San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is a 21st-century renaissance man, able to hold forth on controversial immigration legislation one day, (and to inform folks who think otherwise that he is not in the business of deporting) and then issue a stern warning to Major League Baseball the next.
While a plan to build a field in Fremont has failed, and any plans at all to build a field in the Bay Area are in the earliest of stages, Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolff and team management have more than once mentioned San Jose as a nicer spot than the Coliseum which to have lots of people pay lots of money to watch baseball (seeing as how most spots are nicer than the Coliseum, we can’t argue). But San Jose is home of a Giants minor-league team and “official” Giants territory, so this is a problem.
Threatened and angered, Herrera today sent a letter to MLB commissioner Bud Selig, warning MLB to step off (the SF Examiner already made the “No Way San Jose” joke, and the official press release had some slick baseball metaphors, so that leaves us not very much at all) and respect the “sanctity” of MLB’s own self-imposed imaginary boundaries (check out a map of said boundaries here).
Which apparently aren’t so imaginary at all, considering Herrera’s “legal concerns.” They are, in sum: San Francisco entered on a complex legal agreement with Major League Baseball before building the China Basin ballpark, and a stadium in San Jose would break that agreement.
Not that there are any solid plans for a field in San Jose at the moment. Readers may recall when the A’s planned to move into Silicon Valley, with a high-tech, laptop-friendly field to be built in Fremont before the economy (and common sense, perhaps) scuttled that plan.
In recent weeks, Oakland city officials told MLB and the A’s that they had four prime spots available for a baseball field in the City of Oaks. Reaction from an MLB committee is forthcoming.
We asked Herrera spokesman Matt Dorsey if the letter had been met with a response, and if he thinks the Giants should trade Matt Cain for a cleanup hitter. We’ll update when we hear anything.
