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Los Angeles Times
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Like it or not, the A's have a new home, and it's a win for this scrappy city
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The arrival of a major league team to this decidedly minor league city last week was not, as they say in baseball, error free. Players for the A's, formerly of Oakland and eventually to be of Las Vegas, were unfamiliar with the layout of their temporary home, Sutter Health Park. There was 'a lot of chaos,' manager Mark Kotsay told the Sacramento Bee, as the team tried to figure out how to navigate the much smaller footprint of a triple-A ballpark. The Wi-Fi went down. The radio broadcast cut out numerous times. The beer line was epic. The game was paused after someone snuck a drone over the field in the seventh inning. Many die-hard Oakland fans in attendance were still roiled by a sense of betrayal at the manner in which the team departed Oakland. And then there was the score: The A's lost to the Cubs, 18-3. Summing it all up, the website SFist pulled no punches with its headline: 'A's first game in Sacramento was a complete debacle, and losing 18-3 was probably the least embarrassing part.' But for boosters of the unsung city of West Sacramento — a scrappy town of 54,000 that many people, even in the wider region, don't realize is a city — none of that mattered. Excitement has been running high ever since team officials announced that the A's would alight at the 14,000-seat stadium of the minor league River Cats — the triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants — for three years while the A's future home on the Las Vegas Strip is constructed. This has been widely described in the national press as a move to the city of Sacramento, California's capital, which is across the river from West Sacramento and in a different county. Most of the news organizations that crowded in to cover the season opener, and the players they quoted, didn't seem to register the existence of West Sacramento. A's relief pitcher T.J. McFarland's comments were typical. 'It's a nice city, the state capital,' he told the Sacramento Bee, standing in the heart of West Sacramento's most treasured civic landmark. West Sacramento took it all in stride. City officials are used to living in Sacramento's shadow, and they are confident that bringing the A's here — even if no one seems to know the team is here — will be a boon. After all, it's not the first time that the magic of baseball has lifted this town's fortunes. 'I couldn't be happier to share the limelight with our neighbors across the river,' said state Sen. Christopher Cabaldon (D-Yolo), who served two decades as West Sacramento's mayor before being elected to the Senate last year. Still, Martha Guerrero, the city's mayor, made one thing clear: 'We prefer West Sacramento. That is the official location.' West Sacramento has long been the region's scrawny stepchild of a municipality. The city of Sacramento, population 526,000, with its luminous Capitol dome, graceful tree canopy and Gold Rush-era prominence, was incorporated in 1850. Across the Sacramento River and the county line, the other major towns in Yolo County followed not too long after. Woodland dates to 1871. Winters was incorporated in 1898. And even relative newcomer Davis became an official city in 1917. Woodland was known for its stately Victorian homes; Winters for its picturesque downtown and miles of walnut orchards, velvet green against the purple Vaca Mountains; and Davis for its bustling University of California campus. But for most of the 20th century, what is now called West Sacramento was a collection of small communities known, in many ways, as a dumping ground for people and pets the city of Sacramento didn't want. Back in the day, Sacramento authorities 'escorted their criminals, morphine addicts and alcoholics' to the area, according to a historian quoted in the Sacramento Bee in 1984. During Prohibition, the area was known as 'Sin City' because it did not embrace the era's no-alcohol edict. During the Depression, one longtime resident told a local newspaper, it was common practice for Sacramentans to dump dogs and cats they could no longer afford to feed on the West Sacramento side of the river. By the early 1980s, the area was known as a hub for drugs and prostitution, particularly along a strip of rundown motels that lined West Capital Avenue. Still, local leaders always had big dreams. In the 1940s, Congress authorized construction of a deep water channel that connected the community with Suisun Bay. In the 1960s, the Port of West Sacramento (originally the Port of Sacramento) became operational, hosting big cargo ships and giving rise to a thriving industrial base. In the 1980s, developers saw the area's potential as an affordable bedroom community for legislative aides and other state employees working just a short drive or bike ride away in Sacramento's downtown, on the other side of the landmark Tower Bridge. Single-family homes started going up on what had been vast acres of cropland sprouting corn, tomatoes, melons and rice. And in 1987, voters in the area finally voted to incorporate. It was shortly after this that Cabaldon moved to town. 'I accidentally ended up in West Sacramento,' he said. The year was 1993, and he was starting work as a legislative staffer. A real estate agent took him to a 'great neighborhood' that was 'unusually affordable' and promised that exciting shops, restaurants, parks and other amenities were coming soon. Cabaldon was sold. 'I didn't realize it was the other side of the tracks, and no one wanted to go there at night,' he said. Cabaldon grew to love his little city. He admired its gorgeous riverfront — mostly underused land, but so much potential. Still, he noticed that many of the amenities the real estate agent had promised were nowhere on the horizon. And he gathered, too, that the city had long felt like an underdog. Instead of moving, he ran for City Council. He lost, but ran again and won in 1996. By 1998, he was mayor. Shortly thereafter, he recalled, he was approached by developers who wanted to build a minor league ballpark in the city. 'We kind of ran with it,' he said. 'It really changed the notion that we were the armpit of the region.' The park was built, and by 2001, the River Cats had moved in (originally as a farm team for the Oakland A's before becoming the Giants' triple-A affiliate in 2015). The ballpark, which is a stone's throw from the Sacramento River and about a mile from the Capitol, quickly became a draw for people across the region. Sure, the team took the name the Sacramento River Cats, but their presence in West Sacramento helped spur a whole new wave of development: affordable condos, apartments and townhomes geared toward young workers and, finally, the long-promised restaurants and big-box stores so that all these new residents had places to eat and shop without crossing the river. Parcel by parcel, the land along the city's waterfront was transformed into entertainment venues, parks and trails. 'We've done so many ribbon cuttings,' said Guerrero, the mayor. West Sacramento was on its way, even before the A's very bad breakup with Oakland. The Oakland Coliseum, the A's longtime home, was widely considered one of the most run-down stadiums in the major leagues — baseball's last dive bar, as the Guardian newspaper put it. There were, famously, feral cats roaming the complex. Dead mice where they didn't belong. Sewage issues. Barbed wire. And so much concrete. 'It's a giant concrete toilet bowl,' said baseball analyst Eric Byrnes, who played six seasons for the A's. 'But it's their toilet bowl, and it's a special toilet bowl.' The A's owner, John Fisher, made no secret of his desire to get out, and when he finally did, hatching a plan to move to a $1.5-billion stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, residents of Oakland — and a host of nostalgic sportswriters — erupted with fury and heartbreak. 'The argument could be made that the A's departure from their run-down home for the riches of Las Vegas is a large part of what's wrong with American professional sports today,' the New York Times said. 'The Oakland A's were so much to so many of us, for so long, and now they are nothing at all,' wrote Ellen Cushing in the Atlantic. At the last game in the Coliseum, desperate fans assailed the owner with loud chants of 'Sell the Team.' Then they waited in line to collect dirt from the old diamond. It is said there are two sides to every breakup. But in this divorce, it seemed almost everyone took the side of Oakland and its fans. All these months later, West Sacramento officials emphasize they played no part in stealing the team from Oakland. But they also don't hide their pride in being the A's rebound city — even if it's just for three years. They spent the off-season making upgrades to the stadium, including a new clubhouse and expanded locker room facilities. They came up with a parking plan to accommodate what are expected to be bigger crowds. They added premium seating. The dream, Guerrero said, is that the A's short-term relationship with West Sacramento is such a success that Major League Baseball considers the region for an expansion team. And all the dreamier if they put that team in her town — and not that stepsister city across the river. 'West Sacramento has a strong fan base,' Guerrero said. 'We're a baseball city.'
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
As Athletics begin their Sacramento residency, a city tentatively opens its arms
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The most glaring difference between a major- and minor-league stadium is in height. The newly renovated home of the Athletics, Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif., carries just one main level topped by a second concourse of mostly suites, and in that way, it is still unmistakably the minor-league park it was built to be. But in a city that's never regularly hosted Major League Baseball, the A's hope intimacy creates an unusual draw. Advertisement Standing behind the press box on the ballpark's top floor two days ago, Steve Sax, the 14-year major-league veteran who now does television work for the A's, gestured into the distance, somewhere off behind home plate and third base. 'I grew up in West Sacramento, three miles as the crow flies, four miles that way,' Sax said, pointing to his left. 'We were farmers. Just like when you fly into Sacramento, you see the farms. Growing up, I had so many dreams of playing big-league baseball. I thought, 'Man, if someday they could have baseball in Sacramento, it would be unbelievable.' 'Little did I know that they would not only have baseball, but they'd have it in West Sacramento, and it's just — it's absolutely mind-boggling to me.' The A's open the first of at least three seasons here tonight in a sold-out game against the Chicago Cubs, with an expected 13,416 attendees in a stadium heavily modified over the winter to accommodate its new tenant. This is the first season the A's will play outside of Oakland in 57 years, and it is ultimately a layover between the team's bitter exit from that city and the planned opening of a new stadium in Las Vegas. West Sacramento is a separate municipality from the larger Sacramento, but the latter can be reached in less than 10 minutes on foot from the stadium, just over Tower Bridge. On either side of the Sacramento River, Sax said he feels a buzz about the A's arrival. Yet, in the four days a reporter from The Athletic spent here, the overall reception in town felt muted and in many ways tentative, like the awkward early stages of a middle-school dance. The A's are sharing the ballpark with another baseball team, the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, who began their season with three games Friday through Sunday. At the ballpark there was little visible indication that another, more prominent team was about to show up, beyond a purple 'Las Vegas' tourism advertisement along the outfield wall. All around town, in fact, the A's green-and-gold was scarce. Along Sacramento's Old Waterfront, a tourist area filled with vintage trains and restored Gold Rush-era facades, just one large 'Welcome' banner directed to the A's stuck out. Apparel stores in town, like the chain outfitter Lids, were still selling A's shirts that say 'Oakland' on it, the city the A's just painfully left. Other clothiers were hawking unofficial 'Sactown Athletics' hoodies and tees. Advertisement The latter are notable because the A's do not actually want to be known as the Sacramento A's during their time here, preferring to be known simply as the Athletics or A's until they again take a city's name in Vegas. The A's uniforms will have a Sacramento patch on one sleeve, and a Vegas patch on the other, but will only have Athletics across the front. The Sactown shirts are selling well, one merchant said, but asked to keep specifics out of the newspaper, lest the team bring pressure to cease production. 'I'm calling them the Sacramento A's,' said Sacramento mayor Kevin McCarty. 'I'm gonna buy myself a Sacramento A's jersey and hat very soon. They're not going to call them that, but we can call them that. 'West Sacramento is calling them the West Sacramento A's, but that's fine too. That's just a detail. They're here. Professional baseball's here.' But it's sometimes a tricky affair. Over the weekend, some of the complexities of the A's and River Cats' stadium partnership were visible. Their arrangement is uncommon: they both share in Sutter Health's construction and improvement costs, and will now share in some of the A's revenues this season, said A's vice chairman Sandy Dean, who declined to specify exact percentages. 'In less than a year, the A's and RiverCats were able to conceive, design and implement all of the improvements that have been made to Sutter Health Park, including a grass field with a lot of technology supporting the best health of the field, new scoreboard, new lights, new batter's eye,' said Dean, who owns a small stake in the team. 'There's a new concessionaire, there's been upgrades to club seating. Although this is something that most people won't see, there's been infrastructure investments to facilitate a major-league quality broadcast, upgrades to the sound system.' Advertisement In all, the work cost more than $40 million, said people briefed on the process who were not authorized to speak publicly. But the River Cats aren't the only other team the A's are dealing with in their new locale. The River Cats' decisions ultimately run through the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, because both the River Cats and the Kings are owned by Vivek Ranadivé. 'To be able to get all that done from start to finish and be ready for Opening Day here on March 31, 2025, is a great accomplishment by the River Cats and Kings who oversaw all of that,' Dean said. Over the weekend, the A's, the Kings and the River Cats played a game of political football trying to figure out just who could speak publicly about the construction work that had been done. The relocation of the A's has long been a sensitive topic, and sensitivities haven't disappeared in a new town. The A's are proud of the changes made to the stadium itself, particularly considering the short period in which they had to build, and the effort appears to have been earnest. A new two-story home clubhouse, one the A's day-to-day clubhouse staff had a hand in designing, and a brand-new grass field have been installed. But the A's ultimately did not lead the day-to-day work at the park. The River Cats and Kings did. Kings spokesperson Kari Ida said The Athletic could interview one of its executives only if the team could approve which quotes were used in advance of publication. The Athletic declined to conduct an interview under those terms. The Kings have rarely commented publicly on the stadium project, an interesting choice when Ranadivé and others in Sacramento want to show the city could someday host a full-time MLB team, one that isn't set to leave in a few years. 'We really think this is going to be a trial run for us to show that we're ready for two professional sports teams in Sacramento,' said McCarty. 'Certainly we've succeeded with the Kings for the past 40 years, supporting that team in thick and thin. Obviously the A's have the arrangements, they're about to finalize starting to build a stadium in Nevada. Some would say (that's) not locked in yet, but that's probably happening. 'But expansion is a potential. You know, the commissioner of baseball used the word 'expansion' a few weeks ago when he visited, which really struck me.' One of the early sensitivities in the A's relocation here surrounded the kind of field they would use. At first, MLB and the team planned to put in synthetic turf, but players and their union successfully lobbied to change the plan. Players find grass to be easier on their bodies to play on, and also cooler. Advertisement 'It's not a secret that players prefer playing on natural grass across the board,' said Murray Cook, president of BrightView Sports Turf and MLB's official field consultant. 'Everybody knows that and the players know that.' Cook said he never felt that synthetic turf could not work. Developments in natural grass have led it to take on characteristics typically associated with turf, like increased durability, and by the same token, turf has in some ways become more grass-like. Durability is the largest concern with two teams playing on the field virtually every day for six months, because big-league fields aren't supposed to turn brown or look worn out, and Sacramento is hot during the summer. The River Cats play their home games when the A's are out of town, and some of the minor-league team's home games have even been relocated to Tacoma, Wash., in June, to allow a break for resodding. The grass that was installed is called Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, which Cook said gets greener earlier in the spring, and stays greener later into the winter. It has been overseeded with a rye grass, which grows better at a lower temperature, aiding the field's look earlier in the season. There's also an air pump system that both promotes growth and helps dry when it rains. Back-ups are in place. Cook said the league has access to a second overseeded rye field for repairs, and a third field that's only bermudagrass. 'It is a little bit uncharted to have a major-league team, a minor-league team share a field for an entire season,' Cook said. To Ian Webster, a college student who wore an A's shirt on Saturday to work, the area has little in between when it comes to the new baseball team. 'It feels very much like either you kind of don't care, or you care a lot, one way or another,' Webster said. 'There's very few people who are just like, 'Oh, cool. The A's are coming to town.' Either you don't care, or you're really happy they're coming town, or you're very hurt by the fact that they're moving at all.' Advertisement On Friday, the day of the River Cats' home opener, only a handful of fans wore Athletics gear to Sutter Health Park. That was not unsurprising, because the River Cats today are affiliated with the other Bay Area team, the San Francisco Giants. But there are plenty of A's fans around, and some are happy they'll get to see their team more often. 'I feel good because we don't have to drive all the way out to Oakland to see the A's play,' said 10-year-old Ezekiel Velez, whose favorite all-time player is the late Rickey Henderson. 'We don't have to drive like an hour and a half, two hours, to see the A's play.' Keefe Mahar wore a River Cats shirt to the stadium the same day with a standard green A's cap, with one modification. Yellow tape spelled out the world 'Sell' over the team's logo. 'Very mixed,' Mahar said of his emotions about the team's relocation. 'Lifelong A's fan. I wish they would just stay in Oakland. But also, it's dope that they're right down the street. I can ride my bike over and go to a game.' Neither Mahar nor Annjanette Branca, who works along the Waterfront, had kind words to share about A's owner John Fisher. He and the A's believe the team did all it reasonably could to remain in Oakland; many fans do not agree. How much protest there is inside the ballpark about the move this season is one of the great open questions as the A's begin their Sacramento era. Both the home and visiting players will ultimately judge the stadium renovations, along with the fans. The A's aren't hurting to sell tickets — the season-ticket allotment is sold out, at roughly 6,000, they say. Ranadivé said in 2024 that he wanted the A's to be the 'most sought-after ticket in America.' But the greater construction project will be in reaching those in the area who are ambivalent, at least for now. Beth Devine, a rideshare driver here, said she was only interested in the A's arrival so that her family could come see the New York Yankees. Advertisement 'I think people are more into Sac Republic to be honest with you, which is the soccer team,' Devine said while driving a reporter to the park last week. 'I don't think they really care that much about the A's, because they're not 'the Sacramento A's.' It's just three years. 'The Sacramento people are like, 'What if they stay? Wouldn't that be awesome?' That's what we would like. That's how Sacramento is, like the bridesmaid.' (Top photo of the Athletics' new jerseys: Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teen rescued after becoming trapped in abandoned Northern California mine shaft
( — A teen was rescued after becoming trapped in an abandoned mine shaft in Placer County on Monday, according to California State Parks. A 15-year-old boy was in the area of China Bar at the Auburn State Recreation Area exploring the Gold Rush-era mine shaft when he became stuck. Video: Sacramento Metro firefighters rescue, revive cat from house fire The teen was stuck in the 30-foot-long and six-foot-deep mine shaft for around 15 minutes when his friend called for help. Personnel from State Parks, the Auburn City Fire Department, the Auburn Police Department, and CAL FIRE assisted in the teen's rescue. Thunderbird 8 visits Beale Air Force Base ahead of June airshow After about 40 minutes the teen was pulled from the mine shaft by CAL FIRE and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation. He was found to have no major injuries. 'State Parks advises the public not to explore any of these historic mine shafts as they are unstable and are known to have steep drop-offs,' State Parks wrote in a news release. 'As a reminder, stay on designated trails when exploring the outdoors to avoid any incidents.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teen rescued after falling into Northern California mine shaft
AUBURN — A 15-year-old boy was rescued from a Northern California mine shaft, officials said Monday. It happened in the Placer County city of Auburn near China Bar in the Auburn State Recreation Area, the California State Parks department said. The teenager was exploring a Gold Rush-era mine shaft that was about six feet deep and 30 feet back when he fell and became stuck. After about 15 minutes, a friend who was with the teen called for help. It took approximately 40 minutes to safely rescue the teen, who was taken to an area hospital for evaluation, officials said. The teen did not suffer any major injuries. State parks officials said Cal Fire personnel conducted the rescue, while first responders from the city of Auburn all assisted with the call. California State Parks said it "advises the public to not explore any of these historic mine shafts as they are unstable and are known to have steep drop-offs." Breaking down the best commercials from the Super Bowl Here's what could be behind surging flu cases, plus symptoms to watch New poll on Trump approval rating as steel, aluminum tariffs set
