SACRAMENTO — It is raining, the wind is gusting at 40 mph, and the wind chill is 49 degrees.
Oh, baby, the Athletics are not in Oakland anymore.
There will be days that the A’s and the visiting teams will pray for Sunday mornings like this during the blistering hot summer, but for their historic opening night game Monday against the Chicago Cubs, well, it will be a cold reminder that life for the A’s is about to become awfully different.
They will be spending the next three seasons at Sutter Health Park, the San Francisco Giants’ Triple-A stadium, where the A’s pitchers will be in for a rude awakening with their enormous foul territory now gone, and visiting teams will be moaning about their cramped clubhouse, let alone spending their nights in downtown Sacramento.
“I think it’s so stupid that we have to play at a Triple-A stadium,’ Cubs veteran reliever Ryan Brasier told USA TODAY Sports, “when they have maybe not a perfectly good ballpark in Oakland, but a big-league ballpark. I would have much rather play in Oakland than Sacramento, but I guess it doesn’t really matter what we want.
“I really don’t get not playing in Oakland opposed to playing in Sacramento.’
Like it or not, this will be the Athletics’ new reality until they move to Las Vegas for the 2028 season.
The way the A’s figure it, they’ll be using their new digs as a tremendous home-field advantage. While they have a new two-story clubhouse, the visiting teams will have the smallest clubhouse in the majors.
Touring the visiting clubhouse Sunday located outside the center-field fence, there is a Blackhawk Country Club floormat to wipe your feet before entering, and a grill in the back to make some burgers and hot dogs. The biggest shock for the visitors will be the mere size of the clubhouse, with players feeling as if they’re sitting in the middle seat during a Spirit Airlines flight. It’s hard to imagine what it looked like before they added a small dining room, a batting cage, a weight room and expanded the coaches’ office and trainer’s room.
The Albuquerque Isotopes were the visiting clubhouse’s occupants on Sunday, the Colorado Rockies’ Class AAA team playing the Sacramento River Cats.
“It’s still so small,’ said one member of the Isotopes, “but, hey, it’s baseball.’
The intimate ballpark, with Vegas and sports book advertisements on the outfield wall, seats only 14,014 – if you include the outfield berm. But the dugouts were expanded to major-league dimensions, the dugout bathrooms were upgraded and there’s a new dark green batter’s eye. The fans also now have a large 75-by 32-foot video board in right-center field to see replays, stats and the lineup, along with an upgraded sound system.
The biggest adjustment for the A’s and visiting teams will be that there is no tunnel between the dugouts and the clubhouses. The A’s have to walk down the left left field line through a gate to enter the clubhouse from the field, while visiting players must trek through the opening in center field.
“That’s crazy,’ Brasier said. “I actually enjoyed playing in Oakland. The locker room was kind of [stuffy], and you know everything was kind of [stuffy], but it was still freaking cool. I mean, it was massive. The field was always in great shape.’
The playing field looked pristine Sunday for the River Cats game against the Isotopes, with a paid attendance of 3,437 on hand, but, of course, the season just started. Check back this summer when there will be nearly a game a day with the A’s and River Cats sharing the facility. The original idea was for artificial turf to be installed until the Major League Baseball Players Association voiced a formal complaint because of the summer heat. So, the two teams will play on grass all season, with no games scheduled between June 8-15 when they will re-sod the field.
There will be a four-day stretch after the Cubs leave town after Wednesday’s game when there are no games played, and only seven off-days until June 8. There are 11 days with no games in the second half of the season.
“Well, it could be better than Tampa, at least,’ says Brasier, with the Tampa Bay Rays playing this season outdoors at the New York Yankees’ Triple-A ballpark. “They’re going to have so many games delayed and cancelled with the rain. And it’s going to be the hottest place on earth when there’s no rain. It’s going to be a nightmare.’
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Well, at least the Rays are playing in a minor-league ballpark because of a natural disaster. The A’s are playing in Sacramento because of a self-inflicted disaster with the city of Oakland.
“It’s been so hard for that city,’ said Detroit Tigers center fielder Ryan Kreidler, who grew up an A’s fan in Davis, Calif, just outside Sacramento. “The Warriors moved out. The Raiders moved out. And now the A’s. But I know the fans in Sacramento will show up.
“I’m really curious how the field will hold up between them and the River Cats.’
It will also be fascinating to see how the pitchers hold up, knowing the ball could absolutely fly in the summer months. Scouts who work games in Sacramento widely predict that A’s outfielder Brent Rooker could hit 50 homers with the way the ball carries to right-center field.
“That ball moves pretty well there, so there could be a lot of homers,’ said Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Jack Dreyer, who pitched in Sacramento for the Dodgers’ Oklahoma City team. “It will be really interesting to have kind of a minor-league feel to big league games. The big concern the players have will be seeing how that field holds up. Shout out to the grounds crew for all of the future work they’re going to have to deal with.’
Well, if nothing else, Dreyer says, he’s at least thrilled the bullpens will now have bathrooms.
“We had to run along the outfield fence between innings just to go to the bathroom,’ Dreyer said. “So I’m glad to hear we have bathrooms now. That was the biggest area of concern for the relievers. So, I think overall it will be fine.
“Guys can only hope.’
Even if the facilities are still definitely minor-league quality, instead of being surrounded by a sea of empty green seats like they were at the Oakland Coliseum, the A’s will be playing in front of sellout crowds all summer. Season tickets have been sold out and there’s a waiting list for 2026.
The folks of Sacramento are thrilled to have a major-league team they can call their own, although “Sacramento’’ will appear nowhere on their uniform, let alone be used in their name.
Just call them the A’s of Sacramento.
“We’re going to embrace the community while we’re there,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said this spring, “and I know the fans will embrace us, too.
“That’s all we can ask.’
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