In West Oakland, Pro Baseball Mounts a Minor Comeback
As the MLB A’s limp through a last season in the city, the Pioneer League’s Ballers take the field in a new park designed to spur neighborhood revival.
The Oakland Ballers are introduced before their inaugural home opener at Raimondi Park in Oakland on June 4.
Photographer: Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
While the Oakland Athletics finish their final season in the Bay Area, a new professional baseball team hopes to — if not take their place — give locals a place where they can still get a beer and a hot dog and feel proud of their city every summer.
The Oakland Ballers, newest members of the independent Pioneer League, are playing their inaugural season at a revamped neighborhood park a few miles west of Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, the multi-purpose facility that opened in 1966 and has hosted the A’s since the team arrived in 1968. But the Ballers’ new home is a long way from the major leagues.