In the article, Wolff even directed some of his frustrations toward the blue-ribbon panel (appointed by Bud Selig) to study the territorial rights issue, since they found in favor of the Giants.
“What I did not realize was that the amazing individuals comprising MLB … attract, employ or have around deceitful and dangerous sycophants,” Wolff wrote. “Not all, but some. And these sycophants assassinated the A’s!”
Wolff says this, and then doesn’t want to reserve any blame for Selig. Instead, he says that it would have been helpful if he had understood the A’s problem in a little more depth.
That screams an A’s problem, not an MLB problem. If the people holding your fate in their hands don’t understand the situation, then you should really make sure that they get it to ensure the result you want.
Wolff also bashed Jean Quan, the mayor of Oakland from 2011 to 2015, right in line with the timing of the blue-ribbon panel. She says that she was offering the A’s the Howard Terminal site, but, “it was very clear to me that when I was there, he was going to kill that deal no matter what.”
Wolff claimed that he didn’t have any real estate in San Jose at that time, and also wrote that Quan was “a rather confused person in my estimation.”
Quan’s account, that Wolff seemed dedicated to killing the Howard Terminal deal before it started, is exactly the kind of perception problem that sinks a negotiation. Whether she was correct in that assumption or not, the perception is what matters here, and the throughline of the entire A’s relocation saga has been a bad perception problem.
Again, this is an A’s issue. If this is how the person in control of your fate is thinking you’re acting, then there is something wrong with how you’re acting. It’s obvious that the A’s weren’t doing the work they needed to in order to make people want to side with them. Again, this is a communication issue.
San Jose was a leverage play?