Ballers to play at West Oakland’s historic Raimondi Field, make $1.6M in upgrades
Oakland’s new professional baseball team will make its home less than 3 miles from Howard Terminal.
Oakland's new professional baseball team will make its home less than 3 miles from Howard Terminal.
The independent league Oakland Ballers, or B's, will announce Thursday morning that they will play their inaugural season at historic Raimondi Field in West Oakland. The team entered into a field-rental agreement with the city of Oakland, and the Ballers plan to sink $1.6 million of private investments into improving the field, including adding a scoreboard and the Trackman digital scouting system, plus portable bleachers that will hold at least 2,500 fans. The deal is for one year, with an extension in the works.
"It's important to pull back and look at what this park has meant to Oakland," said Ballers co-founder Bryan Carmel. "Some of the first integrated baseball games in America were played there in the '40s, and some of the greatest players in the country came out of Raimondi Field.
"There is this legacy of baseball in Oakland, and it's something that anybody can leave town with. Playing at this park in particular is an intentional way to revitalize that legacy and start a new chapter. Honestly, there couldn't be a better place for us to play."
Carmel and fellow founder Paul Freeman also looked at Laney College (sound familiar, A's fans?) before settling on Raimondi Field. The former West Oakland Park was one of the first municipal parks in Oakland, established in 1896, and the A-26 Boilermakers, a team of Black shipyard union workers, made their home there in the 1940s. In the 1960s, baseball greats such as Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson and Curt Flood were among those who played there. The facility was renamed in 1947 for minor-league player Ernie Raimondi, who was killed in World War II.
The Oakland A's plan to move to Las Vegas in 2028 but their lease at the Coliseum runs out after this season and the big-league team is looking at other options — Sacramento and Salt Lake City among them — for a home until then.
The Ballers will step into the breach while, they hope, helping to revitalize West Oakland.
"It's a neighborhood that is ready for something to catalyze or jump-start things," Carmel said. "From the conversations we've had with folks who live in the neighborhood, it's welcome. We're not trying to do this on an island, we're not trying to do this covertly. We've been going door to door and just talking to people. ... I think it's going to feel authentically Oakland."
The B's haven't announced ticket prices yet, but the idea, Carmel said, is for the games to be affordable for families. Interest in the new team has been clear; merchandise has been selling out.
The B's will hold their preseason camp in Davis, where Carmel and Freedman own the Pioneer League's second California expansion team, and where the season will open. The B's first home game will be June 4, and Carmel anticipates that Raimondi Field will be ready. Working with Canopy, a leading sports facility design firm, the B's will redo the irrigation, drainage and dugouts and add a warning track and padded fencing along with the video scoreboard.
Also on the list: temporary locker facilities along with the portable seating; in future years, there is the possibility to add permanent clubhouses and seating.
The Ballers will play 48 home games, which will free the field for other events — youth baseball and softball leagues play there, along with McClymonds High School, and according to Freedman, there are hopes for movie nights once the video board is in place.
Adding the Trackman system is significant. As Freedman pointed out, amateur athletics in underserved communities typically don't have access to such data tools, and many colleges look for that information when offering scholarships....
This article was originally published by Susan Slusser in the San Francisco Chronicle. To read the full article, please visit https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/ballers-raimondi-field-oakland-18664992.php