Why was Lew Wolff at a Giants-Dodgers game?

If you watched the Giants game Monday night against the Dodgers, you may have noticed a grumpy old man sitting in the front row behind home plate.

You may have recognized him as A’s owner Lew Wolff.

Yep, the A’s owner was at the Giants-Dodgers game rather than watching his Oakland A’s play at home in a meaningful game.

It caused quite the conversation on Twitter last night:

What in the world was Lew Wolff thinking last night? If I'm an A's fan, I would be absolutely livid. Are you serious??

— Brandon Tierney (@BrandonTierney) August 21, 2012

Lew Wolff's team has a major image problem, an identity issue, and a disconnect with some disenfranchised fans. This does not help. Moronic.

— Brandon Tierney (@BrandonTierney) August 21, 2012

#Athletics fans. We have to try and make this lew wolff at the dodgers/giants game thing a big deal. When u own a team u don't do that.

— James Robert Sanos (@EastBay_Sports) August 21, 2012

Some people didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

If you already think Lew Wolff is evil, then you'll be tempted to use his attendance at the Dodger-Giants game as supporting evidence.

— Ken Arneson (@kenarneson) August 21, 2012

This flap about Lew Wolff at the Giants/Dodgers game is much ado about nothing. Just more ways for people who already hate him to whine.

— James Venes (@jamesvenes) August 21, 2012

I wouldn’t have had a problem with this if the A’s were not playing a game. But they were. They were playing at home. Wolff should have been in Oakland.

The Chronicle’s John Shea got to the bottom of this. Wolff was invited to the game by a White Sox Special Assistant to the Chairman Dennis Gilbert.

“I was a guest of Dennis Gilbert. I was hungry for a ballgame but could not get to Oakland until today [Tuesday]. So I settled for the Dodgers-Giants game.”

So if you’re keeping track at home, an owner of the A’s and an executive of the White Sox attended a Giants-Dodgers game while both the A’s and White Sox played important games at home.

On a sidenote: The funniest part to me is Wolff talking about being hungry for a game. Whenever we see him at a game, he looks completely and utterly bored. He never looks like he’s enjoying himself.

Yes, it is a problem. If he owns a team, he needs to be at his team’s games. He needs to show the fans he cares. George Steinbrenner would never have been caught at a non-Yankees game, especially if the Yankees were playing at home in a pennant race game.

If Wolff is trying to repair his reputation with A’s fans, he’s not doing a very good job.

When I first noticed, I wondered if Billy Beane had traded Wolff to the Dodgers. That might be one trade all A’s fans could unite behind.