Oakland A’s interviewer Kara Tsuboi goes straight to the people.
Despite Brad Pitt’s star turn as A’s General Manager Billy Beane in Moneyball, today the A’s are not exactly a hot ticket. Head out to a game, and you’ll see acres of empty green real estate around you. The current lack of fan support has a lot to do with the team’s possible move to San Jose, coupled with a lack of star power, but still, it’s enough to make a beer vendor, well, cry in his beer. One cheerful presence you can always count on, though, is Kara Tsuboi, the team’s fan interviewer. Tsuboi chats up A’s diehards, and their banter is beamed live to the scoreboard video screens. Tsuboi discovered the gig on the A’s website four years ago, after being laid off from a tech reporting job. (Just in case the team moves to Siberia, she also works as a CNET reporter.) I’ve seen Tsuboi in action and have always been curious: Does she really bleed green and gold?
Paul Kilduff: Are you the only one doing this in Major League Baseball?
Kara Tsuboi: No. I would say that out of 30 major league baseball clubs, maybe a third have this type of role. I can tell you the Kansas City Royals do, the Arizona Diamondbacks, [the] Cleveland Indians. It’s not uncommon, but it’s not the majority.
PK: Do you see yourself doing this for the rest of your life?
KT: People are going to have to wheel my wheelchair out of the stadium when they need me to retire because I love the job just that much.
PK: Do you find that fans want to express any of their anger about the A’s maybe moving?
KT: Yeah, of course I hear things about the team’s difficult position right now. But I’m also not the person who can effect major change as far as having a pipeline to [A’s co-owner] Mr. Wolff. “Hey, listen. Section 122, row 15, they want you to stay, will ya?” I don’t have that kind of power. Are you kidding?
PK: I don’t even know who’s on the team anymore. Do you find that the fans have a recognition problem? Who is the star of the team?
KT: The A’s haven’t been structured like that for some time. They can’t sign someone like a Derek Jeter, and then have him sign to a 12-year deal, [so he] becomes the face of the franchise. It’s harder to sell jerseys when people don’t know what name to put on the back because you never know who’s going to be there the next season. But we do have guys on the team now that have been around for a while. And sure enough, they are some of the most beloved. For example, Kurt Suzuki. You talk to any person under the age of 10 and Kurt Suzuki is his favorite player.
PK: I see the jerseys at Ross. They’re on sale. I almost bought one.
KT: Yeah, totally.
PK: When I’ve tried to interview kids, they seem like they want to do the interview but then the minute you put the microphone in their face, it’s all over.
KT: Getting that 4-year-old to answer, “I love Stomper!”—you can’t always have that happen on cue. But I think that’s where developing a little relationship before we go live is helpful. Just hope for the best. I mean, we had one 11-year-old last year just boldly ask for a kiss from me for his birthday. I mean, talk about not being shy.
PK: Did you comply with that request?
KT: I obliged. I made a rule though: only people under 15.
PK: The drumming crew. Are they like persona non grata at the Coliseum? Remember those guys?
KT: There are a couple of guys right now in both the left field bleachers and the right field bleachers who do bring their drums in. So, it’s not a case of being allowed. It’s more that these guys get jobs or they have to move or family takes over and they’re unable to come out en masse like [before].
PK: That’s probably what happened. Kiss Cam, for people who are not familiar, is where the home team’s video crew hones in on people they think might start kissing, hoping to catch them in the act.
KT: It’s limited to an inning break, so it’s not like cameras sneaking up on fans. It lasts about a minute and a half, and all the cameras in the stadium, half a dozen, let’s say, they’re all just trying to find people, families, groups. And hopefully, there’s a kiss. In a successful inning break, maybe you’ll have 20 kisses.
PK: Didn’t one of the A’s pitchers complain about some sort of homophobic overtone at the April 19 Anaheim game?
KT: Yeah. It was Brandon McCarthy after their last road trip down there. From what I understand, the camera shot two guys as if they were going to kiss each other. Brandon McCarthy was saying this is such forced humor, and why would it be funny anyway if two men wanted to kiss each other? That Twitter comment went all over the place.
PK: When I go to a baseball game, there is a field, there’s home plate, first base, second base, third base, the outfield, and the pitcher’s mound. You’re watching a baseball game. Does there need to be a Bloomingdale’s next door?
KT: I think, sadly, for the 2012 baseball-watching fan base in America, yeah, you need a waterslide into Bloomingdale’s with the clown greeting you on the way out. It’s crazy, the kind of entertainment that families expect when they go to a club because of the precedent that’s been set at other parks. Listen, if the A’s had money to build a fabulous, gorgeous park, they would, too. [But] the A’s [are] going to be in Oakland for the foreseeable future, and if people are upset about what management is doing, about the fact the stadium’s in disrepair, the attendance is low—you vote with your butt first of all. Put it in that seat and show there’s support here in the hometown.
PK: What you’re doing, I don’t know if it would work with the maniacs in the Black Hole at a Raiders game.
KT: I don’t think it would because you have such different audiences, sports, attitudes, and atmospheres. What the A’s are trying to achieve is an incredibly family-friendly environment. It’s relaxed, it’s comfortable, it’s safe, and it’s just a little more mellow than a football game.
PK: And you can stretch out, too.
KT: Isn’t that great?
PK: I kind of don’t want the A’s to become too successful, because when I go to a game I can sit wherever I want and take up about three rows.
KT: And maybe no lines in the restroom, either.
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For more Kilduff, visit the “Kilduff File Super Fan Page” on Facebook.
Age: 33.
Birthplace: Oakland
Astrological sign: Cusp of Leo and Virgo
First real paid job: Working for Peter Jennings on ABC’s “World News Tonight” in New York City
Book on Nightstand: Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball’s Super Showman
Website: karatsuboi.com
