Yesterday, the Oakland A’s announced that they will start exploring relocating to a new city, with the blessing of Major League Baseball. Today, coincidentally (or maybe not???), I am wearing a baseball cap. It is a Mavericks cap, but still. In any event, that means I am in the right headspace [broad wink to camera] to make this argument:
Dallas should make an offer to bring the A’s to a new stadium in downtown Dallas.
I can’t find the issue, and I don’t think it ran online, but a few years ago we pitched the idea of Dallas bringing a National League team to town. Specifically, to the site of the former Reunion Arena, still unoccupied at this time. It is an even better spot for a stadium now, accessible by train and trolley and truck (or car—just wanted to hit the alliteration), and certainly walkable. In terms of pedestrians, it’s not quite as great as it would have been when the city kicked the tires on trying to lure the Rangers to the Farmers Market in the early 1990s. But I can tell you, as someone well familiar with walking around this city, it’s eminently doable, if not 100-percent convenient. You’d get used to it.
But wait, Zac, you’re yelling to a screen, not thinking that only Amazon and the feds are listening. The Rangers are already here. OK, but are they really? Here? They’re in Arlington, and while it is known by some as “the Paris of I-30,” it is not Dallas. And Arlington has always had a chip on its shoulder about people thinking the Rangers (and Cowboys) belonged to Dallas. So, OK, fine, they can have the Rangers. (We will still keep our hold on the Cowboys, because we can. It’s pretty effortless.)
I mean, what have the Rangers ever given us, but heartbreak? What is your best memory? Almost winning a couple of World Series a decade ago? Rougie Odor punching the soul out of that guy? Nothing we can’t leave behind. Imagine knocking off for the day—in this example you work downtown, obviously—and walking over to the ballpark for a few innings and a couple of beers? Pretty great.
I don’t need payment. Just a standing ovation during the seventh inning of every game by the Dallas A’s in perpetuity.
