The San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics have been locked in a dispute about territorial rights for years now. The A's are desperate to move to the South Bay, as they have investors and cities who want them there and at least one company champing at the bit to build them a stadium. The Giants, meanwhile, have blocked any attempts for the A's to move to the South Bay, giving such compelling arguments as "Nuh-uh," "Mine" and "Gimme." The Giants reached a new level of unnecessary childishness on Wednesday when team president Larry Baer recommended a new location for the Athletics franchise.
Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle met up with Baer at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Wednesday and the following exchange took place:
After his round Wednesday at Pebble, he greeted me with a jovial, "You're not going to ask me about territorial rights, are you?"
He was kidding, but we talked about 'em anyway. I can't tell you everything he said, but he reiterated that the Giants have zero intention of yielding San Jose to the A's.
"What about here?" I asked, gesturing to Pebble Beach.
"They can have it," Baer said.
Ostler doesn't mention it, but I can only assume that Baer then smirked so hard that his hair burst into flame. It's good to know that a multimillionaire who owns a terribly successful organization -- mostly in spite of itself -- is not above resorting to petty jabs at his down-on-their-luck counterparts who are the baseball equivalent of Tiny Tim. (The Dickens character, not the late, famous weirdo ukulele-ist.)
The happy ending to this story is that Baer didn't make the cut to advance in the tournament. He packed up his ridiculously expensive golf clubs, drove his unnecessarily gaudy rental car to the Monterey Airport and took a private jet back to the Bay Area. To his mansion. Did you know that the preferred private jet service that operates out of Monterey is called "Million Air?" Larry Baer does.
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