People are excited about the team once known as the Oakland A’s playing home games in a minor-league ballpark in West Sacramento. Not me.
This fascination with the A’s and Major League Baseball is a sucker’s game, a modern version of the old carnival stall hook-a-duck.
The A’s are carpetbaggers. They swoop into town in search of accommodation, untethered to commitment. They linger as long as convenience allows, then vanish into the night. They won’t even mention their stopover city’s name.
Smart people tell me the A’s three-season residency makes Sacramento a contender for big league permanence, either through expansion or the A’s themselves. This is nonsense.
The team’s new $1.5 billion stadium breaks ground next month in Las Vegas. Once the A’s depart Northern California, under no circumstances will the San Francisco Giants allow an expansion team into the territory.
The River Cats are original tenants of the little ballpark on the marshy side of the river. They thrived there for 25 years.
But if local baseball fans put their financial muscle behind the A’s and run out of nickels and dimes for River Cats tickets, damage will be long-term. The River Cats will play in a ballpark filled with empty seats.
Sacramento is a small town, baseball wise. There are only so many fans. Traditionalists—the kind of people who look at a scorecard and know what 6-4-3 means—are dying. There are too many seats for sale with two teams in West Sac.
Which means you won’t find me attending A’s games. I’m boycotting the pit stop. Saving my love for the River Cats.
Another thing I plan to do is learn everything about another Oakland baseball team that played in Sacramento, the Oakland Larks.
The Larks were members of the West Coast Baseball Association, a professional league formed in 1946 for players barred from the majors. Black players.
The West Coast league was a big deal. Newspapers from Seattle to San Diego covered the games, not only African American papers. Sacramento wasn’t big enough to support a team. But the local market had baseball history and resources worth remembering.
The Larks and San Francisco Sea Lions scheduled a dozen games at Edmonds Field, the Sacramento Solons’ home at Riverside Boulevard and Broadway.
The West Coast Baseball Association charged ticket prices equal to the Solons. This was serious baseball, not a discount show.
League president was Abe Saperstein, who managed and promoted the Harlem Globetrotters. Olympic track hero Jesse Owens was vice president.
In a demonstration of the league’s legitimacy, Gov. Earl Warren threw out the first pitch in San Francisco on May 12, 1946, for a game between the Sea Lions and Los Angeles White Sox. The home team won 11-3 before 705 fans.
The Sea Lions had two stars, pitcher Art “Smokey” Demery and outfielder Jesse Alexander. Demery was a big leaguer. He played outfield for the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro National League. Alexander excelled in center field despite having only one arm.
The West Coast league folded after two months. Integration was finally coming to the majors. Jackie Robinson suited up for Brooklyn in April 1947.
Last year, Major League Baseball recognized statistics from the Negro Leagues. Stats are sacrosanct with baseball people. Acknowledgement of Negro League numbers starts a tentative acceptance process, if not full apology, by the gatekeepers.
For now, comprehensive Negro League individual game statistics are beyond reach of official records. But research continues. The West Coast Baseball Association was declared a minor league, so Larks and Sea Lions stats won’t count.
That won’t stop me. I want to learn about those dozen Larks and Sea Lions games at Edmonds Field. How Jesse Alexander played outfield with one arm.
With stories like that, who needs the Philadelphia Kansas City Oakland West Sacramento Las Vegas A’s?
In scorekeeping, 6-4-3 means a double play, shortstop to second to first.
R.E. Graswich can be reached at regraswich@icloud.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
