Ambassador.” Essentially, though, the main objective of the position has stayed the same: to make attending an A’s game the best experience it can be for our fans. We staff the information booths, answer questions, give directions, write out first-game certificates for kids, pitch in taking tickets or ushering when necessary, and a number of other little things to be the jacks-of-all-trades on game day. And it’s the most fun I’ve ever had while getting paid. There’s nothing like the buzz of a Major League ballpark on game day, and I’ve yet to get tired of it. Most folks are in a good mood – they’re at a baseball game, after all – and those that aren’t, well, part of the job is to turn that mood around by fixing whatever has them upset. It’s very gratifying. The best part of the job? Handing a random kid in the right field nosebleed seats a genuine MLB baseball, just because I can. The team has been struggling the past couple years, but there’s new management and a palpable sense of optimism this year. Plus, we’ve been told that an announcement regarding a new ballpark in Oakland will be coming soon. I think it’s going to be an exciting season. I’ll be honest; the money’s not great. But I’m fortunate that my other, more lucrative job is flexible enough for me to keep this one. It’s convenient (public transportation can get me from my house in SF’s Sunset District to the Coliseum without my even having to cross a street), and for a Baseball geek like me, there’s no better place to be. As a direct employee of a Major League ball club, every season I sign the same arbitration agreement and drug-testing policy that the players do. It’s silly, I know, but that makes me grin every time. Actually, so does just walking into the stadium to start my shift. I hope that never goes away. If you’re ever in Oakland and want to catch a game, I’ll hook you up! Welcome to the all-new BaseballTrips.net!
Well, not really all new. It’s mostly the same content from the old site, copied and pasted over to this nicer, more professional-looking (and much easier to edit) home. Except that, due to a malfunctioning external hard drive, I’d been unable to make any changes to the old site since 2011. I finally got off my duff and did something about that, and here we are. I hope you like the new look. As you navigate through the site, you’ll notice that many of the pages document when we visited a particular venue and little else. We plan to remedy that. We’ll dig up old photos, write some new comments about our experiences, and little by little, you’ll start seeing a lot more content here. Please bear with us; it’ll be a slow and gradual process. But we hope you’ll pop in every now and then to see what’s new. Those of you who remember the old site may recall that I kept a blog over there too. While setting up this new site, I meticulously copied every entry and re-posted them here, one by one. An instant archive, if you will. Then, when I finally shut off the old site and transferred the domain here, all of those entries somehow vanished in the process. And stupid me didn’t save copies elsewhere. So, unless I’m somehow able to resurrect that aforementioned dead hard drive, it’s all lost. I was pissed off about that for about a minute, but then figured all I can do now is make a new start. It’s a new site with a new look and a new blog -- a blank slate. I hope to make the most of it. My past track record, blogging wise, included several short bursts of enthusiasm in between long periods of inactivity. I’m not going to pretend I’ll be here every day forever, but hopefully this time around I’ll put in the effort a little more consistently. And a bit of feedback and comments from you, dear readers (if I have any) will help me stay engaged. Thanks in advance. Spring is here, the Cubs are the reigning World Series Champions, and I’m finally rebooting BaseballTrips.net. Life is good. See you at the ballpark! |