John Fisher’s Letter to Oakland A’s Fans: ABC7’s Larry Beil Reacts Passionately to A’s Owner’s Farewell Message

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — With just three games left in Oakland, team owner John Fisher finally apologized Monday for the team’s departure from Oakland.

Fisher published a letter in which he wrote:

“To our Oakland Athletics fans:

This upcoming series against the Texas Rangers will be the last of the A’s 57 years in Oakland. And while the A’s have played in Philadelphia and Kansas City before, Oakland has been home to the greatest era in the franchise’s 123-year history.

Four World Series championships. Six pennants and 17 division titles. Seven Hall of Famers. Charlie Finley and his mule. Billy Ball. Reggie and his unmatched arrogance. Rollie and his handlebar mustache. Dave Stewart and his steady stare. Bill King’s “Holy Toledo.” Rickey, the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history. The list goes on.

Triumphs, failures, the 1989 Loma Preita earthquake in Game 3 of the Bay Bridge Series, the 20-game winning streak, a Hollywood movie and an unmatched cast of players, coaches and fans. We’ve had it all.

And that, I know, is what makes our departure so difficult.

The A’s are a fixture in Oakland, the East Bay and the entire San Francisco Bay Area. When Lew Wolff and I bought the team in 2005, our dream was to win world championships and build a new stadium in Oakland. Over the next 18 years, we did our best to make that happen. We proposed and researched five different locations in the San Francisco Bay Area. And despite our mutual and ongoing efforts to reach an agreement for the Howard Terminal project, we were unsuccessful.

It wasn’t until 2021, after 16 years of working exclusively on developing a home in the Bay Area and facing a binding agreement from MLB to find a new home by 2024, that we began to consider bringing the team to Las Vegas.

There are millions of dedicated and passionate A’s fans in Oakland and around the world. Countless dedicated staff members and employees at the Oakland Coliseum have poured their hearts into this team, and their efforts have meant so much to our community. I know there is great disappointment, even bitterness. As much as I wish I could speak to each of you individually, I can tell you this from the bottom of my heart: We tried. Staying in Oakland was our goal, it was our mission, and we failed to achieve it. And for that, I am truly sorry.

I hope you will join our beloved A’s as we move forward on this incredible journey. I hope to see you wearing the green and gold jersey again. And I hope we make you proud.

-John Fisher”

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ABC7 Sports Director Larry Beil responded to Fisher’s letter on the 4 p.m. news, saying:

“Okay, you heard Fisher’s statement. Let me tell you what the reality is. Okay, John, you’ve tried five different, wildly flawed stadium proposals. You’ve never even gotten the first shovel in the ground. Yes, Oakland politics is often a disaster, I’ll give you that. But John, you surround yourself with incompetent men who say yes to everything, and because you were born into a family of billionaires, you apparently never learned that you have to spend money to make money. Look at Joe Lacob and the Golden State Warriors, your buddy, who always wants to buy the team. John, you’re a serial cheapskate. You’ve destroyed your family’s great name and legacy because of your greed.”

Beil continued: “John, we have been trying to interview you for years, but you always choose to remain invisible, unless you are asking politicians for public funds and then you are in the spotlight in Las Vegas.”

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Over the weekend, the A’s hosted the Yankees for the final time at the Coliseum and were swept in three games.

The series drew some of the largest crowds of the season to the Coliseum.

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The final series in Oakland history begins Tuesday. The A’s will host the Texas Rangers and the final game at the Coliseum is scheduled for Thursday at 12:45 p.m.

This game is sold out and the cheapest resale tickets are selling for around $65.