The Raiders, Warriors and As all dumped on Oakland. Enter the minor league baseball Ballers, intent on using sports to heal wounds old and new.
Players for the Oakland Ballers warm up on July 5 in Oakland, Calif. The upstart minor league team is attempting to fill the hole left by the departure of the major league Athletics from the city.
But before the first pitch could be thrown, the Field of Dreams needed finishing — the team’s rollout had gone so fast that its stadium, a renovated public park, was still under construction just 48 hours before the scheduled debut. The locker rooms had no lockers. Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco and perpetually in its shadow, was already having a hard year. With its political establishment in crisis, the budget a mess and concern over crime widespread, the city desperately needed something to rally around.
The team still has dozens of home games to play, but for hardcore fans, they might as well already be gone.Leon and the ’68s, once a flag-waving drumbeating staple of the Coliseum’s bleachers, decided to boycott home games this season. It all came together improbably fast: The city approved the Ballers’ renovations of the historic municipal park in April, construction began in May and it hosted the first game in June. The team transformed the park from a field unfit for Little Leaguers, across from one of the state’s largest homeless encampments, into what could be a boon for a West Oakland neighborhood that has long suffered from disinvestment.
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