OAKLAND — Opening Day is all about new beginnings. But for Oakland A’s fans, this year’s Opening Day felt more like the beginning of the end.
With the organization intent on relocating to Las Vegas and the A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum running through only this year, it is likely that Thursday night was the last Opening Day for the team in Oakland. Rather than watch the game from inside the stadium, thousands of fans opted to gather in the parking lot as part of a fan-organized boycott of A’s ownership that contributed to a historically low home-opening attendance.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
With runners on the corners and no outs, Tyler Wade, the trail runner, took off for second. Patrick Bailey scooped a slider in the dirt and threw down to second, but it got away from Nick Ahmed. A run scored and Wade ended up on third. Ryan Walker took over for Jackson after the injury and gave up an RBI single to Xander Bogaerts and two-run double to Jake Cronenworth
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
“I just think you can’t be ashamed of a successful season,” York said. “Our goal is always going to be to win Super Bowls. … What I’ve learned in my time as CEO, it’s not a complete failure to not win. Where I (previously) had probably more of a ‘You either win the Super Bowl or you 100% lose’ (mindset). You can’t not celebrate the fact that we’ve accomplished some really good things with this team. I would trade a lot of good seasons for winning a Super Bowl, but we’ve collectively had a very, very successful program.
“And as much as I would give just about anything to have won (last month’s Super Bowl), or four years ago against Kansas City, you can’t leave and say the whole season was a disgrace. It’s not. It’s a disappointment to not win. But you can’t destroy yourself and destroy everything that you built because you didn’t finish and hit your ultimate goal.”
Of course, it behooves York to adopt a more charitable definition of success given that he has presided for the past 14 seasons over a franchise in the midst of a 29-season championship drought. It was noted that his revised perspective wouldn’t be shared by DeBartolo. In response, York, crushed by the 49ers’ first Super Bowl loss, provided a glimpse into how he has grappled with the burden of not being able to win a championship, let alone duplicate the dynasty.
York referenced how the 49ers just released defensive tackle Arik Armstead in a money-saving move and are charged with fitting future contract extensions for wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk and quarterback Brock Purdy under the salary cap, which didn’t exist when the 49ers won their first four Super Bowls.
“There’s a difference between when (DeBartolo) ran the club and with us,” York said. “You guys bring up how you pay Brock and the salary cap. Eddie didn’t have a salary cap. If we didn’t have a salary cap, (Aiyuk’s contract) would have been done three weeks ago. … You wouldn’t let a guy like Arik Armstead go if you had no salary cap. Those are things that have changed, and so it’s trying to accept the reality of what the NFL is, and knowing that there’s only so many things that you can control when you have a fixed cap. … It’s hard when your standard was set in sort of a relatively unachievable way of the 49ers that I grew up with.”
York continued, noting the 49ers paid Steve Young handsomely to back up Joe Montana: “We don’t have the luxury of having the second-highest-paid quarterback being our backup quarterback the way my uncle did. I wish we did. That would be fantastic. I would love to have a roster of starting quarterbacks that can be Pro Bowlers. But that’s just not the way the league works now. So you have to adjust with it.”
Last month, a week before the Super Bowl and a day after York had said an upset loss to the Lions would have still resulted in an excellent season, general manager John Lynchstruck a different tone than his boss. The Hall of Fame safety who won a championship with the Buccaneers didn’t say the 49ers only raise Super Bowl banners. At least, that is, he didn’t use those words.
“We’ve got an organization that very much knows who they are,” Lynch said. “I think it starts with truly believing in your core and with every fiber of your body, that that’s what we’re here for: to win championships. That’s what this organization is about. That’s what the faithful — our fans — demand. It’s what our former players — believe me, the hardest thing is looking at the guys: The Ronnie Lotts, the Steve Youngs, the Joe Montanas, when we haven’t done that.
“Because those guys have had our backs and we want to have theirs. They know we’re fighting, but you’ve got to pay that off. … If you want to be great, that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to bust through.”
-WIN TOTALS OUT….
NFC West
San Francisco 49ers - 2024 Regular Season Win Total
Over/Under 11½
Note: 2023 opening win total was 11. They finished the season with 12 wins.
Los Angeles Rams - 2024 Regular Season Win Total
Over/Under 8½
Note: 2023 opening win total was 7½. They finished the season with 10 wins.
Seattle Seahawks - 2024 Regular Season Win Total
Over/Under 7½
Note: 2023 opening win total was 8½. They finished the season with 9 wins.
Arizona Cardinals - 2024 Regular Season Win Total
Over/Under 6½
Note: 2023 opening win total was 5½. They finished the season with 4 wins.
No comments:
Post a Comment