OAKLAND, California—On a perfect night in West Oakland, Jorge Leon is roaming around Ernie Raimondi Park, where the city’s new independent league baseball team, the Oakland Ballers, play. It’s the first game of the new season, and the ballpark is sold out. A few minutes earlier Leon was up in the stands, shouting “Let’s go Oakland!” at the top of his lungs, but right now he’s on the outdoor concourse, where fans wait in line for food and locally brewed Almanac beer.
“I’ve only watched three innings,” he tells me. By tomorrow or the next day, he explains, he’ll be laser-focused on the game, but this past Tuesday, it’s like a reunion for Ballers fans like him. “You run into everyone you know,” he says. “So I’m out here talking to the community.”
Raimondi Park is located in a mixed residential and industrial neighborhood not far from the city’s massive shipping port. It looks like the love child of a major league stadium and a high school ballpark. The city’s biggest homeless encampment was located just around the corner until it was cleared last year. “We used to sometimes have to take needles off the field,” said Paul Freedman, one of the team’s co-founders.
