The fans in Oakland are not happy with how things are going for the A’s, but MLB appears to be doing its best to censor criticism.
The A’s have the worst record in MLB at 5-23. They lost 11-7 to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, but at least the middle of their lineup delivered some thump.
First baseman Ryan Noda went 3-for-4 in the loss with three runs scored, a home run and two RBIs. What’s interesting is not Noda’s home run so much as the edit MLB made to the highlight it posted of the homer.
In the broadcast footage, you can see signs from unhappy fans in the right field area all telling owner John Fisher to sell the team. But in MLB’s originally-posted version of the highlight, those anti-Fisher signs were all cropped out.
Take a look:
MLB taking a Totalitarian state approach to removing criticism of owners is very 'on-brand' of them.
Remember fans: when your owner threatens to take your team away and tears down the roster whilst raising ticket prices, you're supposed to just sit quietly and say thank you … pic.twitter.com/Qdgy7pfueP
— UK Oakland Baseball fans 🌳🐘⚾️🇬🇧 (@OaklandAUK) April 29, 2023
Here is a version that shows the two synced up so you can really see the difference:
MLB cropped the video so you can't see all the "sell the team" signs
(h/t @OaklandAUK) pic.twitter.com/HzPZX63zvU
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) April 29, 2023
A’s fans are upset because the team is fielding a crappy team, not putting any money into the roster, and preparing for a move to Las Vegas.
After the video went viral online Saturday, MLB was asked for a comment. They said they were unaware of the edit and that they had changed things back to the original after learning of the edit.
Kudos to Evan Drellich & The Athletic for getting MLB to comment on this in Marc Carig's story, and also, lol:
“We were unaware of the edit,” an MLB spokesperson told The Athletic. “When it came to our attention, we corrected it as it isn’t consistent with our policy.” https://t.co/Jsf8YxtpB9
— Sara Sanchez (@BCB_Sara) April 29, 2023
Did someone edit the video with the intention of blocking out the fan signs or was that edit a pure accident? You make the call.
