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 ...
