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Tim Keown
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Major League Baseball arrived in this city along the Sacramento River on Monday night, and it came bearing quirks.
The clubhouses in Sutter Health Park — the home of the Athletics for at least the next three seasons — are located beyond the wall in left-center field, the stadium holds about 14,000 people, and the designated interview room is a corrugated metal shed down the left-field line.
Those oddities meant little to the fans who filled the place for the A’s home opener and first home game away from Oakland since 1967. The enthusiasm in Sacramento was considerable. Fans piled up outside the gates of this heretofore minor league stadium long before they opened, and there was a general feeling of disbelief that this was actually happening. The excitement, however, was no match for the game, which the Chicago Cubs won 18-3 behind 10 extra-base hits, 10 walks and a cycle by catcher Carson Kelly.
“Not a good showing on our first night here,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “I though the energy was great. … We just played bad.”
A’s owner John Fisher, who did not attend a game in Oakland last season, was at the ballpark to hear occasional chants of “Let’s go Oakland” and see a handful of fans wearing SELL T-shirts. Several others wore T shirts or sweatshirts that read, “I’d rather be at the Oakland Coliseum.” A spirited but brief “Sell the team” chant arose after the bottom of the sixth, with the Cubs leading 16-3. The protests were mild and muted, overwhelmed by a general delight at seeing the first of many big league games in this minor league park.
The A’s honored Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, who died in December, by having everyone in uniform wear No. 24. (“Super special,” A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson said.) Their home whites this season will include a depiction of Sacramento’s Tower Bridge and “Sacramento” on the right sleeve and the Las Vegas logo — a paid sponsorship — on the left. No home city will be on their jerseys, and they will be known only as “Athletics” during their stay in Sacramento, which they expect to take them to a proposed 2028 Opening Day in a stadium that awaits construction in Las Vegas.
“I think we recognize the situation,” said A’s designated hitter Brent Rooker. “I think we recognize the need for a temporary home until we get to where we’re going, and I think we’re fully prepared to embrace this as our home for the next three years, both the stadium and the city, and make the very best of it.”
The A’s will share Sutter Health Park with the Sacramento River Cats, the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, which means the field will play host to more than 150 games over the next six months.
“The grounds crew is going to deserve a raise by the end of this,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said.
Most of the concerns regarding the nonstop use of the field center on the playing surface and the impending heat, which routinely exceeds 100 degrees in the summer, a far cry from Monday’s cold and wind. Despite the weather, the park played small in its first big league game, at least for the Cubs, who batted around twice and had four players (Kelly, Michael Busch, Kyle Tucker and Swanson) drive in at least three runs.
The location of the clubhouses and batting cages beyond the outfield presents the unique opportunity for players to get a in a quarter-mile jog between innings to prepare for a pinch-hitting appearance. Before the game, Cubs manager Craig Counsell said Seiya Suzuki, Monday night’s designated hitter, might make a jaunt or two from the first-base dugout, around home plate, down the left-field line and halfway across the warning track to get some swings between at bats. Perhaps because the game was such a blowout, nobody made the trek.
“The only thing that isn’t great is how far away the clubhouse is,” said A’s pitcher Luis Severino, who signed a three-year, $67 million free agent contract in the offseason. “If you have a bad game, that’s a long walk.”
The two-story home clubhouse facility has been built from the ground up, and the A’s were impressed that it came together so quickly. There’s a big league caliber clubhouse on the ground floor, with a food room, sauna and cryochamber above.
“This is very major-league-like,” Counsell said.
The Cubs arrived in Sacramento on Sunday night after opening the season in Tokyo against the Dodgers and then playing a three-game series in Arizona. The Tokyo-Phoenix-West Sacramento circuit is a first, something Counsell said “will never be done again. I can say that for sure.”
The A’s residency in Sacramento puts a halt to multiple years of controversy and uncertainty as the team’s 57-season stay in Oakland came to its conclusion. The team hopes Sacramento provides at least a temporary respite from all of that. Asked whether he envisioned that coming true, Rooker said, “Well, it hasn’t stopped yet, so we’ll see.”
The paid crowd of 12,192 was roughly 2,000 short of the listed capacity of 14,014, but fans crowded the concourses and braved the bracing wind to sit on the grass berm beyond the right-field fence.
Asked what kind of atmosphere he expected in his new home park, A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler said, “I’m expecting it to be like a sold-out crowd at Sutter Health Park — whatever that is.”
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