Baseball's winter meetings are a bizarre spectacle, a lot of people standing around chasing rumors with not much going on much of the time, which was why it was a big deal when super-agent Scott Boras chose the occasion to talk up the idea of the A's moving to San Jose.
The reason it was important was this: No one else was talking about it. It generated some tweets and some headlines and focused some attention on a maddening riddle -- Why doesn't baseball take action to resolve the absurd situation?
The facts are very simple: Years ago when the Giants were playing at Candlestick Park and desperate they asked to be granted so-called territorial rights to the San Jose area so they could pursue moving their franchise down there. Instead, they built a swank new ballpark in San Francisco that is the envy of baseball and yet, for reasons not one person can explain, they are being allowed to perpetuate the fiction that they "own" territorial rights to San Jose.
I grew up in San Jose. Back then it was the pathetic cousin of San Francisco. Now it has a larger population and it also boasts great weather for baseball: Anyone who is open-minded agrees it makes sense for the A's to move there -- since Oakland, sadly, is clearly no longer an option -- and build an intimate new stadium. I was covering the San Jose Sharks for the San Francisco Chronicle when the team started playing its first games at a new arena in San Jose and the fans went wild. Something similar would happen if the A's moved to San Jose. It would be good for baseball. It would be good for the Giants, since everyone loves a good rivalry and it's always much more fun and interesting to have two lively franchises in a market.
So when someone like Boras, who I think of as always having a single agenda (Boras), takes his time to make some obvious points on the subject, I think it's a good sign.
"If they were working towards the whole, they would agree that the Oakland A's belong in San Jose," Boras told reporters in Nashville. "They would be in an environment where it would optimize the betterment of baseball. ... The A's are very well run, top to bottom, and certainly to put that franchise in a competitive environment stadium-wise would allow their growth and create just a greater competitive environment and just a more successful game overall."
What do you think? Would you like to see the A's in San Jose? Do you have any hopes of a resolution?