OAKLAND — The grassy baseball field at Raimondi Park sat muddied and soggy at many points during the winter’s rainy season, but it already looks a lot different.
On Tuesday morning, the grass was gone entirely. The remaining dirt was being shoveled by a diligent group of tractor drivers who are looking to have the diamond ready within the next two months to host professional baseball games.
Come the first week of June, the Oakland Ballers — better-known as the B’s, in a sly nod to the soon-departing A’s –– hope to greet fans with a site worthy of their attendance. Along with a re-contoured field, there will be thousands of parking spaces, plenty of seating and shuttles going to and from the BART station a mile away.
The independent, minor-league baseball franchise plans to keep the spirit of baseball alive with a team of eager young players in a city that’s increasingly starved of professional sports, and at a park named for a late former ballplayer raised in Oakland.
In the meantime, there is still plenty of work to do at the West Oakland park, which until last year neighbored Northern California’s largest homeless encampment. The city continues to clear a tent that pops up every now and then, according to residents who live nearby.
“One of the reasons we want to activate the park is to give it more energy,” Paul Freedman, a co-owner of the Ballers, said in an interview.
Construction takes place at Raimondi Park in West Oakland, Calif., on Monday, April 8, 2024. The Oakland Ballers baseball team will play their home opener at the park on June 4. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
The B’s plan to provide temporary on-site restrooms, since the existing ones are locked and out of use, Freedman said. They also will open up “thousands of parking spaces” in nearby lots, and direct fans where to go on game days.
Over the sounds of ongoing field renovations one morning this week, a group of retiree friends made use of the park’s putting green. A man played with his dogs on the grass nearby.
“It’ll take time for people to come back and reinvest in the park, but the Ballers is a huge first step,” said Joshua Gunter, a leader of the Friends of Raimondi Park who organizes monthly litter pick-up events.
To pad out a roster assembled by former big-league manager and East Bay native Don Wakamatsu, the B’s held local tryouts last weekend at Laney College — a site where the team had initially said it would play home games.
The team has since extended contract offers at California’s minimum wage to three individuals, Freedman said.
Soon, the B’s will begin spring training at Sacramento State University — which the co-owner acknowledged as an “ironic” location, given that the A’s, are planning to play there for several years starting in 2025.
Oakland Ballers co-founder and CEO Paul Freedman speaks during a news conference at Laney College in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. A new independent league baseball team called the Oakland Ballers is set to begin play next spring and embrace the loyal A’s fans who are heartbroken about their club’s planned departure to Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
The co-owners have hesitated to comment publicly on the city’s deteriorating relationship with its last major professional sports franchise, though the B’s did make headlines by seeking to play its inaugural game at the Coliseum and being rebuffed.
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Freedman noted that the B’s, which will play in the Pioneer League, separate from the major-league circuit of baseball talent, will not fill the void left behind when the A’s eventually leave.
“We can’t replace what was lost; as fans, we mourn what was lost,” he said. But he added that when Opening Day arrives, it will remind the city: “If we want to have baseball in Oakland, we can have baseball in Oakland.”
He and co-owner Bryan Carmel have launched another franchise in the greater Sacramento region, the Yolo High Wheelers.
The additional team, Freedman said, is intended to preserve an even number of teams in the Pioneer League, but there are rules that would prevent collusion between the teams, and the pair eventually intend to “pass the reins” to new owners.
“We think teams should be controlled by stakeholders in the community,” he said.
A drone view of construction at Raimondi Park in West Oakland, Calif., on Monday, April 8, 2024. The Oakland Ballers baseball team will play their home opener at the park on June 4. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
