John Shea at the San Francisco Chronicle with the revelation that the A’s will have to schedule their games around their Minor League primary tenants —
Because the A’s will be co-tenants at Sutter Health Park, they not only will use the same field as the River Cats — the top farm team of the San Francisco Giants — but will need to adhere to Pacific Coast League scheduling to fit in their 81 home games.
And why is that challenging?
Generally, the River Cats play one team per week in a six-game series with Monday set aside as a travel day. One week at home, the next on the road. The A’s need to mirror that and play in Sacramento when the River Cats are on the road and vice versa.
It’s not uncommon for the A’s to open a homestand or trip on a Friday. But now, pretty much every homestand or trip would need to begin on a Monday or Tuesday.
In other words, the 29 other teams are catering to the A’s because of owner John Fisher’s preference to leave the Coliseum, where scheduling would have been routine, for a temporary home in Sacramento, where the scheduling is complex, the heat is overwhelming and the facilities in need of major upgrades.
Wait, what was that about the heat?
Complaints aplenty are expected, including from players, because of the brutal heat. Wednesday, temperatures topped 100 degrees in Sacramento, and playing on artificial turf tends to elevate on-field temperatures. It’ll be the sixth MLB stadium with artificial turf and the only one without a roof.
The decision to play on artificial turf instead of grass was made to make the field easier to maintain with a game played virtually every day. At least 156 games will be played on the field, 81 for the A’s and 75 for the River Cats.
Remember, the move to Vegas is not guaranteed. There is no ballpark there. Considerable hurdles still need to be cleared before they can even break ground. The A’s seem like the loser gambler, pushing their luck at the roulette table. It wasn’t enough to rip the team out of Oakland, they had to double-down and burn their bridges with the city before they even got out of town. Now, to spite their face, they cut off their nose by booking a half-baked tenancy in a Minor League town.
Vegas, for their part, are the sad sacks looking the other way enabling all of this. Why should anyone there be excited that this shit show wants to come to town?
The only one coming out of this with a win is the owner of the minor league team in Sacramento, Vivek Ranadivé, who also owns the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, and would love to have a proper MLB team as well.
Ranadivé could get his wish either if the Las Vegas stadium deal falls apart or if MLB grants Sacramento an expansion team. Until further notice, this is a tryout for Ranadivé and his city to showcase to MLB that Sacramento is worthy of permanently joining the league.
Sacramento has major league ambitions. They have been on the brink of MLS expansion talk for years, actually being granted the 29th expansion team in 2019 alongside St. Louis. However, that deal fell through in 2021. This A’s situation gives the city a legitimate shot at landing an MLB team — either the A’s themselves should they decide to never leave, or a proper expansion team. They have a leg up on any other expansion city candidate, in that they will be hosting Major League Baseball for at least the next three years. Whether or not that’s fair is up for debate, but you cannot deny that Ranadivé is playing with house money for now.