That good old Vegas hustle

 The Oakland/Sacramento/Hooterville A's broke ground yesterday on their new $1.75 billion ballpark in Las Vegas, and all the standard dignitaries were present. It was quite the gathering.

State and local honchos were there, fresh from fleecing the taxpayers for $380 million of the total. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred was there, too -- which must have provoked gales of laughter from Arnold Rothstein and the rest of the gang in the Great Fix In the Sky, because listening to Manfred get almost giddy about bringing baseball to the gambling capital of America was the greatest knee-slapper ever.

Who else? Oh, yeah, Rollie Fingers and Dave Stewart from the Oakland A's glory days, curious additions considering the A's just turned their backs on all that. And of course the man most responsible for the back-turning: A's owner John Fisher, who spent a good space of time crapping all over Oakland by letting both the team's ballpark and the team itself go to rack and ruin.

"We are Vegas' team!" ol' Carpetbag Johnny proclaimed.

Considering the way he treated the A's (and their fans) when they were Oakland's team, that almost sounded like a threat.

See, Carpetbag Johnny's bringin' baseball to Lost Wages, but woe betide the citizenry if it isn't properly appreciative of the gesture. And that could happen -- and not just because of that $380 million tax bill.

It's because Vegas can smell a hustle from a mile off, and Carpetbag Johnny fairly reeks of it. For one thing, he's notorious for doing things on the cheap. That'll fly like a bowling ball in Vegas, whose one abiding characteristic is it does nothing on the cheap.

If the city's gonna get major-league baseball, it had better be MAJOR-LEAGUE BASEBALL. But what are they getting with the A's?

Only one of biggest cheapo outfits in MLB.

As of this morning they're 32-48 and in last place in the AL West by seven-and-a-half games. This ties them with Pittsburgh, the Blob's stubbornly cruddy Cruds, for the third worst record in the majors. Only the hideous Chicago What Sox (25-54) and the indescribably hideous Colorado Rockheads (18-60) are worse.

And here's the kicker: The Rockheads are actually 5-5 on their last 10 games, and 9-10 since June 1. The A's are 2-8 in their last 10 and 9-12 in June.

In other words, they're losers with a great big neon "L." And they've been losers for awhile; since 2021, when they finished third in the division with an 86-76 record, they've gone 211-355. That's a .374 clip.

"But Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "Won't moving the team to Vegas mean a chunky influx of fresh revenue for Fisher? And won't he use it to put a winning team on the field again? A team Vegas can get behind, because we all know how much Vegas loves winners?"

Maybe.

Then again ...

Then again, it's John Fisher. My money's on another good old Vegas hustle.