Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (pictured) and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred (not pictured) seem much further apart after Manfred said in a recent San Francisco Chronicle report that there was no discussion between he and Thao about an expansion team for Oakland or the city keeping the A’s name (AP News photo)
On That’s Amaury News and Commentary podcast:
#1 MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says in a San Francisco Chronicle report, that everybody likes to pile on MLB adding that you have to look at what Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has done and hasn’t done. She is great saying MLB did this wrong and that wrong but did she handle this well, “I don’t think so” said Manfred.
#2 It should be noted that Mayor Thao was only in office four months when the A’s announced that they would leaving Oakland and prior to that she said she was in negotiations with the A’s to secure a deal that was nearly 10 percent of the way being completed before the A’s said they had a binding deal with the Rio in Las Vegas.
#3 It also was reported that Manfred was agitated during the interview saying that Thao should be blamed for losing it’s third professional team after Oakland lost the Raiders and Warriors under previous Mayor Libby Schaff.
#4 Manfred went onto say that there was never a discussion about expansion in Oakland and keeping the A’s name, that it was simply not true, and that he and Thao never discussed these alleged demands.
#5 Amaury, the way you see the relationship between the Commissioner and the Mayor of Oakland being so far apart would say the chances of getting anything for baseball done in Oakland is almost all but dead?
Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
