2024: Play Ball Premium Edition

OAKLAND CAN FOREVER LAY CLAIM TO THE A’S

The lustre of their legacy here will shine on, wherever the team lands

STORY BY LAURENCE MIEDEMA ILLUSTRATION BY JEFFREY SMITH

The A’s have been as colorful and attention-grabbing, both on and off the field, as their green-and-gold uniforms since they first moved to Oakland. There’s been the Mustache Gang. The Bash Brothers. Charlie O — the owner AND the mule. The greatest of all time. Moneyball. The voice of God. And The Streak. How much longer those memories will be made in Oakland wasn’t clear as the A’s opened spring training for the 57th time, but there is no question they have left an indelible mark on the Bay Area sports scene.

Here’s a look at some of the teams, players and moments that will forever link the A’s to Oakland.

THE STREAK

For nearly a month in the late summer of 2002, the A’s were the talk of baseball. Starting on Aug. 13 at the Coliseum through Sept. 4, the A’s won a then-American League record 20 straight games.

The A’s had their Big Three starting pitchers — Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito — at the height of their powers, but it was Cory Lidle who led the team with four wins during the stretch. For much of the streak, the A’s were untouchable. During one 14-game stretch, they outscored their opponents 105-37 and trailed for a total of just five innings.

The Streak also included a Labor Day weekend performance that cemented Miguel Tejada’s MVP credentials with consecutive walk-off hits for wins No. 18 and No. 19.

Then came the thriller for No. 20. With Hudson on the mound, the A’s blew an 11-0 lead to the Royals, but Scott Hatteberg came off the bench in the bottom of the ninth to hit a home run to give the A’s a 12-11 win in front of 55,000 delirious fans.

The A’s went on to win 103 games and the A.L. West. But after taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five ALDS against the Twins, their magical season ended with two straight losses.

The A’s held the record streak until 2017, when Cleveland won 22 in a row.

Years later, the streak was revisited in “Moneyball”, the film based on the 2002 season and GM Billy Beane’s role as a sabermetrics revolutionary.

Beane cemented his Hall of Fame status by crafting perpetually low-payroll A’s teams into contenders. From 2000 to 2020, the A’s reached the playoffs 11 times. They won just one series, but only the Yankees, Dodgers and Cardinals appeared in the

NICK

RON RIESTERER/ STAFF ARCHIVES

playoffs more often during those 21 years.

SWINGIN’ A’S

When the A’s arrived from Kansas City in 1968, their roster was loaded with young talent that, in short order, went on to form the core of one of the great dynasties in baseball history.

Nicknamed the “Mustache Gang” because most of the players had long hair (by early 1970s standards, anyway) and grew facial hair to collect a $300 bonus offered by then-owner Charlie O. Finley, the A’s won back-to-backto-back World Series titles in 1972, ’73 and ’74.

From 1969 to 1976, the A’s never finished lower than second in the A.L. West, at one point winning five straight

Above: Third base coach Ron Washington congratulates Scott Hatteberg after his game-winning homer to beat the Kansas City Royals 12-11, Sept. 4, 2002, in Oakland.

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Right: Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman celebrate their 20-game win streak.

World Series titles won by the Oakland A’s: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1989

MVPs: Vida Blue (1971), Reggie Jackson (1973), Jose Canseco (1988), Rickey Henderson (1990), Dennis Eckersley (1992), Jason Giambi (2000), Miguel Tejada (2002)

Cy Young winners: Vida Blue (1971), Jim “Catfish” Hunter (1974), Bob Welch (1990), Dennis Eckersley (1992), Barry Zito (2002) 4 7 5

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division titles. By the time their dynastic, winning ways ended after the 1976 season, most of their stars had been traded or allowed to depart as free agents.

Jim “Catfish” Hunter, who anchored those rotations along with Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman, delivered the first signature moment in the Oakland era in 1968, in the franchise’s 11th home game, by pitching the AL’s first perfect game in more than 40 years.

Reggie Jackson, who went on to become a cultural icon later in the 1970s with the Yankees, was the biggest star of the era, making the All-Star team six times in eight seasons and winning the MVP in 1973. Gene Tenace went from backup to 1972 World Series hero to AllStar, and Joe Rudi and Campy Campaneris also were All-Stars and vital components. But third baseman Sal Bando was the captain and the one teammates looked to when things got rough. And make no mistake, this could be a volatile bunch,

Among the most notorious scrapes were between John “Blue Moon” Odom and Blue — in the clubhouse after they had clinched their first World Series berth — Jackson and Bill North, and Rollie Fingers and Odom. But when the A’s were finished fighting each other — and Finley’s tight-fisted financial ways — they took on the rest of the baseball world and usually won.

BASH BROTHERS

For much of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the A’s were the rock stars of baseball. It’s difficult to imagine now, but the A’s drew nearly 3 million fans to the Coliseum in 1990 and were a top attraction in every A.L. city where they went.

Sluggers Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco introduced the

Jose Canseco, left, and Oakland Athletics teammate Mark McGwire, exchange their “Bash Brothers” salute after Canseco homered during Game 2 of the 1990 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds at Riverpoint Stadium.

Rickey Henderson connects with a pitch during a 1989 game, a year before he was named MVP.

OTTO GREULE JR/GETTY IMAGES

Rookies of the year: Jose Canseco (1986), Mark McGwire (1987), Walt Weiss (1988), Ben Grieve (1998), Bobby Crosby (2004), Huston Street (2005), Andrew Bailey (2009)

Western Division championships

American League pennants

World Series

MVPs: Gene Tenace (1972), Reggie Jackson (1973), Rollie Fingers (1974), Dave Stewart (1989) 7 17 6 4

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world to the forearm bash home run celebration, but the Bash Brothers were hardly the only stars during an era that saw Oakland reach the World Series three years in a row, from 1988 to 1990, and winning it all in 1989 in the earthquake-interrupted series against the crossbay rival Giants.

Oakland native Dave Stewart never won a Cy Young award and was an All-Star just once, but he won 20 games in four straight seasons, finishing in the Cy Young voting as high as second to Bret Saberhagen in 1989. Stewart was 6-0 in ALCS games and always seemed to get the best of Boston star Roger Clemens.

Fremont’s Dennis Eckersley was the top closer in baseball, winning the Cy Young and MVP awards in 1992.

Topping the lineup for the end of the Bash Brothers era was the greatest leadoff hitter of all time. Oakland native Rickey Henderson debuted with the A’s at the age of 20, when the franchise was at one of its bleakest moments, and became an instant star in the “Billy Ball” era. After five seasons with the Yankees, he came home midway through the 1989 season and produced a remarkable postseason that saw him hit .441 (15 for 34) with 12 runs scored, eight RBIs and 11 stolen bases in nine games, as the A’s plowed through the Blue Jays and the Giants for their first title since 1974.

Rickey Henderson’s career stolen bases, 468 more than Lou Brock, who is No. 2 in MLB history. Henderson also holds the modern record for steals in a season, 130 in 1982.

No need to explain why Reggie Jackson’s signature at-bat move was known as the corkscrew swing.

RON RIESTERER/STAFF ARCHIVES

OUTSIDE THE LINES

Then-owner Finley had already built a reputation as a showman before he moved the A’s to Oakland, and he never let up until he sold the franchise … after trying multiple times to move it again.

When the A’s arrived from Kansas City, a mule named Charlie O and a mechanical rabbit named Harvey were part of the package. Charlie O was led past the stands before games, and fans could sit on the mascot for photos. And Harvey popped out of the ground near home plate to deliver fresh baseballs to the umpire.

Finley also brought the A’s colorful uniforms and untraditional white spikes from Kansas City. In Oakland, Finley was the first to hire ball girls, but was unsuccessful in getting MLB to adopt orange baseballs.

Finley also gets credit for hiring Roy Steele, who was the Coliseum public address announcer for nearly 40 years and became known to fans as “The Voice of God.”

And the team has had their share of colorful players who could fill reporters’ notebooks and TV sound bites on and off the field. In the 1970s, it was Reggie, Vida and others fighting Finley and each other. By the late 1980s, the players were treated like celebrities — and gossip writers had a field day when Canseco was linked romantically with pop superstar Madonna in 1991.

Jason Giambi, the 2000 AL MVP, hit for average and power, partied like a rock star and helped set the stage for its “Moneyball” era success, though fans never forgave him for riding that success and charisma into a record deal with the New York Yankees.

BOB

MLB players born in Oakland who played for the A’s

All-Star Game

MVP: Terry Steinbach (1988)

All-Star Game selections: Mark McGwire represented Oakland nine times; Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson are tied for second with six appearances as Oakland A’s.

A’s slugger Jason Giambi hit a game-winning home run against the New York Yankees in the ninth inning of their game on Aug. 12, 2001.

PEPPING/STAFF ARCHIVES

The A’s mascot, a mule named Charlie O, was honored at Oakland City Hall by then-Mayor John Reading and handler Stanley Cossa in 1972.

JIM EDELEN/STAFF ARCHIVES

Pitcher Dennis Eckersley lets out an exultant yell after the final out of the 1989 World Series against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park on Oct. 28, 1989. DAN ROSENSTRAUCH/STAFF ARCHIVES

BY LAURENCE MIEDEMA

Just what will a successful season in Oakland look like?

No amount of success on the field will do anything to heal fans’ broken hearts or diminish their rage toward ownership. And after going a combined 104 games under .500 the past two seasons, simply no longer being mentioned in the same breath as the 1962 New York Mets and their modern-record 120 losses would be an improvement.

After losing 100 games in a season just once in their first 53 years in the Bay Area, the A’s have suffered that indignity in each of the past two, including 112 games last season, a year after they lost 102.

The A’s are once again operating with the lowest payroll by far in the majors, and another 100-loss season wouldn’t be a surprise. Fangraphs.com projects the A’s will lose 91 games, but a sampling of major sports betting sites puts the number between 102 and 104 losses.

The A’s have had a winning record in a full month just once in the past two seasons — July 2022, when they went 14–12. The A’s finished 62 games under .500 last season and 42 games under in 2021.

The franchise is likely years away from a true revival, but here is a look at some of the players who need to come

RX for success

What the A’s need from which players to end the season on a high note

through to make the A’s competitive as they find their way out of the Bay Area.

Zack Gelof

The A’s used 104 different players the past two seasons, and more roster churn is on the way, but it looks as if second base could be in good hands

Brent Rooker, above, led the A’s in home runs (30) last season.

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for a while. Gelof joined the A’s in early July, and the 2021 second-round draft pick was an instant smash, becoming the first player in franchise history with 20 extra-base hits and 20 runs scored in his first 28 games. Gelof, 24, finished with a slash line of .267/.337/.840 with 14 home runs and 14 stolen bases.

Those numbers project to 30 homers and 30 stolen bases over a full season, something only Jose Canseco has accomplished in franchise history. Gelof passed the other Bash Brother, Mark McGwire, in the franchise record books, with 10 home runs in his first 35 games, six fewer than it took Big Mac.

Paul

Blackburn, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling

Much of the A’s present and future could well be riding on the shoulders of the trio of 30-something former All-Stars. Oakland tied the 1915 Philadelphia A’s 108-year MLB record by using 24 different starting pitchers last season. The group combined to go 20-72 with a 5.74 ERA and produced a quality start — at least six innings and three or fewer runs — just 32 times. If Wood and Stripling, both former Giants, bounce back from down years and Blackburn can stay healthy, the trio would anchor a rotation that could keep the A’s competitive and allow the franchise’s young starters more time to develop. As an added bonus, if they are productive — and healthy — any or all of the trio almost certainly would be coveted around the trade deadline and could help the A’s add more pieces to their ongoing rebuilding project.

A’s catcher Shea Langeliers misses a foul tip during a game at the Coliseum last July.

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

Brent Rooker and Seth Brown

Only the Guardians, Tigers and Royals have hit fewer home runs than the A’s among teams in the American League the past two seasons, and the duo could form a formidable lefty-righty threat in the middle of the lineup — and make them valuable trade pieces later in the summer, when teams look for bats to bolster their playoff hopes. Rooker and Brown led the A’s in home runs the past two seasons, respec-

tively, but neither has displayed much consistency. Rooker went from off-season waiver claim to the A’s lone All-Star last season, but that was largely due to a huge opening month that saw him hit .353 with nine of his 30 home runs and a .465 on-base percentage. He mostly scuffled after that before socking eight homers in September. Brown also finished strong, but barely hit .200 most of the season, and after hitting 45 home runs in 2021-22 had a reduced role because of injuries and continued struggles to hit lefties.

Shea Langeliers

The catcher turned 26 during the winter, so he’s no longer a young prospect. But Langeliers has only spent one full season in the majors and still has time to show the A’s if he’s more than what they’ve seen — and make the Matt Olson trade not look so lopsided. Langeliers has power — 22 homers in 490 plate appearances last season — but also struck out 143 times (while batting .205 with a .268 on-base percentage) and has a career WAR of 1.2. He’s a better defensive option than top prospect

Tyler Soderstrom, but the A’s will need Soderstom’s bat in the lineup. Kyle McCann and Daniel Susac (a first-round pick in the 2022 draft) might soon push their way into the mix as well.

Mason Miller

Miller generated a jolt of positive buzz around the A’s last April after he carved up the minor leagues and brought his crackling, 100-mph fastball to the majors. He held the Mariners without a hit through seven innings in his third career start, but then was shut down for three months because of an elbow sprain. Miller, 25, returned in September and made six more appearances and in all, racked up 38 strikeouts in 33 1/3 innings. Miller, a 2021 thirdround draft pick, had only made 11 minor league appearances before his A’s debut because of arm issues, so he might just be scratching the surface of his potential. The A’s indicated over the winter he’ll likely open this season as a reliever — he’s got the makings of a dominating closer — but he could get another shot as a starter if he can remain healthy.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Paul Blackburn pitches against the Houston Astros in the first inning of their July 8, 2022, game at Oakland’s Coliseum.

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Mason Miller warms up before his major league debut against the Chicago Cubs in Oakland last April.

SHAE HAMMOND/STAFF ARCHIVES

They’ve got

What the Giants will need from these players to rebuild the core of a championship club

BY EVAN WEBECK

This year’s San Francisco Giants, like every team they’ve fielded since Buster Posey retired, will not be a star-driven enterprise.

Without an Aaron Judge-like slugger anchoring their lineup, now in direct competition with Shohei Ohtani and his superstar Dodgers supporting cast, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is betting once again that the roster he’s constructed can outperform the sum of its seemingly modest parts.

This year’s group, though, is unlike the past five Zaidi has built in one important way. At its heart are their own prospects, the first signs of the regime’s player development system beginning to bear fruit. If they succeed, these players will be here for the long haul.

After missing the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons, the Giants are at a transition point.

Zaidi received a new contract and brought in a new manager, Bob Melvin – and both of them are locked up through 2026. The projected starters at catcher, shortstop and center field are entering their first full seasons in the majors, and none of them is older than 25. Behind Logan Webb, still only 27 himself, the rest of the potential Opening Day rotation has combined to make 23 career starts in the majors.

The organization will hold a 10th anniversary celebration this summer for its last World Series team, in 2014, which wasn’t powered by big-time

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Giants catcher Patrick Bailey reaches for a pop-up during spring training practice at Scottsdale Stadium.

(five) high hopes

free-agent acquisitions but by drafting and developing players such as Posey, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt and many more.

All season, Zaidi will be evaluating whether they have the core of their next championship club, the potential start of a homegrown pipeline that could accomplish so much:

Compete with the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Padres in the relentless NL West;

Overcome the difficulty to attract top-flight free agents to San Francisco;

And, most importantly, give fans a reason to come to the ballpark again, after falling to 17th in average attendance last season.

A whopping 12 players made their major-league debuts for the Giants last season, and this is the year they find out if they can stick. Not all newcomers are created equal, though, and these will determine the Giants’ fate in 2024 and beyond more than anyone else.

Patrick Bailey

The writing has been on the wall since Zaidi used his very first draft pick to select the switch-hitting catcher out of North Carolina State in 2019, one year after the previous regime spent the second overall pick on another catcher, Joey Bart.

Bailey burst onto the scene last season, quick-

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ly putting himself in the conversation for a Gold Glove and Rookie of the Year, despite being called up midway through May. Entering his first full major-league season, Bailey will set out to prove what the Giants believe internally: that he is the best defensive catcher in baseball and the future of the franchise behind the plate.

Tristan Beck, Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn

The Giants will go as far as their young arms will take them.

Without Alex Cobb (hip) or Robbie Ray (elbow) to start the season, these three pitchers who debuted in 2023 will make up the bulk of the Opening Day rotation, which together with free-agent addition Jordan Hicks (signed for four years, $44 million), has combined to throw fewer than 100 total innings as major-league starting pitchers after Logan Webb.

The lack of experience is a concern, but here’s a reason for optimism: In their first taste of the big leagues last season, Harrison, Beck and Winn combined for a 4.17 ERA and 20.5 percent strikeout rate.

Jung Hoo Lee

After going four years without agreeing to a contract of longer than three years with any free agent, Zaidi doled out two this winter, one to 27-year-old

Hicks for four years, and the other to Lee, in a stated bid to provide more year-to-year roster stability.

Lee’s six-year, $113 million deal, the largest awarded to a free-agent position player in franchise history, is a bet that his transition to the major leagues goes smoothly.

Unlike Japan’s prolific Pacific League, there has only been one successful modern-day position-player export from the Korean Baseball Organization, Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, in part because KBO pitching is considered at least two steps down from MLB pitching.

But if he can adjust to facing livelier fastballs and sharper breaking pitches — it took Kim a year to become an everyday player — Lee’s combination of athleticism, bat-to-ball skills and personality has the potential to transform more than just the top of the Giants’ lineup.

Bob Melvin and his new staff

Arguably the biggest move the Giants made this off-season had nothing to do with anybody between the foul lines.

Bringing in a manager with 20 years of experience sent a strong signal that they were re-evaluating their methods after finishing within two games of .500 in four of their five seasons under the analytically oriented, platoon-driven leadership of Gabe Kapler.

Who better to lead the team back to the playoffs than Melvin, a Bay Area native and former Giants catcher who has shepherded eight teams across three organizations to the postseason? Keeping on some well-respected members of the former staff, such as first base coach Mark Hallberg and assistant Alyssa Nakken, but also some of his own longtime lieutenants who employ a more conventional approach, the 62-year-old Melvin promises to bring a blend of philosophies.

Jorge Soler

The Giants will also ring in a 20th anniversary this season, but it’s no occasion to celebrate: That’s how long it’s been since the team has had a 30 home run hitter, when Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004.

Soler, who didn’t sign his three-year, $42 million free-agent deal until February, has as good a chance as any player to pass through Oracle Park to end the dry spell. He’s done it twice — more than the rest of the Giants’ roster in total — including 36 last season for the Marlins. (Speaking of dry spells, no right-handed hitter has even parked a ball into McCovey Cove -- could the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Cuban be the first?)

So, if not star-powered, then Soler-powered the Giants may go.

Giants pitcher Tristan Beck throws against the Tampa Bay Rays in an Aug. 14 game at Oracle Park.

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF ARCHIVES

Relief pitcher Keaton Winn is one of three pitchers who made their debut with the Giants in 2023.

ARCHIVES

Giants fans wish for great things from Bay Area boy Harrison’s left-handed pitching

BY DANNY EMERMAN

San Francisco Giants fans Matt Spillar and Jordan Kan waited for more than an hour in line at San Jose’s San Pedro Square for one man: Kyle Harrison. When they finally reached the front of the queue at the team’s FanFest tour stop in January, their favorite player signed a Harrison jersey, two rookie cards and a ticket from his MLB debut.

It’s easy to understand why Harrison resonates with so many Giants fans. He was born at San Jose’s Kaiser Santa Teresa, starred at Concord’s vaunted De La Salle High, grew up going to A’s and Giants games and spurned UCLA for the Giants, who drafted him in 2020.

He has the chance to write his own story as local kid turned franchise face.

“When you’re able to see them kind of work their way up through the ranks in the minors, you kind of feel like you were on that journey with them a little

A HOMEGROWN HERO?

Giants pitcher Kyle Harrison follows through on a pitch against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park on Aug. 28, 2023. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

GIANTS

bit,” said Spillar, who followed some of Harrison’s journey from the San Jose Giants press box, where he works part-time.

Kan added, “That’s why those World Series years were special, because that core group of guys were homegrown players. We’re hoping for the new homegrown guys.”

The Giants and their fans know the franchise needs a wave of drafted and developed players to take lead roles to become a consistent winner again. That starts with Harrison, the top left-handed pitching prospect in baseball.

“I don’t want to put unrealistic expectations on him, but I think we all as a group have some expectations for him,” ace Logan Webb said. “I know he does…There’s a lot of people that feel that way, including MLB. com and all those things putting

him as the No. 1 prospect. I give him a little crap for that. But I’m excited. He’s excited. I keep saying it, but the sky’s the limit for him.”

Hicks, Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck. Even when veterans Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray return from the injured list, there will be plenty of onus on the youngsters.

Much has changed since Harrison made his debut with the Giants last season — a seven-start audition that saw him log a 4.15 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 34 2/3 innings.

Bob Melvin replaced his first MLB manager, Gabe Kapler; his first MLB pitching coach, Andrew Bailey, left for Boston; and Brian Bannister, whom he worked closely with, took a job with the White Sox after serving as the Giants’ director of pitching.

“You know, coming up as a young guy, not knowing much, having changes — it’s out of your control,” Harrison said. “Can’t really think about it too much.”

A hamstring injury delayed his debut last year, and Harrison spent the off-season getting stronger in anticipation of a larger role in 2024.

Webb, who has taken Harrison under his wing like Kevin Gausman did him, paid for Harrison’s first month at PUSH Performance, a baseball-focused training facility in Arizona.

The results were encouraging. Harrison was able to hit 97 mph on the radar gun — three ticks faster than his average velocity — before even ramping up to maximum effort.

especially when he doesn’t have a full arsenal of offspeed pitches to keep them off-balance.

One time last season in which Harrison didn’t have full confidence in his pitches was his third start, on Sept. 9 in San Diego. Sixty-one of his 91 pitches were fastballs, and he only threw five changeups and four cutters. Kapler left him in for the sixth inning in a display of trust for the rookie, but Harrison ran out of gas. He allowed a three-run homer in the sixth to Garrett Cooper, which was the fourth long ball he gave up in the night.

In the opposite dugout, of course, was Harrison’s new manager. Despite the rookie’s six earned runs, Melvin came away impressed.

“He knows he’s starting with us,” Melvin said on KNBR in late January. “He knows we need him to be a starter. It’s kinda his time now, so I think he’s really excited and motivated by that. The ceiling for this kid is as high as anyone in our organization and (he is) probably one of the top left-handed starting pitchers, as far as prospects go, in all of baseball.”

If Harrison can lead the way for a wave of young talent, the direction of the franchise will become clearer. At this point, that’s the Giants’ best chance at regaining prominence. Spillar and Kan know it, and so does everyone else.

KARL MONDON/ STAFF

One of the big questions the Giants must answer heading into the 2024 season is how real — and how ready — Harrison is. Harrison has a chance to be part of the Giants’ rotation to open the season that figures to also include Webb, Jordan

“The reason why he’s throwing a little more efficiently, with less effort, is changing his movement capacity and the way he’s training,” PUSH owner DJ Edwards said.

Harrison will need to do more than just throw harder. He’s been blowing fastballs past batters since high school. At the Major League level, hitters have no trouble catching up to him,

“You look back at the teams in ’10, ’12, ’14, it was built on a group of young players,” Webb said of the Giants’ three World Series winning teams from 201014. “They created this nucleus. I think all the guys, they want to create that. These guys are excited and ready to show what they’ve been working on. I think all of them are going to take big steps this year.”

Kim Harrison, right, gives her son, San Francisco Giants pitcher Kyle Harrison, an enthusiastic bear hug after the team’s MLB game at Oracle Park on Aug. 28. It was Harrison’s first career start at home. JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

Giants pitchers Tristan Beck and Kyle Harrison sign autographs at FanFest, Jan. 27, at San Pedro Square in San Jose.

Behind the hidden door

Exclusive Gotham Club gives Giants fans the royal treatment

STORY BY JASON MASTRODONATO

PHOTOS BY JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO

The synthetic rubber of the outfield warning track crumbles beneath your shoes and every 10 seconds or so, the crack of the bat goes off like clockwork. Heads tilt. The ball soars. Sometimes, it flies right over your head.

Sure, you can eavesdrop on the San Francisco Giants outfielders, chasing fly balls a few yards away. But on this warm summer day at Oracle Park, mostly what you hear is the excited chatter emanating from a handful of people sipping cocktails during batting practice.

This is the Gotham Club’s “Booze Cage,” surely the coolest place to be 2½ hours before first pitch on any given day during the Giants’ season.

Nestled against the right-field wall, this fenced-off area of the warning track is big enough for 15 or 20

Above: The door to the Gotham Club, which is not easy to find, bears its emblem: two crossed bats, its initials and the year of its founding, 1883.

Left: Members sit at the bar and enjoy their drinks inside the club.

people to stand close, watch pregame warmups and, for a minute or two, get lost in the fantasy of being a professional baseball player.

How do you get access to the Booze Cage? You probably can’t. Not unless you know a guy who knows a guy who knows another guy who puts you on the waiting list. Then wait six years for a spot to — maybe, possibly, hopefully — open up.

Or better yet, you have a friend who’s a member who uses his precious guest pass to make you a “pinch-hitter” for a night

to remember.

Or tag along with us fellow interlopers as we tell you what it’s like inside.

“We didn’t know how cool this was going to be when we signed up,” said Shari DelCarlo, a LinkedIn director, Giants season ticket-holder and one of the first members of Oracle Park’s Gotham Club.

“We’re glad we signed up,” said Ron Johnson, a Workday exec, fellow season-ticket holder and Gotham Club member. “It was a bit of faith up front. But the Giants don’t seem to half-ass

Above: San Francisco Giants memorabilia adorns the walls of the Gotham Club.

Right: Visitors watch the Los Angeles Dodgers during batting practice from the club’s private viewing area.

The Gotham Club bar serves up a Gotham punch, left, a pumpkin spice espresso martini, the Kayak on the Water and a rye-based No. 24.

things. They built it out.”

The Gotham Club opened in 2013, when the Giants launched an exclusive fan club in the hopes of providing a luxurious experience for baseball fans.

In the beginning, it was just a few rooms behind the suites along the third base line. You entered through a secret door, a host welcomed you, and you picked a direction. To the left: the billiards room, complete with pool table and a TV, snacks and drinks and a handful of original arcade games like Pac Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong and Galaga. To the right: the bowling hall, with two professionally oiled lanes and automated pin resetters, a dart board, another TV and more snacks and drinks. This is where those first club members hung out.

“But we couldn’t see the field,” Johnson said.

Soon, the Giants opened the Booze Cage — a nod to the Booze Cage of the Mission’s Recreation Field in the early 1900s — and the adjacent bar, a full-service restaurant and several seating areas with full views of the field.

The members-only entrance behind right field opens early, a full hour before most fans can enter the park — and club members need game tickets to enter.

Now when you walk in through that secret door, a Booze Cage server greets you. Drink in hand, many members walk straight onto the warning track to watch batting practice. Others head up the stairs for a bird’s eye view of the field, en route to the dining room and full-service bar, pausing to take in vintage posters and original photographs along the way.

The bar menu offers drinks such as the Polo Grounds Manhattan, the Humm Baby, the Kayak on the Water and, the most popular drink, the No. 24. That ode to Willie Mays combines Bulleit Rye Whiskey, gum syrup and angostura and orange bitters served over ice shaped like a baseball. The bartender

estimates they freeze 2,000 ice balls per game. The entire Gotham Club only averages 300 guests per game — more for Opening Day and playoffs, of course. Still, do the math; the bar is busy.

Johnson and DelCarlo like to sit at a table near the bar. They get to most games about 90 minutes early, say hello to their favorite server and then sit down with a drink.

“The regulars, we all love the Giants, so you can sit there and chat, and it’s a nice feeling, a nice way to make friends,” DelCarlo said. “You can sit down and talk to almost anybody.”

She looked around. The Dodgers were in town that day, and a few people wore Dodger blue.

“People invite their friends,” she said. “Sometimes you get Dodger fans in here.”

On days that are rainy or particularly cold, Johnson and DelCarlo might watch the entire game from inside the club. On nice days, they’ll go to their seats in section 213 and watch from there.

In the dining room, two guests sit at a sunlit table overlooking the water behind the park — one is Lisa Pantages, the club’s chief financial officer and a founding member. A fourth-generation San Franciscan and a season-ticket holder since 1987, Pantages once dreamed of working for the team. In 2003, that fantasy came true. These days, she works from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., finishing in time to meet her seatmates for dinner.

“I might as well be Norm (from ‘Cheers’),” Pantages said. “I have a drink named after me. I walk in the door, and (the server) goes, ‘Lisa’s Lemon Drop?’ I start my evening with a lemon

drop martini, no sugar.”

Everything in the Gotham Club, including the name, pays homage to Giants’ history. The team was founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams. They adopted the Giants moniker two years later and became the San Francisco Giants in 1958.

So, how do you get inside for real? The whole know-someonewho-knows-someone is no joke. The club has about 1,000 members. The waiting list is a mile long. They only admit about 25 new members each year, and they’re almost always referrals — although last year, they took two non-referrals who had been on the waiting list since 2016. And it’s pricey: Initiation fees

start at $4,500 for individuals, which gives you access for a member plus one, or $15,000 for corporations (up to four rotating guests). Dues are $2,500 to $7,000 per year.

But the perks include not just enviable views and baseball-themed cocktails, but intangibles, too. Former players and Giants staffers — six front office staffers are paying club members, for example — drop in on any given night. Dave Dravecky and Will Clark are spotted frequently. And standing in the Booze Cage, current Giants outfielders can seem like familiar friends.

“It’s a fun little party,” DelCarlo said.

A plaque welcomes members at the front entrance of the Gotham Club, above, then members take the stairs, left, to enter.

Send in the drones

Some of the turf tenders for the Giants home field are truly tireless robots

BY JOAN MORRIS

Greg Elliott is one of a very few horticultural wizards who require a pilot’s license to tend the grassy expanse he oversees.

Director of field operations at Oracle Park, Elliott has gone high tech for a very low tech crop, using drones to monitor soil moisture in the roughly two acres of grass and clay that the San Francisco Giants call home field.

Several times a week, drones soar above the outfield — cue “The Flight of the Valkyries” soundtrack — taking readings of how much water the soil has absorbed, gauging the health of the turf and assessing concerns about the infield’s surface.

The drones, Elliott says, are just another tool in his growing arsenal to keep the field healthy and ready for play.

“We really are the outliers in the league,” he says. “I feel like we’re doing our part to make this a preferred destination for ballplay, concerts and corporate events.”

The transformation of Oracle Park began 15 years ago, when Elliott first took the job of what was known then as head groundskeeper. He had worked at several stadiums and parks before arriving in San Francisco, but he soon discovered there

were issues with the Giants’ field.

By then, the shiny new ballpark had been open for eight years of regular and postseason baseball and a variety of other activities, including Supercross, monster trucks and concerts. In that time, the soil had become compacted. After the first heavy rain of his tenure, he walked onto the field to find large sections covered in standing water.

As it turned out, every time the park hosted Supercross and monster truck rallies, the landscape crew had brought in tons of dirt and sand to create the tracks for those vehicles, using highway construction rollers to pack down the surface. The rollers are capable of compaction down six feet, but the baseball playing surface at Oracle is only 14 inches.

Elliott needed to basically start over, and that began with finding a way to drain the field effectively.

He installed special devices beneath the field that allowed for quick drainage and manual drying, if needed. Next came buried sensors that report moisture content. Using that data, his crew could adjust watering schedules that accounted for rain, hot days and heavy fog for

both day and night games.

To reduce compaction from heavy mowers, Elliott added lighter weight robotic mowers that can be programmed to cut at a specific height and in a specific direction. If you were to stick around long enough after a game, you might spot the little automatons roving the outfield, mowing to the programmed specifications. And to test the compaction, the crew uses special devices that send shock waves into the soil to measure thickness and other soil qualities.

The use of drones was an idea Elliott had about three years ago, but the pandemic delayed the project, and Elliott needed to get his drone pilot’s license. Two years ago, the drones began flying at Oracle Park, adding yet more data to the growing list.

Technology melds with the expertise and observations of Elliott and his crew, helping them choose fertilizers and soil nutrients and even turf. Oracle Park uses a base of dormant Bermuda grass interseeded with Kentucky Blue. Old school soil testing combined with the wealth of data provided by Elliott’s high-tech gizmos tell him what nutrients to add into the irrigation system.

The field also is maintained to suit the players and the game, Elliott says. When the grass is maintained slightly longer in the outfield, for example, it slows the roll of the ball. When catcher Buster Posey returned after suffering a broken leg, Elliott and his crew made the surface behind and around the plate a bit more forgiving, compacting the soil underneath to provide support, but covering the area in a softer blanket of clay.

All the changes, Elliott says, are within league rules, and those that benefit the Giants

Left: Greg Elliott, the Giants’ senior director of field operations, uses high tech tools such as drones and radar to monitor the Oracle Park playing field, which was awaiting new sod in February.

KARL MONDON/ STAFF

Above: Contractors work to install new turf at Oracle Park on Feb. 15.

ARIC CRABB/STAFF

also benefit the opposing players. During the 2014 World Series, the Kansas City Royals complained that the grounds crew was overwatering the infield in an attempt to slow them down.

“That was offensive to me,” Elliott says. “We water the infield the way our players want it. That’s the way it is throughout the season, not just during the World Series.”

Elliott prides himself not on the perfection of the field, but on its consistency. He wants the players to have the same conditions in every game. That’s what home field advantage is all about. The Giants play 81 home games, and if the players know what to expect on their own turf, chances of winning improve.

Elliott’s magic isn’t kept as a ballpark secret. He willingly shares it with other field operations managers. Elliott even admits to liking the Dodgers’ field op guy, but the admiration stops there.

The technology wizard is always crunching the numbers and looking for new ways to keep Oracle Park in tiptop condition, but we wondered about his own lawn.

“It’s OK,” Elliott says. “It’s typically just OK. I let it go brown, if we’re in a drought. It’s not the best lawn on the block, but it’s OK.”

Bob Melvin wears Bay Area roots, Roger Craig’s influence on his sleeve

BY EVAN WEBECK

The moment San Francisco Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow met Bob Melvin almost 40 years ago, when he was pitching for the team, he could tell Melvin was manager material.

But it wasn’t his instincts that told him back in the spring of 1986, after the club had acquired Melvin, a hotshot 24-year-old catcher from the Detroit Tigers, to pair with their new manager. He heard it from Roger Craig, who may have been the first to see what the future had in store for Melvin.

“Roger was adamant about bringing Bob Melvin over to the organization from Detroit. He loved him,” Krukow recalled. “When I got to know Roger in spring training, he said, ‘This kid, this catcher, you’re going to like this guy. He’s a cerebral player.’ That’s how he phrased it. He said then, ‘He’s going to manage in the big leagues.’”

Melvin is entering his 21st season as a major-league manager now and taking the reins of his fifth team, but the circumstances that brought the Menlo Park-raised baseball nut back to San Francisco for a second time aren’t all that different. With a cast of young players, including Will Clark and eventually Matt Williams, it took only two years for Craig to turn a historically bad team into perennial contenders — and Melvin was in the

dugout, soaking it all up.

Now 62, Melvin will be applying the lessons he’s learned throughout a lifetime in the game, as he seeks to lead the Giants out of a morass of .500 finishes, a situation the Cal grad and childhood fan seems uniquely suited to understand.

“It’s more responsibility that I feel here because of the fact that I grew up here,” Melvin said at his introductory news conference, fumbling the buttons of the cream-colored No. 6 jersey draped over his blue dress shirt. “The expectation is that we’re going to win here from day one.”

Giants manager Bob Melvin speaks during spring training at Scottsdale Stadium.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

A two-sport star at Menlo-Atherton High, Melvin grew up rooting for the entire spectrum of Bay Area sports teams. He wears his roots on the back of his jersey, the No. 6 a nod to the All-Star third baseman of the 1970s A’s, Sal Bando, who was not only a teenage favorite

of Melvin’s but decades later, the executive who gave him his first opportunity off the field, inside the Brewers front office.

At 6-foot-4, Melvin blended in better on the basketball court than he did behind the plate, but he opted to pursue baseball, helping the Golden Bears to a third-place finish in the College World Series as a freshman in 1980 before transferring to a local junior college to hasten his draft eligibility. The following spring, the Tigers selected him second overall in the secondary phase of the amateur draft.

A few months later, Craig was hired in San Francisco and set his sights on the impressive catcher with local ties and a strong mind for the game. Melvin arrived in camp in 1986.

“Roger made me watch the game in a different way than I was used to,” Melvin said. “Because I had to follow along with him, I had to know his signs. Really every pitch, there was that sort of unspoken communication between the manager and the catcher that I had never had before. He forced me to watch a game like a manager does, and I’m forever indebted for that.”

As the second-string catcher, Melvin spent plenty of time in the dugout, where Craig’s frequent commentary offered a completely new perspective than that of his first manager in Detroit, Sparky Anderson, who told the rookie not to speak unless spoken to.

Craig engaged his players, believing there should be intention behind every action on the field. He would explain why he called a pitch out (maybe a nod or a wink from the first-base coach to the runner), the reaction his pitcher should give to that signal (always shake, because nobody

shakes off a pitch out), how to use the game to your advantage (a squeeze bunt while the stadium is still humming after a triple).

“He openly discussed strategy, what he was thinking,” Krukow said. “And Bob Melvin, this was his manager that brought him to the big leagues, right? So in his eyes, Roger Craig was the second coming.

“I truly believe that (Melvin) sensed early on that this was going to be an opportunity when he was done playing. He wanted to be that manager. And here was a guy that was managing at a high level.”

It’s that feel for the game that some within the organization felt was missing under Gabe Kapler, particularly as last year’s club fell apart in the second half.

Melvin’s typical even-keeled demeanor isn’t so different from Kapler’s. Both are regarded as

San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin, left, talks to the pitchers during day four of spring training at Scottsdale Stadium.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

managers who trust the clubhouse to police itself and are generally well-liked by players for that. Melvin, however, has a fiery side to him.

In 2022, the Padres were scuffling down the stretch not unlike the Giants last season. On Sept. 15, they lost for the seventh time in 12 games and could feel their playoff position beginning to slip. That night, Melvin aired out the club behind doors closed to the press. They won the next one, 12-3, rattling off five in a row, and after they eventually eliminated the Dodgers in the National League Division Series, Melvin’s timely dressing down was credited with saving their season.

“Bob got mad for the first time,” second baseman Jake Cronenworth told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s interesting, because you don’t see it much.

I think it was the right time

and place to kind of light a fire under everybody, and it seemed to work. If he needs to get mad again, I wouldn’t be mad.”

Melvin ranks 16th all-time with 59 managerial ejections, and he likes to argue. That was a trait of his even when he was a newcomer in 1986, Krukow said.

“You could get on him. You could light him up,” Krukow said, laughing. “Get on him about Cal, the Warriors, the Niners. It’s just so easy! He’s ready to argue. He’s ready to put up a fight.”

They stayed in touch through Melvin’s stops in Seattle, Arizona, Oakland and San Diego, and Krukow said he was “thrilled” to have him back in San Francisco, where it all began.

“You just knew he was going to be a good one,” Krukow said, “and he’s absolutely lived up to it.”

Mission impossible A’S

Kotsay keeps players focused despite mounting losses, distractions

BY JASON MASTRODONATO

Itwas early last October, when Oakland A’s general manager David Forst was asked to assess the performance of his manager.

Mark Kotsay had just lost 112 games in his second season leading the worst team in the sport. With a two-year record of 110-214, his winning percentage now ranked among the worst in baseball history; among the 364 men to manage at least 320 games, Kotsay’s .340 mark is worse than all but three.

In some cities, fans would be calling for his resignation on a nightly basis. In Oakland, it’s not the manager the fans are screaming at. Kotsay is beloved.

“I thought Mark and his staff did an incredible job this year of finding positives,” Forst said. “We’ve gone through back-to-back 100 loss seasons and come out of it with a manager who I think has done a fantastic job… That’s not always the case when you go through this.”

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Oakland Athletics manager Mark Kotsay takes a breather before spring training batting practice at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona, last month.

Forst praised Kotsay for his ability to teach the game to a roster filled with first-timers and old-timers.

In two seasons, the A’s have used 104 players, 56 of them rookies.

Not a single member of the A’s ranked in the 100 most valuable players in MLB last year, according to FanGraphs. Their most valuable player? Rookie Zack Gelof, who only played in 69 of the team’s 162 games.

Kotsay’s job in Oakland clearly isn’t to win games; it’s to develop players. Nobody expected the A’s, with an MLBlow opening day payroll of $56 million last year, to look competitive on the field.

“From a coaching standpoint, our objective is to stay positive through this process,” Kotsay said. “We understand where we’re at with the roster, the youth that’s on the roster... Our priority becomes teaching. That was the message from the beginning. That was to dive in and teach as much as possible, stay as positive as possible and focus on the small victories.”

Still, for Kotsay to survive the 2023 season, not only did he need to make sure the A’s seemed formidable once in a while, he also needed to make the Coliseum a place that players didn’t hate walking into every day.

Meanwhile, the fans weren’t even showing up. The A’s averaged less than 11,000 fans per game for the third consecutive year, a steep plummet from the nearly 25,000 they averaged just 10 years ago.

And when fans did show up, they showed up angrily. They held signs about how much they loathed team owner John Fisher and pleaded for him to sell the team.

Fisher was busy in Las Vegas, where in May, the A’s were able to convince politicians to give them $380 million in public funding for a new ballpark.

It was finally real: The A’s were leaving Oakland.

Kotsay’s job throughout all of this seemed almost impossible.

The players knew what was going on. They were playing in a ballpark that was crumbling, without facilities whose quality even came close to just about every other team’s.

“I just work here,” veteran reliever Trevor May would say when asked about Fisher, who was paying his players less than any other owner in the league. “It’s about money for John Fisher. Let’s call it what it is.”

Kotsay, though, never lost the clubhouse, according to some of the most experienced players there. They credited his poise and ability to help them focus on only what they could control.

“Mark probably downplays the impact it had on him and the coaching staff and the players,” Forst said of the distraction created by the team’s midseason announcement that it was moving to Vegas. “I was there, I sat in the stands, I know what it was like out there at times. For those guys on the field and in the dugout to be able to focus on what they’re doing … they did an incredible job of focusing on the game.”

On June 13, when more than 27,000 A’s fans showed up for a Tuesday night game against the Tampa Bay Rays in a reverse boycott, the players didn’t hide from the potential embarrassment of the moment.

Instead, they knocked off the Rays in an exciting 2-1 victory, extending their winning streak to seven in what was the highlight of the season for many.

“A lot of unselfish baseball on this team right now,” May said at the time.

Outfielder Tony Kemp said, “We’ve been jelling with each other. That chemistry takes a minute.”

When the eventual World Series-winning Texas Rangers visited in June, their manager

Bruce Bochy said Kotsay was doing a “great job” and will have a “good, long career” as a manager.

“Doesn’t matter what kind of club it is, they’ll play very hard,” Bochy said. “He’ll have these guys ready every day. That’s who Mark is. His work ethic as a player was off the chart.”

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

By the end of the season, the A’s were playing for nothing but still fighting.

They won big games against playoff teams, then took two out of three against the Houston Astros in mid-September. When former A’s manager Bob Melvin brought his San Diego Padres to the Coliseum, he said Kotsay had them playing their best baseball of the season.

“He’s doing a great job,” said Melvin, who will face Kotsay’s A’s twice this season as the new Giants manager. “They’ve played hard every inning of every game.”

After starting the year 10-45 (.181) with an 11-game losing streak, the A’s finished the year 40-67 (.374) over their final 107 games, more than doubling their winning percentage from the first 55.

Kotsay has done “a phenomenal job of keeping it light, raising that learning curve and helping us out,” said veteran Seth Brown.

In the end, the A’s finished

50-112, the 20th-worst record in MLB history. The team looked at the glass as half-full.

In November, the A’s announced they were adding a year to Kotsay’s contract, guaranteeing an option that will keep him as their manager through at least 2025.

They’ll hope Kotsay can soon do what Brandon Hyde did in Baltimore and Derek Shelton in Pittsburgh: survive some rough times through the rebuild, until the team is ready to compete again.

Both Hyde’s Orioles and Shelton’s Pirates lost at least 100 games in their managers’ first two full seasons. Hyde then won 101 games,winning the American League East last year, while Shelton led the Pirates into contending position in midsummer, but they sold off some productive players at the trade deadline to rebuild the team and ended with just 76 wins.

The A’s don’t project to contend anytime soon. They added some talent in the off-season but figure to be among the worst teams yet again this season. They have a heartbroken fanbase.

But there’s at least one thing they feel good about.

“I know we have a manager,” Forst said. “One who sets the tone in that clubhouse. I’m grateful for that.”

Former Oakland A’s great Rickey Henderson stops to greet manager Mark Kotsay in the Coliseum dugout before an MLB game last August.

Noshing options abound for non-meat eaters at Oracle

BY KATE BRADSHAW

For a long time, ballpark fare has been dominated by hot dogs and burgers, leaving vegetarians with slim options for diamond-side bites — unless you really love peanuts and Cracker Jack.

But San Francisco’s Oracle Park has expanded its concessions menu in recent years to appeal to vegetarian baseball fans, offering everything from Impossible burgers to vegetarian lumpia and falafel wraps.

Peter McGuinness, CEO of Impossible Foods, says he thinks the transition is all about giving baseball fans more choices. “People want healthier options and better options,” he says. “Some people want plant-based options. We want to make them available to everyone.”

That effort took a step forward with the opening of a That’s Impossible! kiosk — his company’s first brick-and-mortar outpost — on the ballpark’s club level, where club-level ticket holders can enjoy dishes made with Impossible-brand “meats,” including Philly cheesesteaks, Impossible chicken nuggets and chili.

The Impossible Cheesesteak from Oracle Park’s That’s Impossible! booth is a gratifyingly drippy affair that offers a satisfying vegetarian alternative to the traditional Philly dish.

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

Right top and bottom: The San Francisco ballpark’s Lumpia Company serves a variety of popular dishes, including vegetarian lumpia that will have you going back for seconds. NHAT

Impossible burgers and similar veggie fare are also available at food stands throughout the ballpark, a nugget we discovered in the waning days of the last baseball season, as we set out to find the best vegetarian and vegan-friendly options there. And while we’re ready to declare the Impossible Cheesesteak a home run, it has competition.

That cheesesteak ($16) is a delightfully drippy affair, with veggie and Impossible “meat” juices running from the thick roll and combining into a happy, sloppy cheesy meal. It’s a satisfying alternative to the traditional dish. And the upcoming season brings potentially big news: An Impossible-brand hot dog may be available as soon as opening day, according to McGuinness.

The ballpark’s vegetarian lumpia ($15) will easily get you to second plate — as in, you’ll want seconds. Made by Bay Area fave, the Lumpia Company — the Oakland food company owned by restaurateur Alex Retodo and East Bay rap legend E-40 — this Filipino classic boasts a flaky, crisp exterior that gives way to chewy, flavorful veggies. The food stand is also known for its vegan-friendly Dole Whip in both classic pineapple and new wave strawberry-calamansi flavors, if you’re looking to sate your sweet tooth.

Meanwhile, the Super Duper veggie burger ($14) from the popular San Francisco-based burger purveyor is fine, but a bit dry inside. The addition of

Above: Oracle Park’s That’s Impossible! booth serves vegetarian versions of classic baseball food, from Philly-style Impossible Cheesesteak to a veggie hot dog that will make its debut this spring.

V. MEYER/STAFF

hummus instead of traditional burger condiments doesn’t add enough moisture or flavor — and it doesn’t mix well with ketchup and mustard. Still, it’s pleasing enough to wash down with a nicely chilled beer and an easy thing to let slide — especially when the traditional vegetarian alternative has been to just go hungry all game.

Here are the ballpark’s other vegetarian snacks, sides and dishes and where to find them:

Greek or Caesar salad section 103

Green salad section 144

Veggie lumpia section 116

Veggie dog sections 112, 121, 134, 142 and 144

Vegetarian Mission Street burrito bowl section 130

Veggie burger section 139

Garlic fries sections 103, 106, 118, 130, 136, 144

French fries sections 103, 106, 110, 115, 118, 130, 136, 144

Nachos section 130

Mac ‘n’ cheese section 110

Chur-waffle section 110

FOR PESCATARIANS

Fish tacos section 140

Poke section 112

And there’s always Cracker Jack.

Left top and bottom: The popular Super Duper Burgers booth offers vegetarian as well as classic burgers for baseball fans at Oracle Park.

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF

Cracker Jack packs await fans on opening day at Major League Baseball parks.

ANDA CHU/STAFF ARCHIVES

Chef hits it out of the park with his lumpia

BY LINDA ZAVORAL

They’re scrumptious, they’re easy to eat in the stands — and they’re even shaped like baseball bats.

We’re talking about lumpia, the great Filipino appetizer. Chef-owner Alex Retodo and his Oakland-based venture, The Lumpia Company, have been serving their uber-popular fried spring rolls to San Francisco Giants fans for going on six seasons. It’s a first for a Major League Baseball stadium, he says.

And they’re not just a favorite of foodies; they’ve received the stamp of approval from local rapper E-40, a longtime lumpia lover who is now a co-owner.

So while the baseball is whizzing around the diamond at Oracle Park, Retodo and his crew are busy folding ground meat and sauteed vegetables into paper-thin wrappers, rolling them and then frying ’til golden.

“For 82-plus games, we’ll go as hard as we can until the 7th inning,” he says.

Before that long season gets underway, we nabbed him for a chat about life behind home plate — in Section 116, Promenade Level, that is.

ON HIS PASSION FOR SHARING FILIPINO FOOD

It all started with his mom’s

lumpia — the best, of course. When Retodo was a kid growing up in Hayward, she and relatives would make thousands of lumpia for the All Saints Church carnival. He’d sneak them to his buddies (“That’s how I made best friends back then”) and introduce them to friends who came over to his house (“That was the ice-breaker,” he says, their introduction to Filipino cuisine).

A born marketer, he nevertheless

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

earned a marketing degree from San Jose State and began encouraging restaurateurs to bring iconic dishes to a broader audience.

“I always wanted to push Filipino food forward.” If others wouldn’t, well, he’d do it himself.

HIS LOVE OF THE GAME

Not surprisingly, the East Bay native started out rooting for the A’s. “I grew up a fanboy of

No. 33, Jose Canseco!” But he also followed the Giants’ Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark and says he even tried to emulate Mitchell’s “graceful, left-handed swing” (as a right-hander). Now, he says, “I’ve grown into it. I love the Giants. They have the culture.”

ON PITCHING TO THE GIANTS

Retodo launched his lumpia business at festivals, then sold at a seven-day-a-week pop-up. Through it all, he knew that baseball fans would respond in a big way to Filipino food, so he kept trying to sell the Giants on the concept. “Finally, the time came in 2019. ‘Are you ready to jump in?’ they asked. I said yes, I’ve been waiting for this moment half my life.”

TWO GREAT AMERICAN PASTIMES

Major League Baseball and great food have a hand-in-glove relationship. “It’s a perfect fit,” Retodo explains. “In basketball, you can’t miss a minute. You don’t want to miss Steph Curry. Football is all about the tailgate.” Baseball, he says, lures people who love to watch the game ... and talk ... and eat.

Owner and chef Alex Retodo garnishes his bacon cheeseburger lumpia dish at The Lumpia Company in Oakland.

This will be the sixth season that The Lumpia Company owner and chef Alex Retodo will be serving his signature spring rolls to San Francisco Giants fans at Oracle Park.

JANE TYSKA/STAFF

WHAT’S ON THE MENU THIS SEASON

Look for the “classic hits” at the stand this season: Chicken Shanghai Lumpia and Mama’s Veggie Lumpia (made in a separate fryer), served with sweet chile sauce for dipping. Retodo says he may offer an occasional special, like the Bacon Cheeseburger Lumpia he created a few years ago or Pork Belly Chips.

THE PERFECT LUMPIA COMPANION

The stand now offers Filipino-inspired beers on tap. The Ube Ale is brewed with the purple yams used frequently in Filipino foods. And the Calamansi Pilsner is a citrusy sip.

HIS INNING-BY-INNING GUIDE

He laughingly outlines an Oracle Park eating strategy. “Before the game, you get in line for lumpia and your first beer. Third inning, one of you goes to get the crab sandwiches and the other gets the garlic fries. Seventh inning, are we going to have the Dole Whip for dessert or the Ghirardelli sundae?”

OUTSIDE THE BOX

No, not the batter’s box. The box that limits creativity. Retodo doesn’t hang there. When he’s not at the ballpark, you’ll probably find him at his new flagship location at Brooklyn Basin, an evolving residential, retail and restaurant destination at the Ninth Avenue Terminal on Oakland’s waterfront. He’ll be experimenting with new flavors. Spicy Coconut Pork, anyone?

GIANTS

‘PAT THE BAT’ IS BACK

Burrell opens a new chapter as the Giants hitting coach

BY JOSEPH DYCUS

IFMarco Luciano, Luis Matos and the rest of the Giants’ young hitters break out this season, a new — but familiar — face in the clubhouse will be a big reason why.

“Pat the Bat” is back with the Giants for the latest chapter in his charmed Bay Area baseball life.

Pat Burrell joined new manager Bob Melvin’s coaching staff as a hitting instructor, 29 years after helping San Jose’s Bellarmine High win the West Catholic Athletic League title, 14 years after helping spark the Giants’ breakthrough World Series run and four years after he got his coaching start as a roving hitting instructor in the team’s minor league ranks.

“I got a chance to resurrect my career here,” said Burrell. “So this organization holds a special place in my heart.”

The Giants were Burrell’s final stop on a pro career that began as top pick in the 1998 draft after being a three-time All-American at the University of Miami. The Giants signed the then-33-year-old outfielder after he was released by Tampa Bay early in 2010, and he played a vital role in helping bring home the first World Series title in the franchise’s San Francisco history.

And to think, Burrell, now 47, started out as an unknown transfer from San Lorenzo Valley trying to make his mark on the Bellarmine team.

After dominating on the JV team as a sophomore in 1993, it became clear to Bells coach Gary Cunningham that the 6-foot-4 teenager with the

Above: Juan Uribe high-fives Pat Burrell, right, after he scored a run for the Giants against the Texas Rangers in the fifth inning for Game 1 of the World Series at AT&T Park in San Francisco on October 27, 2010.

NHAT V. MEYER/STAFF ARCHIVES

Left: San Francisco Giants hitting coach Pat Burrell greets baseball devotees at FanFest in January at San Pedro Square in San Jose.

KARL MONDON/STAFF

strength to hit moonballs was a special talent.

“Obviously, he had great natural ability, and I’m not gonna go and change anything,” Cunningham said, before chuckling and adding, “As I say to people, ‘Hey, I didn’t screw him up, because he got to the major leagues.’”

By the time Burrell became an established part

of the Bellarmine lineup, coaches around the WCAL were taking drastic measures to deal with him.

“By the time he was a senior, he would get walked every time,” former Archbishop Mitty coach Bill Hutton recalled. “He’d get the Barry Bonds treatment.”

Cunningham got creative in response: He started batting the hulking slugger leadoff, since no team would dare walk the game’s first batter.

“Yeah, Gary was a bit ahead on the analytics there,” Burrell recalled.

Despite rarely seeing good pitches, the future first overall pick still hit .370 with 11 home runs as a senior, helping the Bells beat Serra and a two-sport athlete named Tom Brady for the league crown.

“He stood out. He hit the ball further than anybody,” Hutton remembered. Burrell wasn’t a one-man band on those great mid-90’s Bells, he said, but “he just looked like a pro.”

Burrell spent 12 seasons in the majors, hitting 292 home runs, mostly with the Phillies. He won two World Series rings, including with the Phillies in 2008, when he hit 33 home runs.

After retiring with the Giants following the 2011 season, Burrell stayed involved in the game as a media personality, assistant coach at Bellarmine and a part-time hitting instructor.

“You just try everything you can, and sometimes you get opportunities like I have had here,” said Burrell, who lives in Portola Valley.

Cunningham, Burrell’s Bellarmine coach, says his star pupil has all the makings to be a success as a coach, just as he was as a player.

“He has a passion for the game,” Cunningham said. “He wasn’t one of those guys asking “When is practice going to be over, because I want to go do something.” He loved to practice and play, and that showed in his career.”

Now Burrell is ready to pen another successful chapter to his Bay Area story.

Outright challenges and intriguing subtleties

What the Giants are facing in 2024

BY EVAN WEBECK

Beginning with a divisional gauntlet, there’s no shortage of interesting storylines to follow on the Giants’ schedule this season. They’ll welcome their past two failed free agent pursuits to Oracle Park, honor Willie Mays at the oldest ballpark in America and potentially put the Bay Bridge series to bed.

Here’s a look at the season ahead:

April 5-7 vs. San Diego Padres

The Giants leave the West Coast just once during the first month of the season, starting with 10 straight games against National League West foes that culminate in the season-opening home stand against the Padres. That game comes with all sorts of subplots: new manager Bob Melvin welcoming his old team to his new city; the possibility of Jung Hoo Lee stepping into the batter’s box against his brother-in-law, Padres reliever Woo-Suk Go, and the start of a rivalry — or the seeds of a future partnership — between Lee and fellow Korean star Ha-Seong Kim. The possibilities are endless, but one thing is for sure: The early sledding of the season will be primetime when it comes to divisional stakes, with 14 games against NL West opponents before the calendar flips to May.

April 15-17 at Miami Marlins

When the Giants fired Gabe Kapler, the

former manager said he planned to take the year off and travel, potentially in a van from Canada to South America. In a twist of fate, his old friend and Rays teammate Peter Bendix reached out. Now leading the Marlins’ baseball operations, Bendix brought Kapler on board as an assistant general manager. The Giants and their new skipper will get a taste early in the season for how Kapler is adjusting to life in Miami.

April 30-May 2 at Boston Red Sox

Soon enough, a trip to Fenway Park won’t be so rare. Under the balanced schedule introduced last season, the team will be on a two-year visiting cycle, and the black block type, orange piping and road grays set against a Green Monster backdrop will be a sight to behold. This will be the Giants’ fourth series ever at the historic Boston ballpark, which will celebrate its 112th birthday in 2024, with only a few players remaining from their last visit in 2019.

May 13-15 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Giants had hoped Shohei Ohtani’s first 2024 game at Oracle Park would be the home opener on April 5. Instead, after another failed free agent pursuit, it will be May 13, when the vaunted Dodgers make their first visit of the season to San Francisco. Ohtani will be accompanied by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and, if recent years hold true, a swath of Dodger blue in the bleachers. All 13 rivalry games will take place before the trade deadline, with the season series wrapping up with a four-game set in Los Angeles at the end of July.

May 31-June 2 vs. New York Yankees

With visits from Ohtani and Aaron Judge in the span of three weeks, Giants fans will have an opportunity to let the free agents who spurned them hear all about it. Perhaps tempers would have cooled, and Judge would have been welcomed back to his native Northern California a year later. But finishing as also-rans time and time again seems to have resulted in an existential angst emanating from at least a segment of the fan base. Expect to hear those feelings expressed to the perpetrators. The series is also the first of seven interleague matchups at Oracle Park that include visits from the Astros, Angels, Blue Jays, Twins, Tigers and White Sox.

June 7-9 at Texas Rangers

Bruce Bochy’s hand will weigh a little heavier when the Giants see him this season than when he made his return to Oracle Park last year. Fresh off adding a fourth World Series ring to his collection, Bochy more than proved the game hasn’t passed him by. This series is more than sentimental, though. The defending champs will pose a good midseason measuring stick. If things are going well, a few players could be back at Globe Life Park a month later for the 94th All-Star Game.

June 20-23 at St. Louis Cardinals (Birmingham, Alabama)

Say, hey! The modern-day Giants will take a trip back in time for the first game of their series at the Cardinals, traveling

some 500 miles south of St. Louis to Rickwood Field, the oldest operating professional stadium in the country, where Willie Mays used to play in the Negro Leagues. The 10,800-capacity ballpark, which opened in 1910 and was home to the Birmingham Barons, is undergoing extensive renovations to accommodate the major-league clubs and their fans for the game, set to take place the day after Juneteenth and serve as a tribute to the Negro Leagues and Mays, a Birmingham native.

July 26-28 vs. Colorado Rockies

In the first home stand after the All-Star break, the Rockies visit Oracle Park for three days at the end of July, but in a new scheduling twist, they’ll squeeze in four games. The clubs will play two — and not because of weather — that Saturday, exactly 27 years after the Giants’ last scheduled double header on July 27, 1997, against the Pirates.

August 17-18 at Oakland A’s

The unfortunate, if not yet carved-ingranite reality is that the A’s could play somewhere other than Oakland in 2025. With blueprints for a Vegas ballpark in hand and their Coliseum lease up after 2024, these could well be the final games of a 27-year Bay Bridge series, dating back to the start of interleague play. It’s been remarkably competitive — the A’s hold a four-game edge, 74-70 — and, let’s be honest, while the Giants have their shimmering waterfront ballpark, there’s nothing like a Coliseum tailgate. Don’t wait to appreciate it.

Sept. 3-5 vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

This three-game series against the defending National League champions kicks off a September docket that features six matchups apiece against the Diamondbacks and Padres. The Giants won’t have seen either team since the first month of the season, with the exception of a short trip to Arizona in June. Whether these games factor into the division or wild card race, the stretch run sets up to be a challenging one for the Giants, with every September series against teams expected to contend for the postseason.

2024 schedule at a glance

NOTES

All times Pacific. All game times and telecast information subject to change. All games broadcast on 680 AM

Home games

*Double

2nd game will begin shortly after the end of the 1st game

The final season?

Fans have choices for what might be a long A’s farewell

BY LAURENCE MIEDEMA

The 56th season of A’s baseball in Oakland gets underway at the Coliseum with a seven-game homestand. As spring training opened, and this magazine went to press, it was still unclear whether this season marks an East Bay swan song or the start of a longer goodbye. Either way, will it have any impact on attendance, which has been the lowest in the majors the past two seasons?

It won’t be an easy choice for even the most passionate A’s supporters, who must reconcile their fury about ownership’s relocation effort – and stewardship of the once-proud franchise – with the emotions of saying goodbye to the Green and Gold as they know them.

Here’s a look at some key series to watch this season:

March 28-31 vs. Cleveland Guardians

The A’s open the season on a Thursday night against Cleveland in what might be the beginning of the end in Oakland. Will history and nostalgia put A’s fans in the seats? Last season’s opener against the Angels drew 26,805 fans, the A’s fourth largest crowd of the season and one of just five dates that drew more than 20K. Or will a planned boycott leave the Coliseum even emptier than usual? An early April visit by the Red Sox to conclude the homestand could be a better gauge of fan apathy.

April 26-28 at Baltimore Orioles

The A’s head back to the town where its Oakland era began. The Oakland A’s played their first game on April 10, 1968, at old Memorial Stadium. They lost 3-1, but a young outfielder named Reggie Jackson hit the second home run of his career – he’d go on to hit 561 more. The A’s debut had been scheduled a day earlier, but was postponed because of the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr. The A’s home debut came a week later, also against the O’s.

May 6-8 vs. Texas Rangers

The reigning World Series champions and Bay Area native (and former A’s shortstop) Marcus Semien arrive to wrap up the A’s longest homestand of the

season, a 10-gamer that starts with the Pirates and Marlins. The series finale not only coincides with the 56th anniversary of Catfish Hunter’s perfect game, but it includes one of two traditional doubleheaders scheduled this season by MLB.

June 18-20 vs. Kansas City Royals

The A’s won’t visit their one-time hometown this season, but the cities’ MLB fortunes have been intertwined since Charlie O. Finley moved the franchise to Oakland following the 1967 season. The teams are at similar stages in their respective rebuilding plans: For much of 2023, it was a race between the A’s and Royals to see who might challenge the 1961 Mets for the losingest season in the modern era.

Fireworks shoot into the sky as the Oakland Athletics line up for the national anthem before their season opener at the Coliseum in Oakland, on March 30, 2023.

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

June 21-23 vs. Minnesota Twins

The last of the A’s three-peat World Series champion teams from the 1970s will get its day. The 1974 team, which beat the Dodgers in five games 50 years ago, will be honored on Sunday, the final day of the series, and replica jerseys from that season will be given away to fans. The series opens with one of the more promising promotions of the season – a Satchel Paige Rocking Chair bobblehead giveaway – as part of African American Heritage Night. The A’s connection to Paige came in 1965, when the longtime Negro Leagues star pitched in one game for the Kansas City A’s … at the age of 58.

July 12-14 at Philadelphia Phillies

This weekend series in Philadelphia may serve as a reminder of what some call the carpetbagger history of at least some of the franchise’s owners. The A’s called Philadelphia home from 1901 until 1954 – two years less than their run in Oakland – before moving to Kansas City amid outcry opposing relocation of the team. Financial troubles, waning fan interest and losing teams were cited for requiring the franchise to leave town.

July 19-21

and 25-28 vs. Los Angeles Angels

Since arriving in Oakland, the A’s have played more games against the Angels than any other team – it’ll be 906 times after this season. Beloved former A’s coach Ron Washington is managing the Angels this season, and fans will get a lot of Wash, Mike Trout and Co. in a hurry: All 13 of the A’s games against the Angels will be played in a 28-game span from late June to late July.

Aug. 2-4 vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

The A’s will be coming out of the trade deadline when they finally get their first look at Shohei Ohtani in a Dodgers uniform. Interestingly, the A’s have had significant success against the Dodgers in the Coliseum. They closed out the 1974 World Series against the Dodgers with three straight wins in Oakland and got their only win in the 1988 World Series against L.A. at home. The A’s are 23-19 against the Dodgers since the start of interleague play in 1997, including a 16-5 record at home.

Aug. 17-18 vs. Giants

Two weeks after the A’s visit San Francisco for possibly the final time as a Bay Area-based rival, the teams will meet for a weekend series at the Coliseum. Bay Bridge Series games have been among the most well-attended games ever played in the Coliseum – four of the top nine all-time (including playoffs) and the top two overall. Will this edition bring out fans of Bay Area baseball in droves two more times?

Sept 24-26 vs. Texas Rangers

The Yankees’ only visit of the season to Oakland to open this homestand is just the start to what could be an emotional week for A’s fans. Even the most staunch anti-John Fisher contingent will have to make a no-win decision: Make a final statement by staying away from the ballpark for what might be the final games of the franchise’s Bay Area existence or be there, if this is the end of the Green and Gold in the 510?

Sept. 27-29 at Seattle Mariners

After 56 seasons, these could be the final days that “Oakland” is seen on jerseys in the major leagues. This will be the 15th time in the past 31 years the A’s play the Mariners in their final game of the regular season, a stretch that began when the strike-shortened 1994 season ended against the M’s. This will be the 12th time overall an Oakland A’s regular season concludes in Seattle, including the A’s second season – in 1969 –against the Pilots in what was their final game before that franchise moved to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.

2024 schedule at a glance

NOTES

All times Pacific. All game times and telecast information subject to change. All games broadcast on 960 AM

Home games

*Double header: 2nd game will begin shortly after the end of the 1st game

Oh say, can you sing?

National

anthem performers brave the jitters to pull it off

STORY BY JIM HARRINGTON ILLUSTRATION BY PEP BOATELLA

Kinsley Murray is an old pro at singing the national anthem.

She’s performed the famous Francis Scott Keypenned lyrics at more than 100 sporting events, including an array of major and minor league baseball games. It’s an impressive accomplishment — especially for an 8-year-old, who can’t get enough of the rush that comes from belting out “The Star-Spangled Banner” for crowds of sports fans.

“When I see the people, I’m like, ‘Oh, I think this is going to be a good performance,’” Kinsley says. “I love the big roar. I’m already doing my best, but (the crowd) makes me feel more excited — and then I just really go at it.”

There’s no doubt that Major League Baseball views anthem singers as hot commodities. Each team hosts at least 81 home games a year, which require a daunting array of star-spangled music. Singers don’t hold a monopoly on ballpark gigs — Metallica, the Beach Boys and Carlos Santana have all done the patriotic gig — but vocalists are often the go-to. And singers of every age — pro and amateur — have graced the mic for both the San Francisco

Giants and Oakland A’s, from Kinsley, the young Pasco, Washington, resident who sang for an A’s game in 2022, to Megan Slankard, who has performed the anthem at a dozen Giants games, despite the inevitable butterflies.

“At 1 minute and 30 seconds, the song always seems to be one of the more terrifying gigs on the calendar,” says the acclaimed Tracy-born singer-songwriter.

“You pick it: challenging melody, crazy ballpark echo, 45,000 baseball fans. And don’t forget about the words! Oh, those words. It’s one long run-on sentence, and no matter how much you’ve burned it into your brain, there’s something about stepping onto that field that can make one’s mind go blank.”

Despite the nerves, Slankard says, there’s still a part of her that loves the experience.

“I love baseball. I love the energy, the suspense, the garlic fries, and I love the Giants and their fans,” she says. “It’s an electrifying experience.”

That’s true even when the gig involves singing while dressed up as one of the most iconic characters in Hollywood history. Yes, Slankard can check that one

“At 1 minute and 30 seconds, the song always seems to be one of the more terrifying gigs on the calendar.”

— Megan Slankard

off her list as well.

“One season, the Giants asked me to dress up like Princess Leia on a designated ‘Star Wars’ night’,” she explains. “Even though I am more of a Trek than a Wars kind of gal, it sounded like too much fun to decline.”

It wasn’t just singing. Some custom prep work was necessary to properly inhabit the part Carrie Fisher made famous in the 1977 film.

“I remember looking up YouTube tutorials on how to put my hair up into the traditional cinnamon-roll pigtails on either side of my head,” she says. “The organization even supplied a costume, though I was too short for it and had to clip it in the back, so I wouldn’t trip when

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

Left: Kinsley Murray, 6, of Pasco, Washington, sings the national anthem before an A’s game at the Coliseum in Oakland on Sunday, Aug. 21, 2022.

walking out to the mic.”

Theme nights always make for ballpark fun, and they give organizers the chance to book singers who really fit with the occasion. So when the Oakland A’s held a Hawaiian day celebration at the Coliseum one year, they called in East Bay slack-key guitarist and vocalist Patrick Landeza to perform the anthem.

“Singing the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ is one of those bucket list gigs for me,” Landeza says. “Not only was I proud to play our national anthem but also represent my Hawaiian heritage by doing it my way — performing my Hawaiian slack-key guitar version.”

Still, the San Lorenzo resident says he was feeling mighty nervous on game day, despite all his practice and prep work, as he readied himself to sing in such a cavernous space.

“There was about a six-second delay that didn’t compare to me practicing in the bathroom, where it was probably a two-second delay,” he remembers. “To make things even worse, every time I completed a practice run in the stadium, the bullpen booed me. The sound man said that they do that to everyone, but it was making me more concerned.”

In the end, the day proved unforgettable for Landeza — for all the right reasons.

“I genuinely got a lot of positive feedback,” he says. “I watch the video and look at the pictures from time to time in disbelief that I did this — and at the same time, swear to never

do it again!”

Landez may have caught rehearsal boos from bullpen pranksters, but some artists get it for real — from the crowd.

When Alison Levy and The Sippy Cups, her Bay Area kiddie-rock act, did the anthem for a family day-themed Giants game, the experience proved memorable for less than positive reasons.

“We gave the Giants organization the option of a traditional solo vocal performance or a full band rock version,” says Levy. “They opted for the rock band version, but the crowd was not with us and booed us and called us un-patriotic!”

And the crowd was still upset at the group 7½ innings into the game.

Above: Megan Slankard sings the national anthem in the guise of Princess Leia during a “Star Wars” themed night at Oracle Park in 2017.

SF GIANTS

Left: Janelle Feraro sings the national anthem before an A’s game at the Coliseum on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023.

NHAT V. MEYER/ STAFF ARCHIVES

“Later (organizers) asked me and the other lead singer to lead ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’ That’s when we realized that the Giants fans were not on our side!” the San Francisco resident recalls. “We hightailed it out of there after that.”

But Kinsley Murray had the opposite experience in Oakland, where A’s fans treated her like a major celebrity.

“Funny thing is, to this day, she always says the A’s is her favorite anthem because of the reaction and all the people that came up to her after for selfies and autographs,” says Shafer Murray, Kinsley’s father. “We couldn’t get through the concourse without getting stopped, probably 100 times, if not more.”

Faces in new places

Baseball’s off-season moves shuffled some very important players

BY DANNY EMERMAN

All anyone wanted to talk about entering the off-season (let’s be honest, the speculation started well before the season ended) was where Shohei Ohtani was going to land.

Once the two-way star decided to remain in Southern California and join the Dodgers, the free agent market was supposed to quickly sort itself out. It turned out to be one of the quietest off-seasons in years.

In fact, some of the top free agents — Matt Chapman, Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery — were still unsigned when spring training opened.

Still, it was an off-season that saw several of the game’s biggest names find new homes and marked the arrival of several intriguing foreign-born players.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest moves of the off-season.

times every regular season. It’s Sho Time in the NL West.

Baseball’s $700 Million Man could very well be in Dodger Blue for the rest of his career after signing a record 10-year deal. Ohtani, 29, won’t pitch this season after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery but is scheduled to play the Giants 13

Soto is entering his seventh full season, so it’s easy to forget he’s just 25. He also has a batting title, four Silver Sluggers, a World Series ring and a Home Run Derby trophy. By getting Soto from the Padres to join Aaron Judge and his court, consider the Bronx Bombers back.

EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES

Lee, the former Korean Baseball Organization star, is the biggest signing in the Farhan Zaidi era, inking a six-year, $113 million deal with San Francisco, Lee’s not Ohtani, but the slap-hitter should be fun to watch and have the personality to win over fans. Whether he hits .260 or .310 from the leadoff spot could determine just how watchable the Giants are this season.

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

Juan Soto of the San Diego Padres hits a home run against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning at Oracle Park on September 26, 2023.

Shohei Ohtani Dodgers

Juan Soto Yankees

Jung Hoo Lee Giants

Eduardo Rodriguez of the Detroit Tigers throws against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 18, 2023, in Los Angeles.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto Dodgers

Both the face and the place are new, as Yamamoto signed a massive 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers. Yamamoto’s first MLB season will be one of the most fascinating storylines of the season. He dominated in Japan and could be one of the best pitchers alive but will have to adjust to MLB competition to live up to the hype.

Jorge Soler Giants

Just as players were arriving for spring training, the Giants added slugger Jorge Soler with a three-year contract worth $42 million. Soler might be the franchise’s best power threat since Barry Bonds. He led the AL in home runs in 2019 with 48 and hit 36 last season as a first-time All-Star with Miami.

Chris Sale Braves

Sale holds the title of the best active pitcher who hasn’t won a Cy Young, now that Yankees ace Gerrit Cole won the AL award last season. The seven-time AllStar struck out Manny Machado to win the 2018 World Series for Boston, but the 35-year-old has battled a slew of flukey injuries ever since. Atlanta acquired Sale for promising infielder Vaughn Grissom, betting that if he can stay healthy, he can put them over the top.

Eduardo Rodriguez Diamondbacks

Rodriguez registered a 3.30 ERA last year and should bolster

a top-heavy Diamondbacks rotation. Arizona also added Eugenio Suarez and Joc Pederson. It’ll be tough in a division with the Dodgers, but the Snakes are clearly trying to keep the good times rolling.

Jordan Hicks Giants

The Jordan Hicks Experiment could be fascinating. He throws 103 mph and always considered himself a starter but never got a real shot at it, because he got pigeonholed in the back of the bullpen. San Francisco views him as a conventional starter, and he’ll get the chance to break camp in the rotation. Even if he doesn’t work out, his four-year, $44 million deal looks like a steal.

Shota Imanaga Cubs

Imanaga, another Japanese pitcher coming to the states for his Major League debut, is a control artist who relies heavily on his four-seamer. He dominated in the World Baseball Classic and could bring some electricity to Wrigley.

Craig Kimbrel Orioles

Baltimore needed pitching, and they got … Craig Kimbrel? Kimbrel is probably the best closer of the post-Mariano Rivera generation but is at the stage in his career where every out feels laborious. Kimbrel is five saves away from passing Hall of Famer Billy Wagner in career saves and should break into the top-five in Baltimore.

Above: The San Francisco Giants introduce their new centerfielder Jung Hoo Lee, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, at Oracle Park.

KARL MONDON/STAFF

Right: Chicago Cubs President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer introduces Shota Imanaga during a press conference on January 12, 2024, in Chicago.

NUCCIO DINUZZO/GETTY IMAGES

Here come baseball’s next

Looking to the rookies to see who tops the rosters

BY LAURENCE MIEDEMA

Times have never been better for baseball prospect watchers.

When Buster Posey first joined the Giants late in the 2009 season, he was one of 204 players to debut in the majors that season. Last season, 261 players appeared in their first MLB games — a year after there were a record-setting 303 debuts.

More top prospects than ever are being fast-tracked, in large part because of rules intended to discourage teams from manipulating service time to stall players’ arbitration and free agent clocks.

Here’s a look at some of the prospects fans should know for Opening Day and to keep an eye out for later this summer. (High-profile international free agents such as Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee and Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga are considered rookies this season but did not make the prospects list because of their significant pro experience overseas.)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

Jackson Chourio OF, Brewers

The Brewers believe they have the next Ronald Acuna Jr., Mike Trout or Juan Soto on their hands, which is why they signed the Venezuelan native to an $82 million, eight-year

winter, a

for

Above: Before being called up to the majors, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio hit 22 home runs with 44 stolen bases last season alone.

Right: Cincinnati Reds third baseman Noelvi Marte throws to first base during a game on Sept. 18, 2023.

GEORGE WALKER IV/ASSOCIATED PRESS; JEFF DEAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

deal this

record

a player yet to reach the majors. Chourio has played just six games above Double-A and turned 20 just before spring training, but all signs point to the right-handed hitter having star potential because of his combination of power and speed. He hit 22 home runs with 44 stolen bases last season, becoming just the fifth teenager

big things

to have a 20/40 season minors and the first since Acuna did it in 2017.

Noelvi Marte 3B, Reds

Marte turned a lot of heads when he slashed .316/.366/.456 with three homers and six steals in 35 games after being called up late last season. Marte, 22, was acquired from Seattle in the Luis Castillo trade in 2022 and could help anchor the left side of Cincinnati’s infield with Elly De La Cruz (also just 22) for years.

Jordan Lawlar SS, Diamondbacks

The No. 6 overall pick in the 2021 draft was overmatched when he was called up late last season ( a .129/.206/.129 slash line with 11 strikeouts in 31 at-bats) but figures to join Corbin Carroll as the faces of the franchise. Lawlar, 21, has 20-homer/30-steal potential and has drawn comparisons to a young Derek Jeter.

Other prospects to watch in the National League

AMERICAN LEAGUE the Orioles’ already impressive group of young stars led by AllStar catcher Adley Rutschman and third baseman Gunnar Henderson, who was the unanimous A.L. Rookie of the Year last season. The son of one-time A’s outfielder Matt Holliday had a slash line of .323/.442/.941 with 12 home runs, 24 stolen bases and 101 walks as he moved through four minor league levels last season, finishing with 18 games at Triple-A.

Evan Carter OF, Rangers

Carter, 21, was the breakout star of the Rangers’ World Series run, reaching base 28 times in 17 playoff games. The 2020 draft pick appeared in 40 games in the majors in all, with a slash line of .303/.414/.989 with six home runs and six stolen bases and is considered a potential Gold Glove left fielder.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 draft is considered the top prospect in the game and at the age of 20 is poised to join

Paul Skenes, SP, Pirates; Kyle Harrison, SP, Giants; Luisangel Acuna, SS/2B, Mets; Michael Busch, INF, Cubs; Masyn Winn, SS, Cardinals; Tyler Black, 3B, Brewers; Hunter Goodman, 1B, Rockies; Carson Wisenhunt, SP, Giants; Nick Frasso, SP, Dodgers; Lyon Richardson, SP, Reds; James Wood, OF, Nationals; Thomas Saggese, 2B/3B, Cardinals; Mick Abel, SP, Phillies; Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, Cubs; Dylan Crews, OF, Nationals; Marco Luciano, SS, Giants.

Nolan Schanuel 1B, Angels

An on-base machine in college, Schanuel made his MLB debut

weeks after being the 11th overall pick in the 2023 draft,and he’s reached base in every game he’s played in for the Angels — 29 and counting. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound lefty is still a work in progress — he drew 20 walks, but also struck out 19 times in 109 at-bats and hit .275 with just one home run and six RBIs — but the Angels are firmly in rebuild mode.

Other prospects to watch in the American League

Junior Caminero, 3B, Tampa Bay Rays; Darell Hernaiz, SS, A’s; Brooks Lee, INF, Minnesota Twins; Everson Pereira, OF, Yankees; Colt Keith, 3B, Detroit Tigers; Heston Kjerstad, RF, Baltimore Orioles; Colson Montgomery, SS, White Sox; Orelvis Martinez, SS/3B, Blue Jays; Coby Mayo, 3B, Orioles; Ricky Tiedemann, SP, Blue Jays; Kyle Manzardo, 1B, Guardians; Wyatt Langford, OF, Rangers; Curtis Mead, INF, Rays; Ceddanne Rafaela, OF, Boston Red Sox; Parker Meadows, OF, Tigers; Wilyer Abreu, OF, Red Sox; Denzel Clarke, OF, A’s.

Texas Rangers’ Evan Carter rounds first after a hit during the second inning of Game 1 of the baseball AL Championship Series against the Houston Astros Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, in Houston.

TONY GUTIERREZ/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jackson Holliday SS, Orioles

Baltimore Orioles short stop Jackson Holliday is introduced during a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Wednesday, July 27, 2022.

JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Santa Rosa Strat Club is on a roll with the legendary baseball board game

STORY BY LAURENCE MIEDEMA

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Joe Beland, left, the commissioner for Santa Rosa’s Strat-o-Matic League, is wowed by a back-to-back double play by Bill Brister, right, as Kyle Ferguson and Jennifer North enjoy the exuberant tabletop game play on opening day at Ausiello’s 5th Street Bar and Grill in Santa Rosa on Jan. 2.

ance Lantow and the San Francisco Giants both are three-time World Series champions. But Lantow has experienced something the Giants have not — clinching that title at Oracle Park.

The Giants still have him beat on parades.

Lantow isn’t a major league manager, though. He’s a member of the Santa Rosa Strat Club. In an age when baseball video games can pass for the real thing and fantasy leagues keep score in real time, the Strat group is a throwback.

They gather at Ausiello’s Fifth Street Bar and Grill in downtown Santa Rosa once a week to play a dice-based baseball board game that debuted in 1961 as Strat-O-Matic. Or simply Strat.

Last August, however, the group lived out a Strat player’s wildest dream: playing at an actual big league ballpark.

While the real Giants were wrapping up a three-game series against the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, a handful of club members settled into a suite at San Francisco’s waterfront ballpark for the final round of their league’s playoffs.

That’s where Lantow guided, appropriately enough, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and the 1966 Giants to a series sweep of the Hank Aaron-led 1966 Braves.

“It was really cool,” said Lantow, who didn’t get a parade, but had a victory walk that included a trip onto the field while holding the league’s championship trophy. “It was so much fun.”

Kyle Ferguson, who played as the Braves’ manager, also was blown away by the experience. “I lost, but it was a blast,” he said. “To actually play a baseball game at Oracle Park. You couldn’t ask for a venue better than that.”

The club, as well as the epic Oracle Park field trip, are largely the result of club founder and commissioner Joe Beland’s perseverance.

In 2000, Beland spent two weeks in the hospital with COVID-related complications. He lost 80 percent of his lung capacity. He flatlined once.

This being the nadir of the pandemic, nobody could visit him, not even his wife, Monica. To help pass the time as he recovered, Beland started ordering

Lance Lantow celebrates his win against Kyle Ferguson in a Strat-OMatic World Series match held on Aug. 10, 2023, at Oracle Park.

KARL MONDON/ STAFF ARCHIVES

sets of Strat player cards — from his hospital bed — to add to his already sizable collection.

When boxes began showing up on their doorstep at home, Monica knew Joe was on the mend.

“I shouldn’t have had the credit card with me in the hospital,” joked Joe, who now owns a copy of every Strat season ever produced — going back to the 1900s.

Before COVID hit, Beland and three friends had begun playing the game of their childhood at

a local comic book shop a few nights a month. When he got out of the hospital, the games moved outside — to Beland’s backyard — and soon the field of teams expanded to six.

“I’ve collected cards forever, but I wanted to get other people to play,” Beland said. “With all the bad news that was going on in the world at the time, we needed something to do together.”

Beland has been a Strat pied piper ever since.

Many of the club members have connections to the Home Depot where Beland has worked for 37 years. Some are friends of friends. One joined up after stumbling across the group’s game night. The league currently is 10 managers strong — three former champs are taking a season off — and Beland is always looking for more players to expand the club. The club, mostly Giants fans, has even taken a Dodgers fan into the fold.

Beland’s only request is that

players wear a baseball jersey to each league night, bring their own scorebooks and, most importantly, have a good time.

“I didn’t know anything about it until Joe. It was all Joe,” said Laura Baker, who grew up rooting for the Padres but wasn’t familiar with Strat until she joined the league. “He’s a good salesman.”

Beland put his persuasive skills to the test when he asked the Giants if they’d allow a handful of the league members to spend a couple hours at the ballpark late last summer to complete their season. The request caught the Giants by surprise but piqued their interest. Eventually, the Strat club was cleared for a Thursday afternoon visit.

“I told them we’d play in a closet,” Beland said. “We just wanted the feel of going down to the ballpark. And wouldn’t it be great to play the World Series in a place where they played the World Series?”

There’s a big league feel, too,

2023, at Oracle Park.

KARL MONDON/ STAFF ARCHIVES

about how the club’s champions are recognized.

The league plays two 10-week seasons per calendar year, one in the spring and another in summer, and the name of each season’s winner is placed on a one-of-a-kind trophy Beland built just for the league. It has a wooden base that’s about a foot and a half wide, with figurines of Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle on either side of a silver candlestick with a crystal baseball attached to the top. And if that’s not enough, Beland orders replica World Series rings for each champion with as much bling as the real thing.

These days, Strat-O-Matic has a computer version that is more popular than the board game. But the Santa Rosa club members aren’t the only ones out there who prefer a roll of the dice to a mouse click.

Every February, hundreds of Strat players line up outside the company’s Glen Head, New York, headquarters — often in

the snow or rain — to personally receive the new set of player cards instead of waiting a few days for them to arrive in the mail. Dubbed “opening day,” it’s celebrated across Strat nation.

While the Santa Rosa club is still just establishing itself, the East Meadow Strat-O-Matic league is about to begin its 53rd consecutive season some 3,000 miles east of the Bay Area. The New York league was started in 1972 by a group of Long Island friends and is, by all accounts, the longest continuously running Strat baseball league in the world.

“It started with us arguing about who do you think is the best player in baseball,” said Jim Drucker, the founder of the league. “We wanted to see who knew the most about baseball. That was 52 years ago.”

For a long time, Drucker and his group kept their activity under wraps.

“We hid this from our friends, wives, girlfriends and family for 20 years,” Drucker said. “We were all kind of embarrassed we were playing a game pretty much made for 10-year-olds.”

Some of those 10-year-olds not only are still playing, but there are countless stories about people, who went on to all sorts of roles in baseball, crediting Strat with helping them learn the inner workings of the sport.

Strat was invented by Hal Richman, a then-recent Bucknell University mathematics student who wanted to create the most realistic baseball game ever made. Electronic Arts/EA Sports founder Trip Hawkins has said Strat was one of his inspirations, because of the depth and accuracy of the game’s statistics.

Strat’s game play and its use of player statistics also are credited with helping spawn baseball’s sabermetrics move-

Lance Lantow holds s trophy while posing for a group photo with his Santa Rosa buddies competing in the StratO-Matic World Series, Thursday, Aug. 10,

ment. Players take on the role of team manager, using dice to determine plays and statsfilled game cards for each batter and pitcher. The cards offer three columns with 11 possible outcomes in each, using probabilities based on a batter or pitcher’s actual stats.

Tom Kwiatkowski, who has won three championships, is considered the Santa Rosa club’s expert number cruncher, analyzing each player card for any possible advantage. Others manage in the moment — Morgan Dabbs’ decision to attempt a game-winning steal of home is the most ill-advised and memorable play in league history.

“Maybe I had a couple of beers,” Dabbs said with a laugh. “That was my first season, I think. I came out bold.”

Kwiatkowski will take the odds and cold, hard stats every time.

“They’re a lot more fun than me, but …,” Kwiatkowski said, flashing a huge smile and his three replica championship rings. “Imagine if Billy Beane knew what your stats were going to be, what your chances were of getting a home run in this game. He would make the same decisions.”

Beane probably did.

The longtime A’s executive, who inspired both the Michael Lewis “Moneyball” book and the film spinoff, famously is credited with helping usher in the sabermetrics era in the early 2000s. He’s also among the most famous Strat alums. But despite the best analysis and preparation, the dice didn’t always go Beane’s way, either. He was known to throw the dice down the street after really bad rolls and even destroy player cards for poor performances, accord-

ing to Alan Schwarz’s book, “The Numbers Game.”

Another Strat success story is Giants broadcaster and Hall of Famer Jon Miller. In a Q&A with Strat-O-Matic.com, Miller shared that as a kid, he was the ultimate Strat multitasker. In addition to calling out the play-by-play as he rolled the dice for both teams, young Miller supplied all the ballpark background sounds — crowd noise, organists, vendors — as well as handling the P.A. duties.

“With all of that going on as I rolled the dice for each play, it created some uncomfortable moments, if someone happened to walk in on me at an exciting moment in the game,” Miller said. “When a friend of my mom, looking horrified, exclaimed, ‘What’s he doing, for god’s sake?!’ My mom ad-libbed, ‘Oh, it’s, uh, you know, uh…asthma! Yes, that’s it, asthma. He’ll be fine.’”

Santa Rosa’s league likely will not produce the next GM whiz or broadcast superstar. They’re baseball fans, but mostly of the casual variety.

“I enjoy baseball, but it’s more for the camaraderie and hanging out with everybody,” said Heidi Hartman, now in her second year with the club.

Ausiello’s on a Tuesday night might not be Oracle Park, but the Santa Rosa club enjoys the home field advantage. The drive is shorter, and there’s food, beer and plenty of room to enjoy each other’s company — and take a step toward next season’s World Series — one dice roll at a time.

“There’s a lot of smiles going on here,” said Ferguson, surveying the scene at the league’s opening night in January. “You don’t get to see that on a computer screen.”

Luke Mazza, left, can’t resist laughing after Morgan Dabbs hits a homer in a Strat-oMatic game at Ausiello’s 5th Street Bar and Grill on Jan. 2.

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

Sizing up the American League

The

fortunes

of each team depend on the power of the players

BY DANNY EMERMAN

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST

Baltimore Orioles

The Orioles stunned the baseball world by winning the vaunted AL East last season, in large part because their bevy of young stars arrived – and delivered –ahead of schedule. They should only get better, as their young core develops and breaks into the league. Next up is the No. 1 prospect in the game, Jackson Holiday, and acquiring former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes from the Brewers over the winter was a home run.

New York Yankees

With Juan Soto joining Aaron Judge, the Bronx Bombers have two of the five most lethal hitters in the game. Getting Carlos Rodón healthy and pitching like he did with the Giants could be the key for the Yankees, who are seeking their first pennant since 2009.

Toronto Blue Jays

Toronto might have been the biggest

losers of the off-season, letting Matt Chapman go as a free agent and signing only Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kevin Kiermaier. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still young, but he’ll have to prove his MVPcaliber 2021 season wasn’t an outlier if Toronto is to contend for a World Series berth.

Tampa Bay Rays

Tampa Bay took a step back in trading ace Tyler Glasnow, but the Rays have surpassed the A’s as the team that does more with less. Despite a reduced payroll from a year ago, the well-run Rays are always a threat to win 90 games.

Boston Red Sox

Red Sox ownership fired Chaim Bloom, the former chief baseball officer, after last season and vowed to go “full throttle” this off-season, then struck out on every impact free agent. A flukey 2021 ALCS run has masked a tough reality at Fenway: The Red Sox have been a mess since trading Mookie Betts to Los Angeles after the 2019 season.

TOM FOX/GETTY IMAGES

Right: Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy and his wife, Kim Seib, ride with the World Series trophy and wave to fans during the World Series Victory Parade on November 3, 2023 in Arlington, Texas.

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST

Texas Rangers

Give manager Bruce Bochy and the defending World Series winners credit: It’s their division now. And they might just be scratching the surface. The championship nucleus is about to get augmented by a new wave of young talent, led by Wyatt Langford, Evan Cater, Josh Jung and Jack Leiter.

Houston Astros

Houston has won the division six of the past seven years, and other than Jose

Altuve, most of the roster has turned over. But the Astros have been the most consistent team in the American League, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.

Seattle Mariners

Above: Seattle Mariners’ Julio Rodriguez bats against the Los Angeles Dodgers during a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, in Seattle.

MADDY GRASSY/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

After finally returning to the playoffs in 2022, the Mariners appeared poised to take the next step last year. But they stumbled early and never really were a threat. A 21-6 record in August was a reminder of how good this team can be. Julio Rodriguez could be one of the top five players in the game. .

Los Angeles Angels

They couldn’t achieve postseason relevance with Shohei Ohtani, so what would make anyone think they could do it without the two-way star? Unless he’s traded, this will be Mike Trout’s 14th straight season without a playoff appearance.

Oakland A’s

The A’s lost 100 games in a season just once in their first 54 seasons in Oakland, back in 1978. Now they have done it in each of the past two seasons,

and with the smallest payroll in baseball and another roster that resembles an expansion team, they will be hardpressed to avoid 100 losses this year, too.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL

Minnesota Twins

The defending division champions are built on pitching, and exciting prospects Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien and Brooks Lee are set to contribute. The Twins have a strong chance at repeating in a weak Central.

Cleveland Guardians

Starters Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie, Tanner Bibee and Gavin Williams could lift the Guardians back to contention. If not, some of them could be on the trading block.

Detroit Tigers

Hayward native Tarik Skubal might be the best starting pitcher no one talks about. Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter

The Baltimore Orioles scored a home run in the off-season, acquiring former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, above, from the Brewers.

AARON GASH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

are dynamic young outfielders, and Detroit will need former top pick Spencer Torkelson, another Northern California native, to join them in ushering in the next era.

Kansas City Royals

Cole Ragans was a revelation after coming over from the Rangers in the Aroldis Chapman trade, posting a 2.69 ERA and 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings in 12 starts. If he and Bobby Witt Jr. carry the momentum KC ended last season with – they won 11 of their final 16 games – the Royals could be a sneaky pick in the Central.

Chicago White Sox

John Brebbia and Brian Bannister can’t save the South Side’s sinking ship. Could Luis Robert Jr. be on the move?

Sizing up the National League

Where each team shows its strengths and vulnerabilities as the season begins

BY DANNY EMERMAN

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST

Atlanta Braves

The Dodgers won the off-season and still might not have more talent than Atlanta. The Braves return all the key pieces from the team that led the majors with 104 wins and tied the MLB record with 307 home runs but lost to the Phillies in the divisional round for the second year in a row.

Philadelphia Phillies

The vibes in Philly have been immaculate, and they’ll have a healthy Bryce Harper all season. But bouncing back from the disappointment of a second straight, deep playoff run that fell just short could be tough.

New York Mets

The Mets are playing for 2025 but still have plenty of talent to help them improve following last season’s 75-win stinker after winning 101 games in 2022. Trading Justin Verlander and Max

Scherzer for prospects could pay off right away.

Miami Marlins

Miami reached the playoffs and logged its first winning full season since 2009. But unless Sandy Alcantara can return to Cy Young form, the Marlins — who were awfully quiet this winter — could take a big step back.

Washington Nationals

Even after four straight last-place finishes, Washington’s long rebuild won’t be over any time soon. The good news: Patrick Corbin’s albatross contract expires after the season.

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST

Los Angeles Dodgers

Chavez Ravine is the center of the baseball world. Good luck to any pitcher staring down a lineup of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani, Max

Muncy, Will Smith and James Outman. Oh yeah, the Dodgers can pitch a little, too, and added Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the mix.

Arizona Diamondbacks

Last year’s NL pennant winners, just like Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll, are only scratching the surface, which should make the NL West one of the most intriguing races in the league.

San Diego Padres

Even without Juan Soto, Josh Hader and Blake Snell, the Padres have a star-laden roster. The Padres were a dismal 9-23 in one-run games last season, so maybe some new chemistry was in order.

San Francisco Giants

Young pitchers will have to shoulder a heavy load, particularly early in the season, although the spring training eve addition of Jorge Soler might give an otherwise anemic-looking lineup a chance. The Giants have not had a 30-homer hitter since Barry Bonds hit 45 in 2004, but Soler, 31, hit 36 with the Marlins last season and smashed an AL-leading 48 with the Royals in 2019.

Colorado Rockies

Another year, another year in the cellar for the Rockies.

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL

Cincinnati Reds

The upstart, small-market Reds spent more than $100 million this off-season. Money doesn’t always equate to wins (just ask the 2023 Mets), but pouring

resources into a club with so much young talent is the move.

Milwaukee Brewers

Last year’s division winner should take a step back, but it might not be a huge drop. Trading Corbin Burnes is a blow, but the Brewers have one of the best minor league systems in the game, led by outfielder Jackson Chourio. Adding veterans Rhys Hoskins and Gary Sanchez takes some heat off the kids.

St. Louis Cardinals

Everything seemed to go wrong for the Cardinals last season, so at least some breaks should go their way in 2024. They still have cornerstones in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, and additions like Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson should address their need for competent (at least) pitching.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs plucked manager Craig Counsell away from division rivals Milwaukee in hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2020 but were otherwise mostly quiet over the winter. They remained linked to Cody Bellinger, who recaptured his MVP form last season with the Cubs but entered spring training without a deal.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates are building around a promising core led by Ke’Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Paul Skenes and Henry Davis. They are likely another year away from making noise, but at least they appear to have a real plan under general manager Ben Cherington. Not every last-place club can say the same.

Outfielder Jorge Soler does drills during practice with the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation on Jan. 16, in Miami. The Giants added Soler to the roster right before spring training.

LYNNE SLADKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Left: Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins throws against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning at Denver’s Coors Field on May 24, 2023.

MATTHEW STOCKMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Arizona Diamondbacks players celebrate winning their wildcard baseball series against the Milwaukee Brewers Oct. 4, 2023, in Milwaukee

MORRY GASH/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former R.E.M. members thrash on in a band forged by a love of baseball

ASTORY BY JIM HARRINGTON

PHOTOS BY RAY CHAVEZ

ny baseball fan knows that music and the great American pastime overlap a bit. There are walk-up songs, after all, ballpark DJs and an organist playing pumpup tunes. And then there’s The Baseball Project, a guitar-centric quintet whose all-star musicians include half of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame act R.E.M. — five die-hard baseball fans who write, perform and record irresistible original songs inspired by their favorite sport.

Their debut album, “Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails,” hit it out of the park in 2008 with 13 engaging tracks offering up such songs as “Fernando,” about iconic Los Angeles pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, “Sometimes I Dream of Willie Mays” — arguably the most beloved San Francisco Giant of all time — and “The Death of ‘Big Ed’ Delahanty,” which addressed the short life, but brilliant career of this early-era baseball power hitter.

A Baseball Project tour brought the band to Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre in September.

Last fall’s Guild Theatre concert was a homecoming for the band, whose members include two Bay Area natives and a UC Davis alum.

Three albums later, the Baseball Project is still going strong, finding plenty of musical inspiration in a seemingly endless supply of decades-old stories and modern-day tales about the game.

“We are really big baseball fans,” says vocalist-guitarist Steve Wynn, who is best known for his work in the L.A. rock act Dream Syndicate in the ’80s. “We really do follow the game every single day of the season. It’s not even like where you’d think we’d have to say, ‘OK, time to put aside a little time to think about baseball.’ We think about baseball pretty often.”

That passion leads to an abundance of ideas for song topics. You’ll find “The Voice of Baseball,” about Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, “Screwball” and “Journeyman” on the band’s fourth album — “Grand Salami Time!” — which was released last summer

“There is never any shortage of ideas or material for things to write about,” Wynn says. “I wish all my other projects were that easy, because it is pretty natural and effortless with this band.”

Wynn is one of five all-stars in this three-guitar-driven rock outfit. The other members include vocalist-guitarist Scott McCaughey (the Young Fresh Fellows, the Minus 5) and drummer Linda Pitmon (Filthy Friends) as well as half the original R.E.M. lineup — guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills.

It’s a group with strong Bay Area ties, too: Buck was born in Berkeley; McCaughey grew up in Saratoga, and Wynn is a UC Davis alum. So their performance at Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre in September — part of a 27-city national tour to support the new album — was a homecoming for the band, with plenty of local fans on hand for the show.

“I moved (to the Bay Area) in 1963, became a Giants fan instantly and then became an A’s fan, when they came in ’68, too,” says

McCaughey, who attended Saratoga High School before moving to Seattle to start the Young Fresh Fellows. “I liked having both teams there. They are still my teams.”

He talks warmly about some of his earliest experiences watching baseball here.

“I saw some great Giants teams in the ’60s, but they were always frustrated in the end,” he says. “But that was a great team to root for when you were a kid — Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry.”

Those Giants teams couldn’t quite get the job done, but the new guys who moved into the ballpark on the other side of the Bay quickly began hanging championship banners.

“That was good timing,” McCaughey says of the A’s move to the Bay Area. “I went to a couple of World Series games in ’72 and ’73. They won (the World Series) three years in a row, which is amazing.”

Wynn grew up in L.A., but favored the Reds and A’s over the Dodgers in his formative years — even before landing at UC Davis as a freshman in 1977.

“I went there with the full intention of being a sports writer,” he says. “Like Scott, I was into rock ‘n’ roll in high school and played guitar and wrote songs. But I did not think I was going to end up playing in a band professionally for the next 50 years. That didn’t seem like an option. Sports writing felt like the way I was going to be going.”

Wynn became sports editor at the college newspaper but found the Bay Area’s thriving punk rock scene impossible to resist.

He started spending much of his time driving back and forth to Berkeley and San Francisco to buy records and go to shows.

“I was seeing all those great shows in the Bay Area,” remembers Wynn, who lives in New York now and follows the Yankees. “My punk rock education was going to the Old Waldorf, Mabuhay Gardens — just whatever shows that were happening around there. After three years in Davis, I think I was still a sophomore, because all I wanted to do was DJ at the radio station, play in my new wave band Suspect — which was a forerunner to the Dream Syndicate — and go to concerts.”

Sports writing’s loss was the music world’s gain. Wynn delivered multiple memorable

albums with the Dream Syndicate and other outfits as well as during his own solo career. It was R.E.M. who brought The Baseball Project together — or rather, it was their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 that did the trick. The musicians were celebrating the band’s honor at a party in New York, when McCaughey — an auxiliary member of R.E.M. who recorded and toured with the band for years — got to chatting with Wynn about this idea of recording some songs about baseball. The excitement grew as the conversation went on, and when they parted company, it was to begin writing new material.

“We both immediately dashed off three or four songs and

Above: Concertgoers at the September show included baseball fans as well as music aficionados.

Right: Vocalist and guitarist Scott McCaughey has fond childhood memories of cheering for Willie Mays and Willie McCovey at Giants games.

were like, ‘Wow, these are really good. This is going to be cool,’” McCaughey says.

Soon after, they recruited Pitmon and Buck for the project and ventured into the studio.

“We went in making the record, not having any idea that it was going to be a band or anything like that,” McCaughey says. “We didn’t even know what we were going to call it when we recorded the album. Then it turned into something.”

The band was a hit right from the start, quickly landing a coveted slot on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and appearing at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

The band’s first album was followed by “Volume 2: High and Inside” in 2011. By the time the group’s third album — “3rd” — was released in 2014, Mills had officially joined the Baseball Project. After a nine-year hiatus, the group returned with more songs about our national pastime on “Grand Salami Time!”

The Baseball Project’s music is a hit with all kinds of fans, from baseball die-hards who can recite Rickey Henderson’s top stats from memory to folks who know all the words to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by heart.

“We definitely have baseball nerds who come to see us. We definitely have R.E.M. nerds who come to see us. But that might be 20 percent on either side,” McCaughey says. “And then you’ve got the 60 percent in the middle who are just people who just love our music — who are fans of all of our bands.”

OUT WITH THE A’S;

IN WITH THE B’S

Expansion Ballers eager to prove baseball can still thrive in Oakland

BY JASON MASTRODONATO

When Bryan Carmel closes his eyes, he can hear the sound of the drums beating, smell hot dogs on the grill and start to envision what the Oakland Ballers are going to look like when they play their first game at Raimondi Park on June 4.

“It has to feel Oakland,” the Ballers co-founder said. “To me, the basic idea is a block party.”

A block party at a baseball game, 48 nights each summer. It’s not quite the vibe of the Savannah Bananas, the fun-loving, carnival-like group of ballplayers that travels the country like the Harlem Globetrotters. Those guys are performers first, ballplayers second.

Like the Bananas, the Ballers are an independent team, unaffiliated with Major League Baseball, and they hope to incorporate some of the Bananas’ silly spirit into what they’re doing. They also hope to maintain an identity as a professional baseball team in Oakland, capitalizing on the emptiness local baseball fans might be feeling when the A’s leave town.

“It feels like your heart is getting ripped from your chest,” Carmel said, contemplating the end of the A’s decades-long run at the Coliseum. “That’s how it has felt to me.”

Carmel and Paul Freedman, who first met as students at Oakland’s College Preparatory School, started the Ballers last November with a dream: to make baseball in Oakland mean something again.

Ruben Rios and his son, Armani, 11, warm up at Oakland’s Raimondi Park, where the Oakland Ballers are scheduled to play this summer. “It’s great for the community,” the Oakland resident said. “A great place for the Ballers.”

RAY CHAVEZ/STAFF

And they haven’t been shy about mocking the A’s. It’s right there in the name: They call themselves the B’s. They’re using a similar logo and have the same green and gold colors. The A’s used the slogan “Rooted in Oakland” for years before announcing they were moving to Las Vegas; the Ballers have already vowed to never leave town.

And while the Ballers’ $2 million in initial funding isn’t anything close to what’s needed to fund an MLB expansion team — no ownership group has publicly expressed interest in expanding in Oakland as yet — it’s enough money to start a professional baseball team in the Pioneer League, a nearly century-old independent league whose teams were once affiliated with Major League Baseball but now serve primarily to provide testing grounds for potential MLB rule changes.

And to provide a home for players who have been overlooked.

“Every player, they’re trying to live a dream,” said Don Wakamatsu, the former Seattle Mariners manager who is the Ballers general manager. “It’s been a tough road for these players, whether they didn’t get signed out of college, or they were released, and they were still trying to fill that dream. We want to be quasi dream-makers.”

They certainly aren’t in it for the money. Ballers players will make an estimated average monthly salary of only $2,000 during the season, which runs from May through September. They’ll also be given housing.

Why would Wakamatsu, the first Asian-American manager in MLB history and a well-respected big league coach, want to work for an upstart Pioneer League baseball team in Oakland?

“It has a lot to do with the A’s leaving,” Wakamatsu said.

Once a three-sport star at Hayward High School, Wakamatsu remembers going to his first A’s game as a 9-year-old and feeling like the A’s were giants in

the sport.

“I have a lot of roots here, and I’d like to be able to pay some of that forward,” he said. “Can we find a kid out of Skyline High School or Hayward High and give them an opportunity to live the dream that I was able to live?”

To help him, Wakamatsu hired Micah Franklin as his first manager. Franklin is a San Francisco native, a former MLB scout and a coach who worked in the Nationals system. Ray King, a former big league pitching coach, will join his staff, along with J.T. Snow, the longtime San Francisco Giants first baseman who will operate as the bench coach.

The Ballers initially hoped to play at Laney College, which was something of a twist. It was less than seven years ago that the A’s announced plans to build a privately funded, $500-million stadium near the college, set to break ground in 2021 and open

in 2023.

Of course, that never happened.

“It was done incorrectly,” said John Beam, Laney College athletic director, in a phone interview in January. “You need to shape the narrative. But it got shaped by other people. The faculty wasn’t open-minded. The whole community should’ve looked at how to make it happen.

“But you’re always cognizant of the feeling of multimillionaires pillaging the community in some way. I think that stops people from thinking about it. It might’ve been the best thing to happen.”

But in February, there was another twist. Talks between the B’s and Laney fell apart over the team’s request to build several thousand more seats to expand the current capacity of about 250 at the school’s scenic baseball field.

The Ballers found a home at

Raimondi Park in West Oakland. There’s plenty of Oakland baseball history tied to the field. It’s where Frank Robinson, Curt Flood and many others got their starts.

“As the Oakland Ballers, our mission has always been to revitalize Oakland’s ballparks,” Carmel said in a team release announcing the Ballers’ home field as well as a $1.6M revitalization effort for the park. “We are honored to be part of the next chapter of baseball at Raimondi Park and eagerly anticipate collaborating with the city and local residents to showcase the potential of our city.”

Carmel envisions Ballers games will be a nightly block party with a beer garden, food trucks and drums. And among the Ballers’ many goals is this: to be “hella Oakland.”

“Build it together with us,” Carmel said. “We make the canvas. Fans paint the picture.”

Don Wakamatsu, the Oakland Ballers’ executive vice president of baseball operations, takes to the lectern at a news conference announcing the formation of the new team, led by manager Micah Franklin, right.

JEFF CHIU/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE

Oakland Ballers

first signed player could turn out to be the team’s best

BY JASON MASTRODONATO

Dondrei Hubbard was the Bo Jackson of North Dakota’s Mayville State University in 2016 and 2017, when he hit .388 on the baseball team and averaged more than five yards per carry as a running back on the football team.

Hubbard, now 28, has played professional baseball all over the world but never in the big leagues. Not yet, anyway.

“Each year I tell myself, this could be my last year playing,” he said. “And each year, I do something crazy.”

This winter, Hubbard added “first player in Oakland Ballers history” to his baseball resume.

Undrafted out of Mayville in 2017, Hubbard went to Australia and the Czech Republic to find work as a professional baseball player. He returned stateside in 2019 and, for the last four years, has dominated the indie ball circuit while getting two looks by major league organizations: the San Diego Padres and the Washington Nationals.

His opportunity with the Padres was cut short due to the pandemic in 2020. His opportunity with the Nationals in 2022 was heartbreaking, if not ordinary for a player of his background.

Big league organizations will usually give a half-dozen chances to guys once considered elite prospects, even if they aren’t performing, but often pass

over guys like Hubbard, who put up good numbers but are already labeled as non-prospects before their professional careers get started.

With the Nationals, Hubbard was sent to Double-A, two steps from the big leagues, when he was told he wouldn’t get any playing time. But one day in May, he finally got into the lineup and went 2-for-4 with a home run. Three games later, he went 4-for-4 with a home run. For the entire month, he outperformed some of the best prospects in baseball.

Then he hurt his back.

The Nationals had no time to waste on a beat-up 26-year-old. The top prospects got healthy,

Dondrei Hubbard was the first player signed by the expansion Oakland Ballers. Hubbard is the reigning Pioneer League batting champ, hitting .395 last season with the Missoula Paddleheads.

MADELINE SCHALLMOSER/ MISSOULA PADDLEHEADS

and Hubbard went back to the bench. Two months later, Washington released him.

“I just had some bad baseball luck,” he said.

Last year, he was the Pioneer League batting champion who hit .395 for Missoula. Now he looks to be the best player on the Ballers roster.

So how did the Ballers sign a guy this talented? They gave him a fancy job title: designated hitter and assistant hitting coach.

“It gives me an opportunity where, if I stop playing, I won’t be stuck,” Hubbard said. “No matter what, if I hit .400 again and an affiliated (MLB) team wants me, cool. If not, I have

coaching experience, and I can do that.”

Like most indie ball players, Hubbard isn’t primarily playing for the money. Many of those players work other jobs in the off-season. Hubbard gives private hitting workshops and works for a friend’s roofing business.

“I’m 28. All my friends are done playing,” Hubbard said. “They got good jobs and good money. They think I’m super cool because I am still playing. I think they’re cool because they can buy whatever they want. It’s a tough life to figure out. What’s next? Do I stop? Do I keep going?”

This season, he’s going all in with the Ballers.

Wacky promos pack in the fans at minor league games

BY LINDA ZAVORAL

When it comes to entertaining fans, baseball’s minor leagues have a history of stepping up to the plate. Most teams host base-running events for kids, heritage game days and bobblehead giveaways — besides scheduling several fireworks nights a season. And then there are the signature events, with on and off the field antics. Here’s a roundup of fun ones:

SAN JOSE GIANTS: DIA DE LOS CHURROS

Churros are so popular with fans at the San Jose Giants’ Excite Ballpark that the team honors the sweet legacy on not one but five game days. It’s all in tribute to Hipolito Cerda, the man who has been making them fresh for decades at his Olimpos Churros stand just off the third-base line. On Dia de los Churros, the players wear jerseys and hats featuring cartoon churro characters. Giveaways this season include churro ornaments on Christmas in July Night on July 24, Hawaiian shirts at the Aug. 17 Margaritaville Night and wizard scarves at Harry Potter Night on Aug. 30. Details: www.milb.com/san-jose

RANCHO CUCAMONGA QUAKES: ‘FRIENDS’ TV SHOW NIGHT

The Quakes’ LoanMart Field invites fans of the hilarious TV sitcom characters Chandler, Phoebe, Ross, Monica, Joey and Rachel to the ballpark on June 21 for photo opportunities, specialty jerseys – and a game against the Inland Empire 66ers. The first 1,500 people through the gate will receive a “Friends” mug. More fun: A number of Bark in the Ballpark events are scheduled for

this season. The pet-friendly seats are located on the first-base side of the stadium. Details: www.milb.com/ranchocucamonga

STOCKTON PORTS: ASPARAGUS NIGHT

When you’re the Asparagus Capital of the World, you can’t ignore those springtime stalks. The A’s single-A affiliate celebrates Stockton’s biggest crop with Asparagus Night festivities that in the past have included Ports players in dark-green jerseys emblazoned with asparagus, asparagus trivia on the Banner Island Ballpark scoreboard, asparagus mascot races and, of course, deep-fried asparagus, bacon-wrapped asparagus and more. Mark April 20 on your calendar for this year’s event. Other great promotions include Luau Night on May 3, with a Hawaiian shirt giveaway,

Above: Hipolito Cerda makes churros as a long line of excited baseball fans waits at San Jose’s Excite Ballpark. Cerda has been the stadium’s churro king for three decades.

Opposte: An A’s player’s glove and cap lie near the dugout at the Coliseum in Oakland.

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/STAFF ARCHIVES

and a Martial Arts Night on May 31, when fans will receive free Karate Splash bobbleheads. Details: www.milb.com/ stockton

MODESTO NUTS: PUPS & PINTS

You, your best canine buddy, beer discounts — and a baseball game! At every Thursday home game of this Seattle Mariners affiliate, the Pups & Pints hangout at Modesto’s John Thurman Field doubles as an off-leash dog park. When you’re ready to watch the game, you leash up and head to seating in one of the dog-designated sections. Keep in mind that if you decide to attend, you will need to sign a legally binding waiver that requires you to take responsibility for your pooch at all times. And no, the players batting cleanup will not be taking on that duty when it comes

to your dog. Details: www.milb.com/ modesto

SACRAMENTO RIVER CATS: PRINCESS & PIRATE NIGHT

Storytelling rules in West Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, home of the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. Look for princesses and pirates to fill the stands at one game this season and mini-Harry Potters at another game (dates, activities to be announced). Giveaway nights for the first 2,500 fans through the gate will include a 25th River Cats anniversary replica jersey on June 21 and a Dinger coffee mug on July 19. Dinger, of course, is the team’s personable mascot. Speaking of cuddly, Wet Nose Wednesday is a weekly invitation to watch the game with your dog on Home Run Hill. Details: www.milb. com/sacramento

FRESNO GRIZZLIES: MEET BLUEY & BINGO NIGHT

This jam-packed lineup may have you vacationing in Fresno so you can catch these events at Chukchansi Park, home to this Single A-affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. We predict an early-season sellout April 13 for Meet Bluey & Bingo Night featuring the adorable Aussie characters who appeal to both kids and parents. May 25 has been named Fresno Parks & Rec Night, and actor-comedian Jim O’Heir (who played Jerry Gergich on TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) will be in attendance. The Grizzlies will celebrate Latino and lowrider culture with the three-day Fiesta Oso with the Lowriders de Fresno, July 19-21. Among the many events honoring community heroes will be the April 12 one titled My Job Depends on Ag, with a Fresno tribute jersey giveaway. Details: www.milb.com/fresno