How the A’s betrayed Last Dive Bar after MLB lawyers got involved

A couple weeks ago, triggered by a tone-deaf tweet from A’s president Dave Kaval, Johansen fired off a spicy tweet thread explaining how the franchise betrayed LDB after two seasons of goodwill.

“It was pretty hurtful, but that tweet was just like, ‘You know what, motherfuckers? Fuck you,” Johansen said. “You guys fucked with us, you were vindictive, you guys did what you did. So, you know what – I’m gonna let a little bit of shit out.

“And don’t worry, there’s gonna be stories and everything. We got people lined up that wanna basically wanna talk about all these things. We got receipts for motherfucking days. I got all the DMs, I got all the emails, I got all the text messages.”

This just blows our minds that John Fisher and @DaveKaval are CHOOSING to leave such a historic baseball landscape.

You saw the impact this history has had on this fanbase this past Saturday at #FansFest2024.

It’s no one’s fault but yours that you can’t market to an insanely… pic.twitter.com/60np6Q4qZG

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) February 28, 2024

There’s a lot to unpack in this divorce. First, some background on Last Dive Bar.

Founded in 2021 by Johansen, Bailey and Carl Moren, LDB has promoted the irreverent culture/history of A’s fandom and the Coliseum through its T-shirts, pins, memorabilia, charity donations, community events and top-notch social media game. The group’s name is in reference to a 2019 New York Times article by Jack Nicas, in which he wrote, “If Marlins Park is the flashy new nightclub, and Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are the historic pubs, the Coliseum is baseball’s last dive bar.”

Oh and how about all the bingo nights we worked and provided all those giveaways for? You know the one where we were never mentioned publicly or thanked outside of the fine print in one single email?

You know the bingo night you copied the prizes we made for the year after… pic.twitter.com/HF5DIIhN1U

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) February 28, 2024

By the 2022 season, the A’s started working with LDB to put on events like bingo nights at The Treehouse in left field or have LDB whip up some cool custom designs for shirts/memorabilia and gift baskets for player alumni events. Kaval and VP of Communications & Marketing Catherine Aker also each personally reached out to LDB about the idea of having a Last Dive Bar booth featured at the Coliseum.

In October or November 2022, MLB’s legal team was notified about a potential trademark issue. LDB had filed for a federal trademark to use “Baseball’s Last Dive Bar” as their official name, but MLB got flagged since the word “Baseball” was included. Soon, LDB found some MLB lawyers in their inboxes.

At this point in the review process, the A’s legal team was still on board with LDB, while MLB also supported the idea of continuing the partnership after reviewing LDB’s website and social media accounts.

“There was a line in (the email) that said, ‘Normally I’d just shut you guys down … but people like you, so we’re gonna work with you,’” Bailey said.

There were about a dozen designs that were too closely affiliated with the A’s and MLB that were in question for trade dress infringement or trademark violations. A Stephen Vogt design in particular almost got them shut down. But, the thing about those flagged designs …

“Every single one that they identified, was ones that we were working on with the A’s,” Johansen said.

How about that time we were asked by the A’s to make gifts for the entire streak team and were never publicly thanked?

You know the design we were asked to make by the A’s that almost got us shut down by MLB…again they have an amazing legal team.

All we did was pour our… pic.twitter.com/oMRQ2LGlqc

— Last Dive Bar 🏟 (@LastDiveBar) February 28, 2024

Something must have happened internally with the A’s during this MLB trademark review process, because by January 2023, the team ceased communications with LDB, according to Johansen.

“Catherine Aker issued a death sentence,” Johansen said. “Internally there was a memo sent to everybody, ‘Do not talk, speak, interact, mention anything Last Dive Bar. Period.’ They had physical signs posted up on the broadcast booth that said, ‘Do not show, mention or interact with Last Dive Bar.’ They basically said, ‘Cease and desist everything Last Dive Bar.’”

What’s more messed up?

According to Johansen, MLB actually sent two emails to Aker and the A’s instructing them to keep working with LDB, but the A’s never responded. Nor did Aker respond to a follow up email from Johansen.

“I had people on the radio (team) saying, ‘What the fuck is this? What the fuck is going on?’,” Johansen said. “I’m showing them the email, from the fucking MLB saying, ‘We have instructed the Oakland A’s to work with you. We love what you do. You’re good for their brand, you’re good for baseball.’ …

“The next time I saw them was at that bullshit thing they had at Jack London Square, the Spirit Week (in 2023) and they didn’t even look me in the fucking eye, like they never knew me. Just a year before, we worked their entire fucking bingo night, we did all of that shit – not a single thank you, not a single social media mention. We created that fucking bingo night. Most of those bingo nights — out of the 12 bingo nights we had, or I don’t know how many we had — I’m fucking taking down the chairs and setting up the cards and shit.”

Putting on a tinfoil hat, perhaps the A’s already knew they were Vegas-bound in January 2023 and wanted to cut ties with LDB, as the brand celebrates the traditions of the Oakland Coliseum. About three months later after this fallout, the A’s announced they were going to Sin City.

Still, why did the A’s have to go cold turkey on Last Dive Bar after all they did for the franchise?

“The thing that drives me up the wall,” Gordon said, “is that when it happened, they didn’t just say, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys are cool. Catherine Aker didn’t get on the phone with (MLB’s lawyers in) New York and say, ‘They’re cool, they’re cool, they’re cool.’ What she did was for some reason, at the moment, all that goodwill that you’d built up for years came due — she just went the opposite way?”

Just going against MLB’s orders while dumping on the incredible fans that have stayed loyal throughout the past 20-plus years of heartbreak. Not to mention, LDB essentially doubled as the A’s de facto marketing department after they gutted their own staff in 2018-19.

So, when you hear these stories about Aker’s betrayal of LDB or read Kaval’s out-of-touch comments in the recent Forbes article by Maury Brown — perhaps it’s easy to see why Fisher can’t find enough investors for his Armadillo Dome on The Strip. The A’s are doing nothing to dispel the notion that they’re a Bush League franchise in the Big Leagues.

But, hey, LDB got that federal trademark approved, baby!

Visit LastDiveBar.com and use the promo code “RickeyBlog” to get a 10% discount.