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The Oakland Athletics are on the verge of playing their final home game in the city they’ve called home for close to 60 years, and a local sportscaster did not mince words while literally ripping into reviled owner John Fisher over the open letter he penned to the team’s fans ahead of the franchise departure.
The Oakland Athletics relocated to the Bay Area in 1968, and the franchise changed hands a few times before John Fisher, the billionaire heir to the Gap clothing fortune, purchased the team for $180 million in 2005.
That acquisition transpired during the team’s Moneyball Era, and while the A’s prided themselves on their frugality while attempting to put together a competitive product on the field, Fisher’s involvement caused that penny-pinching philosophy to extend to all aspects of a franchise that slowly but surely alienated what was once a sizeable diehard fanbase.
In 2023, Fisher found himself targeted by A’s fans who mounted an organized campaign to unsuccessfully pressure him to sell the team after the franchise announced its plans to move to Las Vegas, and they’ll be playing their final game at Oakland Coliseum on September 26th (they’ll be temporarily relocating to Sutter Health Park in Sacramento ahead of a Sin City debut tentatively slated for 2028, but there are plenty of questions surrounding the construction of a new stadium).
On Monday, Fisher sent out a letter to fans where he asserted he did everything in his power to keep the team in Oakland despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, and it’s safe to say it wasn’t well-received by most members of the A’s faithful.
A letter from A’s owner John Fisher to fans: pic.twitter.com/YwlLAuMQ4W
— Jessica Kleinschmidt (@KleinschmidtJD) September 23, 2024
That group of detractors included Larry Beil, a sportscaster for ABC7 who printed out a copy of the letter he read and subsequently tore up on the air while putting Fisher on blast for his disastrous tenure as the team’s owner.
“John, you’re a serial penny pincher, you destroyed your family’s great name and legacy because of your cheapness…I can go call 3 billionaires right now that will buy the team!” –@LarryBeilABC7
A’s are pushing the boundary between sadness and anger. We say feel your anger… pic.twitter.com/EE2AGTmalM
— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) September 24, 2024
Beil went straight for the jugular during an impassioned rant where he described Fisher as a “serial penny-pincher” who “destroyed your family’s great name and legacy because of your cheapness” while making it very clear he wasn’t buying any of the excuses in the letter.
Damn, Larry. Tell us how you really feel.