Major League Baseball is putting out a new "stadium series" of NFTs which, as the title suggests, is a tribute to old and new ballparks in a new, expensive, and galactically more tedious way. But then there is this: One of the NFT's is of the Oakland Coliseum (h/t David Zlotlow), which is bad enough but also includes the ridiculous and insulting (to A's fans) phrase, "pays homage to RingCentral Coliseum's Mt. Davis seating section."
How the team chose not to memorialize the flighty septic system is beyond us.
Let's be clear here. There are few non-living things more offensive to A's fans than the gigantic concrete mausoleum that stretches almost from foul line to foul line behind the outfield fence. It turned a utilitarian stadium into a more spacious version of Lenin's Tomb, and not only obliterated the view of the Oakland Hills but made people miss that view more than they ever praised it when it was available to them. It is one of the many reminders that their ballpark is not only utterly detestable but a principal cause of ownership's shameless hunt for a new ballpark, even if that means leaving for the Nevada desert.
It smacks of the management's almost weekly campaign to enrage the fans enough to induce them to blow the entire place to smithereens just on spec. It misuses the word "iconic" to a new and heretofore unexamined length. It is one more finger in the eye socket of a fan base that has turned to complete and systematic absence to express its displeasure with owner John Fisher. It is the team's legendary tin ear converted into a zinc eye.
It is part of a "prize" package that will go to the highest bidder, and based on this come-on, nobody would be surprised if the rest of the prizes include (in batteries-not-included type size) a rabid weasel, a barrel of chemical waste, and a Larry Elder For Governor diorama. But even if it didn't include the usual add-ons like a first pitch, a meet-and-greet with miscellaneous A's and some cheap trucker's hat, the NFT of Mount Davis and its perpetually empty seats would be enough to punch the poor soul in marketing tasked by the team with "congratulating" the “winner,” no doubt by tying the gifts to a brick and hurling them through their bay window.
Maybe a rethink would be in order. Or better still, a view of the "iconic while still mythical" balustrade of the Howard Terminal stadium sketches. I mean, that's another cranial skin rash, but at least it would get a half-point for diabolical subtlety. If only they were capable of either subtlety or diabolical behavior, that is. As it is, they just seem like exceedingly dim Ponzi schemers holding daily staff meetings to figure out what a Ponzi actually is.
