Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of attending my fourth Fox SportsNet Bay Area Baseball Luncheon, held at Treature Island. For those of you not aware of the event, it's considered the "kickoff" baseball season event for the media of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The featured speaker was Bob DuPuy, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Major League Baseball and someone I wanted to meet to talk about SBS's Oakland Baseball Simworld and ask him about how MLB deals with excessive debt amoung teams.
Media Roast of People and Politicians
The luncheon is a media roast. Ray Kiper was the event MC, and seemed to leave few luminaries out of his humor gunsight. Some of the people he talked about -- like Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown -- were there. Others, like San Francisco Chronicle Columnist and friend Glenn Dickey, were not.
Ray said this about Dickey: "Is Glenn Dickey here? No? Well, that's right because he doesn't have his column anymore!" That was a low blow. I don't know what Glenn did to deserve that. I personally think Ray should have spent more time roasting Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown.
Yes, Jerry was there, and about a table away from mine. He was sitting with Mike Crowley, President of the Oakland A's, SF Giants GM Brian Sabien, SF Giants Owner Peter McGowan, SF Giants President Larry Bear, Du Puy, and Randy Muller of Fox Corporate.
While Jerry was there, Simone Brice, who I know, and who's worked in the City of Oakland, walked in. I offered him a seat and lunch at our table, since there were about four open seats. He sat down and we caught up on things.
Simone and I hold differing views on what our roles in Oakland should be. I am passionate about Oakland; Simone sees Oakland as a means to a personal end. In other words more money and pension for a better life. Personally, that's why I'm running SBS. I just feel that I can do more of a personal nature here in a private business.
With Oakland, I was on a mission to make the City better.
Simone and I also talked about Jerry and just how hard it is to work for him. See, Jerry tends to be really inconsiderate of his staff people. I mean if you think California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley had problems with his staff, take a look at Jerry Brown. What protects Jerry is his celebrity status, and the media's almost rose-colored view of him. A view so unrealitic it borders on silly. But I digress. Let's get back to the luncheon.
DuPuy Says Major League Baseball Supports Oakland
After the round of Kiper Jokes, Fox Sports GM Jeff Krolik introduced DuPuy. In his speech, DuPuy stated more than once, that Major League Baseball was committed to keeping the A's in Oakland with a new baseball stadium.
There's a school of thought which goes like this: Major League Baseball will try to work with the Oakland Officials, knowing they don't have their act together, then work to relocate the team to San Jose. I personally don't think Major League Baseball would work to damage the Giants' fan base in the South Bay, but I'm only reporting a school of thought.
One part of that idea is that Oakland officials do need to get their act together. Well, more specifically, the Coliseum Authority and the Mayor's Office -- er, The Mayor.
Anyway, I saw a lot of people at the lunch. I saw Jerry and he saw me while he was at the podium. I think I may have caused him to skip a few lines.
I also saw my good friends Monte Poole and Marty Mandel, who's a local TV and Broadcasting agent, as well as Jay De La Cruz, who makes the whole lunch happen for Fox. Then there are long times friends from the A's like David Rinetti and Dave Alioto. And of course I met a ton of people and collected business cards I have to follow up on.
In all, a great way to start the baseball season!
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