Good for Mayor Sheng Thao
Good for Mayor Sheng Thao
Congrats to Jeff Dooley and Will Levis is a first round pick
Good morning, all. I hope your week is off to a great start.
Good for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao. When the owner of the Oakland Athletics, billionaire John J. Fisher, through his lackey, club president David Kaval, blindsided the city and team fanbase by announcing it had a binding agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas, Thao essentially told Fisher and company to go pound sand.
At issue is the decrepit stadium at which the Athletics play, their home since 1968. To say it is falling apart would be a kind assessment. The A’s need a new stadium and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has demanded a new stadium plan be locked in by Jan. 2024. Enter Las Vegas.
Manfred is salivating to put a club in Vegas and Fisher is a willing accomplice, having flirted with Vegas for years, while also negotiating with the city of Oakland for a new stadium, mixed-use development at Howard Terminal. To be fair, negotiations have dragged on in Oakland, with the club having to deal with several layers of California government (city, county, state), environmental impact studies, affordable housing, etc.
The Howard Terminal plan seemed to have stalled as Thao, who assumed office in January, had to be brought up to speed on the project. If she is to be believed - and right now I would buy a used car from her before I bought one from Fisher - momentum on the plan had picked up steam. She claimed she was negotiating in private and in good faith with Fisher and Kaval - again I have no reason to doubt her, as Fisher and Kaval have not disputed her account - until Kaval lowered the boom late last Tuesday with the Las Vegas announcement. Thao held her news conference the next day, announcing a cease to negotiations. Her reasoning was quite sound: she was not about to have her city and its taxpayers be played against Vegas to enrich Fisher. Did I write, by the way, that Fisher is a billionaire?
Who knows how this story ends? Fisher has gutted a once glorious franchise, making it a laughingstock. It appears they will end up as the first MLB club to call four cities home (Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland and Las Vegas), but the move to Las Vegas is not as ironclad as it appears. Meanwhile, Thao is sending a message heard loud and clear: she and her city are not going to be pushed around, no matter how losing a major league sports franchise may impact a city’s reputation. Good for her.
Congratulations to my dear friend
Jeff Dooley has been broadcasting professional baseball for 25 seasons. I am honored to say I have been by his side for 18 of those years, as he has called the action as “Voice of the New Britain Rock Cats” and the Hartford Yard Goats. Not only am I his broadcast partner, but he is a dear friend. We have witnessed a lot together both on and off the microphone. That is why I was so elated, when Jeff got to realize a dream this past weekend, calling games on radio for the Colorado Rockies against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Yard Goats are the Rockies’ AA affiliate, and when Rockies voice Jack Corrigan took the weekend off, Jeff was asked to fill in along side Corrigan’s partner Jerry Schemmel. “Dools” tossed a perfect game in providing commentary and play-by-play. Of course, he knew and was well liked by many of the players from their days in Hartford and Schemmel introduced him perfectly: “When I took Jeff through the clubhouse, he knew more players than I did.”
Meanwhile, leave it to Jeff, as humble as they come, to remind those who did a story on his dream weekend, that he felt he was representing all broadcasters, who toil for decades at the minor league level, hoping to get that coveted call. Here is hoping the weekend games are the first of many big league assignments for an outstanding broadcaster, a dear friend, and more importantly a big league husband to his wife Marne and big league dad to his sons Joe and Ryan. And do not forget the sacrifices Marne has made, while fashioning her own career, so Jeff could climb the summit. Being the wife of a broadcaster requires a juggling act that makes a Barnum & Bailey circus act look like a neighborhood carnival. This Saturday and Sunday made it seem all worth it for a great family.
Will Levis comes from quite a school
Imagine you are an alumnus or student of Xavier High School in Middletown, an all boys Catholic high school in the center of Connecticut. On Thursday you are watching primetime TV and the NFL draft, when a member of the alumni is drafted in the first round. That will probably happen, when quarterback Will Levis gets the call.
For several years, I broadcast high school football games with Mark Andrews, including games, involving Xavier High, when Levis was the quarterback. Many of our broadcasts emanated from historic Palmer Field in Middletown. Levis was good, real good. But could anyone imagine he was good enough to be an NFL first round draft pick? Levis, who started out at Penn St. and transferred to Kentucky worked hard to become one, but never forget where he got his start.
And think about this. When Levis is selected, it will be another crowning achievement for Xavier, which also lists Jeff Bagwell among its alumni. Bagwell, in case you don’t know, is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Not too bad for a small high school in a small state.
That is going to be it for this week’s newsletter. As always, thank you for subscribing and have a terrific week.
SPORTSCASTER DAN