Rough December in Bay Area Sports

For us Bay Area sports fans, there has been little to exult over in the cold winter months. First, our 10-1 Cal Bears, ranked #4 in the national polls, were shut out of the Rose Bowl through some highly-suspicious poll results which favored Texas in their spot, pushing them towards the unheralded, and unexciting Holiday Bowl - costing the team a chance at history, and a mere $14 million in needed revenue. And now - in even bigger news, the Oakland A's have traded away two of the most dominant pitchers in all of baseball: Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, to the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals respectively.

And this doesn't even mention all the continued hubbub around steroids and allegations toward a certain SF Giant left fielder, or the fact the two football teams are atrocious...

In this time when players are considered bargaining chips, and sports is definitely business-first, fan loyalty can be hard to keep from year to year, as the teams we cheer for can be dismantled in minutes, or so it seems. This hit home in junior high when Jose Canseco was traded, when Joe Montana left to the Chiefs in the early 1990s, and personally, after seeing Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada leave the small-market A's, whose team brilliance outshone their limited revenue, making these superstar players near impossibilities to sign.

Now that the vaunted "Big Three" of Hudson, Mulder and Zito is breaking up and sent to pitch thousands of miles away, I am sure I will continue to cheer on the A's - but shouldn't I have the chance to grow attached to the players on the field? Should I have to purchase a scorecard and a lineup each time I want to see my favorite team, just to know the players' names? Why is it okay for the Yankees and Red Sox to outspend my team by more than 3 times each year, yet my ticket prices don't seem to get any cheaper?

Comments

[Kristine]

No one else may care but I'm certainly upset too. My favorite pitchers are leaving and going to the Rose Bowl would have been fun. At least I can still wear my "I love Zito" t-shirt.

[Terrie]

hey, it's not that we don't care, but I -- for one -- don't follow sports as closely, so am not up on the trades. However, I certainly think it would be hard to be loyal to a team whose players kept changing.