Community unites to welcome Oakland Ballers to renovated Raimondi Park
OAKLAND -- On Tuesday, a new tradition of baseball in Oakland will begin as the Oakland Ballers play their first home game at the newly renovated Raimondi Park. On Saturday, workers and volunteers were putting the finishing touches on a ballpark that many hope will give new life to the city.
The infield was getting some last-minute adjustments and the outfield a final mowing. Raimondi Park was just about ready for its grand reopening and the timeline has been breathtaking.
"We just announced the team just under six months ago. We got approval to start building just under a month ago so it's come together incredibly quickly," said Paul Freedman, the team's co-owner. "I think that's part of the excitement about this, is showing the world how fast we can move when we move together."
Freedman and Bryan Carmel cofounded the Ballers about a year ago, when it became clear that the A's were abandoning the city. Since then it has come to be about a lot more than just the A's leaving.
"When we started the team, we did it because we're fans and we were heartbroken," Freedman said. "And we did it as a response to make sure that the community still had baseball. But, as people have come up to us and stopped us on the streets and thanked us, I think we recognized that this is about more than baseball. This is about pride. You should be able to be proud of the community you come from and, if the Ballers can make people proud of Oakland, we're all for it."
That's why the creation of the stadium has been a true team effort. Volunteers from a group called "Friends of Raimondi Park" have pitched in for months, picking up trash and planting flowers, to transform the property and surrounding neighborhood and that was before the Ballers announced plans to move there.
"So, there's definitely multiple different angles and multiple different kinds of people excited about baseball coming back," said Friends of Raimondi Park member, Josh Gunter. "Just to see everything go up so quickly, I mean I think it's been three months-ish, that it's taken. So, yeah, it's been a cool transformation to watch. And to have so much activity in the neighborhood's really awesome."
Directly across the street from the field, a formerly empty warehouse will serve as the team's office and clubhouse. On Saturday, volunteers from the community were busy constructing lockers for the facility. Evie Freedman, the daughter of the co-founder, said it's been a pretty crazy ride.
"As a family, we're like, 'what is happening in his brain?'" she said, laughing. "We're like, what is he thinking? I mean, yes, he thinks up a lot of things but this is probably the biggest he's done yet."
It turns out, for volunteers like Todd Henderson, it has as much to do about love for the city as it does for love of a game.
"I find it very empowering just to go do something to try to make a difference, even a little bit," he said. "And, yeah, it helps keep that doom spiral at bay, you know? You're not going to solve the world by picking up litter or putting together a locker but at least you've done something in the right direction."
The common expression is "If you build it, they will come." But, for those pitching in to help make the stadium--and the Ballers--a success, the hope is "If we build it, they will stay."
The Ballers' home opener is Tuesday, June 5 and has already sold out. Tickets are available for Wednesday night's game, which they're calling "Home Opener 2.0."