ARLINGTON, Texas —
The Oakland Athletics are 11 weeks from extinction.
They’ll set up shop in Sacramento for three or four years, and after that they plan on making Las Vegas their new home. The A’s fans hate the idea, of course. The elected officials in Nevada, who authorized $380 million in public funding toward a new ballpark in Las Vegas, largely love the idea.
Las Vegas has a strong baseball community, and a growing cast of major league players. I spent the past few weeks asking major leaguers with Las Vegas roots what they thought of the A’s move and whether they believed the team would succeed there.