This past weekend, Oakland was the star of America for 15 minutes. First, the release of Moneyball introduced the world to one of the greatest underdog stories the sport of baseball has ever seen. The movie is centered around Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's, and his breakthrough theory of using Saber-metrics for baseball in order to win at a truly unfair game. As the amazing reviews continued to roll in, the Oakland Athletics had incredible comeback victories in the 8th and 9th innings over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (their rival) to continue to show the league that even though they are out of the playoff hunt, they are still trying to win games for their organization. Next, the Oakland Raiders defeated the New York Jets in a dominating performance at the O.Co Colliseum in Oakland, exemplifying to the league that Raider Nation is back and they are not to be messed with. Finally, Rick Welts was hired as the President of Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors by basketball legend Jerry West. For those who don't know, Welts is the first openly gay executive in sports and he recently resigned from his position in Arizona in order to move closer to his partner in Sacramento. Not only does this show the progress of sports in general; but it shows how willing the Warriors are to judge a person by character rather than sexuality.
During the introductory press conference for Welts he proclaimed, "Today, I am the luckiest guy on the face of the earth," taking a page from Yankee great Lou Gherig. Welts left a relatively conservative Phoenix Suns team for one of the NBAs hottest and most progressive franchises, and with that he hopes to take the Warriors somewhere they havent been in over 30 years, a championship. "He's a superstar," said Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob. "Seriously. One of the very best." As the professional sports teams in Oakland continue to find their way, the city itself has been going through somewhat of a cultural renaissance as well. Jack London Square recently went through a significant gentrification by adding beautiful waterfront condos and a some new hot spot bars, Downtown Oakland has been expanding because of new upstart companies like Pandora, Sungevity, and Bright Source, and if the MLB realizes the gold mine in front of them by advising the team to build the new stadium on the water in Oakland, not only will it be the most beautiful park in baseball (Sorry AT&T) but it will give Oakland a chance to be the greatest comeback city in America (Sorry Detroit).
A new waterfront stadium in Oakland would give anyone and everyone a reason to visit Oakland instead of just being "that town next to SF". Oakland has had a very rough history; it has been riddled with violence and crime for the past 30 years but because of that tragic history people are so damn adamant to proclaim its wonder. Every person I know from Oakland has the same passion and love for our city because we all want it to grow out its unfortunate stereotype. We want people to check out Jack London, and the hills, and Downtown because we want people to see what we see, we want people to feel what we feel. With that being said, we absolutely need to focus on our schools as well as the crime but those issues take a long time to fix and also need a lot of money to help settle. Which is why I'm begging the MLB to make a decision on the new stadium... We have been waiting a dreadfully long 2 1/2 years to see what will be the future will be for our team and our city. And yes it IS the future of our city because if the A's move out of town, why wouldn't the other teams move? The Raiders will go to LA to get a new stadium, the Warriors will move to SF for a bigger market, and Oakland will be left with nothing. And if that does end up happening, Oakland will have no choice but to face its history and just be that town next to SF. So Oakland fans, stand up. Bay Area fans, stand up. Underdog fans, stand up and give this city its chance to be one of the best cities in the nation.
Lets Go Oakland.
P.S. I will be sending this article to the MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in hope for a response.
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