Earlier this month, news broke that the Oakland Athletics were preparing to leave the city as the team was nearing a deal to build a new stadium in Las Vegas. This news, coupled with a number of other major issues regarding the team and ownership has understandably led to some frustrated fans – but it appears that Major League Baseball does not want to publicize that reality.
Friday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds marked the team’s first home game since news broke of the apparent move to Vegas, and fans brought some signs into the stadium to display their displeasure.
During the seventh inning of the contest, A’s first baseman Ryan Noda hit a deep home run into right-center field, right over some of those critical signs and banners.
During the broadcast, you could clearly read the signs, that included messages like “Sell,” “Stay,” “Fisher Out” and “Kaval=Liar ” – criticizing the team’s leadership and the seemingly imminent move to Vegas. But when the highlights of the game were put on MLB.com later that night, the video was later cropped to remove any evidence of the critical signage.
MLB cropped the video so you can't see all the "sell the team" signs
(h/t @OaklandAUK) pic.twitter.com/HzPZX63zvU
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 29, 2023
When news of the edit began to circulate on social media late Saturday morning, the MLB switched the video back to what was shown on the unedited original broadcast, bringing the signs back into view. A league spokesperson claimed ignorance as to how or why the clip was edited.
“We were unaware of the edit,” the spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When it came to our attention, we corrected it as it isn’t consistent with our policy.”
The signs are by all accounts perfectly permissible by the A’s stadium policies as they do not contain “obscene or inflammatory language,” exceed size limits, cover existing signage, or contain commercial elements. So there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing them throughout the season.
[Jomboy Media, San Francisco Chronicle]
