Former MLB Commissioner Bud Selig did many interesting things in his efforts to shape Bay Area baseball to his liking: First, he blocked the sale of the San Francisco Giants to a Florida ownership group after the end of the 1992 season; second, he let Barry Bonds cheat his way through MLB for a long time, enabling the Giants to profit from PED abuse without punishment or reproach; third, he denied the mutually desired move of the Oakland Athletics to San Jose.

There are other things Selig did to hurt the A’s, of course, but it boils down to those three facts. In 1992, the Giants were a sad-sack franchise with a mere 4 postseason appearances since moving to San Francisco in 1958. Meanwhile, the A’s were a four-time World Series champion since moving to Oakland in 1968. But Selig felt the Giants would be the better long-term investment for the area, as he helped oust a legitimate commissioner (Fay Vincent) in an owners’ coup for greed.

Seeing news today that Selig also prevented A’s legend Reggie Jackson and an ownership group made up of luminaries such as Paul Allen and Bill Gates, it’s clear that Selig never wanted Oakland in MLB’s future. He let Bonds cheat his way into the record books in order to revitalize the moribund Giants, and look what that has spawned in The House that Steroids Built. Selig never even suspended Bonds, despite the overwhelming evidence of PED abuse and fraud.

As Jackson puts it, “I absolutely believe that Bud was the guy involved that denied me from getting a team. 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.”

That sounds a lot like illegal business practices, doesn’t it? We’re not business law experts, although we did teach a course in that subject matter for years at Power 5 conference campus—and we have always wondered why MLB has an antitrust exemption. But we digress … Selig handed the Bay Area baseball market to an undeserving franchise, let it cheat its way to profits and titles without impunity, and denied the A’s franchise any chance it had to successfully continue and stay.

When today’s A’s fans lament the current ownership group for its interests in moving to Las Vegas, never let them forget Bud Selig and his lies, his subterfuge, and his economic terrorism—he’s the one responsible for the diminishing of Oakland that eventually led to both the NFL’s Raiders and the NBA’s Warriors leaving town for greener (literally) pastures elsewhere. Maybe there is no there there, but Oakland always deserved better than fuckin’ Bud. Always.