SportsCentr

For years, it’s seemed inevitable that the Athletics would be moving out of Oakland, either to San Jose or, God forbid, Fremont. But while the team ownership prefers to relocate, San Jose doesn’t have the redevelopment money at hand to build a baseball stadium. By contrast, Oakland is projected to have a $20 million surplus in their Central District fund.

Baseball would rather not move its franchises - they’ve only had one move since 1972, five fewer than the NFL during that span. The A’s were facing a “territorial rights” dispute with the Giants, should they try to move to San Jose. It already makes all kinds of sense to stay put, preserve public goodwill, and not force a name change to “Golden State Athletics” or some such nonsense. And now, they’ve got twenty million more reasons not to leave.

And some people thought there’d never be a world championship contested in Oakland again. I’m hoping it goes well, as it might generate buzz for my unproduced footbag screenplay, tentatively titled “Moneybag.”

Also of note in this article:

• Competitors tie their shoelaces only halfway down, in order to create a larger “toe box” for the footbag.
• The sport’s most difficult trick is called The Nemesis, and is too dangerous to be performed in competition.
• The king of the sport is Vaclav Kouda of the Czech Republic, who won seven of the last eight championships. When asked about the year he finished second, Kouda said, “The night before, maybe there was a big party? I cannot tell you what happened to me that year.” I want to hear LeBron adopt this as his excuse for the end of the Boston series this year.