“SELL THE TEAM”, “SELL THE TEAM”, “SELL THE TEAM”

A famous movie called Moneyball has an often quoted line by baseball fans across the globe. Brad Pitt’s character, ironically playing Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, says “How can you not be romantic about baseball.” 

Based on the true story of the early 2000s Oakland A’s, Beane saw his team struggle and lose almost everything, yet he remained faithful and worked to save his team from absolute poverty, employing strategies throughout the movie to save his team, and in the end is successful. 

Sadly, it looks like the Athletics won’t get the fairytale hero to save them from relocation this time.  After years of rumors of a move to Las Vegas, it now looks like relocation is definitely on the A’s horizon. How did we get here? How does a professional baseball team get to the point where they aren’t making enough money?

Dr. Joe Dennis, professor and adviser for the sports communication major at Piedmont University, said the A’s situation is unique.  “They’ve adopted a barebone spending model — they are not making a lot of revenue, but they’re not spending a lot, either.”

Dennis is an associate professor at Piedmont University, the only college in Georgia which offers sports communication degree. He is also a lifelong baseball fan, specifically of the Chicago White Sox. Dennis grew up 15 minutes away from the White Sox Stadium and is no stranger to the history of baseball, as he said he has been a fan for nearly all 46 years he has been alive. As a baseball fan, Dennis said he is upset about the way the Athletics front office is handling the relocation option. 

“Baseball is really unique in that it has no salary cap and no salary minimum, and so it’s absurd that teams can get away with spending nothing and just putting a product out there that allows other teams to basically have exhibition games against them.”

He has seen Theo Epstein, former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, employ tanking tactics, but feels what the A’s are doing is completely different.

“Many teams have done this. They will intentionally lose and trade their star player away, but they do that to get really great prospects and build through the draft,” Dennis said, adding that Oakland received very little in return for the trades of top players like Matt Olson and Chris Bassitt. “That message isn’t there, they got nothing for those trades – he’s (John Fischer) basically just tanking to get the team out of Oakland”

Dennis said this cheap attempt of ownership only hurts the fans. 

It isn’t all on the ownership though. Juan Pagan, assistant athletic director at Eagles Landing Christian Academy in McDonough, Georgia, said there’s another group who has to pick up the slack — the front office. “They are pretty much the face of the team from a business aspect.”

In addition to being involved in athletics, Pagan also has a  master’s degree in business administration. Over the course of his lifetime, Pagan said  he has seen various players across various sports blatantly deny a team because of a front office issue. Major athletes like Ken Griffey Jr., John Elway and Eli Manning were all examples of athletes who saw a team with major front office problems and said “no” to being drafted by them. 

“Without a good front office you won’t get any big time free agents, big time players in draft picks, to make your franchise players,” he said. “I believe that’s what is going on with the Oakland Athletics right now.”

At least for one game on a Tuesday evening, deafening chants rained down from the Oakland Coliseum. Chants that overpowered the broadcasting crew’s voices. Chants that caused the pitcher to believe his headset was broken. This rare sight at the Coliseum, where the team typically averages 8,555 fans, was due to a reverse boycott by fans on June 13 against their owner, John Fisher. The often empty stands of the Coliseum were far from it, with game attendance at 27,759 people, as A’s fans wanted to show they can still support a team in Oakland.

Unfortunately, it may be too little, too late. 

While 4.5 million people bear the distinctive honor of a PhD, Dr. Joe Dennis shines through the masses with his iconic fedora, which you can often see him sporting and the many hats that lie underneath.

“I always wondered what I’d look like in a fedora and of course the person who was working the booth said, you would look great in a fedora,” Dennis said, recalling the day he bought his first fedora when he met a hat vendor on the streets of New York City.

Dennis currently works at Piedmont University as a professor and chair of mass communications, where he has helped build up the program from 30 students to over 60 students. During the summers, Dennis stays busy though, working at UGA as a journalism camp instructor and teacher to the future journalists of America. However, college isn’t where Joe’s various hats begin to show. His hats come from various events and connections he has made through his life. From the baseball helmet he wears, to the salakot which reveals his Filipino identity and even the hat of radio, his headphones, Joe Dennis wears many hats.

Nowadays, his students know him for the frequent reminders that “girls are players too,” but in the past he was known for his iconic radio voice. Working for Rock 103.7 in Athens, Dennis said, “I did radio full-time and it was the most fun I’ve ever had at a job… and it was also the lowest I ever got paid.” 

The now-closed radio station holds very fond memories for him, but he unfortunately had to step away due to the needs of his family. He doesn’t regret making the switch back as a journalist though, adding that “I look back and I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do, maybe not at the level, like I wanted to be the next Howard Stern. I wasn’t there, but I got to live my dream and do radio.”

However, the time spent in journalism wasn’t easy for Dennis. When starting, he worked for a smaller publication which was “relying on the community that you are covering. You know those people — the mayors, the congressman, and the politicians you talk to — who also own the auto dealer and the grocery store that advertise in your publication. There’s a balance there that as a young journalist, I didn’t understand”. 

Joe struggled between trying to hold his journalistic integrity and holding on to a necessary job. Writing stories that got to the center of the issues, due to the connections in his community, he was at times turned away by his publisher for exposing the same people who were “the biggest advertisers we have.” 

At the time, Dennis said this was extremely hard but as he has grown older he understands.“It’s sad but I get it, that’s the business.”

Shifting to the non-business part of his career, Dennis and his wife have a great love for the show Parks and Recreation. Dennis said one of the highlights of his life happened at the Peabody Awards in 2012, Parks and Recreation won an award. After the Awards, Amy Poehler, an actress who he stated he “had such a crush on,” saw him taking pictures and asked if he was a photographer. He responded with a nervous “Yeah,” to which Poehler dragged him through the green room to take a picture for her. After taking the picture for her, she began to hand him a business card and he thought “Oh my God, I’m about to get Amy Poehler’s number,” but unfortunately she said 6 fatal words. “Send those pictures to my publicist.” 

In Ancient times, civilizations settled near water as it was not only the roots of their plants, but also of their life. Without the water to survive, danger could easily creep up onto the people and cause the destruction of their lifestyle as they know it. However, to Joe Dennis, his water is White Sox baseball. Growing up “5 minutes from the stadium,” Dennis found the choice of being a White Sox fan easy, even when his team struggled or players became injured. Since he grew up a fan, Dennis found it “natural that when my sons were born, I kinda raised them as White Sox fans,”

This bond extended through just watching the game, as Dennis has watched as his sons played baseball both from the stands as their loyal fan and from the dugout as the loving coach. Even though his oldest son has moved out now and life is busy, Dennis stated that baseball is “just something that’s kind of at the root of our bond together.” Through separation and hard times, he and his sons have found comfort in America’s pastime. It isn’t just a game but “such a big entity that bonds me with all my boys.”

Even with the various hats buried under his fedora, Joe Dennis finds a way to show himself in all the best ways everyday. He continues to bring joy to his students within and outside of the confines of a classroom. 

Hey everybody, my name is Charles Alexander Cook, but I just go by Alex. I have lived in Stockbridge, Georgia, which is in Henry County. However, I was born in Clayton County, where my mother lived the majority of her life. I have lived in the same house in Stockbridge for my entire life and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. The house has four people living in it, my mom, dad, younger brother and myself. When I was in fourth grade, I switched from my 40-person school and started at Eagles Landing Christian Academy, or ELCA. This August, I will start my senior year at ELCA and I’m so excited for it.

While I have never had the opportunity to take a newspaper or journalism class, I have taken five different AP classes dealing with writing, history and research. Some classes include :AP Lang, AP Seminar, and AP United States History. I absolutely love writing and the creativity aspect of it. The rants or opinions that you can easily input through your words is one of the coolest things about writing to me. I think my personality is very easily shown through my writing and I think that is why journalism interests me. I can talk about anything through my personal lens and paint a picture that is beautiful and enjoyable to myself and other readers.

Something interesting about me is that I am a manager/assistant coach for three sports and four different sports teams. At my school, I help manage the football and baseball team and I act as an assistant coach for the varsity/j.v. basketball teams. I also act as an assistant coach for the Georgia Jayhawks, an independent AAU team out of Jonesboro, Georgia.

I absolutely love movies and will talk about any movie, any genre with anyone. Movies are another part of writing that interests me as the scripts go beyond just words and can make or break a movie and its quality. However, through all of my interests and passions, my favorite thing I do will always be related to basketball. Since the moment when I watched my first NBA game to the day I shot a basketball, I have been completely in love with the game.

Thanks so much for listening to a little bit about me!