by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–Members of the Oakland City Council will vote on Thursday to approve a ten year lease for the Oaklnad Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum. Last week four members of the board did not vote on the lease and did not show up at City Hall for the scheduled vote which forced a forfeit because their were not enough coucilmen for a quorum.

The reason for the sit out was city officials were concerned there was not enough protections and incentives in the lease agreement. The A’s last lease allowed them to give one year’s notice if they wanted to leave the Coliseum. Under the new agreement the A’s would have to give the city two years notice if they were going to leave Oakland and they would be on the hook for the remainder of the entire ten year agreement if they left the Coliseum.

If the A’s however considered building a new stadium inside Oakland city limits then the A’s would be free of the ten year obligation and the two year notice wouldn’t matter because it would take that much time to build a new stadium.

With that in mind the discussion of a waterfront stadium was brought up at Howard Terminal at Jack London Square. 15 business leaders in Oakland last March had been in discussions with the Port of Oakland about constructing a 38,000 seat waterfront stadium, the business leaders which consist of CEOs from Dryer’s Ice Cream, Clorox, the son of Senator Barbara Boxer Doug Boxer who is a Oakland business consultant, Mike Ghielmetti of the Signature Development Group.

Lew Wolf the A’s co-owner has expressed in past discussions that he has no intentions to move the team to Jack London Square and his only thoughts on any new stadium plans for the A’s were in two choices, choice number one move to San Jose or number two build a new stadium at the current Coliseum location.

The San Jose idea is still in limbo as the city of San Jose is suing Major League Baseball for the A’s rights to move San Jose.The San Francisco Giants who hold territorial rights in San Jose would more than likely sue baseball if the A’s are allowed to move to San Jose. MLB is waiting for the judges decision on how the San Jose suit against them would proceed. If the judge says the team would be allowed to move to San Jose the Giants most likely would file suit in a higher court to appeal the ruling.

28 judges vote to allow Bonds to appeal obstruction charge: The Federal appeals court said on Tuesday that a majority of it’s judges (28) have voted to allow former Giants outfielder Barry Bonds a new hearing to remove the obstruction charge that a San Francisco jury voted Bonds guilty of in 2011. Bonds because he gave evaded a question as to if his trainer Greg Anderson injected Bonds with steroids.

Rather than answer the question Bonds became evasive and talked about being the child of a celebrity (his late father and former Giant Bobby Bonds), asked about his friendship with Anderson and if he injected him with steroids Bonds said to a federal prosecuting attorney, “I don’t get into other people’s business.”

Bonds lawyers at the time said that Bonds answered the prosecutions questions truthfully and that Bonds answered all the questions flatly, that Anderson never injected him with steroids. Bonds lawyers later appealed the obstruction charge which was upheld by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston who heard the case. Illston at the appeals hearing said that Bonds answer was not relevant to the question prosecutors were asking and indeed it was obstruction.

A hearing to proceed with the appeal and also based on the 28 judge vote to proceed will be heard in mid September. The Babo/BALCO steroid case now has a new life to it and if Bonds wins his appeal he could be back in the good graces of the Giants again. There is a good chance that MLB and the court of popular opinion may still reject Bonds and think of him as a cheater.

Jerry Feitelberg does sports commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com