That won’t happen immediately, though: Their lease at the Coliseum runs through next season, and the proposed $1.5 billion ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip is not expected to be finished until 2028.

There are still contracts to sort out with the construction and operation of the Vegas stadium and a teachers union in Nevada is presenting a two-pronged legal challenge to the funding for that stadium.

The vote moves along the A’s relocation but if they stumble further down their path to the desert, it would not be the first time this team has failed in a relocation bid.

Here’s a timeline of Oakland’s often tenuous hold on its baseball team:

1970: Two years after moving the A’s from Kansas City to Oakland, owner Charlie Finley reportedly talks with Toronto representatives about moving the team to Canada.

1975: Finley, the absentee owner who lived in Chicago, was hoping to be in the middle of a three-city city “trade” that would send the A’s to Chicago and leave Oakland empty handed. The Chicago Tribune reported the plan would see the White Sox would move to Seattle and the A’s would relocate to Chicago to become the White Sox.

1978: Finley arranges to sell the A’s for $12 million to Colorado oilman Marvin Davis, who would move the team to Denver. Coliseum and Oakland officials reportedly agree to allow the A’s to break their stadium lease — which had 10 years remaining — on two conditions: Oakland would have to be bought out of the lease for $4 million and the Giants would have to agree to play half of their games at the Coliseum for 10 years for the right to be the Bay Area’s only team. Oakland planned on using the $4 million to build luxury suites at the Coliseum for Al Davis in order to keep the Raiders in town. The deal fell through when it was discovered earmarking the funds directly to the Raiders’ project would be a misappropriation of public funds.

1979: Still desperate to sell the A’s, Finley begins negotiating with Eddie DeBartolo Sr., who two years earlier purchased the 49ers and put his son Eddie Jr. in charge. Finley’s hopes of selling were dashed again by the Coliseum lease as well as baseball’s reluctance to sell a team to DeBartolo, who had gambling ties (he owned casinos and horse tracks).

1979: Finley once again agrees to sell the A’s to Marvin Davis for $12 million. The Oakland City Council, though, prevents the A’s from leaving for Denver by voting to keep the Coliseum lease intact.

1980: Finally fed up with trying to get approval on a sale that would send the A’s out of Oakland, Finley sells the A’s to a local group led by ex-Levi Strauss CEO Walter Haas Jr. that pledges to stay at the Coliseum.

1996: The A’s sign a deal to move to Las Vegas … sort of. The A’s agree to open the season with a six-game homestand at Cashman Field in Vegas while worker put the finishing touches on Mt. Davis at the Coliseum.

2000: MLB lawyers discuss the Oakland A’s as a possible contraction candidate. One proposal was to disband the A’s and have Oakland ownership take over ownership of the Angels. Another concept was to disband the Angels and have the A’s players move to Anaheim to become the Angels.

2000: A’s owners Steve Schott and Ken Hofmann broach the possibility of moving to San Jose with Major League Baseball.

2002: A’s begin exploring possibility of a downtown ballpark in Oakland near City Hall.

2004: Ownership begins looking into building a new stadium on Coliseum property in the north parking lot.

2005: New co-owner Lew Wolff, along with co-owner John Fisher, announces his group will focus on building a new stadium somewhere in Oakland.

2006: Wolff says A’s will build a new ballpark at Fremont’s Warm Springs district. The planned move-in date at the 32,000-seat Cisco Field would be as early as 2010.

2009: A’s abandon plans to relocate to Fremont, citing “real and threatened” delays to their proposed project. The hurdles included local opposition to the increased traffic and diminished property values the new ballpark would cause.

2009: City of San Jose leaders begin courting the A’s, who later announce they’ll shift their focus to building a stadium in downtown San Jose. Commissioner Bud Selig later appoints a Blue Ribbon Panel to navigate stadium possibilities, including dealing with San Francisco Giants’ territorial rights in South Bay. It would turn out to be a six-year battle.

2009: City of Oakland officials propose a waterfront ballpark near Jack London Square and along the Oakland Estuary called Victory Court.

2011: Oakland leaders shelve the Victory Court plans and instead propose a new development at the 66th Ave. site called Coliseum City.

2012: Cisco Field is proposed to be built in downtown San Jose, next to SAP Center and San Jose Diridon Station.

2013: MLB’s lawyers deny the A’s request to move to San Jose. San Jose city officials file a lawsuit that eventually makes its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2014: The A’s sign a 10-year lease to remain playing at the Coliseum.

2015: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects San Jose’s bid to overrule MLB’s decision to deny the team’s proposed move to the South Bay.

2016: Wolff resigns as majority owner and John Fisher becomes new majority owner. He hires Dave Kaval as team president and head of stadium project.

2017: Kaval announces A’s preferred choice of a new ballpark site is the Peralta site, located between Lake Merritt and I-880. Three months later, the Peralta Community College District abruptly discontinued negotiations after intense opposition to the A’s project from community groups.

2018: On Nov. 28, the A’s announce plans for a privately financed, 34,000-seat ballpark at Howard Terminal.

2020: The Howard Terminal ballpark plan, which continues to face intense opposition from waterfront businesses affected by the A’s plans, also faces delays due to the pandemic.

2021: With the Howard Terminal plan still stalled, Major League Baseball on May 11 gives the A’s its blessing to begin exploring relocation. Cities such as Las Vegas, Montreal, Nashville, Portland, Charlotte and Vancouver are reportedly among the top contenders for relocating the A’s.

2023: The A’s reach a deal in Las Vegas — initially for a site away from downtown, then a new site at the Tropicana on the Strip. In June, Nevada lawmakers approve $380 million in public funds for the proposed $1.5 billion stadium, a much smaller project than the Howard Terminal efforts. In November, MLB owners vote to approve the move.

Michael Nowels contributed to this story.

Former A’s and Giants outfielder Bill North, a two-time World Series champion with Oakland in the early ‘70s, will be the special guest from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the grand re-opening of Rickey’s Sports Lounge in San Leandro.

North, now 75, is eager to share his thoughts about his old team preparing to leave Oakland and head toward Las Vegas.

“I’m a pragmatist. I’ve been watching how professional sports have treated Oakland for many years,” North said during a phone conversation Tuesday. “And nobody’s really done anything for the community.

“I have an opinion that rich people like to get richer and make other rich people richer without purpose,” added North, who spent more than three decades as a financial planner near his Kirkland, Washington home. “I loved The Town … and there’s a whole bunch of people that could have done better with Oakland. I was a baseball player there and I saw times you could have looked at Oakland as an opportunity.

“To me, it’s just another example of a lack of caring for those in marginalized situations.”

There figures to be a number of lively sports conversations as a number of other former East Bay greats will be on hand at the former go-to place for Raiders fans, which had a soft re-opening in May ahead of its official restart coinciding with the beginning of the NFL season this week.

Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner who led the A’s to their last World Series championship in 1989, headlines a list of former players scheduled to attend. The list includes ex-baseball players Mike Norris and Bip Roberts, ex-Raiders Raymond Chester, Art Thoms and Mike Dotterer, former NFL players Sherman White and Jerry Robinson, as well as ex-Harlem Globetrotters legend Nate Branch.

Award-winning sports columnist/author Dave Newhouse and author Arif Khatib, the founder of the East Bay-based Multi-ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, will be part of a panel with North that discusses sports in Oakland, past and present, and more. Newhouse, a former longtime writer for this organization, and former A’s executive Andy Dolich authored “Goodbye, Oakland,” a look at how the city landed on the verge of losing the Raiders, Warriors and the A’s. Khatib will also have updates on his sports hall of fame’s next class as well as the presentation of the first annual Curt Flood Platinum Award ceremony on Feb. 24, 2024. The award, in honor of Oakland’s Flood, one of baseball’s greatest pioneers, will be presented to the top performers from football, baseball, hockey and basketball.

For a charitable, tax-deductible donation, guests are welcome to attend the ceremonies at Rickey’s, located at 15028 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro. For $50, attendees will receive autographs and photo opportunities with the athletes in attendance along with a chance to win A’s and Giants tickets through a raffle. For $100, guests will also receive autographed copies of Newhouse and Dolich’s book as well as Khatib’s book, “Remember the Sacrifice,” a series of vignettes on unheralded athletes of color, some of which come from the Bay Area.

For more information as well as tickets for Wednesday night’s festivities, go to www.multiethnicsportshof.com, or call 510-629-3895.

They signaled as much when they announced late Wednesday night that they had reached a binding agreement to buy a plot of land in Las Vegas to build a new stadium and relocate to Sin City.

That deal, and the plan associated with it, would put the A’s on a path to an off-Strip stadium in 2027 at the earliest. Their lease at the Coliseum ends following the 2024 season.

So where will they play in 2025 and 2026? The New York Times mentioned Thursday that Oracle Park could be one option, but two others appear more likely: Extending at the Coliseum, similar to what happened with the Raiders while their Las Vegas stadium was being built, or playing at Las Vegas Ballpark — the home of their Triple-A affiliate — while constructing the MLB stadium.

Team president Dave Kaval said the A’s have a deal in place with the Aviators to use Las Vegas Ballpark if needed — possibly as soon as next season if the sides agree to terminate the lease early. Kaval also said the Aviators will remain in Las Vegas. The Minnesota Twins have a similar arrangement with their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul, which is about 10 minutes from Target Field.

Some fans might want the team to hit the road sooner than later, angry that John Fisher and Co. are leaving Oakland. Others may want the A’s to stick around so they can see more games before saying goodbye.

Here are some positives and negatives — from the team’s perspective — of playing 2025 and 2026 in Oakland vs. heading to Las Vegas.

Oakland Coliseum

Pros

—The A’s already own half of the Coliseum. That surely helps offset the lease cost, or they could leverage selling that stake into a cheaper extension.

—They could continue their teardown-and-rebuild cycle, potentially entering Las Vegas in 2027 with a team that is two years closer to contention.

—If attendance stays low, they can continue selling the story that they aren’t well supported in Oakland.

Cons

— They are on pace to have the lowest home attendance of the 30 teams for the second season in a row and they will only become a bigger national embarrassment to MLB if even fewer fans fill the seats.

Las Vegas Ballpark

Pros

—Even at a 10,000-seat stadium, they are likely to draw better attendance with a new, excited fanbase than the one they intend to abandon

—Put the whole relocation mess in the past sooner than later

— A combination of hot, desert temperatures and cozy dimensions could do wonders for fans of the long ball: There were an average of 3.67 home runs hit per game last season at Las Vegas Ballpark, compared to 1.71 per game at the Coliseum. The A’s have only hit nine home runs in their first 12 home games this season.

Cons

— The park is an open-air stadium, which means every home game would likely need to start at 7:30 p.m. to combat Vegas’ searing temperatures.

— Stadium’s capacity may be 10,000, but that includes standing room-only tickets, meaning fans would really be crammed into the park. (Plus, can you imagine how many fans would try squeezing into the pool behind the fence in right-center?)

— Because it’s not a big-league facility, MLB and the players association would both have to sign off on the A’s spending a season or two there.

Davis seemed as incensed as A’s fans and Oakland city officials were to find out the baseball team signed an agreement to purchase land to build a proposed $2.1 billion, 30-to-35,000-seat stadium just one mile north of the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium near the Vegas Strip.

In a profanity-laced interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Davis made it clear he won’t be a welcoming neighbor should the A’s ballpark deal come to fruition in Southern Nevada.

“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland. They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium,” Davis said Thursday, in reference to the A’s 10-year Coliseum lease extension that expires in 2024. “They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for a stadium. They didn’t want to build a stadium, and then went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland and said, ‘We’re the base team.’ ”

Davis then mocked the A’s marketing campaign while throwing much of the blame for the Raiders’ departure on the lap of A’s owner John Fisher and his team president, Dave Kaval.

“They marketed the team as ‘Rooted in Oakland.’ That’s been their mantra through the whole thing,” Davis told the Review-Journal. “The slogans they’ve been using have been a slap to the face of the Raiders, and they were trying to win over that type of mentality in the Bay Area. Well, all they did was (screw) the Bay Area.”

Perhaps this is an appropriate time to remind Davis without the A’s maybe he wouldn’t have the world’s second-most expensive stadium – the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium – without the generous assistance from Nevada lawmakers and businessmen.

In actuality, the relationship between the Raiders and A’s had long been an acrimonious one — pretty much since the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995 and “refurbished” the Coliseum. The A’s weren’t pleased with the Coliseum expansion project that bore “Mount Davis,” a monstrosity that still stands as a reminder of the damage to the stadium’s aesthetics.

Now, if the A’s get their wish to move down the street from the Raiders, Davis said that would be the ultimate betrayal of Oakland. (Yes, now he’s choosing to think about how Oakland fans feel about losing another major pro sports team).

“For them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty (screwed) up,” Davis said. “Because that site that the stadium was on was a good site. We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldn’t be better. But the A’s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.”

Davis assured if the A’s join the Raiders in Vegas there won’t be any joyous reunions between the former Coliseum cohabitates, even though he was once a huge fan of the team.

“I have nothing against the players. I was an A’s fan, way back in the day, Reggie Jackson and all those guys. Reggie’s a good friend,” Davis said. “But not this management group, no.

“I just have, again, a lot of personal animosity toward the front office. But with a new management group? Absolutely.”

Despite decades of relocation threats, it was nonetheless surprising when A’s president Dave Kaval revealed late Wednesday that the team has signed a binding agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas, where they plan to move.

Kaval announced that the A’s finalized a deal last week to buy a 49-acre site near the Vegas Strip, where they plan to construct a 35,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof hopefully in time for the 2027 season. Coincidentally, the parcel of land near Tropicana Boulevard and Interstate 15 is just down the road from Allegiant Stadium, where a former Oakland team — the Raiders — plays its games.

Stunned Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who said she’d been negotiating daily with the A’s on a deal to bring the $12 billion Howard Terminal project to fruition, basically said “good riddance” to the team that’s called Oakland home for the past 55 years. She said any negotiations for a deal at Howard Terminal are now dead.

“It is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas,” Thao said. “I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.”

Thao was hoping for a positive resolution to the city’s negotiations on team owner John Fisher’s vision of a development near Jack London Square, featuring a 35,000-seat waterfront ballpark, 3,000 new homes, massive retail and other commercial space, hotel units and more. The ambitious project divided residents who didn’t want to lose their hometown baseball team but worried that the city would be on the hook to invest millions in the site.

So now what?

Howard Terminal can probably now be added to the pile of the A’s other failed new-ballpark efforts in the Bay Area since Fisher and former partner Lew Wolff bought the team nearly 20 years ago. Beginning with a proposed downtown Oakland stadium in 2005 to multiple ballpark pursuits in Fremont, San Jose and Oakland’s “Victory Court,” “Coliseum City” and the “Peralta Site,” ownership’s ballpark strikeout rate would make all-time A’s strikeout leader Reggie Jackson blush.

However, Kaval said after so many years of stadium deals falling through, the A’s had to do something to meet a January 15, 2024, ballpark deadline set by baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. The A’s receive revenue shares — subsidies from MLB’s other teams that measure in the tens of millions — and Manfred warned that those payments will cease if the A’s don’t have a concrete plan by then.

While the A’s will now work with Nevada and Clark County on the public-private partnership for stadium funding, the fact remains there’s not yet a deal. The A’s are reportedly seeking $500 million in tax credits toward the construction of the ballpark. Once a land deal and ballpark financing are completed, there will be more steps in the process of leaving Oakland.

Thursday, Nevada legislative leaders told the Associated Press that they had little information about the A’s plans, beyond that a land purchase deal is in place, a funding bill is coming and there is no timeline for action.

The stadium and other developments are projected to cost about $1.5 billion, per The Nevada Independent, while the A’s are asking for $500 million in public assistance, said Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft, who has been in talks with A’s leadership and whose district includes the potential stadium site.

“That’s something that they’ve come up with,” said Naft of the A’s funding ask. “You don’t always get what you want. And I think that’s probably going to be the case with the $500 million.”

Even with the land purchase, he has unanswered questions about how the new stadium will affect year-round Las Vegas residents.

“I think the fact that Oakland is no longer an option as of last night means that we can have a more serious conversation about what would be involved with the relocation to our community,” he said.

Several officials in state leadership expressed optimism, but would not comment further until more details come out. A spokesperson for state Senate majority leader, Democrat Nicole Cannizzaro, said she “has not committed to supporting any deal, nor would she without seeing detailed legislative language and discussing it with her caucus.”

If Nevada lawmakers and the A’s can come to a signed agreement, one of the final steps would be 75 percent of MLB owners approving the deal — or 22 of the league’s other 29 owners. Would the A’s moving from the country’s No. 10 market (Oakland) to the No. 29 market (Vegas) be cause for concern? Possibly, but the relocation has the support of Manfred, and that has always carried a lot of weight in such votes. Even so, the owners have only approved one team in more than 50 years to move to a different city — Montreal to Washington in 2005.

The commissioner reiterated Major League Baseball is on board with the A’s efforts in Vegas, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “We support the A’s turning their focus on Las Vegas and look forward to them bringing finality to this process by the end of the year.”

Nonetheless, Kaval admitted that the A’s are still a long way away from ordering the moving trucks.

“The reality is there’s still a lot of work to do in Nevada, but we are turning our full focus to getting that deal complete with the blessing and support of MLB,” Kaval told this news organization Thursday. “So that road, the parallel path is over.

“We know it’s hard for fans to hear that,” Kaval said. “We’ve been here over 50 years. We know it’s a bittersweet day. It’s a tough thing to hear that the team could be relocating. But by the same token, the current situation is untenable.”

Speaking of untenable, it doesn’t seem possible that the A’s on-field product can get much worse. For a franchise that has made 21 postseason appearances in 54 years, including 17 division titles, six World Series appearances and four championships, this year’s team has been an abject failure. The bumbling A’s and their MLB-worst 3-16 record through Thursday is a failure by any measure.

The A’s have been trending straight into the ground for the past two years — including losing 100 games for the second time in Oakland history last season — while in the midst of completing a full teardown of a team that went to the playoffs in three straight seasons (2018-2020). They’ve traded away All-Stars and most other contributors before they could reach free agency. The buildup and teardown is a sad, familiar cycle under Fisher’s ownership, which has kept team payroll to embarrassingly low totals. Their 2023 payroll of $60.2 million, according to SpoTrac.com, is dead last in MLB.

Even the most diehard of the A’s fans had a pretty good idea this day was coming. Longtime fan Ryan Thibodaux certainly did.

“This has seemed to be inevitable for a year or so, at least,” the 41-year-old Thibodaux told the Associated Press on Thursday. “I’m still more saddened than I thought I would be.”

Former A’s manager Bob Melvin, now managing the San Diego Padres, grew up in the Bay Area and said news of the relocation to Vegas was sad, “but you could see this coming.”

As dire as the Vegas news may be, longtime A’s followers have certainly been down this road before.

The A’s were indeed at a crossroads in 1978 when then-owner Charlie Finley agreed to sell the team to Denver oilman Marvin Davis. Upon leaving spring training, the A’s moving trucks were instructed to stop in Las Vegas to await further instructions. Depending on whether the A’s sale went through or not, they’d either be turning right on I-15 toward Denver or going left toward Oakland.

Now, 45 years later, the direction of the A’s franchise is again hanging in the balance. For his part, Kaval isn’t ready to say for sure where the team is headed.

“There’s always the possibility of discussions in Oakland, and we’re always open to discussions. But the focus now is on Las Vegas.“

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Once here, they quickly learn the place isn’t what it seemed at first glance.

Unsightly and unequivocally unpretentious, this monstrosity is tucked in between modest homes in the middle of an unremarkable neighborhood on the grittier side of town.

To understand West Coast’s charm and allure for customers, you must step inside the massive, 40,000-square foot amalgamation of six buildings with its partition walls made of stucco, glass, metal siding or chain link fencing.

First-time visitors typically get overwhelmed by the vast amount of athletic equipment and apparel they encounter. The inexhaustible collection of bats and gloves fill up multiple rooms. At almost every turn there are shirts, helmets, hats and more layered nearly to the ceiling. Narrow aisles are jammed with overflowing racks and stacks of pants, shoes, jerseys and jackets.

Somehow, the warehouse provides just enough space for owner Jeff Fingerut’s gigantic inventory, which features a head-spinning stash of 10,000 bats and 7,000 gloves.

“I find too much stuff here,” said 39-year-old Gary Elizarrey, a Hayward father of three baseball-crazed boys, while chuckling recently as he piled up pants, gloves and belts next to the cash register. “I’ve been coming to West Coast since I was a kid. I could spend hours in here just milling around … but now my wife just left to go back to the car.”

The glut of equipment is part of Fingerut’s never-ending push to provide anything and everything for his customers. With mom-and-pop stores such as his getting squeezed into submission by Amazon’s online shopping dominance as well as big box sporting goods stores such as Dick’s and Big 5, Fingerut knows his livelihood depends on it.

“I grade myself not on a profit, I grade myself on whether you got everything you wanted. If you didn’t, I failed you,” said Fingerut, the third generation owner of the family business that began in 1948 as a shoe store in Oakland. “Dick’s may have 12 red belts and they may run out by Friday. I’ve got 800 red belts in bins. And if you come looking for a youth medium red undershirt, too, I’d better have one for you to buy at the right price.

“That’s why there’s six buildings here with more stuff than the whole Bay Area could use.”

In addition to its multiple generations of owners, many of West Coast’s customers have had shared family experiences here over the years. Take 24-year-old Derrick Reese of San Leandro. The former high school baseball player remembers fondly coming to West Coast as a 6-year-old with his father to get Little League gear.

His visit to the store on this day was tinged with irony as he dug through buckets of baseballs with his 6-year-old son, trying to find the right ones to practice with for the upcoming season.

“It’s been here forever. It’s a staple,” said Reese, whose guilty pleasure is West Coast’s below-market New Era baseball hats. “It doesn’t matter if you’re from the East Bay, South Bay … you’re coming here. Where else are you going to go? We’ve needed Jeff and he’s always been here.”

Clearly, West Coast is baseball to its core — from one of its three full-time employees being named “Abner” right down to the daily “squeeze play” executed by patrons trying to maximize the store’s virtually nonexistent parking spaces. But the place still has plenty of room for softball, basketball and football gear that keeps the warehouse teeming with would-be consumers.

Their arrival is a constant testament to the power of word-of-mouth marketing, especially considering West Coast doesn’t have a website. Even more unlikely, Fingerut’s store has become somewhat of an international go-to place for affordable baseball equipment. Coaches and benefactors from around the world caught wind of West Coast years ago at sporting goods trade shows.

West Coast now regularly outfits schools and teams from as far away as Japan, Australia, Guam and Mexico.

“I now do more business in Mexico, Europe, Australia and Japan than I do here,” said the 59-year-old Fingerut, now in his 44th year working at West Coast, the last 30 as its owner. “I now do more business in Mexico, Europe, Australia and Japan than I do here.”

Times haven’t always been this good for Fingerut or his bottom line, though. It’s taken two epic, grueling comebacks for the store to remain in business.

Having to essentially close its doors for nearly 18 months during the pandemic wasn’t even the worst of West Coast’s catastrophes. For sheer devastation, it was the awful 2007 fire that leveled West Coast’s old building across town that truly brought the business to its knees.

“I was numb. All the inventory was gone and I was in debt. I was bankrupt,” said Fingerut, who had to quickly gather himself and move into his current spot to begin rebuilding West Coast.

It didn’t take long for Fingerut to get jolted back into focus, though. He experienced his “It’s a Wonderful Life” awakening the next morning when one coach from Berkeley handed him a credit card, asking Fingerut to charge $5,000 for future gear to help with the immediate rebuild.

Soon there were others pitching in to save their baseball mecca.

It was more than enough motivation to keep Fingerut going.

“Every day I came here to work saying to myself, ‘Tomorrow will be better,’ “ he said. “I was in debt and broke but I came in here every day with a happy attitude.”

The pain and debt are now gone but there are some aspects of the fire will never leave him.

A singed baseball was among the couple pieces of equipment that wasn’t completely ruined on that fateful August night in 2007. Fingerut still keeps that baseball encased in glass at the front entrance of his warehouse as a daily reminder of how quickly life can spin out of control.

“Life is traumatic. It’s the ebbing and flowing of good times and bad times. It’s how you handle those good and bad times that matters,” Fingerut said. “I came back with a smile and rebuilt my life.”

Any visit to his bustling San Leandro warehouse surely proves that.

Fisher has slashed the team’s payroll in half while increasing ticket and parking prices for a dwindling fan base to watch his last-place team careen toward the second 100-loss season ever in Oakland. But a recent revelation from one of the richest and most successful owners in sports points the finger for the A’s woes at none other than former baseball commissioner Bud Selig.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob offered A’s fans a potential alternate reality by disclosing he once had an agreement to purchase the A’s years ago — only to have Selig torpedo it.

In “Long Schott,” a remarkably insightful book by and about former A’s co-owner Stephen Schott, co-authored by the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea, Lacob talked about his failed 2005 deal to buy the A’s from Schott for $180 million.

“I’ll never forget it,” Lacob told Shea, before describing how Selig not only dismissed the deal out of hand, the commissioner didn’t bother calling him back. “So I had the Oakland A’s agreed to … and it got yanked from under me. I was really pissed at Bud Selig.”

Selig, meanwhile, steered Schott and his late business partner Ken Hoffman toward two men he knew, Fisher and Lew Wolff, Selig’s old fraternity brother at the University of Wisconsin, who essentially copied Lacob’s term sheet to complete a $180 million purchase.

“Nothing against Joe Lacob. I thought John Fisher and Lew Wolff would be a great combination,” Selig told Shea.

Now 83 years old, Schott appreciates being successful and healthy enough to still do what he wants, when he wants. For the longtime, hard-charging Bay Area home builder and land developer, this usually means working three partial days per week at his company’s office in Santa Clara.

That left him plenty of time for a recent phone conversation about one of the greatest “what ifs” in Bay Area sports history, even if Schott himself wasn’t taking the bait. Schott was more open to answering questions about his decision to write an autobiography – he wanted his grandkids to have a reference point for his triumphs, travels and travails – than dissecting what’s wrong with the A’s 17 years after he sold them.

Schott knows exactly what Fisher’s going through, for he too was once a cost-conscious, reticent A’s owner who couldn’t navigate his way out of the Coliseum and into a new ballpark.

For Fisher, tangible solutions for a dilapidated stadium, dwindling crowds and mounting losses still may be years away. In the meantime, Fisher simultaneously keeps alive his threat to move to Las Vegas and his hopes for a Howard Terminal ballpark while still presiding over his team’s giant mess in Oakland.

“I’m not here to criticize what’s going on with the A’s,” Schott said of Fisher’s plight. “I don’t know what they’re trying to do, if they want to move or not. It’s not my headache.”

Despite Lacob’s ever-growing acumen as a team owner, Schott wasn’t willing to play revisionist history about his failed deal with the Warriors owner.

“Gee, I don’t know,” Schott said when asked if the A’s would have been better off if he’d been allowed to sell to Lacob. “I don’t want to speculate. But (Lacob) sure landed on his feet pretty well.”

Still, there’s no avoiding what Selig’s misguided belief that Fisher and Wolff were more qualified than Lacob did to the A’s, Oakland and the team’s fans. Can you put a price tag on what 17 years of mostly missteps and miscalculations under Fisher and Wolff has already cost?

What about juxtaposing it with Lacob’s transformation of a moribund Warriors franchise into a four-time champion and perhaps the model organization in all of sports?

“I do think it’s sad that we didn’t get the A’s over any time in the last 17 years,” said Lacob, who also revealed he’s had a standing offer for more than a decade to purchase the A’s from Fisher. “I think we would’ve done a really good job with the A’s. But look, obviously I’m biased.”

One thing’s for sure: The old commissioner’s denial of Lacob was one of a string of decisions showing Selig never really was Oakland’s bud.

Selig, who retired before the 2015 season, for years has said permitting the A’s to move from Kansas City to Oakland in 1968 was both “a horrible decision” and “the worst mistake” baseball has made. He didn’t believe the Bay Area could support two baseball teams, despite both the A’s and Giants drawing more than 2 million fans per year multiple times while enjoying long periods of success.

During his 23-year commissionership, Selig also created a pair of Blue Ribbon panels, each portending doom for the A’s.

In 2000, Selig’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics recommended contracting the A’s and Twins franchises to save money. During this time, Schott and Hofmann reached a tentative deal to sell the A’s to a local group headed by Bob Piccinini, the late chairman of Modesto-based SaveMart Supermarkets and frontman Andy Dolich, a renowned former A’s team executive.

Piccinini and Dolich’s group had designs on building a new A’s stadium right on the Coliseum’s 120-acre property. But, Selig tabled their offer.

Then things turned magical in Oakland as the 2000 A’s team began a four-year stretch of playoff appearances that created the “Moneyball” brand which eventually led to the movie starring Brad Pitt.

“Then baseball said, ‘How are we gonna contract a team that’s popular?’” Dolich said of the A’s franchise-saving turnaround.

Selig’s other Blue Ribbon panel, set up in 2009 and finally dissolved five years later, wound up having the most devastating effect on the A’s. It involved territorial rights to the South Bay and whether the A’s would be allowed to move into the perceived territory of the Giants. While waiting for the findings, Fisher and Wolff were confident of using 13 ½ acres near the Diridon train station to build a $500 million ballpark in San Jose.

Long story short, Selig pondered the panel’s long-awaited findings and quickly put up a permanent roadblock preventing the A’s from moving there. He decided to honor the rights once given to the Giants by the A’s as a goodwill gesture when San Francisco was searching for a new home in the early 1990s.

“There weren’t really any territorial rights. Strictly arbitrary on the part of Bud Selig,” Schott said in his book. “(He) claimed the Giants had the rights to the South Bay, but nothing gave the Giants full rights to the South Bay. It should have been wide open. It really wasn’t anybody’s territory.”

The argument was personal for Schott. A few years earlier, the Santa Clara-born businessman was pursuing a potential deal with the city to build a baseball-only ballpark in his hometown, next to Great America, right where the 49ers wound up moving in 2014.

“I knew the city-owned land well enough to know the A’s would flourish there,” Schott said. “I was in talks with the Santa Clara City Council, which was on board.”

Unfortunately for Schott, neither Selig nor MLB was on board with Santa Clara. The denial turned out to be one of the bigger reasons Schott decided it was time for him to get out of baseball. It didn’t help that he and Hofmann often bickered with baseball decisions or that their ownership group was constantly targeted by fans and others for not investing enough in the club.

“I made the mistake of saying I’m going to set up a budget because I’m not interested in losing my personal money. I really got criticized for that,” Schott said. “But I decided, ‘Here’s the budget,’ and that’s how Moneyball started because Billy had to live within the budget.

“It worked out OK. Where there’s a will, there’s a way sometimes. … It was a fun run when we had it. We almost won some championships.”

At least that’s the message from Rams coach Sean McVay as the teams prepare to battle for the right to play in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi on Feb. 13. McVay was asked Monday whether his team will be affected by another mass invasion of 49ers fans for their home game Sunday.

“I don’t know that I really look at it like that,” McVay told reporters. “I think that you just look at it as, ‘Hey, let’s control what we can control.’ ”

Still, McVay couldn’t help but make a plea to Rams ticket holders.

“Hold onto those tickets, and it’ll be much appreciated,” McVay said. “But our guys are looking forward to putting on a good show against a great opponent. (We) can’t wait to be able to do it, and don’t sell those tickets!”

Despite a clear attempt to stop 49ers fans from taking over SoFi like they did in the regular-season finale almost three weeks ago, there are mounds of evidence The Faithful managed to secure plenty of tickets. And a denial by the Rams front office that they intended to shut out 49ers fans when their ticket partner, Ticketmaster, restricted sales of this week’s tickets to Southern California residents only.

“The policies were put in place to give local residents and season-ticket members first access to tickets,” Rams vice president of corporate affairs Joanna Hunter told the Los Angeles Daily News this week. Hunter said the 49ers fans were not a factor in that decision.

That residency provision was lifted when it became moot because all tickets were sold out through Ticketmaster, which only opened up more chances for 49ers to scoop up tickets through third-party vendors. StubHub said it had a little more than 4,400 tickets for the game available as of Wednesday afternoon. As you might imagine, they aren’t cheap.

The cheapest ticket you can find there is $599. The average price of those remaining tickets is nearly $1,200. Of course, if you want to just hang out and tailgate at SoFi, that’ll cost you “just” $145. The big spenders can still go watch the game in style in a Lower VIP section, where four tickets available at $12,000 a pop remained Wednesday.

Alex Terry of StubHub said business is so good that the NFC Championship will likely be the third-best-selling postseason game in the ticket resale company’s history. She also said 77 percent of the Rams-49ers tickets have been sold to California residents – 44 percent of them reside in Northern California.

SeatGeek, meanwhile, appeared to have the lowest get-in price for the game available. For $541 you can still get a seat in Section 551 in the upper deck above the west end zone at SoFi.

When Ticketmaster’s restrictions first went into effect Sunday, it didn’t take long for some creative 49ers fans to figure out a way to game the system.

Some of the Faithful went into stealth mode to purchase tickets for the team’s first NFC Championship game on the road since 2013, when San Francisco’s 2013 season ended in Seattle. One man belonging to a Facebook group for 49ers fans said Tuesday he was able to purchase tickets to Sunday’s game directly from a member of a Rams fan Facebook page. The man, who requested anonymity, said he — and some others — got the tickets after following advice from a fellow 49ers fan – he hid his location from public view and also made all photos showing his 49ers allegiance private.

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford knows dealing with the 49ers defense will be a challenge within itself. He’d prefer not to deal with a crowd that makes it difficult for his teammates to hear him, like the last time the 49ers were there.

“Hopefully it’s one of those games where we come out and it’s heavy blue and yellow (in the stands) and we have a nice, loud crowd that makes it tough on them,” Stafford said.

Of course, fans who waited too long to be a part of the scene Friday at Oracle Park might find the hunt for Orange October tickets an onerous one.

Unless they’re willing to really pay the price.

Only a handful of upper deck and standing-room only tickets remained for Game 1 of the National League Division Series as of Wednesday afternoon. The few unsold View Reserve seats in right field cost $165 through the Giants’ website (sfgiants.com), while standing-room access will cost $110.

The resale market for tickets to Friday’s game — against the winner of Wednesday’s Dodgers vs. Cardinals game — is surprisingly cheaper. You could still find View Reserve seats in left field for $123 at VividSeats and SeatGeek on Wednesday. StubHub, meanwhile, was still offering View Reserve seating in Section 325 for $147, the same price you’d pay there to get into Oracle with no assigned seat.

Those fans who want a better view or just a more comfortable place to sit, will need to dig a lot deeper to get into Oracle Park Friday. Most other tickets available on StubHub range from $549 for a Field Club seat in Section 109 to $3,000 for a Dugout Club seat in Section 113.

Tickets for Game 2 on Saturday night and a possible series-deciding Game 5 at Oracle Park are even more scarce. Not that this causes any problem whatsoever for Giants management.

Like most teams, the Giants have seen a downturn in ticket sales since 2019 – they drew a modest 1.7 million fans this season. However, interest in watching the 107-win Giants in the playoffs has suddenly reached the same levels it was during San Francisco’s three World Series championship runs, according to Russ Stanley, the longtime Giants vice president of ticket sales.

“We’re not seeing any softening on the purchasing side,” Stanley told the San Francisco Business Times. “We had 40,000 on Saturday and 37,000 on Sunday and the atmosphere here … it was back. Sunday brought back chills to 2010. It just had that same sort of energy to it. It was nice to have that back.”

Fans who don’t want to miss out on a potential National League Championship Series in San Francisco might want to spring into action Thursday at 2 p.m. That’s when the Giants will begin the public sale of NLDS tickets.

The tickets to a potential Game 1 on Saturday, Oct. 16 at Oracle — as well as Game 2 (Sunday, Oct. 17) and possible Game 6 (Saturday, Oct. 23) and Game 7 (Sunday Oct. 24) – will be available online. All tickets are mobile only and can be purchased at sfgiants.com, where you can find more information.

Brenly, a former World Series-winning Arizona manager and an ex-All-Star catcher with the Giants, caused a stir when he made a crack during the game about the head covering Stroman wears under his hat.

Yikes, @BALLYSPORTSAZ @Dbacks pic.twitter.com/cfoCctaQyA

— The 7 Line (@The7Line) June 2, 2021

As a camera zoomed in on Stroman, Brenly referenced a former Mets Hall of Famer when he said, “Pretty sure that’s the same durag that Tom Seaver used to wear when he pitched for the Mets.”

Whether it was simply a poor attempt at a joke or something more, many on Twitter seized upon Brenly’s words. After the Mets’ 6-5 loss to Arizona, Stroman, an outspoken leader on race and social justice, re-tweeted some criticisms of Brenly’s comment. Stroman then tweeted, “Onward and upward….through all adversity and racist undertones. The climb continues through all!”

Onward and upward…through all adversity and racist undertones. The climb continues through all!

— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) June 2, 2021

Stroman, who is Black, said on Twitter that the “media will turn this against me somehow,” should he criticize Brenly.

Since I can’t say it because media will turn this against me somehow… https://t.co/pF0931PXDp

— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) June 2, 2021

Brenly on Wednesday issued a statement apologizing for what he said and indicated he would undergo sensitivity training.

“During last night’s game, I made a poor attempt at humor that was insensitive and wrong. I apologize to Marcus Stroman and have reached out directly to share those thoughts,” the statement said. “I have had several conversations with the D-backs and we agree that seeking sensitivity training is an important step so I can continue to learn from my mistakes in order to be better in the future.”

Mets manager Luis Rojas was among those who have been vocal about Brenly’s comments Tuesday.

“Just very inappropriate,” Rojas told reporters Wednesday. “I was very disappointed when I heard it. If it was like a joke or something, I didn’t get it … and I don’t think a lot of people got it.”

It’s not the first time Brenly has raised eyebrows when commenting about a non-White player. Two years ago, Brenly said of the jewelry worn by Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr., “It might be easier to run the bases if he didn’t have that bike chain around his neck.”

Brenly, who managed the Diamondbacks to their only World Series title in 2001, spent eight of his nine big league seasons as a player with San Francisco.