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| The Oakland payroll ranks near the bottom |
That said, consider the plight of the Oakland Athletics, one of baseball's best teams. The A's won the American League West division in 2012 and are in the lead again this year with a third of the season completed. Despite their excellence the payroll is one of the lowest in baseball; the top three players on the New York Yankees make more than the A's entire 25-man roster.
The A's also have to endure playing in baseball's worst park. The 46-year-old Oakland Coliseum is the only remaining "dual purpose" stadium that hosts both major league baseball and National Football League games. Its deteriorating infrastructure and high-crime surroundings hold the attendance down (another factor is ownership's regular attempts to move the team out of Oakland). Attendance this year ranks in the bottom third of major league cities; in 2011, before the team became a contender, Oakland was dead last.
Perhaps the, er, low-water mark occurred this Sunday, when a sewage leak forced the A's and visiting Seattle Mariners to abandon the clubhouses and take showers in the Oakland Raiders' locker room upstairs. Snippets from USA Today:
[A's owner Lew Wolff]: "It's all a bunch of crap."It turns out that sewage leaks have been occurring since 1975. No, your humble observer does not feel sorry for A's players, but they do deserve better. © 2013 Stephen Yuen
[Lew Wolff] was all set for a nice meal at the Athletics' Westside club on Wednesday night, he divulged, when a raw sewage leak emerged in the kitchen. The restaurant was immediately shut down.
The Los Angeles Angels, who play in Oakland nine times during the year, have filed complaints in the past about the conditions, worried about E. coli in the training room.
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