Inside The As

A's President Dave Kaval Breaks Twitter Silence

Oakland A's President Dave Kaval tweeted his own words for the first time since the Las Vegas news broke in April

Jason Burke

A's President Dave Kaval Breaks Twitter Silence
A's President Dave Kaval Breaks Twitter Silence /

A's President Dave Kaval used to tweet all the time. Then he got into an argument with a seagull on social media, and has since resorted to retweeting (or reposting) the team's official account. This has been especially true since the announcement that the A's would be turning their attention to Las Vegas back in April. 

On Wednesday night however, Kaval decided to break his silence to tweet about the fire happening at Schnitzer Steel that is sending smoke into the Oakland air. For Dave to tweet out about this topic in particular is interesting on a couple of fronts.

The first is that he sent out three versions of basically the same tweet, and they all looked something like this. 

What's interesting about this particular post is that he quote tweeted a thread from August 2020 in which he is talking about the team's commitment to the city of Oakland and even throws in a couple of "Rooted in Oakland" hashtags. The overarching theme of the thread is about "environmental justice" and the team's role in achieving that justice with the Howard Terminal Ballpark Project. 

Kaval could have just tweeted out that it's sad to see this happening and left it at that. He also could have said nothing, as he'd been doing, because the smoke billowing into the air is potentially harmful to Oakland residents. To try and make this about him or the A's at this moment, while the fire is still burning, is very odd timing and not necessarily in good taste. 

One of the other tweets he sent out was another quote tweet, this time of A's pre-and-postgame broadcaster Brodie Brazil, who has been covering the A's relocation saga in detail for years. Coming from Dave Kaval, this reads as though he is trying to get people to notice that he's tweeting again, and maybe specifically people whose calls he's been avoiding for months. 

To be clear, this could all be absolutely nothing except Dave Kaval still having an axe to grind with Schnitzer Steel after losing a court battle with the company last year. In that suit, "an appeals court ruled that the agency did not have to classify waste from the metal recycler as hazardous." 

The A's President also let it be known on social media that the team had a recent trial victory that will allow them to pursue their DTSC (Department of Toxic Substances Control) suit, and that they "intend to pursue."

Is Kaval calculated enough to choose that specific tweet thread and that specific broadcaster to call attention to? I mean, he did have an argument online with a seagull in the not-too-distant past. Then again, he is the President of a baseball team, and I don't know if you've heard recently, but he went to Stanford. 

It's impossible to know what his endgame is here, or if he's playing a game at all. The main question on everyone's mind tonight is why the A's would continue to go through with these trials if they are truly done with Oakland. 

Published
Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason is the host of the Locked on A's podcast, and the managing editor of Inside the A's. He's a new father and can't wait to take his son to his first baseball game at the Coliseum. 

Home/News