Now batting for the Oakland Athletics…Dave Kaval
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Not exactly a household name. That's why new A's president Dave Kaval fits in so perfectly with the A's line-up, right?
But Kaval could end up being the team's next MVP, just not in the way Miguel Tejada won in 2002. Man, has it been that long?
Kaval is the A's new team president and he's here to build a wall too. Four walls, in fact. Kaval has been given the reigns by new managing general partner John Fisher with fairly simple instructions, like, DON'T DROP THE BALL."
Fisher is worth $2.6 billion. He's always been both the money man and the silent man. Now he'll have to put his money where his mouth is because that's the only way Kaval will succeed where Lou Wolff did not. Pick a site at Howard Terminal or Laney College and let's get on with the show, already. The departing Wolff predicted a site would be proposed soon, and that's not by accident.
You ever play dominoes? That's part of what this masquerade is all about.
The A's will announce a new ballpark site well before the NFL owner's meetings in March or May. That's when I expect owners will vote on the Raiders relocation to Las Vegas. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf can walk in and proclaim that one of the biggest obstacles to a Raiders stadium is solved, show off some new drawings and walk out a winner.
Trying to solve the coliseum quandary is like trying to keep a good A's player around-simply not possible. With one team gone, the other can build, or at least plan to build.
When former 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo looked into the Coliseum as a possible development venture, he told KPIX that "it was a very complicated situation."
The next obvious roadblock is finding a developer. Maybe Ronnie Lott has one, maybe he doesn't. But at the very least, an investor doesn't have a baseball team standing in his way.
How do we know this isn't another Blue Ribbon Committee sham? There's no guarantee. Not with Environmental Impact Reports, political opposition and zero public funding as potential deal-killers.
But this one just smells different. Maybe it's the new blood. Perhaps it's the Vegas deal. Hell, it might even be the possibility of the A's losing their steady revenue stream of baseball's revenue sharing.
Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. Even if it's just a field of dreams, at least it's something.
See you on TV.
