Oakland enthralled with Ballers for giving them another chance to love the game

San Francisco Chronicle​

10-07-2025

The Oakland Ballers are more than a baseball team.
More accurately, the Ballers have become ingrained in the fabric of Oakland itself. For Dennis Reichert, he's psyched that his friend's kid designed the team's logo. For Toni Rubart, she's thrilled to know that one of the ballboys is her friend's grandson.
And despite a 12-game win streak being snapped as the Ballers fell to the Rocky Mountain Vibes on Wednesday afternoon, the team tops the Pioneer League, proving that teams don't need huge stadiums to involve the community in good old-fashioned baseball.
'What I think is special about the team isn't that it's a sports team,' Vice President of Communications and Fan Entertainment Casey Pratt told the Chronicle. 'It came in the wake of a pretty hardcore time where Oakland lost, you know, the Raiders, and they were losing the A's. It's a sports team, but I don't think it's a sports story. In a lot of ways, it's a community story first.'
Brian Mulhern and Gary Bargman became friends 25 years ago when they worked as ushers at the Coliseum for the Oakland Athletics. Bargman was thrilled to share his memory of escorting Reggie Jackson to the owner's box at the Coliseum. For both men, good baseball is all that matters.
Mulhern was diagnosed with ALS in January 2020. After losing much of his mobility, it was Oakland baseball — video of his pandemic cutout being hit by a foul ball was shown on SportsCenter — that brought him back to the ballpark. And while that picturesque moment was at the Coliseum with the A's, his disappointment with their departure hasn't soured his love for the sport.
'I'm Ballers all the way. And I'm here now, which means a lot to me because, you know, they pretty much diagnosed that I had three to five years here,' said Mulhern. 'Just being able to go out again and do stuff, I just think has invigorated me. The fact that I'm still here and able to go to a ball game. It just means a lot to me.'
Nate Carroll-Browne, a fan owner via the team's unique crowdfunding program, was enjoying food and drinks at an intimate tailgate in the parking lot before Wednesday's game. Carroll-Browne volunteers with the Alameda County Homeless Action Center, and after the Athletics joined the fleet of pro sports teams departing Oakland, Raimondi Park became a pastime favorite for the nonprofit.
The center brings out both volunteers and folks benefiting from the program to home games, and Carroll-Browne is the resident Ballers expert.
'I've been here since last year, going to home games, and like, it's great for the community, it's been great for the neighborhood. It's great to have a space for shared joy,' he said. 'For us just to be here together, and, you know, spend some time together, it means a lot.'
The shared joy at Raimondi Park was felt throughout Wednesday's game. When Darryl Buggs hit a home run in the second inning to narrow the Ballers' deficit to 4-3, the stands roared beneath the rumbling feet of fans.
Even when the Ballers gave up three runs and were down 7-3 in the bottom of the third, the 2,644 fans didn't budge from their sun-soaked seats. And as the hot dog vendor started an 'Oakland Ballers' call and response, many voices contributed to the choir.
The support doesn't come as a shock to most fans.
'I've been an Oakland fan since I was born, and the Ballers are Oakland. It's rooted in Oakland,' said Mike Davis-Adams, who provides cigars to the team. 'It's the intimate level of things going on, like I'm high-fiving the players when they come in and out. … This is something I think people will get behind when they realize how this is going to stay and be a permanent fixture in the city of Oakland.'
The fans thundered during the sixth inning — relentlessly rooting on Oakland as it scored six times to take an 11-7 lead. And when Rocky Mountain regained its footing in the ninth, scoring four runs to tie the game, fans remained firmly in their seats.
Not until after the knockout round — when the Ballers' Cam Bufford came away from the home run derby-like tiebreaker with just one HR to the Vibes' three — did fans begin to exit Raimondi. Even with the loss, fans didn't hesitate to approach players and thank them. Many of the Oakland Town Camp youth welcomed to the park as guests were excited for the chance to meet a 'real life baseball player.'
'It starts with the fans. Every day, they show up. They support us,' Bufford told the Chronicle. 'We've been on a hot streak, but even when we're doing bad, they're behind us, supporting us.'
The Ballers are more than just a local team filling the void left by the A's.
'They're a symbol that baseball is alive and well in Oakland, and you don't need a giant effing stadium,' Rubart said.