Athletics owner John Fisher earns acrimonious label from MLB insider

MLB: Oakland Athletics at Seattle Mariners - Source: Imagn — Athletics owner John Fisher earns acrimonious label from MLB insider - Source: Imagn

Athletics owner John Fisher is a popular name among baseball fans for all the wrong reasons. The American businessman has been in the headlines since he decided to move the team away from Oakland last year.

The Athletics moved away from Oakland after 57 years in the city with the club slated for a new in Las Vegas. However, the team has a temporary home in Sacramento's Sutter Health Park.

A's will be playing at the minor league ballpark until their new stadium is constructed in Las Vegas. MLB insider Ken Rosenthal named John Fisher the "villain" of the 2025 season on the "Foul Territory" podcast.

"That would be John Fisher," Rosenthal said on the 'villain' of the 2025 season. "They are playing in a minor league park because of the way things evolved in Oakland, and you can blame people all you want and there's plenty of blame. But this whole thing should never have happened."

Expand Tweet

The Athletics will play their home games at Sacramento's Sutter Health Park until 2028, and Ken Rosenthal is not happy with an MLB team "stuck" in a minor league park. He added:

There is not an excuse for a major league team to be stuck, repeat, stuck at a minor league park for this length of time and. I don't know why the league allowed it to happen. They will blame Oakland as they have in the past. That's fine, but still. This was a situation that, to me, should have been avoided.

John Fisher committed to Athletics amid Vegas relocation

Last year, A's fans called for owner John Fisher to sell the team instead of relocating them out of Oakland. While fans orchestrated protests and displayed banners, Fisher is "committed" to the team.

“From the beginning, I’ve been committed to having this team be successful for the next 50 years,” Fisher said last month. “And I really saw that as an important part of what I stood for and what I wanted to achieve for this team.

So really, everything that I’ve done, the work that we did in the Bay Area, the work that we did in Oakland, and ultimately, moving things forward in Las Vegas and here in Sacramento, were part of where I think the team needs to go to be successful.”

While Fisher wants the team to be successful, the A's have struggled this season, and their temporary ballpark has seen them go 2-7 at home. They are bottom of the American League West with a 10-12 record.

About the author

Chaitanya Prakash is an editor who covers US Sports at Sportskeeda. His first brush with sportswriting was in 2012 when the greatest football manager of all time, Sir Alex Ferguson, bid farewell to the beautiful game.

Although having started out professionally as a cricket writer in 2022, Chaitanya's curiosity and indiscriminate interest in all sports in general eventually introduced him to America's favorite pastime.

While Chaitanya's favorite player from the current crop is the dynamic Venezuelan Ronald Acuna Jr., his all-time favorite, however, is Pedro Martinez, for his self-belief and consistency. He also rates Jose Bautista's iconic bat flip in 2015 as his favorite moment in baseball history.

Chaitanya specializes in reporting on technical aspects of the game or analyzing patterns behind specific plays. He also likes pondering over players' self-assessments following the conclusion of a game as it helps him get an idea of how they think about the sport in general.

When not cheering for his favorites across sports, Chaitanya likes being transported to the past through a good war documentary or a historical documentary in general.

Know More

Edited by Chaitanya Prakash