Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria: Raiders’ Brown threatens to punch GM Mayock over fine; Kaval meets with the media at Jack London Square to share dreams; plus more

Photo credit sfgate.com: Oakland Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown shown in photo during his signing with the team during happier times threatened Raiders general manager Mike Mayock at practice on Thursday over his recent fines from the team.

On Headline Sports with Tony:

#1 Oakland Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown threatened Raiders general manager Mike Mayock after he was fined $53,000 for leaving camp twice. Don’t be surprised if Brown is cut. Brown also has not gotten his $30 million from his current contract and may not get it.

#2 The Oakland A’s held a presser last Tuesday afternoon at Jack London Square with team president David Kaval, who stood in front of a number of white cranes that help lift cargo shipments. Kaval said rather than remove them they would be part of the new stadium landscape kind of a conversation piece.

#3 It’s just simply a deal that has to get done. Kaval acknowledged that the environmental report which includes topic on toxic clean up, mass transportation, traffic conditions, and the railroads that circle the prized area where the A’s new ballpark is supposed to be built on.

#4 The New Orleans Pelicans’ Lonzo Ball said that his father Lavar’s brand sneakers The Big Baller ZO2 brand fell apart after each quarter “If you literally have those shoes from those games, they’re exploded,” Ball said. Not the ringing endorsement from the off spring of the founder.

#5 The Sacramento Kings owe Harrison Barnes $2.1 million. Barnes, who played for the Kings two different times, is owed the money after the Kings who originally signed him for $12 million and sent him to the New Orleans Pelicans with DeMarcus Cousins in 2016. After Barnes returned to Sacramento in 2018-19, he was paid but with $2.1 million left. Bottom line — how much will Barnes be missed in Sacramento?

#6 The Oakland Raiders kick off on Monday Night Football at the Oakland Coliseum to start Week 1 against the Denver Broncos. How do you see Raiders quarterback Derek Carr matching up against Broncos starter Joe Flacco in this one?

Tony does Headline Sports each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: NL opponents always set for Dodgers; Astros hold onto first, everyone out for them too; plus more

Photo credit: @ChicagoSports

On Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 Amaury, in the power rankings, everybody in the National League seems ready to chase the Dodgers as the team to beat every time they face the Dodgers.

#2 The Houston Astros the first place team in the AL West and have been giving their AL opponents some fits this season. Although they hit a rough patch, losing three of their last 10 games, they’ve been proving that opponents are going after them.

#3 The Milwaukee Brewers, who almost took out the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason last year, are another team who’s contending. They are just two games out of first place in the NL Central only trailing the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers are stocked with offense, including slugger Christian Yelich.

#4 Not too far in the distant future, the Tampa Bay Rays will be splitting their home games at Parc Olympic in Montreal. How much of a serious indication that their days in Tampa Bay are numbered?

#5 The Oakland City council are putting the Oakland A’s through the new stadium question test. Their main questions are paying for the new Howard Terminal location, and besides running a gondola from 12th Street BART to Howard Terminal, the council is looking for more answers to getting fans to the new stadium by other public transportation means.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish play by play announcer heard on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: A Talk With A’s Top Prospect Jesus Luzardo

Photo credit: sportingnews.com

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

On a sunny Saturday afternoon at Jack London Square where the 2019 Oakland A’s Fanfest took place, dozens of thousands of A’S and baseball fans in general tasting one of the appetizers of the 2019 season, the Fanfest, and in a couple of weeks, Spring Training, and the start of the season not far behind either.

The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame had the kiosk closer to Scott’s Seafood Restaurant, fans stopped by to talk baseball. Others got information on the museum and this year’s new A’s stars. La Pedrique, the A’s first base coach first stopped y to sign and meet the public, then later talented 21-year-old prospect, Jesus Luzardo.

Luzardo is a 21 years old and extremely personable with a big smile. He truly enjoyed meeting A’S fan for the first time. I talked to him in Spanish. A Miami, Florida resident, he is totally bilingual. He was born in Lima, Peru, but most of his family is from Venezuela and he identifies himself as a Venezuelan.

While Luzardo signed autographs and posed for photo with A’s fans, I learned a lot about this young prospect. Of the top 100 MLB prospects, he comes in as #7.

When I asked him about the feeling of wearing the A’s uniform, he responded: “It is great, it is tough to make it to this level, and I am very happy today.” Originally from the Washington Nationals organization, the rookie lefty told me he is good friends with ex-A’s lefty Gio Gonzalez, as they both live in the Miami area.

He told me “Gio helped me the time we spend together.”

I asked him about what type of pitcher he considers himself to be in power and in control. He told me “Everything, I can throw the fastball also a breaking pitch and I can be funky also.”

Luzardo is currently single, but told me he has a girlfriend with a huge smile. Al Pedrique, the A’s first base coach, is also from Venezuela, and prior to Luzardo, he came over to our kiosk to sign autographs. Pedrique believes this kid is “the real thing.”

When I asked Luzardo, who will report to Mesa, Arizona, for Spring Training, about making the rotation this season, he responded “We will see, but I am ready for Spring Training.”

According to scouts, Luzardo throws around 98 miles per hour and other secondary pitches. For his age, I found him to be very confident and very smart,when it comes to baseball. He told me he had been playing all his life and to be here is truly a dream come true. Many fans already have known about him and were excited to meet him, wished him good luck. One guy said to him that he will be in the A’s pitching rotation this year.

The opportunity is there for Luzardo. We all know the A’s have a very good young talented lineup, so pitching will be the main focus, especially starting pitchers and aside from Frankie Montas, Luzardo is one of the other young arms that could definitely win a position in the A’S 2019 starting rotation. He came to the A’s from Washington in a trade with closer Blake Treinien, and he could be the missing link for what could turn out to be a great trade for the A’s.

Buena suerte a Jesus Luzardo, muchacho con mucho talento y personalidad.

Translation: Good Luck to Jesus Luzardo, a kid with a lot of talent and personality.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s Fanfest at Jack London Square This Saturday

Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Baseball fans will be delighted when the Oakland Athletics’ Fanfest takes place this Saturday, January 26 at Oakland’s Jack London Square.

The Fiesta begins at 9:30 in the morning and ends at 2:30 in the afternoon. A’s players will sign autographs. There will be questions and answer sessions, giveaways, fun for the kids and the whole family as this event is the first to celebrate the return of the baseball season. In less than a month, the managers, coaches and players will report to Spring Training in Mesa, Arizona.

The weather is expected to be spectacular for this Fanfest (not far from where the A’S are planning to build their new ballpark). All kinds of foods will be available and live music for all to enjoy. After the off-season, fans are ready to return and support the A’s fter a very successful 2018 season.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: This Week in 1980, Charlie O. Finley Sold the A’s for $12.7 Million

Photo credit: thesportsesquires.com

By: Amaury Pi-González

On August 21, 1980, Athletics owner Charlie Finley announced at a news conference that he has sold his A’s to Walter A. Haas, Jr., the chairman of the board of the Levi Strauss clothing empire, Haas’s son Walter Jr., and son-in-law Roy Eisenhardt for $12.7 million.

In 1980, Finley agreed in principle to sell to businessman Marvin Davis, who was planning to move the A’s to Denver, but before that, Finley and Davis were to sign a contract, as the NFL’s Oakland Raiders announced they were moving to Los Angeles in 1982. The City of Oakland and Alameda County officials didn’t wanted to be held responsible for losing Oakland status as a big league city and refused to let the A’s out of their lease with the Coliseum. So the A’s were sold and stayed.

Although they have changed ownership a few times since, today’s A’s are in solid ground to continue playing in Oakland. These days, the last thing in mind for the A’s is to move out of Oakland, because soon they will be the only professional team left, after the Warriors move to San Francisco and the Raiders to Las Vegas. That is the good news. Plus, MLB commissioner Robert Manfred has said it all along, “the Bay Area is a two-team market.”

However, there is presently a group called Protect Oakland’s Shoreline Economy that is questioning the A’s proposed move to their favorite location of the Howard Terminal near Jack London Square. Here in the greater Bay Area, there is never a shortage of groups that oppose construction of sports facilities. and this one is the most recent. This is the second chapter of this novela. In December of last year, the A’s plans to build a 35,000 seat ballpark near Lake Merritt was stopped cold, when the community college refused to start negotiations about the proposed park.

All these recent concerns have been rather silenced by the A’s current play on the field, as they have been shocking the baseball world. They just took two out of three from the Mariners and two out of three from the Astros–two of their biggest rivals. This Monday, the Rangers open a three-game series at the Coliseum and then the A’s go on a six-game road-trip to Minnesota and Houston. They return the 30th of this month to say adios to August and welcome September with a four-game series against the M’s, three against the contending Yankees and the Rangers again. I do not believe the A’s bandwagon is close to capacity yet, as there are still a lot of folks who are not 100 percent certain they are going to see postseason play at the Coliseum. But I think they will.

By then, we will see how are the Atléticos de Oakland doing, with two very possible scenarios: 1) winning the division or 2) advancing as one of the two Wild Card teams.

Listen to the A’s games in Spanish on KIQI 1010am/990am, covering the Bay Area, Sacramento, Stockton and the Valley, and on the SAP Channel on NBC Sports California.

Oakland A’s unlock doors to newly constructed headquarters in Jack London Square, discuss ballpark relocation

By: Alexandra Evans

OAKLAND—As of Monday, January 8, the Oakland A’s have unlocked their newly constructed, 40,000 square-foot headquarters in Jack London Square.

A day after its opening, the club invited members of the media to take a tour of the facilities, built by Devcon. Stocked with A’s memorabilia (such as the orange ball proposed by former owner Charles Finley, the team’s earliest jerseys and amateur scouting reports for iconic players, including Reggie Jackson), exclusive office space for all branches of the franchise, a refreshment corner, fitness center, personalized A’s-themed artwork, and even a batting cage, each community meeting will be accompanied by state-of-the-art amenities and, being located directly on the water, a clear view of Alameda and San Francisco.

“This location in Jack London has great bones,” said A’s president Dave Kaval. “It’s got a lot of great parts of the experience here like the water, people like congregating here.”

Kaval referred to the new headquarters as a “sampler,” a representation of having a collaborative work environment and embracing their past. Fans and other members of the community now have the opportunity to witness Oakland’s “vision” of their impending new ballpark.

The A’s have called the Oakland Coliseum their home for 50 years, though the club has decided to relocate the ballpark to a different spot in Oakland, such as the Peralta Community College District site–adjacent to Laney College–and the Howard Terminal. After a year of contemplation, they selected the Peralta site in September 2017.

Kaval explained that the club will relocate with the intent to provide all those affiliated with the franchise (executives, players, fans, media members, and the community) with a more modern, holistic experience in and out of the office, and on and off the field. Additionally, the relocation will not allow the A’s to produce the revenue required to compete “at the highest quartile with some of the bigger level teams,” Kaval described.

“[The relocation] fulfills our needs as an organization,” Kaval continued. “It allows us to have a better fan experience, win more world championships by having a bigger payroll, and fits the community’s needs in terms of what it needs to develop, be it affordable housing, a commercial center, or a ballpark village.

“When we talk about having a world-class fan experience, that includes the ingress and egress, getting to and from. You don’t want to be sitting in a parking lot for 45 minutes… it’s very important that wherever we go, we have a plan for that which is very well thought-out.

“We’re focused on those guiding principles of creating a ballpark privately financed, a key part of what we are doing here,” said Kaval, also adding that the confidential financing matters are unusual in the development of venues in Oakland.

The ballpark relocation is one of the biggest projects in the history of Oakland, and it is going to take more than construction workers and team executives to ensure success.

“We need our fans, we need the community, we need the civic leaders, we need everyone together to make it happen, and it will have so many positive externalities if it is done the right way,” Kaval contended.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: A’s ownership considering building near Coliseum site

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The question was put to A’s co-owner and managing partner Lew Wolff where if not for Jack London Square’s Howard Terminal is the best place for the A’s? Wolf mentioned the Coliseum “would be where were at right now on land controlled by (the city and county).” Wolff made it clear that a Jack London Square park would be out of the question after a design of what it would look like on the Oakland Waterfront would look like.

There has been reports that if Wolff ever was to sell the A’s and he reiterated that he was no going to sell the club but if he were executives from Clorox bleech, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, Warrior owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber were interested in buying the team. It was the first time since Wolff said he wanted to move the team to Fremont or San Jose that he would consider keeping the team in Oakland but it would not be in downtown Oakland.

The new design that was released on Wednesday is located next to the bay by the containers and the horse shaped cranes and would be in proximenty to Jack London Square which is prime downtown location for hotels and restaurant constructon if a new stadium was ever to be constructed there. The key here is that Wolff and co-owner John Fisher said they are not interested in the downtown location, what are you going to do? “All I care about is getting a new home for the A’s in the best possible circumstances, and under any circumstances Howard Terminal would be as close to impossible as anything.” said Wolff.

Wolff and Fisher for the longest while were not convinced that they could not have a place in Oakland but the Coliseum location seems to be of strong interest. Wolff likes that it’s all city and county property that would be all city and county property to build on the land spending public funds and Wolff would pay almost unheard of low rent. The suitors for buying the A’s Clorox, Dreyers and the Warriors would like to build a waterfront ball park in downtown Oakland and develop Jack London square into a shopping, hotel, and condo meca.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said he was not in favor of getting rid of the team but that he said the A’s could not go to San Jose because of the San Francisco Giants territorial rights. We know the city of Oakland wants to keep the A’s we have to go to the Genises of this and Wolff doesn’t want the team at the waterfront but will consider building the team a new stadium at the Coliseum location.

Wolf says BART goes right to the Coliseum and that the only change would be the A’s would get a new park and be in the same location that they always have been in since 1968 and that’s in east Oakland at the Coliseum. Everytime the city of Oakland comes up with a new plan Wolff says it’s not doable. So that plan is what Wolff wants and he wants to build a new stadium for the A’s on public property at the Coliseum site.

Wolff wants to move the team to San Jose but he finally realizes now that he can’t because of the Giants territorial rights and baseball also would not allow it because the Giants would litagate against baseball and Selig does not want a side show over the A’s moving to San Jose. Right now it’s 50-50 and nobody knows how this is going to end up.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary