NEW YORK — The sorry plight of the Oakland Athletics, which came to a head this week with the announcement the team will be pulling up stakes and heading to a new ballpark in Las Vegas, is the most glaring example of the bigger problem vexing baseball — the lack of competitiveness on and off the field — that was clearly not sufficiently addressed in the most recent collective bargaining agreement.
In at least a half-dozen cities, they are charging major league prices to see what are essentially minor league baseball teams.
Going into the weekend, the hapless A’s along with the Royals, Rockies, Reds, Nationals and Tigers had a combined run differential of minus-261. At the same time, the A’s, Marlins, Royals, Reds and Pirates were all averaging under 17,000 fans per game. Any way you look at it, this is not a good look for baseball.
