Oakland's baseball heartache is getting a curveball of hope with a new kid on the block—the Oakland Ballers, or 'B's', as everyone's already dubbing them. As KRON reported, the team plans to slide into the city of Oakland in spring 2024, even as the Oakland A's are packing their bags for a new life in Vegas.
The Ballers are swinging big, not just aiming to fill the cavernous void left by the A's but reinventing the very concept of community in professional sports. They are joining forces with community leaders and A's fans still reeling from the loss to "steal back Oakland’s baseball legacy," as Byron Carmel, co-founder of the B's, inadvertently set Vegas as the scene for their legacy mission in a statement obtained by CBS Sports.
The B's are set to don their gloves and bats at Laney College Baseball Stadium, in spitting distance from the Oakland Coliseum, their predecessors' old stomping grounds. In a city where loyalty runs as deep as the roots of its towering Redwoods, the B's vow loyalty—"to never leave The Town," says a press statement, dripping with the promise of an unbreakable bond between the team and its city.
In the spirit of community camaraderie, the team is also starting a crowdfunding campaign, inviting locals to grab a stake in the team's future, not just metaphorically. This echoes the sentiment echoed by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who said that sports are about the community in Oakland as she was likely standing somewhere near a community of warm-hearted Oaklanders in a statement obtained by KRON.
Furthermore, rounding up the heavy hitters on the operations staff are former pro-baseball icons like Don Wakamatsu, Micah Franklin, and Ray King. Functioning as the coaches and strategic brains, they're expected to play a significant role in making the Ballers a name synonymous with baseball ingenuity and local pride.
While the A's are bracing for their dessert destiny in 2028, the Ballers have seemingly already scored a home run with the locals, netting $2 million in seed funding from investors.
