January 07, 2008
A Rated Bonds
Blez at Athletics Nation makes the case for Oakland signing Barry Bonds. The A's have lost the casual fan and may be losing the hardcore fan as well.
I think that ultimately what's happening is that the A's are going to realize how much their gate receipts will hurt this year. The hardcore might still come out on occasion to see some of these young guys and their progression towards greatness, but you probably have little to no chance of attracting casuals with the current crop of players in the current stadium. So why not sign Bonds? Not because you're "going for it" in 2008, but because it makes a lot of business sense. People love drama and intrigue and he will provide plenty of it. And I think someone else brought this up in Rubin Sierra's diary, but Bonds could also be flipped to a team needing a big bat at the deadline for more of those prized prospects.
There certainly is a huge fan base for Bonds in the Bay Area.
There are people all over the country/world who will travel to see Bonds play. Most often these fans go to road games, but whichever team signs Bonds will draw tourist fans to their home park who would never have considered travelling to see that team before.
Bonds at bats are great fun, and in a DH league he wouldn't be sitting out very often.
A's have an opportunity to steal a bunch of Giants fans this season as the Giants are abysmal to watch and those fans may need a Barry fix.