In the San Francisco Business Times, Eric Young writes about MLB’s eternal study of the A’s ballpark options:
We’ll Probably Never See MLB’s Study Of A’s Situation
It has been 695 days -- and counting -- since baseball commissioner Bud Selig appointed a three-person group to study whether the Oakland A’s can relocate in the East Bay.
As Young notes, the Warren Commission completed its work in 300 days, the 9/11 Commission in 603 days. Granted, you might argue that both commissions could have been more thorough. Still, 695 days to weigh a relatively small number of options for a baseball franchise’s future home does seem excessive ... If you’re assuming that the completion of work is actually the idea.
Young offers two explanations for those 695 days (and counting):
The committee’s foot dragging can be viewed various ways, I suppose. Perhaps Selig is stalling until a deal can be cut with the Giants to allow the A’s to move to San Jose. Or maybe this snail’s pace progress is baseball’s way of telegraphing its desire -- however obliquely -- that it doesn’t really want the A’s to move from Oakland.
The committee isn’t dragging its foot. The committee’s work is, I’m almost sure, finished. But the release of the committee’s report would put pressure on someone to actually do something, and Selig doesn’t want that until the time of his exact choosing.
We might never see the results of this study; if we do, it won't be until the Athletics' fate has already been decided. Like almost everything else that Major League Baseball does, this will be an inside job.
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