This is rough. There is more bad blood between Oakland and Las Vegas than a mob of Swifties and a MAGA rally. Just this week, Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong said in a People interview: “We don't take no shit from people like John fucking Fisher who sold out the Oakland A's to Las fucking Vegas. I hate Las Vegas. It's the worst shithole in America.” Two Las Vegas rock stations (KOMP 92.3 and X107.5) got so bent about Armstrong’s comments that they banned Green Day from their airwaves.

I’ve got a better idea: how about we work together. Yes, keep the A’s in Oakland And get Las Vegas an expansion team of their own? Because the real American Idiot here is the Athletics owner, John fucking Fisher. 

To my Bay Area family: I grew up here. I’ve bled green and gold since the early 1980’s with Billy (Martin) ball. The Coliseum was my child and teen-year playground. I attended 44 home games during the 1985 season. Look that A’s team up. It wasn’t because they were great – 77-85, good for fourth in the AL West; It was because the Coliseum and the fans were awesome. My parents worked in San Francisco and were in The City on Oct. 17, 1989 when the Loma Prieta quake interrupted game three of the Bay Bridge World Series between the A’s and Giants. While I didn’t hear from them until the next morning, they were thankfully both okay. My dad saw my growing love of the A’s and used that to bring us closer, pitching the idea of going to all 30 MLB parks together. We started that quest in 1990 and finished in 2004. You can see more about that epic adventure here. Michael Lewis’ brilliant book, Moneyball helped make my dad, a whip-smart municipal bond trader and me, an artist with an entrepreneurial streak, even tighter. We bonded over undervalued assets. Our relationship is the foundation of our 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Parkinson's disease community, Yes, And…eXercise!

To my Las Vegas family: You deserve Major League Baseball. Las Vegas is a Major League city filled with awesome sports fans. I lived there for over twenty years between 2000-2021. My wife and I met there while I was performing as Caesar at Caesars Palace. We bought our first house there in 2007 (d’oh!). My son and daughter were born there. I earned a master’s degree in Journalism and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences from UNLV. What happened on Oct. 1, 2017 both devastated and catalyzed our community in ways none of us could have imagined. The magic of the Golden Knights first season is an all-time sports and human story. We became a family, Vegas Strong. Bryce Harper, who also knows the A’s don’t belong in Vegas, is one representative of the brilliance that already is Las Vegas baseball. The Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the AAA Athletics club affiliate, the Aviators, is another example of baseball already working very well there. 

I've heard people say “they” (MLB) just won't listen. Here's the thing: it's all been hypothetical until now. It's about to get embarassing. The homeless Athletics are planning to spend at least three years in a minor league park in Sacramento. That. Is. Pathetic. Hey Sacramento fans, if you want to jump in here and call for a team of your own as you've been part of the expansion rumor mill, you are most welcome.

Let’s come together. We can all win. MLB is the institution that needs to pull its head out of its ass. John Fisher doesn’t and shouldn’t be made out to be the one holding the chips. We, the great people of these two (three, if Sacramento is in) awesome cities, need to demand what we want: 1) The A’s stay in Oakland with a new owner – billionaire owner of the Golden State Warriors, Joe Lacob, has repeatedly said he will buy the team and build a stadium in Oakland. 2) Las Vegas gets an expansion team – a team of their own that they will make awesome. Vegas sports fans are just beginning to recognize the long term value of their civic sports pride and what it means in building the community. 

Impossible? Only if we’re not brave enough to collectively raise our voices to make it so. I know neither of these cities suffer fools or cowards. John Fisher is both. Baseball, the sport, the once proud American pastime, can still be a game of, for, and by the people. Las Vegas and Oakland can absolutely be family – the kind of family that gets along – if we choose to be. Are you in? Sign the petition. Let’s come together and make some noise.

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.