Sports
The A’s are leaving Oakland — good riddance to an inept owner and MLB enablers
Usually when I want to unearth my love of baseball, I call my good friend Carlos Jackson. Nobody in my circle of life loves baseball more than him. His dad took him to the 1990 World Series when he was 7 years old. Some days when school ended at Encinal High, he’d make his way by himself to the Coliseum and just go to the A’s game. If he wasn’t a man of faith, he’d fight you over Ken Griffey Jr.
So on the cusp of the A’s final game in Oakland, allegedly, I called Los. To hear his passion for baseball and the A’s. My best attempt to summon some kind of emotive vibes to match this historic moment. He told story after story. About catching batting practice home runs in the bleachers. About being interviewed at the A’s game by local TV, which happened to be when baseball returned after 9/11, which happened on his 18th birthday. About getting booed by a packed Coliseum after dropping an easy pop-up from New York Yankees slugger Paul O’Neill on the third-base side. About the significance of the A’s, for most of his life, being the only Bay Area jersey he could wear that plastered “Oakland” on the chest — where people from the Town most wanted it plastered.
I listened to him rue this pending day, and the significance of what will be lost. The conversation prompted a moment of reflection and digestion of his thoughts.
I still felt nothing.
This is not a perspective to represent A’s fans. That contingency is too large and diverse to be defined by any one purview. Nor is this declaration on behalf of Oakland natives, though yours truly is such.
GO DEEPER
With both cheers and angry chants, Oakland fans send off beloved A’s in final home game
This is but the revelation of one. The occasion of the A’s final game in Oakland isn’t sad. It isn’t infuriating, though I could feel reputed sports broadcaster Larry Beil when he went off. It isn’t even disappointing.
The search for sentiment on this occasion, instead, revealed a heart that resembles a typical Thursday afternoon game at the Coliseum. Empty.
It’s all dried out over here.
It’s not for a lack of trying. Went and bought the classic A’s hat. Tried to start writing my favorite A’s player at every position. But fond memories of games, of players, of moments are being drowned out by the fatigue of this stadium saga. Memories of the Bash Brothers, mimicking Dave Stewart’s stare while playing strikeout at the park, the 20-game win streak — as Ken Korach said in his final Coliseum call, those memories live forever. But nostalgia is no match for the numbness born of MLB’s abandonment as the A’s try for a heist on a struggling city.
I’ve been reading the great pieces about better days. Listening to people share their memories. But the pangs for the ownership are just too loud. It’s hard to care when it’s so blatantly not reciprocal.
That’s not an insignificant evaporation. I used to walk from Sobrante Park to the Coliseum for the Safeway Saturday Barbecue. I’d wait until first pitch to do my chores so I could listen to Bill King call A’s games on the radio. I’ve broken a couple of dishes frustrated at Dave Kingman strikeouts. I joined half the Oakland kids of my era who claimed Rickey Henderson was my cousin. I still believe the gray road A’s jerseys that said Oakland on the chest is the coldest baseball jersey ever. I’ve had aunts and uncles and homies and neighbors work A’s games at the Coliseum. From middle school field trips to high school fundraisers to boys nights out as adults, attending A’s games was a staple of community.
Now? In the words of the legendary Oakland philosopher on matters of the heart, Keyshia Cole, “I just want it to be over.” Extract them from our presence as the imitators they’ve proven to be.
Manager Mark Kotsay addresses the crowd after Thursday’s win over the Rangers, the A’s last game in Oakland. They’ll play in Sacramento the next three years. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
Perhaps this absence of sentiment is the organic jadedness of being in the industry, 25 years of seeing the sausage get made. Maybe it’s the decades of the A’s threatening to leave, attempting to leave, followed by a couple of unserious pursuits of stadiums in Oakland — one of them included getting owned by a community college district — with conditions and qualifiers that revealed their true feelings about this place. Perhaps it’s a developing disposition, matured by a society increasingly bent to the whims and wishes of billionaires.
All of the above is reasonable.
Either way, the Oakland Athletics are not worth the emotional investment this moment warranted. Not from me. John Fisher has been a treacherous steward over one of the gem franchises of sports. Everything about the A’s has crumbled under his leadership — winning, fandom, reputation.
Major League Baseball forfeited its right to tug these heartstrings one last time. They’ve allowed this all to happen, preferring frugality and profit margins over culture and history.
That’s why this Athletics’ goodbye to Oakland is lacking in emotion, for me. What made them special to this region has long been squandered. They’ve disparaged the city and fan base for years, blaming their mediocrity on insufficient support from the fan base and the local leaders. As if it isn’t their job to inspire such support.
They’ve refused to pay every player fans love. They’ve opted to rebuild every time they’ve been close to contending. They’ve eroded the relationship for years, all to acquire public funding.
The A’s are leaving now, but they’ve been gone. The recipes lost.
Sports franchises, in our billionaire’s paradise of a country, are no longer a public trust. Not as the norm. They’re big business with little room for municipal motivations. They buy franchises and inherit allegiance, passion and loyalty. Many have forgotten fans’ hearts weren’t part of the purchase.
The A’s actively extinguished the adoration of a proven fan base and then blamed the absence for forcing them to leave. They had a fervent fan base — diverse and affluent and nostalgic — and actively, annually, undermined it.
A’s fans show their opinion of owner John Fisher during a 2023 game. Fisher is moving the team after years of bungled stadium efforts. (Michael Zagaris / Oakland Athletics / Getty Images)
I do understand the hearts that bleed over this. Cognitively, it registers. A’s manager Mark Kotsay walking out to center field with his wife before the final game, it was a poignant illustration. Mason Miller throwing 104 miles per hour on the last pitch in Coliseum history, securing the final out and setting up one last Kool & The Gang “Celebration” outro, was storybook.
But as Kotsay said, it hits everyone at different times. For me, and perhaps others, it hit some time ago. This is but a chance for the nation to remind us of our loss, to be portrayed as unworthy for not unconditionally supporting an unworthy steward in an industry bent on cutting out the less-loaded.
If this final homestand showed anything, much like the reverse boycott, and the grassroots campaign to vindicate the fanbase, and even the energy generated by the Oakland Ballers, the love for baseball lives here. The love for community lives here. The love for history, for relevance, for championships, is here.
The Athletics had it, took it for granted, and had a chance to get it again. But they’d rather take the free money, even if it means crashing on the Sacramento River Cats’ couch for three years. The billionaire A’s owner and his enabling fellow billionaire owners have no interest in earning devotion. Just dollars. They don’t care about cultivating community. Just cash.
My heart, it seems, has grown as cold as theirs.
GO DEEPER
From Tom Hanks to Dame Lillard, mourning the Oakland A’s: ‘It’s pretty heartbreaking’
(Top photo of the Oakland A’s mascot saluting the fans during the team’s final game at the Coliseum: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
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Napoleon Solo took home the 2026 Preakness Stakes on Saturday, the 151st running of the race.
The favorite in Taj Mahal, the 1 horse, was in the lead from the start until the final turn until Napoleon Solo made his move on the outside and took the lead at the top of the stretch. As Taj Mahal fell off, Iron Honor, the 9 horse, snuck up, but the effort ultimately was not enough.
Napoleon Solo opened at 8-1 and closed at 7-1. Iron Honor, at 8-1, finished second, with Chip Honcho fishing third after closing at 11-1. Ocelli, one of just three horses to run both the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago and Saturday’s Preakness, finished fourth at 8-1.
A Preakness branded starting gate is seen on track prior to the 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park on May 16, 2026 in Laurel, Maryland. For the first and only time, Laurel Park is hosting the Preakness Stakes which is the second race of the Triple Crown jewel due to the traditional home of the race of the Pimlico Race Course undergoing complete renovations. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
A $1 exacta paid out $53.60, while a $1 trifecta brought in $597.10. But someone out there is very lucky, as a $1 superhighfive – picking the top-five finishers in order – paid out $12,015.70.
Even moreso, a 20-cent Pick 6 – picking the winners of the six consecutive races, with the final being the Preakness, paid out $33,842.34.
The race was run without the Kentucky Derby winner for the second year in a row. After Sovereignty did not run the Preakness last year – and wound up winning the Belmont Stakes – the training team of Golden Tempo opted to skip the Maryland race.
From 1960 to 2018, only three Derby winners did not run in the Preakness. Three Derby winners have skipped the Preakness in the last five years, and for the sixth time in eight years, for various reasons, the Triple Crown had already been impossible to accomplish by the time the Preakness even rolled around.
“I understand that fans of the sport or fans of the Triple Crown are disappointed, but the horse is not a machine,” Golden Tempo’s trainer, Cherie DeVaux, told Fox News Digital earlier this week.
Paco Lopez, right, atop Napoleon Solo, edges out Iron Honor, ridden by Flavien Prat, to win the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
CHERIE DEVAUX REFLECTS ON MAKING KENTUCKY DERBY HISTORY AS FIRST FEMALE TRAINER TO WIN THE RACE
Only three horses from two weeks ago – Ocelli, Robusta, and Incredibolt, were back at the Preakness. Corona de Oro, the 11 horse on Saturday, was scratched well ahead of the Derby, and Great White, who reared up and fell on his back after becoming startled shortly before entering the Derby gate, took the 13 post on Saturday.
The Preakness went off roughly 24 hours after a horse died following the completion of his very first race.
Hit Zero, trained by Brittany Russell, came into the race as the favorite. However, he finished last in the race, which was won by another one of Russell’s horses, Bold Fact — and upon crossing the finish line, Hit Zero reportedly began coughing, dropped to his knees, then put his head down and died.
The Preakness took place at Laurel Park as Pimlico undergoes renovations. It was the first time ever that Pimlico did not host the race, moving roughly 20 miles south.
Paco Lopez, atop Napoleon Solo, wins the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes horse race, Friday, May 15, 2026, at Laurel Park in Laurel, Maryland. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
The Belmont Stakes, the final Triple Crown race, will take place on June 6. The race will return to Saratoga for a third year in a row as Belmont Park continues to be renovated.
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HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VOLLEYBALL
CITY SECTION FINALS
FRIDAY
At Birmingham
DIVISION I
#1 Taft d. #3 Cleveland, 25-23, 25-14, 25-21
DIVISION IV
#7 Maywood CES d. #4 Math & Science College Prep, 25-17, 25-17, 25-23
At Venice
DIVISION II
#4 Marquez d. #6 Narbonne, 23-25, 25-19, 29-27, 25-16
DIVISION III
#13 Birmingham d. #2 Legacy, 25-20, 17-25, 31-33, 25-21, 15-10
SATURDAY
At Birmingham
OPEN DIVISION
#3 Chatsworth d. #1 Granada Hills, 24-26, 25-21, 25-14, 25-18
DIVISION V
314 Franklin d. #13 Rancho Dominguez, 25-18, 25-19, 25-16
SOUTHERN SECTION FINALS
THURSDAY
At Home Sites
DIVISION 9
Vasquez d. Tarbut V’ Torah, 25-19, 22-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-10
FRIDAY
At Cerritos College
DIVISION 1
#1 Mira Costa d. #3 Loyola, 25-21, 25-22, 25-22
DIVISION 4
Sunny Hills d. Royal, 24-26, 25-22, 27-25, 25-23
At Home Sites
DIVISION 5
Bishop Diego d. St. Anthony, 25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-23
DIVISION 8
Temescal Canyon d. West Valley, 24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 25-23
SATURDAY
At Cerritos College
DIVISION 2
Orange Lutheran d. Edison, 3-1
DIVISION 3
Windward d. St, John Bosco, 24-26, 25–21, 25-22, 25-20
DIVISION 6
Culver City d. Garden Grove, 27-25, 25-20, 19-25, 21-25, 15-9
Sports
It’s Game 7, and we have a bet locked in as the Cavaliers and legacies are on the line against the Pistons
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The NBA takes a lot of flak for having meaningless games, and I can definitely understand it, watching on a random Wednesday in January. However, the playoffs have delivered over and over to viewers and rewarded us for putting up with garbage regular-season games.
This will be the fourth Game 7 of the playoffs. Three series have been sweeps, and the other three have been six games. That shows competitive hoops. Now, how do we bet this Game 7 in the Eastern Conference?
The Cleveland Cavaliers blew it. After not winning a road game all postseason, they took Game 5 in surprising fashion. It looked like they were going to win in six games. After all, they hadn’t lost a game at home in the postseason.
Instead, Detroit came out and blitzed the Cavs, never giving them a chance to get their footing. They lost in an ugly fashion and now have to figure out a way to win a game on the road.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden drives to the basket against the Detroit Pistons during the second half of Game 5 in the second-round NBA playoffs in Detroit on May 13, 2026. (Duane Burleson/AP)
It isn’t just the Cavs’ fate that rests in this game. It is also the legacy of James Harden and, to a lesser extent, Donovan Mitchell.
We know that Mitchell is a very good player, but he isn’t regarded as one of the best players ever. Harden is. Unfortunately, Harden has struggled in Game 7s. He’s averaged 19.1 points, 7.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds. That’s not terrible, but looking at his shooting percentages, he is at 35.3% and 22.2% in those games. He actually is 4-4 overall in the games, but in his past three, he has scored a combined 34 points over 113 minutes.
The Detroit Pistons seem to like playing with their backs against the wall. They are a gritty team, so I suppose it makes sense.
Detroit Pistons’ Jalen Duren reacts after allowing a pass to go out of bounds in the second half of Game 4 of the second-round NBA playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland on May 11, 2026. (Sue Ogrocki/AP)
Cade Cunningham continues to deliver for the team, and he finally got some help in Game 6 from Jalen Duren. This was never going to be an easy series for Duren, but it feels like he is taking more time to mature than others. He definitely improved this year, but the consistency they need from him just isn’t there yet.
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Now as the team goes home they will need Duren to be a beast on the glass. If he can keep the Pistons in the rebounding battle, they should win this game with ease. They won Game 6 by just three rebounds, but that takes away a big dimension of what Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley do for the Cavs. It isn’t everything, though, as the Pistons won the rebounding battle in both losses in Cleveland.
I don’t see this being a runaway game for the Pistons. Mitchell and Cunningham likely will cancel each other out with scoring. Harden needs to establish himself as the third-best player on the floor. I haven’t seen him do that in the postseason, yet.
Cleveland Cavaliers All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and James Harden talk during Game 2 in the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs vs. the Toronto Raptors at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Ohio. (David Dermer/Imagn Images)
This is the second Game 7 of the playoffs for both of the clubs, so it isn’t like either will be caught off guard about what this entails.
If I look at it objectively, I think the Cavs have the better players. However, the Pistons have looked significantly better this season, and definitely in the playoffs overall. Both are prone to issues and slipping. The Cavs shouldn’t be as they are a veteran team.
This game has to be won by Cleveland, though. There is too much riding on the franchise and legacies of guys for them to not prepare properly for it. Maybe that’s weak analysis, but I’m taking the Cavs with the points and I do think they win outright. I expect a monster game from Mitchell, and Harden should get 10+ assists.
Either way, whoever wins will lose to the New York Knicks.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
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