My Great Experience/Memories with the Athletics
By Amaury Pi-González
Here in the fourth largest city in the
Bay Area, Fremont (over 200,000 residents)
they have been talking about building a
park for the A’S. The area is next to the
NUMMI Automotive plant(old General Motors
Plant)today NUMMI stands for New United
Motors International, a partnership
between General Motors and Toyota.
As far as I am concerned, that would be fine
with me. But, I am afraid that my fellow
citizens of Fremont are not to happy
because it would created much more
traffic congestion and Fremont has grown
faster enough. It is not like this is the
“woods”like it was 35 years ago.
Some call Fremont “Silicon Valley East”
because our development in the high
tech industry.
BART comes here and in the future is going
to San José, people are really not thinking
of bringing a Major League franchise to
this City. The Athletics should stay were
they belong, in Oakland. That is their
home since 1968. Oakland is a great city,
the great people that lives there. But
of course not their inept politicos.
A good friend of mine told me I should
write about my great experiences with
the Athletics, dating back to the 1970s
days of controversial owner Charlie O.Finley
and until the days of the A’S best owners,
the Haas family.
When I was doing the Athletics, lots of
people called me a homer, but the truth
is that if you enjoy the game of baseball
and you have the luck and privilege to
broadcast Major League games, you
like to see the team that you broadcast
win, it makes your job easier, it makes
for a better broadcast and makes it always
much more exciting. Think of those people
in Tampa, broadcasting the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays -they probably cannot wait
for the season to end each year !.
And by the way, the Devil Rays are in
the cellar in English and Spanish.
Charlie Finley days:
I remember in the mid to late 1970s,
while the negotiating of the rights to
broadcasts the A’S in Spanish radio
for the Bay Area. One day Carl Finley
called me to his office and told me:
“Amaury…Charlie says you can do the
games in Mexican”. I remember I told
Carl: “Great, thanks, but please Carl
tell Charlie Mexican is not a language
is a Nationality…does he tells Monty
Moore to broadcast the games in
Irish or the Queen’s English’?
(I remember Carl getting a kick out
of that). In today’s world If and owner
tell you something like that, It could
be enough to acuse him/her of
racism or discrimination. Since everybody
is very politically correct. But Finley was
just Finley ! I took it as a great break
for me to broadcast. A career that let
me raise my two kids and a career I
really love. Plus I am “old school” I still
have Milton Berle’s book The Best 10,000
Jokes. And these jokes are usually about
Mexicans,Poles,Jews,Irish,Italians,Spaniards.
So Charlie never really ofended me, although
I was not born in Mexico but in Cuba. It
was Charlie’s ignorance not mine.
Working with the Athletics for 17 seasons
gave me the opportunity to meet people
like Roy Eisenhardt,Andy Dolich,Walter and
Wally Haas and Sandy Alderson. I remember
when Andy Dolich named me to the
ALL STAR CLOUT COMMITTEE when the A’s
hosted All Star Game. These were community
people ‘in loved’ with the game of baseball.
These were business people that understood
the community and also re-constructed an
organization that when they bough it had
one player (a very young Rickey Henderson)
and after a few years they dominated the
American League and made it to three
consecutive World Series. I have the
1988,89-90 World Series rings they
graciously presented to me with the teams.
The Haas family kept the team in Oakland
and made this franchise one of the very
best in baseball for many years. Andy
Dolich, who was the business brain for
the A’S those years is presently the
General Manager of the Menphis NBA
franchise. Sandy Alderson, who was the
A’S GM is very qualified to be baseball
Commissioner(If he wants the job) and
presently is one of the top executives
of Major League Baseball. Roy Eisenhardt
is a law professor and Wally Haas still
running Levy Strauss, one of the great
Bay Area historic companies. I was
in very good company working with those
guys. Many teams in baseball today
have “amateurs”running their marketing
departments, people fresh out of college
that couldn’t tell the ‘infield-fly-rule from
a Pastrami sandwich”.
Baseball has a problem in their marketing.
With 30% of all players Hispanic, the
MLB central office in New York needs
a Commissioner that could market some
of the greatest Latino players in their
respective communities. When I worked
for the A’S Andy Dolich already had that
vision. I remember translating the A’S
yearly highligh film and showing it at
different bilingual schools in Alameda
County. I was also in the A’S Speakers
Bureau,representing the A’S in the
Hispanic community. Yes,and I’ve got paid!
Back in the 1980’s I was doing the games
on the old KBRG radio. We put a network
of stations in California as well as a 15
station network in the north of México.
Dolich won a few Cleo awards for television
advertising. Do you remember during the
Billy Martin days, those commercials?
BillyBall ? Who can forget about those !
During those years the A’S almost ran
the Giants out of town, they were better
than the Giants on the field, on the front
office, anyplace you looked.
During my years with the A’S and those
consecutive World Series I remember
visitors to our booth like Mario Moreno
(Cantinflas)Mexico’s Charlie Chaplin,
Plácido Domingo the great opera singer,
he was a huge fan of Canseco and the
A’S. And many other personalities in the
entertainment world.
Prior to the Haas ownership, I remember
a young Tony Armas coming to the A’S
and starting to form the FIRST MILLION
DOLLAR OUTFIELD. Remember? Rickey
Henderson in left, Dwayne Murphy in
center and Tony Armas in right. Then later
guys like Steinbach,McGwire,Canseco,
Weiss -all came through the A’S minor
league system.They developed superstars.
It all reached a climax on October 17, 1989
at 5:07 PM while doing the Pregame show
for the A’S Spanish Radio Network, and
the Loma Prieta earthquake gave us a
reminder that THE GREATEST SPORTING
EVENT IN BAY AREA HISTORY was nothing
compared to Mother Nature. Yes, I was
there working the game of the Earthquake
when the people in the Broadcast level
of Candlestick Park from Al Michaels to
the runners passing notes became part of
history, part of a history much bigger than
the Bay Area World Series.
Towards the end of my reign with the A’s
in the broadcast booth we did some A’S
games over CH 48 KSTS Telemundo Network
in San José. I remember the General Manager
of CH 48 then was Joe Cruz. I conviced him
(station)to build a set with the A’S colors,
Kelly green and yellow. During those years
I was Sports Anchor of CH 48 and also
I would be using that A’S set to do the games
when the team was away. I was doing game
on both radio and television in Spanish.
That has never been done before in this
market. As a matter of fact, It hasn’t been
done ever since.
I also remember those days in the 1970s,
when our broadcast booth in the Oakland
Coliseum, a young Larry Baer was in the
booth to my right calling the games on
the University of California campus station.
It was with Julio Gonzalez that I broad-
casted those early games, had to be
taped and then taken to the studios of
KBRG Radio International in San Francisco.
Larry Baer is Executive Vice President and
CEO of the San Francisco Giants today and the
man that put together a group of private
investors/companies to build Pac Bell
Park.
I left the A’S(not the other way around)and
It was because I’ve got a much better
opportunity with the Giants. This is America
and you have to look for what feeds your
family, for the better opportunity, for a better
living. Most announcers today are called
homers, with the exception of Jon Miller
who is the Voice of the Giants but also
of Baseball on ESPN. Nobody acuses Miller
(who is at the top of his profession)of being
a homer. Jon a native of Hayward was doing
the A’S when he was 22 years old.
I have many many more memories of my
good experiences with the Oakland Athletics,
and also the memories of those that used
to call me a homer with the A’S. In our
business you cannot please everybody
all the time. I thank God first and then the
Haas family for the opportunity as they
gave me the break of my life in this
business. But the so many stories that
I have with me from those A’S days, that
is hard for me to vote No, if they want
to build a park for the A’S here in Fremont,
but I am warning you, it will not pass,
because most of the people here do not
want any more traffic congestion. Fremont
“used to be called” a bedroom community.
Today only San José,San Francisco and
Oakland have a larger population.
But ….If they build a park for the A’S here,
that is great ! My kids born and raised
A’S fans will love it and I would also.
I knew I was going to be doing something
in baseball in this great country. My very
first “job”in the United States was in
1961, recently arrived from Cuba as I
was the Ball Boy for the Baltimore Orioles
Spring Training home in Miami,Florida.
There I saw l’live and in person’guys like
Brooks Robinson,Frank Robinson,Gus
Triandos,Dave McNally,Paul Blair, Don Buford
and that crowd that had a very good run
in the 1960’s. Later on I had other fun jobs
in Miami, like an extra on the Jackie Gleason
Show that was taped at the Miami Beach
Convention Center for CBS.
But the Finley and Haas years with the
A’S are some of the highlights of my life
and although in my heart of hearts my
favorite team is not the A’S or the Giants
but the Orioles, I’ll guess (like my good
friend told me) You could be called a
homer of different teams.
I believe in loyalty. The A’S I used to work
for were loyal to me and I reciprocate. If
you love what you do, you usually do not
bite the hand that feeds you. Of course,
nothing is easy in this business, but If you
approach it with a positive and optimistic
mind,you can do anything. “Never give up”
is what I tell students when I participate
in ‘career day’at various Bay Area schools.
The Giants have been very-very good to me since 1995. Guys like Pat Gallagher and
Mario Alioto believe in the Hispanic market.
So, of course I like to see the Giants have
much success, but that doesn’t mean I don’t
like to see the A’s have success also. Let’s
face it folks. Giants and A’S are going to
be here and in the famous words of that
L.A poet Rodney King “Can we all get along?
My wife says, when I am in doubt, to look
at my 3 World Series rings. Hey, that is
three more than the greatest player of
this generation….Barry Bonds.
———————————————————-
Amaury Pi-González is on his eight season
as Spanish Voice of the SF Giants over
KZSF 1370 AM Radio La Caliente. Also
worked for the A’S for 17 seasons.
Works with LBC Network (radio)covering
MLB Postseason for the US and Latinamerica
as well as for Fox Sports International
during the past two years as he handle
English Play by Play of the Caribbean
World Series.
Vice President of the Hispanic Heritage
Baseball Museum, a non-profit organization
founded in San Francisco in 1999, who
will have an exhibit at the Oakland Coliseum
this September 21.
Also on www.latinobaseball.com as well
as other bilingual pulbications accross the
country. Amaury’s biography was selected
to appear on the prestigious Marquis Who’s
Who in America 2003 Edition.
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