At one time former Oakland A’s owner Charlie O Finley after moving the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland in 1967 considered moving the team again from Oakland to Toronto in 1970. Finley and the A’s later won three straight World Series from 1972-74 (photo from Instagram)

A’s wanted to move to Canada. Today A’s are in a Legal battle

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

If you think that under owner John Fisher, this is the first time the A’s planned to move out of Oakland, you are mistaken; in 1970, two years after moving the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland, owner Charlie O Finley talked to Toronto representatives about moving the team to Canada.

A few years later, Finley’s team won three consecutive World Series in Oakland, 1972-73 and 74, a feat only accomplished by only one other franchise in history, the New York Yankees, who are well known for several dynasties on the way to winning an unprecedented 27 World Series today, it seems both sides, the one against the A’s moving out of Oakland and the one in favor of the A’s moving to Las Vegas, are now fighting inside the legal system arena.

Many people would say that this arena usually moves at a much slower pace than the actual game of baseball. Some cases take many years to get to court and then a decision. Schools over Stadiums is not an A’s fanbase group, it’s not made up of Oakland residents, but a political group with grassroots in Nevada that has filed a second legal effort to block Nevada from spending taxpayer funds to build a stadium at the current site of the Tropicana resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Months ago, the State of Nevada legislature passed the bill, which authorized them to use $380 million in funds towards the A’s new stadium in Las Vegas. Local Oakland fan-based groups have supported Schools Over Stadiums, which they see as an ally in the fight to keep the team in Oakland.

Most recently, the Oakland A’s filed a motion to intervene in this case, aiming to halt Schools Over Stadiums’ efforts. The A’s attorney’s job is to propel the A’s entirely out of Oakland (with a temporary 3-year residence in Sacramento) and to set shop permanently in Las Vegas, Nevada, by 2028. Luckily for everybody, the A’s case has no statute of Limitations. You might say so.

However, for those cynical fans who consider moving the team out of Oakland a “crime.” Here is some ‘Law talk’: The statute of limitations sets a deadline for initiating legal proceedings in a dispute. The length of time allowed varies depending on the severity of the offense and the jurisdiction where it is being disputed. Cases involving severe crimes, like murder, typically have no time limit.

Under international law, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide have no statute of limitations. Two Proponents of statutes of limitations believe they are needed because, with time, substantial evidence may be lost, and witnesses’ memories can grow foggy.

Let’s stretch our collective memories and imagine if today MLB had a Commissioner like Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was elected Baseball’s first Commissioner in 1921.

What would Judge Landis rule on the Athletics relocation? We will never know.

Here is one of Judge Landis’s famous quotes:” Baseball is something more than a game to an American boy; it is his training field for life’s work. Destroy his faith in its squareness and honesty, and you have destroyed something more; you have planted suspicion of all things in his heart”.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network at 1010 KIQI San Francisco and 990 KATD Pittsburg and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com