By Mike Kinney
Richmond resident and independent film director Doug Harris will host a book talk gathering with sportswriter and author David Newhouse at Barnes & Noble Bookstore at El Cerrito Plaza on Thursday, Oct. 12 at 6 p.m.
The discussion, free to attend and open to the community, will center on Newhouse’s book, Goodbye, Oakland-Winning, Wanderlust and a Sports Town’s Fight For Survival, which examines the exodus of professional sporting teams from Oakland.
Newhouse is a former sports columnist for the Oakland Tribune and Dolich is the former Oakland A’s vice-president of marketing. Harris describes their book as an in-depth and important investigation into the circumstances that have led professional sporting teams to leave Oakland.
Newhouse called Oakland “the most victimized sports city in the country” in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle. He blames coporate carpetbagging for demise of professional sports in the city.
While winning cures all in professional sports, ownership of the Oakland A’s, who appear destined to move the team to Las Vegas, “hasn’t put the best product on the field, so in turn fans haven’t really supported the team attendance-wise,” added Harris.
“I often wonder if the city of Oakland would help finance a new stadium for the A’s, would that alone increase attendance?,” Harris said. “These are tough questions that still need to be ironed out, because the Oakland A’s haven’t officially departed to Las Vegas yet.”
Harris encourages residents of West County to attend the Oct. 12 discussion to learn more about hte dynamics of professional sports in the East Bay.
“Dave has covered sports in this area for the past 50 years so he has seen and heard a whole lot,” Harris said.
Harris and Newhouse have worked together on professional sports films.
“I met Dave in the 1990s while [I was] in graduate school at Cal State Monterey working on my master’s degree, and he really helped tremendously with navigating me through the Oakland Tribune archives during the research for my thesis,” Harris said.
In addition, Newhouse’s interview for Harris’ first commercial documentary “BOUNCE: The Don Barksdale Story,” brought a unique and informative perspective to that award-winning film.
Harris said Newhouse continues to be “my go to guy” for inside information on documentary projects.
“And that’s been a big help for me as a local filmmaker,” he said.
