A's News Round Up

It's been kind of a slow summer, but in the past month the news has really picked up.

First of all, we would like to thank Jorge Leon, Oaklandish and the Green Stampede for the wonderful event they co-hosted honoring the late Glenn Burke last Wednesday. Oakland Local had an excellent write up on the evening.

Last week, another Lake Merritt Station Area Plan meeting, where conceptual ideas on how the area could be redeveloped, was held. We previously discussed this in April 2010, and March 2011. We were unable to attend the meeting last Monday, but we are reviewing the PDF of the presentation and will try to have a write up ASAP. You can download them by clicking here. The PDF is rather large (23 mb) but covers a lot of the plan.

Victory Court and the Lake Merritt area across the freeway from each other and whatever happens with the Lake Merritt Station Area Plan will affect the Victory Court area, and vice-versa.

Last Thursday, news leaked out that the A's were switching their bleachers ticket policy, changing it from open general admission seating to assigned seating. Naturally, this was not well-received by A's fans, who had been used to general admission seating for more than 40 years. BaseballOakland essentially was put together by friends who sit out in the bleachers, so we weren't too happy about it, either. But, there's good news. The A's reversed course and will keep the bleachers general admission, according to the Keep the Bleachers General Admission Facebook page.

Now let's work on those damn tarps ...

Also, you may have heard that Bill Neukom is stepping down as the Giants' CEO and managing partner. We don't talk much Giants on here (for obvious reasons) However, many South Bay partisans see this as an opportunity for the A's to move out of Oakland. Not so fast. Larry Baer, a longtime Giants executive and the new managing partner, remains just as committed as his former boss to preserving the Giants' territorial rights in the South Bay.

A's manager Bob Melvin has been given a three-year contract extension.

Lastly, Moneyball premiered Monday night at the Paramount Theater in downtown Oakland ... but more on that later. It was a great night for Oakland.