Renovation at Ballers' Raimondi Park home brings hope to West Oakland neighborhood
The Ballers will be playing their first game in Oakland on Tuesday, just about a month after the baseball field at their new Raimondi Park home was deemed unplayable.
For the past few weeks, construction has been going on non-stop to get the area ready to welcome the team. Richard Griffin Junior drove out to 18th Street between Campbell and Wood Street to check out the renovated park.
"Visualize the change in Oakland that I'm just happy to be living long enough to be able to see this,' Griffin said. "I couldn't recongize it almost."
Griffin has spent a lot of time in West Oakland. He grew up feet away from this Raimondi Park on Wood Street.
"Grew up in the apartments, way back in the old days in the projects," he said.
He played, umpired, and coached baseball at Raimondi Field. Despite how intimately familiar he is with it, when he looks around, he says he's blown away.
"When I rode out here and saw all the new buildings and the apartments and condos, it's like a whole new town," Griffin said. "This is a new town. It's time for minor league baseball out here. It's a great change. It's beautiful out here."
Wood Street used to be home to Oakland's largest homeless encampment. City officials closed it down in 2023. Since then, city workers have removed tons of trash, making for a cleaner enviornment.
Griffin believes as games get underway, it will continue to improve the neighborhood.
"Baseball itself just brings pride and joy into a neighborhood and the safety concerns will just kind vanish, because baseball will be here," he said.
Oakland City Council member for the area Carroll Fife believes the privately funded baseball field will continue to positively impact the community.
"This is a blessing that Oakland needed at this particular time," Fife said. "Just a few generations ago, this is a place where it was redlined and only Africans-American families were allowed to live here. And that led to urban renewal and a huge disinvestment from this part of the city."
Fife says West Oakland is flourishing, in part because of the ballpark.
"This ballpark is bringing community together," she said.
She also credits other positive activities like new farmers and night markets. Griffin believes this is just the beginning of a massive transition for the area.
"It's going to continue to grow," Griffin said. "It's going to bring a spark to the West Oakland community and bring more people to want to come out here and live and visit West Oakland. and then see all the progress that West Oakland has made."
Statistics from the Oakland Police Department show that in 2023, homicides, larceny and autoburglaries were down in Police Area 1, which includes Raimondi Park.
But robberies and motor vehicle theft was up. Despite that, Oakland has still seen a massive improvement from its violent crime peak in the early 1990s.