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15 January 2009

More great A's announcements + BART to WS

Future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson has been hired in a "goodwill capacity" for the 2009 season. While nothing would tickle me more than to have Rickey as a 1B/3B/bench coach, this is at least a good start. Yes, I would like to see him don an A's uniform one last time if that's at all possible.

Continuing their expansion into radio, the A's have also announced that they've inked a five-year (!) deal with the Spanish Beisbol Network. All 162 games will be broadcast on two stations locally, KDIA-1640 and KDYA-1190. It's a very big deal as this breadth of coverage of the A's season on Spanish radio is unprecedented. Veteran broadcaster Amaury Pi-Gonzalez will handle the play-by-play duties, with the color man to be announced at a later date. Interestingly, Pi-Gonzalez's last gig was with the Angels in 2007.

The MTC has approved shuffling $91 million of local transporation funds from the Dumbarton Rail project to the Warm Springs BART extension. It's yet another crucial step towards the eventual raping and pillaging of South Fremont due to BART's criminal element full extension to San Jose.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

ML---I have tried to post updates on status of negotiations between the A's and Catellus based upon an article in the Contra Costa times that quoted the mayor of Fremont as saying that the two sides were so far apart that there was no point in further talks at this time. He also agreed that there were fairly significant challenges with WS because of the requirement of a brand new EIR (his words) and upset residents.

These posts never made it to the site---do you have any updates that you want to share--obviously the quicker Fremont goes away the sooner the A's can open up formal discussions with San Jose---

Marine Layer said...

Sorry anon - the comments were lifted completely from another site. Couldn't publish them without

Needless to say I've covered those issues at length during the last few weeks. Unless the A's petition for all EIR work to stop - and I have no reason to believe this since the original is almost finished - the process will continue unchanged. You're gonna have to wait.

Anonymous said...

ML-- I'm not worried about myself--plenty is going on in the San Jose camp--my point being that the EIR is one milestone, support by Catellus is another and perhaps more significant milestone. At some point near term there may be a conclusion that the A's will never get this and therefore it is time to move on, regardless of certification of the EIR.

Marine Layer said...

You may be right anon and there's plenty of reason to lean in that direction, but I'm not going there officially until the A's announce it officially. Til then SJ remains speculative at best.

FC said...

ML,

I applaud you in your efforts to remain "neutral" until the A's release some kind of statement. You have to admit though that Wasserman was less than optimistic in that article by Artz. The article made it seem like Wasserman was not so much frustrated, but instead tired and resigned.

One has to wonder what's going through the minds of the pols in Fremont. I have to believe many now view this as a sinking ship. Wasserman was luck the WS debate did not surface until after the elections. Gotta wonder how much closer the elections may have been if the WS site had been under seriously considered at the time.

Jeffrey said...

Can anyone link the article? All I have read is a Tri City Beat blog post.

Marine Layer said...

Read the Field of Schemes entry from a week ago. Nothing new there.

Anonymous said...

Look for very revealing article in SJMN, possibly even this weekend. There apparently is a Champion in SJ Govt ready to move forward with this thing.

Anonymous said...

Recent events with BART certainly would support the fears of those who feel that BART and the proposed stadium will bring additional crime. WHether or not it is statistically significant.

Timing could not have been worse for a "BART to Warm Springs" announcement. . . . with or without the ballpark.