The tarps…(Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

My very first article for Swingin’ A’s dealt with this issue.  In it I advocated the simple fact that we should all enjoy the upcoming 2012 season because soon enough things would never be the same.  That didn’t necessarily sit well with everyone, some thought I was advocating that we shouldn’t care about the A’s stadium situation, but I was simply stating we shouldn’t stop enjoying the team for all that it is because we’re too busy being angry at Lew Wolff.  Hopefully people did take time to enjoy the team because it was an incredible season.

As today’s rumors began to spread it was met with a lot of negative and positive reaction.  There are some who still hold strong that the A’s absolutely have to stay in Oakland or else they’ll have trouble continuing to root for them, then there are others who are in favor of a move to San Jose for the possible windfall it could bring the team and enhance its ability to build a consistent winner.  The latter is no guarantee though, as there are numerous unsuccessful teams around the league playing in brand new ballparks.

Personally, I will gladly take any scenario that keeps the A’s within driving distance.  If that means moving to San Jose and nearly doubling my drive time, that’s okay.  If it means shifting directions and heading east to Sacramento, that’s fine by me.  I whole heartedly agree that the ideal scenario would have the Athletics staying in Oakland, the city that they’ve come to embody.  Nothing would make me happier than perhaps a downtown stadium, or a waterfront ballpark, but something like that just might not be realistic.

Whether these rumors are just that, or if they are the smoke that will lead to the fire will not be known anytime soon.  We’ve all come to expect nothing from this process, Bud Selig has told us as much.  Until I hear otherwise, it’s all just talk.

February 25, 2012; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff watches a bullpen session during spring training at Papago Park Baseball Complex. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-US PRESSWIRE

With the start of the season drawing near, it is safe to assume that the Oakland A’s may not get an answer regarding their request for a new stadium in San Jose before Opening Day. The A’s have been patiently waiting for MLB and Bud Selig to deliver their decision regarding Oakland’s bid to relocate to the south bay in San Jose. Unfortunately for the green-and-gold, their stadium situation may never get resolved.

Back in December, there were some rumors floating around the blogosphere that the Athletics were going to get the approval necessary to relocate to San Jose by February. Well, Mr. Bob Nightengale of the USA Today, where’s the decision? February came and went, but the Athletics are still faced with the possibility of being stuck in the confines of the cavernous O.Co Coliseum for  years to come.

Lew Wolff and the rest of Oakland’s front office have been pushing MLB and Selig for what seems like three years now to deliver a “yes” or “no” response to their team’s relocation bid. The San Francisco Giants, meanwhile, counter that the A’s have absolutely no business exploring the technologically-rich city of San Jose. The Giants have been arguing that San Jose belongs to them and that the city is protected under their so-called “territorial rights.”

The idea of the A’s playing in San Jose, then, becomes this unattainable goal. This story of the A’s desperate attempts to move to San Jose could, in some stretch of the imagination, be compared to a fine piece of American literature.

In F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the novel’s central character Jay Gatsby is forever encapsulated by the ever important “green-light” that burns so bright at the end of Daisy Buchanan’s dock. For Gatsby, the “green-light” seems within reach, but at the same time unattainable. His every wish, hope, and dream goes, unfortunately, unanswered at the end of the novel.

Lew Wolff, the master of illusion, is much like Gatsby in the sense that he’s reaching for something he can’t quite get his hands on: a new stadium. Of course, in Fitzgerald’s novel Gatsby was chasing after Daisy and not some state-of-the-art venue in San Jose.

Wolff and the A’s are seemingly stuck in a total “wasteland,” much like the one that hindered Gatsby’s attempts at reconnecting with Daisy. A foul dust, like the one Nick Carraway describes in the Great Gatsby, is hindering Wolff’s dreams as it did to Gatsby’s. The Athletics, under Wolff, have hopes for a new stadium in the city of San Jose, but the San Francisco Giants are playing the “territorial rights” card and refusing Oakland access into San Jose.

Much like Tom Buchanan, an opposing force to Gatsby and his dreams, the Giants are highly hypocritical. As Sam McPherson so eloquently puts it in his coverage of Oakland’s new stadium bid: “the Giants are so fiercly protective of their own territory yet have the hubris  to open a merchandise store in the middle of the A’s “territory” demonstrates  that the San Francisco organization has no interest in doing unto others what  they would have other do unto them.”

Like Tom, the Giants are immensly wealthy and are bully-like figures in their respective existence. The Giants would be arrogant enough to open up a merchandise store within the boundaries of Oakland’s territory. The A’s, meanwhile, face the possibility of being shut out from gaining a stadium in the city of San Jose.

Much like Gatsby, then, Wolff’s dream will go unanswered and the A’s will continue to sit in a Valley of Ashes with the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg watching over them. Then again, Wolff may not be comparable to Fitzgerald’s greatest literary character. Unlike Gatsby, Wolff does not have many redeemable qualities.

It could be argued that Wolff is the one responsible for placing the Athletics in a Valley of Ashes in the first place. He’s put the A’s in a tough spot and has had polarizing effects on the thinning fan base.

The argument then becomes that this dream or “green-light” never belonged to Wolff, but to the Athletics and their fans. Whether or not the “green-light” is unattainable or not, though, varies among the fans.

The fans of the organization—what’s left of them—are  upset that Wolff is the one still leading the team towards an unattainble “green-light.” Others, like myself, though, are still holding out hope that the A’s (preferably without Wolff) will one day take hold of that “green-light” and never let go.

With that, I’ll leave you all with one fine quote from one fine piece of American literature:

“Gatsby believed in the green-light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run fast, strech out our arms farther…And one fine morining—” (180). F.Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

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Signs like this, urging an Oakland solution for the A's stadium woes are common nowadays

It has been less than a week since I was brought onto the staff of Swingin’ A’s, no doubt about it I am extremely proud to be a part of this team.  So I thought to myself, what can I write about that would “announce my presence, with authority” as Nuke LaLoosh so eloquently phrased it in Bull Durham?

The Oakland Athletics are quite literally involved in a fight for their right to exist.  One of the most successful franchises in baseball history, 3rd most World Series Championships behind only the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, is becoming the Montreal Expos.  This is serious business.

Now, I understand that isn’t exactly a bold statement on the surface, but I want everyone to let it sink in for a moment.  Anecdotally, I know most people believe the move to San Jose was nothing more than a formality, that the A’s would be able to either negotiate a deal with the (evil) San Francisco Giants, or simply have the rest of the owners in MLB force the Giants to relinquish their precious territorial rights.  That appears to be a very unlikely scenario, if you believe Bill Madden’s article in the New York Daily News from a couple weeks ago.  His article, which was based on tips from unnamed sources and opinions he had drawn, sent shockwaves throughout the Bay Area.  I felt those shockwaves, and they made me think.

What do we do now?  The answer is simple, we must embrace this team with every ounce of passion we can muster.

I have seen all of the signs hanging from the bleachers, ones calling for Lew Wolff’s head, Billy Beane’s head, the heads of anyone who has thought of doing anything but keep the A’s in Oakland.  Their anger is warranted, and every fan who considers themselves to be “die-hard” feels it too.  But I think it is time to put away the protest signs, turn that anger into passion, and enjoy the A’s as they are right now, because soon enough it will never be the same.

That can mean a lot of things though.  And not necessarily bad things.  Personally, I have felt all along that as long as ultimately the A’s are within driving distance of the North Bay, I’ll be happy.  That said, the possibility is very real that the team will be taken away from us, just like the Expos were from Montreal.  Either moved away, to another part of the country, or simply extinguished, contracted.  Both are horrifying scenarios, and honestly, at this point I don’t think there is anything we can do about what ultimately happens to this team, if there ever was to begin with.  I know that sounds awfully cynical, but it’s the truth.  On the other hand, moving to San Jose will keep our team within our grasp, which I doubt any fan would be upset about, but the feeling of the Coliseum will dissipate forever.  Many A’s fans criticize the Giants for the fair-weather nature of its fan base, for the wine sipping, quiche eating, aristocratic atmosphere AT&T Park exudes.  If Cisco Field ever becomes a reality in the Silicon Valley, we might be faced with the same fate.  But that’s okay.  They’d still be ours at the root of it all.

We owe it to ourselves to take in as many Free Parking Tuesdays, Double Play Wednesdays, Fireworks Nights, and those glorious midweek day games as possible.  Don’t think of it as putting money in Lew Wolff’s pocket, think only in terms of you and the team, because that is all that matters.

I know I will be getting to as many games as possible (gotta love 22 game ticket plans!), and I will be sure to enjoy each and every one of them.  You never know, like Joseph Lopez’s Crystal Ball put it, maybe just maybe the A’s will shock the world this year.

Check me out on Twitter @SeanD25, see my take on everything else baseball at Baseball Obsessed, and follow everything Swingin’ A’s @FS_SwinginAs.