Reggie Jackson makes stunning admission on previous attempt to buy A's
10/28/2024 11:06 PM
The Athletics are moving out of Oakland, but it didn’t have to be this way. Hall of Famer and Athletics legend Reggie Jackson revealed that he actually had the high bid when John Fisher bought the team in 2005. If Jackson had his way, he believes the A’s would be staying put.
Reggie Jackson says he was actually the high bidder when John Fisher bought the A's and was willing to pay $25M more than any other offer:
"I don't think the team would be where it is today if I was connected with ownership."
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— Front Office Sports Today (@FOS_Today) October 28, 2024
“I could tell you the team was sold for somewhere between $140 and $160 million,” Jackson told Front Office Sports Today. “I was high bidder and willing to pay $25 million more than any other bid. But our commissioner didn't see fit to present my offer and it never really got done so I was disappointed.”
Jackson has spoken about this before, explaining that he believes then-commissioner Bud Selig blocked the sale. The five-time World Series champion even planned to sue Major League Baseball over the matter.
“I absolutely believe that Bud was the guy involved that denied me from getting a team,” Jackson said in a 2023 appearance on The Howard Stern Show. “I had a 100-page lawsuit drawn up, I still have the deck, about 3-4 inches thick. And there’s six inches of text messages and all that kind of stuff that went back-and-forth. I never filed it. I got scared away by some people in baseball. They said, ‘Reggie, the first thing you have to do is resign from baseball, from the Yankees. And you probably won’t get hired again. And you probably won’t this and you probably won’t that.’ And I didn’t know enough about the legal system, etc. I should have sued. I didn’t. It’s obviously still in my craw.”
Reggie Jackson is ‘disappointed’ by the Athletics’ fate
The Athletics moved to Oakland from Kansas City in 1968. In their time in the Bay Area, they’ve won four World Series titles, including three with Jackson on the team. Speaking to Front Office, Jackson did not want to point fingers, but he made his disappointment clear.
I don’t think the team would be where it is today if I was connected with ownership,” he said. “I don’t really want to bad-mouth anybody. I'm disappointed where they are, disappointed that they're leaving, disappointed the way it’s handled. So I'm still an Oakland fan and I'll share my sorrows and share my tears.”
The Athletics will eventually move to Las Vegas when their new ballpark is ready in 2028. For the three seasons in between, they will share a home with the Sacramento River Cats in the state’s capital. The River Cats are the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate.
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