That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–The San Francisco Giants had 35,000 fans at AT&T Park last weekend for their Fanfest day that was a big success and the A’s might have that many for their Fanfest but their going to have a big crowd maybe with 15,000-20,000 and I’m going to be part of that, the A’s asked me to be a master of ceremonies for the Yoenis Cepedes question and answer session in section 105 at the Coliseum in Oakland.

The time for the show to begin is between 1-2pm at the Coliseum, you’ll see such former A’s stars there such as Vida Blue, Blue Moon Odom, Campy Campaneris, alot of the old A’s players are going to be there of course some of the current A’ who will be playing this season will be there.

Campaneris lives in Scottsdale and we usually see him in spring training, last year he was signing autographs with Rollie Fingers and other ex-A’s players of the 70s and 80s. Campy is a great guy, probably the best shortstop they’ve ever had because Miguel Tejada only played a handful of years and Campy played the bulk of his career with the Oakland A’s. He was a real great player as a matter of fact in 72, 73,and 74 is when they won the World Series.

Reggie Jackson said our real MVP was Campy Campaneris when he got on base things happened. He was a terrific player, a great shortstop, and a great teammate. One year Campy hit over 20 home runs and he had a little pop and a little power and he was never a power hitter but he got on base. He stole a lot of bases, he hit for average, sometimes he bunted, he was a great bunter, by the way that’s a lost art.

Today you don’t see many players bunting the ball, Campaneris was a great player and he was nicknamed the Roadrunner by former A’s radio announcer Monte Moore, the A’s honored him a few years ago and they should retire his number, number 19 why not? The old A’s of the 70s who are coming back to visit the Coliseum and the fans remember there wasn’t the marketing there was like now and the salaries were not much.

Campaneris didn’t make much not even a $1 million not even close, I doubt it, it was a different type of baseball, it was not the power game that it is today. Campy right now will be a very good player but still he’s not a slugger, so he probably wouldn’t make the $15-20 million a year like some of these other players make.

Everytime I see him now I said to him he would make $5-10 million, he would say, “don’t tell me that” but it’s true Campaneris in today’s game he would make $5 million a year. With all respect to former owner Charlie Finley may he rest in peace, I think he wouldn’t give a dollar in the Salvation Army bucket outside of Macy’s during Christmas time. He was really a tight man, and he didn’t want to spend any money at all.

Even with the media Finley used to serve Kentucky Fried Chicken to the media every single game, year in year out all 81 games a year. God Bless him, that’s the way he was and he knew the game but he never paid anyone any big money and that’s why he lost all his players in 1976.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio