Prioritizing community above all else made the Oakland Ballers’ journey to the league championship sweeter than any of The Town’s recent sporting successes. 

“ I’m just feeling happy, honestly,” said Jorge Leon, the leader of The Oakland 68’s. The local fan group became famous in the 2000s for its loud drum-banging and flag-waving in the A’s bleachers — and then for its valiant fight against the team’s ownership to keep the A’s from leaving Oakland. 

“Like, I’ve never felt this way, ever,” Leon continued. “ Just to see them come this fast, it’s crazy, right? The community I knew was always here. You just have to win and care — I think that’s what happened.”

Tafari Tariq, 34, and daughter Xiere, 1, showed up for the parade in their Ballers gear. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Two weeks ago, the players on the second-year Pioneer League team did their best to put the A’s in the rearview mirror. They’d roared into the playoffs with a 73-23 record in the regular season, then ran up a 2-0 game deficit at the start of the playoff series before winning three straight games to secure their first title. That series concluded with champagne spraying on the heads and shoulders of the victorious young team and with fans chanting familiar city slogans, like “Let’s Go, Oakland,” into the West Oakland night. 

On Sunday, hundreds attended a City Hall rally, a championship parade around Raimondi Park, and a celebration at Prescott Market featuring local rappers Fijiana and JWalt, who is a Ballers investor. Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee was there, along with Councilmember Carroll Fife, Alameda County supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, and other city officials. Players, coaches, and team staff waved at fans from classic cars, an over-50 cheerleader group named the Sass Silver and Sensational Squad danced in unison, and the famous Oakland “snail car” created by The Crucible, a nonprofit industrial arts center, made an appearance. 

Oakland Ballers players Malik Binns, left, and Michael O’Hara, right, whooped it up with their fans. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

The Ballers were founded when two long-time Oakland baseball fans decided to invest in the city just as The Town’s Major League Baseball team was getting ready to leave town. Their success signals a renaissance in local sports, one based in deep community listening and involvement. The Roots and Soul soccer teams — the men’s Roots team now plays at the Coliseum, the former home of the A’s and the NFL’s Raiders — have also garnered significant community support. Each team has launched community investment rounds as a way to involve fans in the business of running a team — and symbolically pushing back against the city’s history of greedy sports ownership. Most importantly, all have promised to stay in Oakland. 

At the City Hall ceremony yesterday, Mayor Lee thanked the owners for believing Oakland deserved a baseball team and for their commitment to the city. She called the championship an “extraordinary accomplishment.” 

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, in yellow, waved to fans from an Oakland fire truck. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Bryan Carmel, one of the team’s founders, is a TV producer who graduated from College Prep High School in Rockridge. He said the connection between the team and the community has been strong from the beginning, leading to its success on and off the field. 

“When our children get wronged, when they’re treated unfairly, sometimes we have to tell them life’s not fair, and that’s a lesson that Oakland sports fans have told their children too often,” Carmel said at City Hall rally, nodding to Oakland’s loss of multiple professional sports teams in recent years. “But today we have a different lesson for our children: That when you do a good thing, when you go about it the right way, when you involve good people, and when you do it in the right place, magic can happen.”

Paul Freedman, the team’s other founder and a classmate of Carmel’s at College Prep, said the friends moved forward with the idea of the team because they wanted to remind fans of their power.

“We can have baseball in Oakland, we can have community spaces in Oakland,” Freedman said. “From the very beginning, it has been truly built by Oakland, done in a partnership with the city and the community.”

Oakland city council member Carroll Fife, left, and Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, center, ride on a fire truck during the parade. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

A giant metal snail, built at the Crucible, a local arts nonprofit, carred the Ballers’ two founders, Bryan Carmel and Paul Freedman. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Councilmember Fife, who represents District 3 in West Oakland, where the Ballers play, told the audience that a lot of people were skeptical of the idea of bringing a minor league team to the city. 

“Big things start small,” she said. 

Ballers head coach Aaron Miles also spoke. The former Major League Baseball player — who won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 — grew up in Antioch and was a big Oakland baseball fan, he told the crowd, saying he’d always looked up to A’s legend Rickey Henderson. Miles said he loved being able to help create a new baseball memory for fans with the Ballers’ championship. 

Oakland Ballers players Christian Almanza, left, an infielder, and star catcher Tyler Lozano got some of the biggest cheers from fans. Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

One of the team’s star players, catcher Tyler Lozano, who grew up in Stockton, spoke about how impressed he was with the way people in Oakland built community, and how that extended to his team.

“Being a part of that is super welcoming,” Lozano said. “For myself and the team, and we’re just excited to be here and we’re happy to bring a championship back to Oakland.”

‘A lot of spirit and culture’
James Blaylock, 62, and his brother-in-law Jared Morgan, 56, showed the Ballers a lot of love on the streets. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

After the City Hall ceremony, hundreds of fans made their way to the parade at Raimondi Park, the Ballers’ home field. 

Jeffrey Melcher of Berkeley said he’s brought groups of family and friends to games multiple times. He said he saw the Ballers’ crowdsourced investment strategy as an example of “local community organizing in action.” 

Ballers fans, including Liz El-Awad Nelson, holding up the sign, cheer their team and its commitment to the community. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Sam Kless, 32, brought his nephew Curtis Nelson, 3, to the parade. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Liz El-Awad Nelson, an activist from Hayward, said she had attended a dozen games this year, including one on her birthday. She said she saw the Ballers’ success as a challenge to the negative national discourse surrounding Oakland and as a way to find joy and fun in the midst of a challenging political moment. 

“There’s a lot of spirit and a lot of culture here, and it’s clearly persevering,” she said. “That’s what I like about the Ballers. It feels like a persevering neighborhood of people. You feel like you’re going to your friend’s house for a baseball game in their backyard.” 

Jamie Gray, 35, left, and Amando Miller, 36, wore matching possum hats while Jennie Drummond, 34, and friend Beth Weilenman, 76, brought handmade possum scarves, tributes to the team’s furry mascot, Scrappy. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Several people at the parade and rally said a key to the Ballers’ success was its minor league profile, selling affordable tickets and playing on a field situated inside a modest West Oakland neighborhood next to a food court, Prescott Market, where they could meet players after the game and talk to them like regular people. Many said their recent experience at major pro sports games, which are expensive to attend and take place in arenas or stadiums so massive that they get little to no actual face-to-face contact with players, just didn’t give them the same feeling of connection. 

 ”That’s been such an important part, that this is so ‘down home,’” one fan told me. “Families can come here, kids can get their baseball signed, and the players are right in front of you. It is a community family feel that’s bringing more people to the games.” 

Elliott Johnson and wife Shawlaya Johnson wore the green and gold of the Oakland Ballers. They were among the 2,500 community members who invested during the Ballers’ crowdfunding effort. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Joe Horton, 41, waves a Ballers flag toward the end of the parade route. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Diosa Díaz, who settled down with her son, Phoenix, on the sidewalk on Campbell Street to watch the parade, told us that she witnessed how a personal connection with players made her son more invested. She said Phoenix attended a baseball clinic this summer at Raimondi Park where the team’s players made themselves readily available to teach the kids. The Ballers’ cheaper tickets — compared to what it cost to see the A’s — made it easier to attend more often, further forging a connection. Ticket prices for next season range from $10 to $35. 

“My son was heartbroken after the A’s left,” Díaz said. “So we started going to the B’s games all summer long. He even raised money to buy tickets by selling art. It’s been a beautiful experience.” 

And the Ballers appreciate the love. 

Bella Cortez, whose boyfriend is pitcher Gabe Tanner, told us the players appreciated how the crowds grew over the course of the season and they looked forward to hearing fans shout out their names. When the ’68s started making chants with their names, it gave them a burst of confidence, she said. 

“It really reassured him and the whole team, I’m sure, about how everyone backed him up here,” she said. 

Love from West Oakland
Oakland rapper Jwalt, an Oakland Ballers part-owner, rode a classic car along the parade route. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

A parade participant pops a wheelie during the parade. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Those with the biggest smiles on their faces as the team paraded around the field were West Oakland natives. They’d spent their whole lives driving or BARTing to the Coliseum; now they’d gotten to watch a happy new sports story unfold in their backyard, rewriting grim outsider narratives about the neighborhood as dangerous and characterized by poverty. 

I spoke with a Ballers parking lot attendant who gave his name only as Allen, who wished every single person who passed by him a great time at the parade. He told us that he’s worked for the team since last year and that he’d noticed more and more people showing up for games in recent months due to the growing excitement about the team’s epic run. He said the Ballers arrival has been one of the most positive things he’s experienced in this part of Oakland in years. 

“ I’m a native, dude,” he said. “I’m seeing the Ballers bringing everybody here with a good vibe. No one’s coming here with problems. Have you heard of any problems here? No, right? That’s what I’m saying.”

Scrappy, the Ballers’ mascot, celebrated with fans. Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Colt Rosensweig, 39, holds super fan service dogs Curtis, left, and Caris, right, during the Ballers parade. Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

Reginald Burnette Jr., known as R.B. in this community and a leader of the Scraper Bike team, a local group that teaches kids about bikes, told us that he felt it was a privilege for the city to have a sports team and was delighted specifically to have a new baseball team to root for. He said he grew up watching A’s games with his grandmother, and watching the fireworks for 4th of July games from her backyard. 

“It’s a pleasure to be an Oaklander and be able to still experience baseball in my hometown,” R.B. said, holding his bike by the handlebars. “It hurt a lot to lose the A’s, but at the same time, the Ballers came, they won the championship, and they brought some hope to Oakland.”

With the arrival of the Ballers, he said, “I feel like Oakland is alive.”

Prescott Market director Harvindar “Harv” Singh, right, hugs Councilmember Fife during a celebration for the Oakland Ballers after the parade at Prescott Market. Estefany Gonzalez for The Oaklandside

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