Which Californian is the worst sports owner?

In California, a land blessed with more than its fair share of winners, we learn our most important lessons by dwelling among the losers.

So, as the baseball season end, your columnist visited the bottom of the standings in American League West to ask: Which pro sports owner is the more instructive California failure — the failed heir fleeing Oakland, or the billboard billionaire sticking around in Anaheim?

Bay Area fans have their answer: John Fisher of the Oakland A’s.

The core allegation is that Fisher, youngest son of the billionaire Gap founders and philanthropists Don and Doris Fisher, is engaged in a ruthless campaign of sabotage — of his own team. His goal has been to alienate fans so that he can justify moving the A’s to someplace, where he could receive millions in public subsidies for a new stadium.

In service of that goal, he raised ticket prices, let the Oakland stadium fall part, and got rid of all players who would give the A’s any real chance to win. As a result, they became the worst team in Major League Baseball. Fans stopped coming, allowing Fisher to justify his decision, announced earlier this year, to relocate the A’s to Las Vegas.

Fisher’s malperformance might seem hard to top, but he has real competition in Arte Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Moreno, a Mexican American from Tucson, made his own fortune in billboards before buying the Angels in 2004. After on-field success in Moreno’s early years as owner, the Angels have become one of the most puzzling failures in the sport.

The trouble in Anaheim was not Fisher-style sabotage. Moreno kept ticket prices affordable and spent money on his team. It was how he spent that money that’s been the problem.

The best baseball teams are deep, with a mix of young players and old stars, and plenty of pitching. But Moreno was obsessed with giving big contracts to stars, established players he could promote — players who would be recognized on a billboard. This strategy produced a familiar sort of California inequality. He spent big money on huge contracts to established players, while failing to develop homegrown talent.

The Angels became one of the most imbalanced teams in history. For the past 12 years, they have employed the sport’s two greatest players — superstar outfielder Mike Trout, and the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, who is both a top-10 hitter and pitcher. Still, the Angels have been losers, making the playoffs only once since 2010.

Why? Because beyond these players, and one or two other expensive stars, the rest of the team is well below average. Moreno never invested in the young players and role players to support Ohtani and Trout. As a result, the two superstars seem overburdened; both ended this year on the injured list.

Angels fans — including your columnist — rejoiced last year when Moreno announced he would sell the team. .

A sale promised a more balanced squad and a fresh start in the community. Moreno infuriated fans with his public backing of Donald Trump. He and the Angels were also at the center of an ugly public corruption scandal in Anaheim involving deals on stadium lease and development rights.

But Moreno earlier this year took the team off the market. The future is bleak. Ohtani, frustrated at the losing, is likely to leave for a team with better owners.

In the AL West, the A’s will finish last, and the Angels next to last.

This season, they have given us two California models of failure. Fisher, a rich man who refused to invest in the team that was his asset, is all too much like the state of California, which refuses to invest in infrastructure and its people. And Moreno, like this unequal state, devotes too much attention and money to the very richest players, even though California, like any team, only wins when its whole roster performs well.

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Which Californian is the worst sports owner?