Funds and game for A's
Owner Wolff puts team on cash course
When you think of the Oakland A's, you think of Moneyball and Billy Beane. You probably don't think of Lew Wolff.
But he owns the team and has for the past two years. He makes Moneyball possible -- or, rather, essential. Well, Wolff, 69, a developer who owns several businesses and major stakes in hotel chains (such as the Four Seasons), is about to take the A's from Moneyball to, well, money.
If the A's have been the poster children for the small-market team that keeps getting into the playoffs, Wolff is about to take them into a financial boom.
The owner expects that in about 36 months, a new 32,000-seat stadium and "Ballpark Village" in Fremont will create a market in which the A's will be able to retain some of their more desirable players and perhaps even compete with the higher-payroll Giants for elite free agents.
Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Tim Hudson, Johnny Damon, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito all moved on because they were priced out of the A's budget. That's what Wolff and Beane are trying to avoid going forward.
"Knowing Billy, it's going to be hard to change him," Wolff said with a laugh, "but I think we're going to be able to keep the players we desire to keep. It's been hard the past few years having to part with so many good players and watch them develop as stars with other teams. But we feel if our project goes through, our revenues will increase."
With his venue already named
Wolff doesn't pretend to know every detail of the technology; he's heard some 80 or so ideas and said they will likely incorporate four or five to make Cisco unique.
"I have a lot of MBAs working for me," he said.
Wolff explained some of what he's planning.
"In the batter's-eye area in center field, that will open up into a public park where fans can look into the stadium before the game and watch batting practice. At game time, the area will close up and we'll provide either a feed of the game if it's sold out or a movie for people to enjoy. The area will also open up to our version of Yawkey Way, about a half-million square feet of shopping areas."
Cisco will provide a cellphone system fans can use to purchase tickets and upgrade them on game day. There will be digital signs everywhere and embedded cameras around the ballpark to promote things.
"If we have a surplus of hot dogs, we'll use our digital signs to reduce the price so we can get rid of them," he said.
The other thing is, you can literally live at the ballpark.
The Baseball Village will include 3,000 townhouses of various styles and prices ("We'll even let non-baseball fans buy them," said Wolff). Income from the residential portion of the project will help pay for the ballpark, which is expected to cost $400 million-$500 million, not including the land.
The ballpark will be cozy, with comfortable sight lines, little foul territory, and the feeling of being on top of the field, an idea Wolff proudly says was stolen from the Red Sox and Cubs but with the benefit of modern architecture.
"It will be a complete departure from what we have now at the Coliseum," Wolff said. "Our pitchers are good. They'll have to be even better."
Wolff will privately fund the project, not asking for even infrastructure funds. He's also trying to build a Major League Soccer stadium in San Jose.
For years, the A's have been the little guys in the Bay Area, up against the Giants. San Francisco has its own beautiful baseball venue, of which Wolff is a big fan. He said that since 2000, the Giants have outdrawn the A's by 1.5 million per season yet the A's have been far more successful than the Giants on the field , which to Wolff means, "It has to have something to do with the venue."
With the additional income, the A's intend to be a prime player for talent in the Japanese market, which they have yet to explore. Wolff thinks Japanese players would prefer the West Coast, and the Bay Area in particular, where many Japanese-Americans live. He also expects to compete for top-shelf free agents, but he will leave that part up to Beane.
Lew Wolff is a guy you're going to be hearing a lot about.
Cub reporting
A few questions for Cubs lefty (and former Milton High star) Rich Hill:
What do you attribute your fast start (3-1, 1.57 ERA) to?
RH: "Just being able to attack the hitters and stay aggressive. Make them swing the bat. I've been in the league for a couple of years now, so they know me, they know what I'm throwing and what's coming. There's no secret. The big thing is to just repeat everything with success and consistency, especially my offspeed stuff."
Both Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis have come over to the Cubs and pitched well. Carlos Zambrano is obviously a top pitcher. Does it make it easier for you to go out there and perform at a high level when you have others around you who are successful?
RH: "The one great thing about our staff is that we discuss pitching all the time. When we're done with our outing, we go over it and talk about it in terms of the things we did right and the things we didn't. Ted and Jason have come over and really given us excellent pitching performances."
Have you said much to Mark Prior (ninth time on the DL?)
RH: "You can see it's frustrating for him. Especially going for a long time and not knowing what it is. It's almost like, 'OK, now we have something to work off of.' I just wish him the best. I don't know what it's like to have gone through what Mark went through. Thankfully, I've never had an arm injury."
Facing Albert Pujols (today), what's that like?
RH: "It's stepping up on the mound and showing no fear. Great hitter. Dangerous and all of that. You've got to show the hitter that you're good, too."
A matter of putting Bonds in his place
We've seen a lot of projections the past two weeks about when and where Barry Bonds will break Hank Aaron's home run record. In my opinion, it won't be in Boston June 15-18. And it won't be in New York. It probably won't be anywhere but San Francisco.
It's the only place where Bonds is accepted and appreciated, where the steroid issue isn't held against him. Bonds tied Babe Ruth's 714 in Oakland, and surpassed it in San Francisco. He may do the same for the most sacred record of all.
A player who has been close to Bonds the past few years said, "If he's within one and he's on the road, he probably just won't play. He's not going to let people down in San Francisco who have truly supported him."
Giants general manager Brian Sabean said, "I don't think Barry has made any public comments on that, nor has he told us what his preference would be. To me, he looks like he did in '04. He's healthy. He's hitting well, swinging the bat really nicely. He's playing the field well. Running.
"He can hit them in bunches, so there's no telling when he could do it or where."
Now, once he does break the record, does that make him the greatest home run hitter of all time?
Not according to three local statistical aficionados -- Jack O'Gara, Hank Allessio, and Tom Mortimer of Walden Consultants Ltd. -- who have a statistical invention called Relative Power Ratio that they say indicates Ruth was the greatest home run hitter.
Allessio, of Hopkinton, said the RPR "permits comparing and ranking home run hitters of different eras to determine the best."
The formula, according to Allessio:
"We took the top 15 home run hitters [actually 16, because there's a tie for 15th], took their 10 best full-time consecutive years [of at least 300 at-bats]. We then computed the average home run total for the best four other hitters for each year, to capture the peer group standard. This peer group faced the same pitching and basic playing conditions.
"For each of our top 16 lifetime home run hitters, we computed the player's year-by-year total homers vs. the peer group average for each year to get the metric for that year. A ratio of 1.00 for a given year would mean that the subject equaled the average of the four other best home run hitters that year. Finally, we computed the average power ratio over the 10-year peak power period, which we called the Relative Power Ratio."
Touching the bases
Apropos of nothing: 1. I'm really impressed that Adrian Gonzalez's homer against Randy Johnson was just the 23d by a lefthanded hitter off The Unit in 19 years. 2. Greg Maddux has always believed you focus on the batter, not the runner, but 8 of the 20 runners who have stolen off Padres pitchers have scored. 3. Giants GM Brian Sabean, whose team is pretty hot, on the NL: "Atlanta is the most complete team. The rest of us have flaws. We've all got to play well consistently and try to overcome the things we're having trouble with right now." 4. "Senior Year" by Dan Shaughnessy. An engaging, personal story of baseball, parenting, and life. 5. You don't have to be a major league scout or pitcher to know you don't lay a 2-and-1 fastball in to Wily Mo Peña. Understand now, Chris Ray?
Tale of two cities
Understanding the way Scott Boras operates and the inclusion of an out-clause in Alex Rodriguez's contract, I'm one of the few who believe A-Rod will stay with the Yankees. He'll stay with some enhancement to his contract, despite the current insistence of Yankee management not to tinker with the deal -- of which Texas is footing $21 million (of $81 million) over the final three years from 2008-10. Boras has perfect leverage in this case. Never mind the Angels, the leverage comes in the possibility that the Red Sox would be interested. The Yankees didn't want Gary Sheffield going to Boston, so they picked up his option and dealt him safely to the Tigers.
Hair is fair
Reader Donnie Perkins from New Hampshire asked whether Manny Ramírez's dreadlocks are in play. I checked with Mike Port, baseball's vice president of umpires, who offered this explanation: "The dreadlocks are part of his body. Thus, if he is hit by a pitch, he would be awarded the base, unless he failed to make an effort to avoid the pitch or was struck by the pitch in the strike zone -- in other words, were his hair to intrude upon the strike zone in trying to get out of the way, hanging over the strike zone or such. Also, if tagged out on the bases via a tag or on the hair, he would be out. If he were to be struck on the hair by a batted ball, he would also be ruled out."
Nick Cafardo's e-mail address is cafardo@globe.com 
