“Every time I try to get out they pull me back in.” So said Al Pacino playing the aging Michael Corleone while chewing all the scenery he could reach in Godfather Part III.
Move over, Al.
The person who drew me back into the baseball discussion was none other than Ron Gonzales, seen tilting the windmills of Major League Baseball in Scottsdale recently. There he was, standing in front of the stadium with his faithful Sancho, County Assessor Larry Stone, holding an idiot board with San Jose statistics on it, i.e., we are ‘soon’ to be the 10th largest City in the nation, good climate, etc. ad nauseam.
Now I would like to see a stadium and our own baseball team as much as the next guy, but we cannot afford another “gang that can’t shoot straight” effort like the Stan Berliner-lawyer-consultant driven attempt in 1990 and, for bad measure, again in 1992. They were crushed at the polls.
This all relates to the spectacle in the news today. In case Berliner is a name unknown to you, he is the man most responsible for a few of the worst events in modern San Jose history. Think Territorial Rights. These were drawn up under the advice of, and with the highly compensated legal machinations of this very Stan Berliner. A man whose other mistakes have left Downtown as fallow fields for critical years as he negotiated and negotiated a sweetheart deal for his client, and then sold out the dream of Downtown retail when he pushed through the Santana Row project. Any pain is bearable for this influence peddler if it happens to someone else.
Where you spot him, trouble for the City follows.
So, this chain of events that put Ron Gonzales with a tin cup, and green clad Larry Stone with the proverbial sandwich board, continues the sad saga of baseball. It just does not get more tortured or agonizing that this sorry episode after the Berliner prologue.
As badly as we would like big time baseball here, there must be certain indignities and certain humiliations that we will not suffer. Common sense is still the hope for baseball in San Jose – let’s hope we get some.
It is so sad to see who represents San Jose. I can’t wait until someone else takes over. This has been a sad few years for San Jose and it’s public image. We have ethics violations, major problems with the new city hall, Bart coming half way, and the A’s coming no way. The Mercury editoral was close when it called him “minor league” but that’s a slap in the face of the minor leagues. He should be playing T-ball with the 6 year olds.
How can we expect ethics from our civic leaders when our young leaders at San Jose State are denied ethics training materials?
James –
Do you think you might be just a bit too single-focused on SJSU? There are other things going on and they don’t all relate to SJSU.
Just a thought.
James,
Why don’t you contact the owners of this board and write a guest blog re SJSU. Otherwise I have no idea what you’re talking about. Raised fist? Ethics training materials?
Thanks.
The tone in McEnery’s latest rant is a bit puzzling, as it doesn’t smack so much of the haughty arrogance we have come to expect from dear Tom as it does a strange form of bitter chagrin. What’s that about? Is it envy for all of the money Berliner made from his long list of distinguished accomplishments, or is it a bitter lament over the fact that Stan’s uncanny knack for deal making simply didn’t put enough treasure in the pockets of the McEnery clan? Who knows? What I and many others around town do know is that Stan Berliner is exceedingly good at what he does. What I also know is that the 1990 baseball effort that McEnery has referred to in his latest blog failed in large measure because then mayor Tom didn’t do a damn thing to support the cause of the Joint Powers Authority that was at the time endeavoring to bring baseball to the South Bay. Why was that? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the JPA never contemplated building a ballpark on a site that would enhance the value of McEnery assets, but who knows? In any event, Tom did get his arena, right next door to some of his family-owned property. Who’d have thought that wouldn’t have been enough to make poor Tom happy?
Although I disagree with a lot of what has been written here defending lobbyists, Richard Robinson made a good case for their use in this particular venture. It’s clear that Gonzo is not the person to lead this effort if his Arizona embarassment is indicative of how he intends to pursue this. He did nothing but get more bad PR and ridicule for SJ with that pathetic stunt.
Back when downtown was pure hooker territory and the Sainte Clare was an SRO, mayor Tom McEnery lured the future Tech museum and Childrens Discovery museum from their plans of locating on the peninsula. Then a nascent plan to build an arena at the fairgrounds that probably would have gone nowhere was steered downtown, voters approved it and the Sharks moved in.
Since then, San Jose has fallen back into being the city that can’t. Come back mayor Tom, your city needs you.
My focus needs to broader, John. You are so right, and beeds to be city wide. However, John, San Jose is engaged in a multi million dollar partnership with the library, a majority of city hall workers will be parking near San Jose State, the new stadium for the Earthquakes will be a joing partnership with San Jose State, City Hall will be the 900 story elephant in SJSU’s backyard, and the greatest champion of political blogging is an SJSU alumn. The new airport is thinking of kicking sjsu out. Forty percent of all council aides and the city council are fronm SJSU, and its mission is to engage itself with the city. How can Don Kassing engage with a city, when he watches student leaders shut off student participation in manner that city officials are on record as against?
One thing that bugs me about baseball (and pro sports in general) is how insanely expensive it is to see a game .. and park .. and eat…
$25 to park at PACBell?
$7 for a budweiser? Ay caramba!
How about a doing a nice stadium for the San Jose Giants near downtown? I honestly think you can have more fun at a minor league game anyways with the really fun stuff going on between innings and promotions, etc.
If San Jose really wanted a baseball team… then they should sue MLB for the right to have a say-so in the territorial rights discussion….
OR
maybe Mayor Gone-challenged should have used the $400 million wasted on the new City Schmaltz to help incent a stadium…
Why are our south bay politicians so mickey mouse. The SF and north bay pols just rake in the gravy from Washington and Sacramento and our guys and gals just lend a hand.
We even put the only democrat on our republican presidents cabinet and we are sweating BART funding.
What a pathetic bunch of losers. They can’t carry John Burton’s jock strap.
You talking about our man Norm?
He’s too swamped these days with policy and technology for frisking/x-raying cub scouts and little old ladies in wheelchairs prior to boarding.
Diversity trumps airline safety! Atta boy Norm.
You ever see Norm in action on C-Span? Be sure to catch his non-stop, bizarre-o hand gestures, it gets to be surreal after awhile.
I grind my teeth every time I have to go to Mineta International.
There is a wonderful study down on the impact of downtown stadiums like the one Stan proposes. It is in the SJPL.
Arturo –
It isn’t about the money these people make is it that they make decisions that aren’t for the betterment of the city for their money that is the problem. The arena downtown was the best choice for the city. Santana Row you could argue but the territorial rights draw up the way that they were just KILLS me. A terrible choice made for the wrong reason.