Another Native California MLB Player Roasts San Francisco: ‘It’s Just Been A Bad City’
Things in San Francisco have gotten so bad, current MLB players, even those from California, are trashing what the city’s become.
On Wednesday, a new report broke that the city’s disastrous increase in crime and support for open drug use was costing the San Francisco Giants free agents. Including, most notably, the biggest free agent in the sport’s history, Shohei Ohtani.
READ: CRIME AND DRUG PROBLEMS IN SAN FRANCISCO MAY HAVE COST THE GIANTS SHOHEI OHTANI, OTHER FREE AGENTS
And others are now speaking up publicly about what decades of far left leadership has done to what was once an outstanding city.
Rowdy Tellez, who’s from the Sacramento area in Northern California, appeared on the Foul Territory podcast after signing a new contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates. During the show, he was asked by host Scott Braun about the report suggesting Ohtani and other players didn’t want to play in San Francisco. Tellez agreed, saying he understands why many want to stay away from what’s happened downtown.
“We’re only sub-2 hours from there,” Tellez said. “For me, the city man, it’s just bad. I grew up going to Giants games, we took BART into the city and it was fine. The last 10-12 years, man, it’s just been a bad city. It’s not nice anymore. It’s not clean. It’s hardly safe.”
No wonder no one wants to play there!
Homeless encampment is seen on a sidewalk in San Francisco, California, United States on September 2, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Problems In San Francisco Getting Worse, Not Better
One of the easiest ways to identify the problems with San Francisco is taking one look at the leadership in the city.
Dean Preston, a Democratic Socialist and elected county supervisor has presided over the rapid deterioration of the city center. When appearing in a documentary on the city by British news outlet UnHerd, Preston blamed the problems with homelessness and drug abuse not on a failure by leadership to enforce laws, or on nonsensical “harm reduction” strategies that have comprehensively failed, but on…capitalism.
"I think what you’re seeing in the Tenderloin is absolutely the result of capitalism and what happens in capitalism to the people at the bottom rungs," he said. "The biggest driver of why folks are on the street is because they lost their jobs, income or were evicted from their homes, usually for not being able to pay the rent. So you have major landlords literally causing folks to lose their homes, and real estate speculation making it impossible for folks to find an affordable place to live.”
Absolutely unreal. No wonder the city’s falling apart with elected officials this disconnected from reality.
As far as Tellez’s remarks and what it means for the Giants and other MLB players, it’s abundantly clear that many are choosing to avoid San Francisco when other alternatives present themselves. And given the public remarks, it’s obvious that this has been a private topic of conversation between players for some time.
On top of the economic ramifications of massive losses of revenue, income and population, San Francisco’s political incompetence is making it profoundly undesirable even for wealthy athletes. Yet another embarrassing advertisement for avoiding progressive leadership.