How much longer can John Fisher stay in hiding? How much longer can he decimate a fanbase without expressing his side of the story?
A’s fans made national headlines with their reverse boycott during Tuesday night’s game, as more than 27,000 fans made the Coliseum feel like a playoff atmosphere while denouncing Fisher’s ownership. Longtime sports commentator Chris Rose joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Wednesday to discuss the situation.
Rose also made an interesting proposal, saying that MLB owners should be required to show face instead of being protected in their ivory towers.
“Owners have to understand what you’re doing when you’re pulling on the emotional heartstrings of the people you’re asking to empty their wallets for your behalf,” Rose told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “That’s why I think it should be mandatory that ownership in all sports meet with the media at least twice a year – once at the beginning of the season, once at the end of the season. Stop hiding in your palatial estates, stop having the commissioners take bullets for you. Go act like adults, go answer some questions.”
The main message A’s fans were trying to get across, is that Fisher’s lack of investment in the team is responsible for flailing attendance figures, not the fans.
Fisher has failed to invest in his team, re-sign players and find a new stadium since taking over as majority partner in 2005. Yet, he has only granted one on-the-record interview in those 18 years, coming in 2020 with the San Francisco Chronicle when he had to apologize for stopping $400 weekly payments to his minor leaguers in the height of the pandemic. At the time, Fisher was worth an estimated $2.2 billion, while his minor league players toiled with a scrapped season.
So, what do other MLB owners think of John Fisher?
“I don’t think the other owners care,” Rose said. “I just think they sit there and say, ‘Well I’m not gonna ruffle any feathers up there in Oakland, because I don’t wanna get up there on the record and have fans use that against me somewhere down the line.'”
We’ve seen photos of Fisher walking around the Nevada legislature recently, as the team is trying to ram through a $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium in special sessions the past week. Yet, we’ve never heard Fisher go to the microphone.
The only time we heard from A’s leadership, team president Dave Kaval fumbled his words as he tried to wriggle out of a tough line of questioning from a Nevada senator.
Kaval was asked to come speak again later in the day, but declined. Back to radio silence from A’s brass as they try to make this monumental move.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred clearly isn’t big on accountability, as he has shielded and defended Fisher at every turn, but perhaps it’s time for the league to reconsider the actions/inactions of its owners.
