Spanish voice of A’s blasts Vegas move, ownership: ‘Not professional’

It’s a different world over on Bay Area radio station KIQI 1010 AM, where Spanish-language broadcasters Manolo Hernández-Douen and Amaury Pi-González regularly acknowledge the chants and ponder the whole Vegas saga. The duo has discussed the fan protests — openly if neutrally — saying the city of Oakland deserves some share of the blame for the team leaving. But even that is a blast of fresh air compared to the awkward television broadcasts, where the announcers seem likely to have some sympathy for the fans but unable to express it.

In a recent interview with SFGATE, Pi-González went much further. “If you tell the fans right now that Mr. Fisher is selling next week, there’ll be a parade in Oakland,” he said. 

Pi-González, 78, is a Bay Area broadcasting legend. He began announcing A’s games in 1978 when, he says, former A’s owner Charlie Finley told him, “You can broadcast in Mexican.” He’s worked several stints over the past 45 years with the A’s and has been calling 71 A’s games a year in Spanish on KIQI for the past decade.

The following interview has been lightly condensed and edited for length.

Amaury Pi-González: We did the game [Tuesday]. Max Scherzer won the game and in the fifth inning, we had “sell the A’s, sell the A’s.” There were only 5,000 people, and it sounded like it was 15,000. … No, the A’s never told me what to say on the air. No, I never had that problem in any market at work. I don’t remember a case where they told me what to say or what I cannot say. But now it’s becoming a little controversial here in the Bay Area. I don’t know. [Sunday,] there were some fans in a suite [in “SELL” shirts], and they were escorted, there was a story in the Chronicle …

I figure people are going to ask me that. But I don’t remember an instance when they told me, “Be careful, but don’t say this, don’t say that.” To be honest with you, I’ve been waiting for them to tell me something, because the atmosphere now — the situation is a little tense here. But nobody has told me that.

SFGATE: Why do you think that’s the case?

Pi-González: Boy, maybe Spanish? We don’t have the audience they have in English. Nobody does, even the Dodgers. … But maybe it’s because of that. That’s the only reason. Now, I have not asked my partners in English. I don’t mention that to them. I don’t hear anything. 

SFGATE: So assuming this move to Las Vegas happens, what’s next for you?

Pi-González: I don’t want the team to leave. I want the team to stay. … I’m not privy to any conversation. I met Mr. [Dave] Kaval. I never met Mr. Fisher. Mr. Kaval was very gracious, he walked into our booth. I had a meeting with him for an hour at his Jack London Square office when he was hired. And I introduced myself, we talked baseball. He told me he was from Cleveland and he had a passion for the game. At that time, there were people thinking that we’re going to move, but we didn’t know it was for real because there’s always rumors about the A’s, right?

They were going to move to Fremont. … That failed. They tried to move to other cities and it failed, too. But now it looks like Vegas is a deal, and I don’t like it. I don’t like it. To be honest with you, I don’t only blame the team — and I’m not saying this because I’m a company guy or anything like that, I can say what I want. But the city of Oakland has lost the Raiders. They have lost the Warriors. So they lost two professional teams, and now they’re on the verge of losing the A’s. I think the city of Oakland, to me, is very disorganized. I think they could have done a better job with the Oakland A’s, and I think this A’s ownership is very disorganized, too. And I don’t think they’ve been truthful to the fans. 

But I think this could have been handled in a more professional way. And it hasn’t. I blame both the city of Oakland, and I blame the A’s. I don’t have any connections with the city, I’m not into the politics of this, but I know that they were negotiating and all of a sudden the A’s said, “No, we’re leaving for Vegas.” Then they bought some 40 acres there. … Then two weeks later, “No, we’re not going to buy that. We’re going to go to the 9 acres.” It looks to me like it was done in haste. I don’t know. I don’t see the plan. The plan is to leave Oakland, I know that. … They did tell me we’re going to play here next year again. That’s the only thing they told me.

SFGATE: What do you mean, it could have been handled in a more professional way?

Pi-González: I’ve been following this just like everybody. … If you really analyze the way they’ve done this, they first announce, OK, they’re going to move. So they get like, 40 acres and then they drop that because, no, we have 9 acres. So it doesn’t make sense to me. For years, you plan something. They had the Howard Terminal in Oakland. They planned for years to design that park. Now they move to another town, they buy land to build a park there, and then they drop that land, they go to another [plot].

It’s just, to me, it’s not professional the way they’ve been doing this.

SFGATE: It’s amateur hour. 

Pi-González: It’s kind of terrible. There’s a lot of passion here. The A’s fans are really, really pissed. So it’s a tough situation here.

SFGATE: You’ve been around Major League Baseball and fans for as long as anyone now. Have you ever seen anything like this from fans?

Pi-González: No. Never … I could not bet my life that I am 100% sure at this time, speaking to you, that they’re moving. It’s like I’m living in another universe, right? I cannot believe they are literally moving. I think they are, but still something inside of me tells me that it doesn’t make sense. The Oakland A’s, for years, claim they’re a small-market team, which I think is a lot of — excuse my French, a lot of bulls—t — because we have 7 million people in this area. So here’s the irony. They live in this quote-unquote small market, and they go to a town that has half a million people. That’s all Vegas got, maybe 600,000. They’re going to become a real small market team. The smallest market team in baseball, 30,000 seats. 

They get revenue, charity from other owners. That’s fine. That’s the way baseball goes. Yankees and the Dodgers make the money — like they used to say in the ’80s, trickle-down economics. So they give money to the teams who are poor teams. … Mr. Fisher is a very wealthy man. We all know that. There’s no mystery here. This is not a small-market team. The area is not a small-market area. And now they’re going to go to Vegas. That is a small market. 

Somebody has to explain that to me. … It’s like that movie “Major League,” remember? The owner wanted to lose every game.

SFGATE: Both the commissioner, and I think A’s ownership implicitly, have kind of blamed the stadium situation on poor attendance. Do you think fans are right to not show up when ownership does not invest in the actual product on the field?

Pi-González: I think so. Of course. The product in baseball is your team. You invest on the field. If you don’t put money on the field, you’re not going to be successful in a free-enterprise system.

There’s only two ways you can have a good team. You can buy the players like Mr. Steve Cohen does with the Mets — and that still doesn’t work sometimes — or you have to develop the players.The A’s developed the players for years. When they become free agents, they fly away. I talk to a lot of fans. And fans talk to me with cynicism. “He’s a good player, but he’s going to be gone in three years,” that’s what they tell me. … So the A’s have been successful, they rebuild every few years. But it comes to a point — like last year, they lost 102 games, they’re going to lose at least that many this year. And the fans are fed up — the A’s fans are very good fans, I tell you that. They’re very loyal fans here. 

SFGATE: During a few of the fan boycott games, you said the fans should be chanting “expansion team” instead of “sell the team” because you think the move is, as you put it on the air, “cooked rice.” I just want to ask you while I have you: Would the A’s be better off if John Fisher just sold the team to like Joe Lacob or whoever?

Pi-González: At this time, yes. 

I’m not a leader by any means. I’m not trying to start a revolution like my country, Cuba, with Castro. But I can tell you this, that if you tell the fans right now that Mr. Fisher is selling, next week there’ll be a parade in Oakland. They’ll go crazy. Because that’s what they want now, because they’re frustrated.

And I understand 100%, the fans, how they feel. I really do. I feel the pulse and I’m all for them. If they want to demonstrate, as long as they don’t throw stuff on the field or insult people or use foul language, I’m all for that. … I have no say on this. The owners could care less what I say. Like the fans say, it would be good if they can sell right now. That’s what they’re trying to do; “sell, sell, sell.” And they’re doing it pretty well. I hear they’re going to do it again in some other parks, when they go on the road. It’s like a little movement. I called the two games at Oracle Park in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. It was tremendous. Sellout crowds, and the Giants fans got together with the A’s fans.

I really do feel for the fans. So at this time, that’s their wish: Sell the team. He comes tomorrow and calls a press conference — “I’m selling the team to, I don’t know, Joe Lacob …” — that would be great. Yeah, that would be great.

Kimberly Alters and Gabe Fernandez contributed reporting.