Proposed A's Vegas Park Raises Some Eyebrows
PLUS: KUDOS TO JENNY KARVAR FOR WINNING TOP SPOT IN ATHLETICS BOOTH
Pregame Pepper
Josh Hader’s five-year, $95 million contract is the biggest free-agent expenditure by current Astros owner Jim Crane . . .
With all the opt-outs in Matt Chapman’s San Francisco contract, he could be back on the market this fall, along with first-timer Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros . . .
Local television issues are impending the Rangers from re-upping Jordan Montgomery, who helped pitch them to their first world championship last fall . . .
Look for Baltimore to promote another young slugger, Coby Mayo, after his 29-homer season in the top two levels of the minors last year . . .
San Diego will fly more than 50,000 miles this season — double the total of the Pittsburgh Pirates . . .
Think this matters? The Mets and Phillies will fly nearly 8,000 more miles than the Braves according the 2024 schedule . . .
And check out this quirk: the Seattle Mariners won’t play a single road game in their own time zone until June!
Leading Off
What’s Opera, Doc?
On the early renderings of the alleged-to-come A’s ballpark
By Jeff Kallman
Baseball has never been immune to drama on the field, or off it. But a collaboration between Bjarke Ingels Group and HNTB, architectural firms, have decided. If the Orphan Athletics move to Las Vegas, indeed, they should play ball in a sectionally domed stadium that has a distinct resemblance to the Sydney Opera House.
That collaboration, says A’s owner John Fisher in a formal statement, “allows for a truly innovative and bold design while ensuring an unmatched fan experience. We hope to add to the dynamic atmosphere and liveliness of the Las Vegas Strip, creating a welcoming environment for all of southern Nevada.”
Forgive me, please, if I’m not convinced of the innovative side of a structure so flagrantly derived from one of the world’s most famous opera venues. A venue that seemed flagrantly enough itself a partial satire of one of 20th Century architecture’s shinier moments, Eero Saarinen’s fabled TWA Flight Center terminal at New York City’s Kennedy Airport.
The proposed Las Vegas A’s ballpark resembles Sydney married to the net result of someone thinking the former TWA classic (it’s now a hotel augmented by JetBlue’s Kennedy Airport operations) could be turned into a ballpark—after consuming copious controlled substances over lunch with Saarinen’s ghost.
Saarinen’s masterpiece had the tandem grace of evoking that for which its original client stood: it was designed to evoke an eagle landing from an arduous flight. HNTB, which actually has airport structure design on its resumé, has left us to wonder whether this turkey suggests the Orphan A’s might yet move again in due course, since their Vegas ballpark will have a field and stands shoehorned inside . . .
Just what, exactly? Maybe you could stretch it a bit and suggest the outer sections could be seen as several baseballs cut in half to produce a larger, whole half baseball equaling some sort of terminal. Sounds absurd? No less absurd than the designers and the A’s saying—and believing—the five outside, overlapping layers resemble baseball pennants. “Spherical armadillo” is one of the more polite descriptions I’ve seen thus far.
The design also displays a large, “cable glass net wall,” enabling views of The Strip and resembling in no small measure sides of the hideous glass-box towers (Lever House, the Seagram Building, etc.) that once dominated 20th Century international and American architecture when plain, flat-looking boxes didn’t. (Thank you for sparing us the gags about baseball teams who live in glass houses.)
HNTB also designed the structure inside which the NFL’s Raiders play. Allegiant Stadium is described most politely as resembling the world’s largest rice cooker. The Vegas baseball park to be isn’t that hideous, but neither is it going to be the Ninth Wonder of the World. (The Eighth, known as the Astrodome, is long defunct and was described memorably by the late Joe Pepitone [talented but too-troubled Yankee first baseman] as “the world’s biggest hair dryer.” Enough said.)
Remove for the moment the shenanigans that have Fisher ready to hijack his team from an Oakland he tried and failed to strong-arm into building him a big, fat real estate project, with a ballpark thrown in for good measure and little to no cost to himself. The design concepts of his would-be Vegas paradise seem little more than further reason to pray the Nevada State Education Association’s actions to force the park’s rammed-through public financing to a ballot vote succeed.
A ballpark design drawn from an opera house that may have been drawn in part from an airline terminal. Swell. I can just hear the seventh inning stretch now. Goodbye, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Hello, What’s Opera, Doc?
Jeff Kallman is an IBWAA Life Member who writes Throneberry Fields Forever. He has written for the Society for American Baseball Research, The Hardball Times, Sports-Central, and other publications. He has lived in Las Vegas since 2007, where he plays the guitar and writes music when not writing baseball. He remains a Met fan since the day they were born.
Cleaning Up
Jenny Cavnar Opens New Door to Booth
By Dan Schlossberg
Breaking barriers is old news for Jenny Cavnar.
On April 15, 2018, she became the first female since 1993 to broadcast baseball play-by-play when she called a Rockies game against the Padres. Three years earlier, she became the first woman to do radio analysis for a National League series.
Now she’s become the lead voice in the broadcast booth of the Athletics, a franchise in flux because it has one foot firmly planted in Las Vegas, where it will build a new ballpark.
Starting later this month, Cavnar will become the first woman to serve as any club’s No. 1 regular play-by-play voice.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Cavnar, daughter of a baseball coach and a member of a baseball broadcast team for 18 seasons. “I have loved the game from a young age, along with the stories, history, and relationships the game provides.”
She will team with former Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden, who once pitched a perfect game on Mother’s Day.
A five-time Emmy award winner, Cavnar is a Denver native who spent 12 years in the booth of the Colorado Rockies. She was Colorado Sportscaster of the Year, chosen by the National Sports Media Association, in 2021.
Cavnar, who also has served as anchor and reporter for the San Diego Padres broadcast team, was the backup play-by-play person for the Rockies. But this is her actual solo voyage in that role.
Like Suzyn Waldman (Yankees), Melanie Newman (Orioles), and Jessica Mendoza (ESPN), Cavnar is attracting considerable attention because of her success in a field that has been exclusively occupied by men throughout most of baseball history.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area president and general manager Matt Murphy, she deserves her shot.
“Jenny is a very talented announcer with significant experience covering baseball,” he said. “She’s been a groundbreaking professional who’s earned the admiration of fans and her peers throughout her career. We’re very excited for her to join our excellent team and lead our A’s coverage starting this season.”
Cavnar has the unenviable job of taking a terrible situation and making it sound solid. The A’s are undeniably the worst team in the majors and have virtually no hope of avoiding a last-place finish and 100-loss season. They could even challenge the record 120-loss season of the 1962 expansion New York Mets.
On top of the poor roster, the Athletics are a lame-duck team with no place to play between the end of this season, when their Oakland ballpark lease expires, and 2028, when their new Las Vegas digs should be better.
There’s been talk of playing some games in Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, and even more of using minor-league facilities in Sacramento or Salt Lake.
At least Jenny Cavnar has a chance to make a difficult season sound interesting.
Good luck to her and any talented females who might follow in her footsteps.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of 41 baseball books, including the forthcoming Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron [Skyhorse, May 16, 2024]. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Although Chris Paddack is in his third spring training with the Twins, it’s the first time he’s worn a uniform. In 2022, he was acquired the night before Opening Day and in 2023, he was recuperating from Tommy John elbow surgery . . .
Official major-league games will take place in London both this year and in 2026. After the slugfests of the initial Yankees-Red Sox series two years ago (17-13 and 12-8), the center field fence has been pushed back seven feet to 392 and the power alleys are expanded by five feet to 387, with foul-line distances of 330 staying the same . . .
The official World Series trophy glitters like gold but is made mainly of sterling silver, with 30 gold-plated flags — one for each team. If expansion occurs, the trophy will be redesigned to include all 32 clubs . . .
The first championship trophy was called the Dauvray Cup, after 19th century actress Helen Dauvray, wife of Hall of Famer John Montgomery Ward . . .
The Temple Cup was given to the winning team in a best-of-seven postseason series between the top two National League teams from 1894-97. The American League began play in 1901 . . .
Speaking of post-season play, the first game that went scoreless through at least 12 innings occurred in 2020, when the Braves nipped the Reds, 1-0, in the 13-inning opener of te NL Wild Card series.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
I actually laughed out loud at Jeff Kallman’s line “after consuming copious controlled substances over lunch with Saarinen’s ghost.” Well done young man!