Haas heirs join ownership of new Oakland Ballers baseball team in link to historic A's

Two new investors, members of San Francisco's dynastic Haas family, are joining the ownership of the Oakland Ballers, giving the first-year minor-league team a financial boost and a link to the glory days of baseball in Oakland. 

Jesse Eisenhardt and Jennifer Haas are second cousins and great-grandchildren of Walter A. Haas Sr., the billionaire former CEO who helped build Levi's into a global brand in the mid-1900s. Their ownership stakes in the team are undisclosed. 

The news is the latest bit of buzz around the team, which plays in the independent Pioneer League and has given a shot in the arm of Oakland- and raised hopes about more economic activity in West Oakland - which has been abandoned by three major sports franchises since 2020.

Walter A. Haas' son Walter Jr., Eisenhardt's grandfather, owned the Oakland Athletics between 1980 and 1995 - considered by many glory days for baseball in the city - as the team cultivated stars like Rickey Henderson, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco and Dennis Eckersley, drew significant crowds to the Coliseum, and won a World Series in 1989. 

"Walter Haas Jr. was probably the greatest owner the A's ever had, and definitely an owner that reflected the kind of values that we have around a baseball team: that you've got to think of a baseball team or any kindof sports team in part as a community asset, as something that it benefits more than just the ownership group itself and should be run and managed that way", said Paul Freedman, the Ballers co-founder. "If a family who had been around during the time of that ownership group is willing to validate what we're doing, we're honored to have them be a part of it."

This article was originally written by Carlos Avila Gonzalez and published in the San Francisco Chronicle. To read the full article, please visit https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/oakland-ballers-haas-eisenhardt-19518736.php