WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mark Kotsay usually walks across the subject earlier than video games so as to add some steps to his every day rely. For the Athletics supervisor on Monday, that meant additionally surveying the sphere situations at his new dwelling ballpark.
The left-field nook had grow to be swampy after a morning rainstorm in Northern California, however Kotsay simply smiled and remained assured it might be playable by first pitch. Past the left-field stands, building tasks have been nonetheless being accomplished at Sutter Well being Park, all as crimson, white and blue banners commemorating the A’s dwelling opener hung from the railings of the minor league stadium.
“We have embraced being right here in each manner,” Kotsay stated, noting his staff has already gone via opening day final week in Seattle.
“From a enjoying standpoint, we’re settled, proper, so the nerves and anxieties, pleasure of the sport is now settled,” he stated. “By way of tonight and the power that we’ll really feel from this crowd, clearly we’ve not been on this atmosphere so it should be a brand new expertise, which is thrilling.”
Even with all the change that comes with relocation, followers nonetheless lined up at entrances properly earlier than the gates opened on a blustery, cool night. As soon as contained in the gates and at their seats, some started chants of “Let’s Go Oakland!” as an ode to their previous metropolis.
With the A’s trailing 16-3, followers started hollering, “Promote The Staff!” as that they had all of final season as a rallying cry directed at proprietor John Fisher.
Shortly after, within the backside of the seventh with Seth Brown batting, a drone hovering above left subject briefly delayed the sport. Longtime visiting clubhouse supervisor Mikey Thalblum’s son Stewart, a bat boy, corralled the drone and it was eliminated by safety.
All the A’s gamers wore No. 24 jerseys to honour late Corridor of Famer Rickey Henderson, who died Dec. 20 5 days earlier than his 66th birthday. A 24-second second of silence was held following participant introductions. Henderson’s three daughters threw out ceremonial first pitches.
The Chicago Cubs, who have already got been to Japan and Arizona earlier than this journey, have been out on the right-field grass hours forward of recreation time and simply occurred to be the staff serving to usher in a brand new A’s period.
“It’s a standard highway journey, it simply feels a bit of completely different,” Cubs first baseman Justin Turner stated. “Clearly opening up right here, being the primary ever main league recreation in Sacramento is one thing, I suppose, I do not know if it is a good factor or a foul factor however we’re right here. Wanting ahead to going out and enjoying some good baseball.”
Exterior the venue, alternating mild poles function signage for the Athletics and River Cats — the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A affiliate who will even play right here.
Attendance was a sellout of 12,119. The stadium can maintain as much as 13,146 when together with seating on a right-field grass berm. That is anticipated to be the staff’s dwelling in California’s capital area for not less than the subsequent three years earlier than the A’s purpose to maneuver into a brand new ballpark in Las Vegas.
That soggy spot in left subject had been handled by recreation time. Sutter Well being Park has pure grass with a posh cooling and draining system that can be particularly vital through the scorching summer time months.
“I feel they did a terrific job, truly. As everyone knows all fields usually are not created equal,” Fisher informed reporters pregame. “Folks have at all times thought that the A’s grounds keepers did an incredible job and that our subject in Oakland and admittedly our fields in spring coaching have been form of artistic endeavors. This definitely appears to be like nice. It’s bought to be one of the refined fields ever created. … After which it got here collectively in such a brief time period. As everyone knows issues don’t at all times transfer as shortly as you need them to. This could positively be an exception.”
To be able to have precedence and finally safe second-row season tickets — the entrance row is reserved for house owners and VIPs — enterprise companions Dan Niccum and Ken McGuire bought season tickets in Oakland final yr though they solely made it to a handful of video games within the A’s remaining season on the Coliseum they known as dwelling since 1968.
“We’re actually thrilled,” Niccum stated. “In fact we wish them to remain in Sacramento. They could, as a result of it is a pipe dream what they’re doing in Vegas proper now.”
Longtime A’s coach Eric Martins skilled some nostalgia as he took the sphere for early work. He performed within the opening recreation of this ballpark 25 years in the past with what was then Oakland’s Triple-A membership.
“Sacramento River Cats, first yr, first 40 video games on the highway, opening of the season after which we did not get to open right here as a result of there was rain earlier than we bought right here so it form of delayed a pair issues that weren’t performed,” Martins stated. “So we performed our first two video games in Oakland earlier than we lastly bought to open up right here. This can be a full full circle for me. … Loopy.”
It wasn’t fairly that for Cubs supervisor Craig Counsell, however having Chicago’s clubhouse in centre subject introduced again reminiscences of the similarities at San Francisco’s previous Candlestick Park.
“I used to be telling the gamers the final park that I keep in mind the place the clubhouses weren’t connected to the dugout was Candlestick,” Counsell stated. “And so they simply form of checked out me with a clean stare, however I attempted to share a narrative that it did exist within the main leagues that there have been parks through the season the place you additionally did not have entry to the clubhouse through the recreation. This can be a spring-training setup when it comes to we do not have entry to the clubhouse throughout spring coaching. Very comparable from that perspective.”
