"The con is kaput, the game over. A's ownership, having run out of patience, isn't even pretending to care about competing, much less pleasing its fans.

Dedicated first and last to themselves, the owners have upped the ante. In their desire to leave Oakland, they've stopped waiting for or pleading with Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, as well as anyone else who was listening.

They have moved into the next phase, one of such utter defiance that it stomps all over the ideals of the game.

By trading the players who have represented Oakland in the last three All-Star games, all in a three-week span, the A's are announcing they're packing it in for 2012 and maybe even 2013.

They're quitting, backing away from the 2012 season so early and so emphatically that even Pete Rose, the disgraced hit king, has to scratch his head and wonder, once again, what is the definition of "integrity of the game."

It wasn't long ago, after all, that every authority figure in the game was complicit in committing the great baseball crime of using advanced chemistry to inflate statistics. The game went on, shamelessly promoting itself as healthier than ever, avoiding labor strife and racking up record revenue.

And now MLB has an ownership team brazenly deciding to "throw" a season three months before opening day."