Win the Whole Thing

It’s the only option left.

To recap, Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani is the latest elite talent to spurn the Oakland A’s in lieu of a more attractive option. Only this time the more attractive option might be one of Oakland’s biggest rivals, the San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, or the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. For the fan who has paid any attention the past two decades this is business as usual.

Then today news broke of Oakland’s stadium plans being halted by a community college district’s board of trustees. Pardon my language, but the metaphorical shit is piling up on the actual shit filling Rickey Henderson Field. I don’t enjoy playing the victim, and I haven’t ever really felt that the Athletics organization has been the victim. Until now.

This organization can’t bring in high-quality free agent talent, is almost always the resident of someone else’s no-trade clause, and plays in a park that is approaching historic landmark status. To break free from this pattern there’s only one option left: win the whole thing.

It’s not like Khris Davis, Jed Lowrie, and crew like losing games more than winning them, but something has to give with this team. Raising a “World Series Champions” banner would do the trick. Simply overachieving and defying expectations is a sucky consolation prize and always has been.

We watched loaded team after loaded team win title after title. Then the Houston Astros came a long and told the world they were going to lose as much as possible so that they can win as much as possible, establishing the mold with which teams will now rebuild. Meanwhile our window closed.

That window, however, has cracked itself open with the emergence of sluggers Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. AJ Puk looks like an ace-in-waiting and Franklin Barreto, Jorge Mateo, and Dustin Fowler look like they’ll be regular major leaguers soon. This team finally has a homegrown talent pool reminiscent of the great A’s teams of the 2000’s. There’s nothing left to do except win the last game of the season.

There’s nothing we can do about this, as fans. The team owes us nothing. But you and I know that the Oakland Athletics have always been about more than just stretching the budget and playing the part of the little brother. This franchise has pride and a legendary history. It’s time the current iteration of the Oakland A’s reminds the sporting world of that.

I don’t have any player analysis to offer and don’t really have any reasoning why this Oakland team can win the World Series. I’ve spent the day reading your reactions to the stadium news and came away with these thoughts. With regards to sports, I’ve wanted nothing more than to see the Oakland A’s win a title. It’s something that hasn’t happened since the year before I was born. Today I realized that It’s possible to have wanted that even more.