I am going all Journal of the Whills on you. The only difference is I actually completed all 9 Episodes (if you get this joke you are as big a geek as I and I love you for it).

To review... What other markets? What about the existing market? What specifics can we glean in San Jose? What are some potential spots in Oakland? What about attendance history? How do we make the fan experience awesome no matter where the stadium is built? Does transportation from the East Bay to the South Bay really suck? What sort of plan would keep the A's in Oakland?

This brings us to the final post I plan on making in this series that didn't start as a series... If San Jose then how?

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Let's be honest. The old axiom "possession is 9/10ths of the law" might not really apply to the City of Oakland and the A's. Well, really because the A's aren't a possession of the City, they are owned by Fisher and Wolff (and Gus Saperstein). And MLB's constitution doesn't allow municipalities to own teams. But folks who trot this line of reasoning out are not referring to real ownership, but more the symbolic ownership a fan base has of a  team. Personally, I am pro Oakland keeping the A's as much as I am pro San Jose landing the team. Anywhere in the Bay Area is fine by me.

You have to be leery of Oakland's chances of keeping the A's when the Commissioner's frat brother is saying "San Jose is the way." Though, Lew seemed to be allowing for the possibility that Oakland will pan out on Chronicle Live. But you know what? If I was Oakland, I would be saying "so what?" I would be proud of who I was A's or no A's. This is not to say that the City shouldn't be putting forward a plan to keep the team. Here is what my plan would be, were I the guy who had to come up with a plan.

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So far, the frog in my pocket and I have looked at potential relocation markets, Bay Area dynamics specifically, San Jose process progress, potential sites in Oaktown, attendance history in Oaktown,  and stadium culture suggestions.

Today we want to talk about the biggest downside to the potential San Jose stadium: Transportation.

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From a dying Blogfather...

Hey, folks. The CVS/Food Bank event was awesome -- the Food Bank had hoped to collect somewhere between 200-350 pounds from our location, but our charming and articulate kids collected 707 pounds. 67MARQUEZ, gigglingone, and Wes7 showed up to lend their support as well as their cans. I woke up sick Saturday morning and went to bed sicker, which is why I'm crapping out and not writing a new post today.

Dallas McPherson. The next Jack Cust or just another failed journeyman? jeffro offers a snapshot of the A's latest acquisition:

Dallas is a coming to Oakland.

Dude has raked in the minor leagues, but not done so hot in the bigs.

Not so sure about his glove work. Those UZR numbers in the link above seem to swing a bunch though he is a total 10.2 at 3B.

What does AN think? I kind of like the low risk potential high reward.

Between McPherson, Patterson, Everidge, etc. (I refuse to write Chavez off, it tugs at me heart strings so) it seems this is the plan.

Does a ballpark have a culture? If so is it an extension of the fanbase or is it somehow manufactured by the stadium atmosphere? Maybe a mix of both?

We have been to a few big league parks. We plan on adding a few to our list next season (see June trip to the Midwest inter-league style).

Before last season, when the frog in my pocket and I journeyed to Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium, I was not really sure that a ballpark had a culture.

But we now know that there are definitely some characteristics we would like to see in a new Bay Area ballpark. And we think those characteristics would go a long way towards creating the best culture in the big leagues.

Below the fold, we shall bloviate on how a new stadium should look and feel (special thanks to cityplANner and vertig0 for their assistance, even if they didn't know they were giving it).

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Me and the frog in my pocket are tired of hearing some stuff.

We are tired of people saying "Oakland can't support big league teams." But we are also tired of hearing "If the A's had an owner who embraced Oakland the attendance wouldn't be so bad, The A's were one of the best when the Haas family owned the team." Another tired phrase "The A's attendance only looks bad now because of all the other new ballparks. Before those, the A's were always a good draw." And the related "If you build it, they will come."

To be honest, we are tired of this stuff cause no one ever backs it up with any sort of detailed evidence. We are just supposed to accept it as fact because it is, you know, conventional wisdom. I HATE conventional wisdom. Queue Deftones "My Own Summer" we are getting medieval on this stuff.

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Where is the grass greenest? Staying in the same city, we mean.

A simple question. No simple answer. The frog in my pocket and I are in a speculative mood today.

I wrote about this a while back (other markets, within the Bay Area, and San Jose's actions), it's time to do a Ken Korach style reset on the whole thing.

"We are in the top of the 4th inning, the score is Oakland..."

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MLB Trade Rumors looks at our Green and Gold (and sometimes Black) heroes in their continuing Offseason Outlook series.

Our sometimes community member Mychael Urban takes a peep into his inbox. Bailey for ROY?

Huston, we have a problem. Carlos Gonzalez is clearly going to hit over 500 for the rest of his career. Damn you Matthew T. Holliday!

It's raining or something. Drive carefully.

Hey! I thought all the crime was in Oakland?

Who knew prehistoric pigs were such bad asses? Not I, until I watched Nat Geo last night anyway.

Anybody else want to dump?

Dudes... Strange things are afoot at Circle K.

Jon "Most Excellent One" Papelbon gave up two inherited runners in a most heinous display of closerhood. He topped it off by giving up 3 more in the next inning... bogus

Another personage of historical significance to have a bad day, Nick Punto say it ain't so?!?!?! Piranha's are excellent on the base paths, wtf?!?!?!

And, it is the playoffs for the umpires too. In most non triumphant fashion CB Bucknor, Phil Cuzzi and Jerry Meals continued the egregious trend set forth by Randy Marsh in game 163.

One guy who hasn't been such a medieval dickweed this time around.

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I wish these were really daily these days... And well... "Be the change you wish to see in the world," some famous guy once said. Here are some links for you all to peruse.

A good read right here at AN (as usual)

Give it up Roger and Whitney.

CityWalk, the phoenix of Oaktown.

Strangely enough, I wish this dude was a cop in my town.

As an A's fan, it was shocking that watching this whole thing go down made me an Angels fan for 15 seconds..

Dumpy, dump, dump