Tag: USA Today

Oakland named as one of two expansion sites once A’s leave for Vegas in 2028

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Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao addresses the media during a Wed Feb 15, 2023 press conference at Oakland City Hall. Mayor Thao has said the City of Oakland would consider extending the A’s lease through the 2027 season if the city would retain the A’s name and the city gets an expansion team. (AP photo file)

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez and Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–You might recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said that if Oakland A’s are looking for extending they’re lease between 2025-27 before moving to Las Vegas the city of Oakland wants assurance of an MLB expansion team. According to USA Today reports two high officials in MLB said that Oakland and Nashville have been named as the top two cities for expansion.

The A’s ballpark is expected to be completed at the Tropicana Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas strip by 2028. The A’s are committed to play at the Oakland Coliseum through the 2024 season. Then after 2024 where do the A’s play? Several sites have been suggested Salt Lake City, Las Vegas Aviators park, Reno, and San Francisco.

Mayor Thao said as long as Oakland is assured an expansion team when the A’s leave in 2028 the city would grant the A’s an extension to play at the Coliseum for an additional three more years until they pack up and leave for Sin City.

With the two high ranking officials saying Oakland is on the list for expansion Thao will most likely extend the A’s lease through the 2027 season. The officials who were not named said the city of Oakland needs to secure an owner who will build a new ballpark most likely at the Howard Terminal location. Mayor Thao would most likely need to identify an owner who will build the new ballpark and take charge of the expansion team to make it happen.

Thao had said that the city in part of extending the Oakland Coliseum lease for the A’s would retain the Oakland A’s name and brand. A’s owner John Fisher had said that the A’s will not relinquish the name when they move to Vegas and intends to keep the A’s brand.

It was also mentioned in the report that the city and the A’s were close to a deal in before the A’s announced they were leaving for Vegas. Thao had said the city and A’s were ten percent of the way to finalizing a deal but the A’s broke off negotiations and said they had a binding deal with the Rio in Las Vegas. The deal at the Rio was later broke off and now the A’s are trying to build at the Tropicana location which the A’s are waiting for MLB owners approval a vote that is expected to take place in December.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play voice on the Oakland A’s Spanish radio network and Jerry Feitelberg is an Oakland A’s reporter at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Matt Barnes wanted by NYC Police for assault in night club

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

by Charlie O. Mallonee

TMZ Sports was the first to release news that Sacramento Kings forward Matt Barnes was involved in an incident in a New York City area night club early Monday morning.

barnes-cousins-kings

Barnes was in the club with teammate DeMarcus Cousins. According to the story, Barnes became involved in some sort of altercation with a woman in the club and the woman was choked by Barnes. Another man and woman tried to intervene and were reportedly punched by Barnes.

Per the TMZ story, video they obtained that shows Barnes and Cousins after the fight has the Kings center talking about hitting one of the people involved in the altercation.

http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/05/matt-barnes-bar-fight/?adid=hero1

In USA Today’s report on the altercation, they state the video obtained by investigators shows Barnes as being the assailant in the assault of the women and the man. The statement on the video content came from a source not authorized to release information on the contents of the evidence.

Barnes made a statement via Instagram that “there are two sides to every story.”

“We continue to cooperate fully with authorities,” said Barnes’ attorney Alex Spiro.

The Sacramento Kings issued the following statement on Monday:

“We have clear standards of conduct and behavior expected of the entire Kings organization – on and off the court. We are working with all parties involved to gather information in order to take any appropriate next steps.”

The Kings have a game in Dallas on Wednesday night with the Mavericks. Will Matt Barnes be with the team? That is open to question at this time.

What is not open to question is this is exactly the kind of situation the Kings did not at this time based on what is happening with the franchise on the floor.

 

 

Report: The battlin’ A’s may be back – Butler and Valencia “scuffle”in clubhouse

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

butler  valencia

by Charlie O. Mallonee

Multiple reports have the A’s Danny Valencia and Billy Butler involved in a clubhouse scuffle on Friday night in Chicago. The reported altercation resulted in possible injuries to Butler that kept him out of the games with the White Sox over the weekend.

The first report of the altercation came from the San Francisco Chronicle. Jane Lee of MLB.com reported she had received confirmation of the confrontation between the two players.

A’s manager Bob Melvin told reporters on Saturday that Butler would be unavailable to play due to nausea and vomiting not related to the flu. Butler would normally been in the lineup at DH both Saturday and Sunday as the White Sox started left-handed pitchers.

Valencia started the game on Saturday night versus the White Sox and kicked off a mini-rally by hitting his 15th home run of season to lead off the ninth inning. He did not play on Sunday.

The Chronicle did ask Valencia about the incident on Sunday and he responded, “No comment. What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse.”

USA Today is reporting that the incident started when Butler told a shoe representative that Valencia was not wearing the cleats that he claim to be wearing.

Butler and Valencia were teammates in Kansas City in 2014 and then were reunited last season in Oakland.

Valencia has been with six different teams in his seven years in the major leagues. The rumors that have followed him have been that he is not a good teammate or that he is difficult to get along with in the clubhouse.

Eric Hosmer of the Royals would appear to disagree with that assessment:

Coco Crisp of the A’s seems to be in agreement with Hosmer:

Hosmer is a former teammate of Butler and Crisp is a current teammate and neither had any comment about the Designated Hitter.

There will certainly be more to this story and we will bring it to you as it breaks. It will be interesting to see who is in the lineup tonight for the Athletics. Cleveland is planning on starting the right-handed Carlos Carrasco so Butler would not be the starting DH.

Cal dusts Denver, moves to 2-0

Published on by moepeaLeave a comment

 

By Morris Phillips

Mike Montgomery’s carefully crafted non-conference schedule led to big doings on the court as the Bears blew past Denver on Monday, 77-50.

Cal improved to 2-0 on the season and they’ve won 35 of 41 non-conference games under Montgomery in the veteran coaches’ five-plus seasons in Berkeley.

The Bears started fast against the smaller, outmanned Pioneers, establishing a 24-5 lead twelve minutes into the first half.  David Kravish ignited the offense early and finished with 15 points.  Tyrone Wallace led with 16 points and Richard Solomon grabbed a career-best 16 rebounds.

Cal’s 40-20 advantage on the glass and the Pioneers 20 percent shooting in the first half jump off the stat sheet, but both appeared to be a byproduct of the Bears’ coaches’ familiarity with Denver’s sneaky backdoor cuts after playing the Pioneers in each of the last two seasons.

“The main thing you have to do against Denver is maintain your concentration,” Montgomery warned.  “They kind of lull you to sleep.”

The Bears beat Denver by 21 at Haas in 20011.  Last year’s game was competitive for a half in Denver then the Bears pulled away in the second half behind the Crabbe-Cobbs duo.  Because of the experience in Denver, Montgomery knew his defense had to disrupt Chris Udofia and Brett Olson, the Pioneers’ leading scorers.  And his Bears adhered, holding the duo to 16 combined after they got 33 in 2012.

“We didn’t get off to a good start, our shooting, obviously was non-existent, I mean for all intents and purposes.  I mean in general obviously it was a very tough assignment right out of the gate, against a veteran older team,” Denver coach Joe Scott said, touching on the fact that Cal had a game under their belt while the Pioneers were playing their opener.

The Bears shot 59 percent in the opening half, led by 17 at the break, and were actually outshot (50 percent to 44 percent) in the second half, but still outscored Denver by 10.  But Scott’s group was more than obliging in their lack of desire to shoot inside the arc—more than half their shot attempts came from three—rebound at either end, or take care of the ball (committing 14 turnovers).

Denver’s lack of aggression or firepower kept Solomon and Kravish on the floor for ample minutes without worry of foul trouble and the pair came up big most often on put backs and feeds from Justin Cobbs who had six assists.  After just two games, it’s apparent that the two starters will be the only real size in Cal’s nine-deep rotation making it imperative that the two not only stay on the floor, but stay on the floor together.

“When we get going we can be pretty good,” Solomon said.  “We’re long athletic, we can jump, we like to rebound, and we like to get the ball too.”

The Bears opening stretch includes Oakland (of suburban Michigan) on Friday and Southern Utah on Monday.  Of the opening quartet, the SUU Jaguars currently rank as the juggernaut of the group, ranking 212 in the current 351-team labyrinth of Division I.  So the Bears won’t garner any much-needed NCAA style points early, but they do seem to be gaining an identity as a typically-unselfish offensive team with some real potential along with depth on the wings.

Accordingly, all eyes are on 6’6” Jabari Byrd, Cal’s highest-ranking recruit.  The Richmond native seems eager to please, but hasn’t really put it together in either of the first two games.

“He’s going to be really good,” Montgomery said of Bird.  “He was probably a little bit nervous.  He wants to be good.  You just have to keep working.  He’ll be fine when he gets his feet under him and more comfortable with the offense and more comfortable with where his shots are going to come from.”

EARLY OBSERVATIONS:  All of the Pac-12 teams have a game or two under their belts and clear vision doesn’t require a prescription.  Arizona is really good, maybe even a Final Four capable team with the addition of San Jose’s Aaron Gordon and others, likely well ahead of Oregon and UCLA.  Cal is either the best of the next group of four–depending on whether you trust AP, USA Today or the conference media pre-season poll—or not in that group at all.   Cal’s lack of size and overall youth suggest they’ll need the smoothest of rides.  But if that happens, it’s possible that one or more of Arizona State, Colorado, Stanford or Washington could falter pushing the Bears into NCAA consideration in what appears to be a robust three-to-five bid league.

Stanford—picked by most to finish ahead of Cal despite the differences in recent pedigree–looked to be a prime candidate to disappoint on Monday when they fell at Maples Pavilion to BYU in a wild shootout 112-103.  The West Coast conference contender shot 53 percent against the Cardinal and incredibly missed 15 free throws while scoring 112 points.  Stanford looked ragged tactically and lacking defensively allowing the starting BYU backcourt to combine for 57 points.