Modesto’s new Pioneer Baseball League team, recently named the Glow Riders, announced six-time Gold Glove award winner and former San Francisco Giant J.T. Snow as its manager last week. The Glow Riders, an expansion team, will compete in the same league as Oakland’s Ballers.

Snow played first base for most of his career and won the premier position-player award six consecutive times from 1995 to 2000 as both a California Angel and a Giant.

His career slashes (batting average, on base percentage and slugging) were .268/.357/.427.

Snow was initially drafted by the New York Yankees in 1992 but was traded to the Angels the next season. He played for the Angels from 1993 to 1996. He was traded in 1997 to the Giants, where he played until 2005. Snow’s tenure with the Giants included a World Series appearance in 2002. The Giants lost to Snow’s former team, the Angels, in game seven. Snow had a .407 batting average in that series. He retired a Giant in 2008.

Since 2024, Snow had been the bench manager for the Ballers, who made headlines for replacing the Oakland Athletics following their departure for Las Vegas via Sacramento. The Ballers won the Pioneer League championship in 2025.

Snow was announced at a press conference held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in downtown Modesto.

During his address, Snow covered how he was going to roster the team, his style-of-play philosophy and his approach to community engagement. Snow said he did his research into the history of baseball in the area and called it “a great baseball town.”

“We’re an independent baseball team and we don’t have any affiliation with any major league team, so we’re going to have an affiliation with the people of Modesto and the fans of Modesto,” he said. The press conference also announced Alex Leach as the team’s pitching coach. Leach is the head coach for Modesto Junior College’s Pirates baseball team.

The Glow Riders will arrive as the Single-A Modesto Nuts — an affiliate of the Seattle Mariners since 2017 — will relocate to San Bernardino in 2025.

Originally drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 15th round in 2019 out of Arizona State, the Monterey High graduate spent last season with the Cleburne Railroaders in Texas, an Independent franchise.

Coached by former Monterey product and major league slugger Pete Incaviglia, Aldrete hit .341 last year with 21 homers, stealing a career high 20 bases, while sporting a .412 on-base percentage in 2024.

The nephew of current A’s bench coach Mike Aldrete, the younger Aldrete will likely start the season for the teams Double A affiliate in Midland at second base.

A two-time member of The Herald’s All-County baseball team, the 6-foot-2, 208-pound Aldrete reached the Giants Double A affiliate before being released after the 2023 season.

The 27-year-old right-handed slugger provides versatility, having played all infield positions and right field in the minor leagues.

Aldrete hit 47 homers and drove in 194 runs in 348 career minor league games for the Giants organization, hitting .246.

Former A’s and Giants outfielder Bill North, a two-time World Series champion with Oakland in the early ‘70s, will be the special guest from 6 p.m.-10 p.m. at the grand re-opening of Rickey’s Sports Lounge in San Leandro.

North, now 75, is eager to share his thoughts about his old team preparing to leave Oakland and head toward Las Vegas.

“I’m a pragmatist. I’ve been watching how professional sports have treated Oakland for many years,” North said during a phone conversation Tuesday. “And nobody’s really done anything for the community.

“I have an opinion that rich people like to get richer and make other rich people richer without purpose,” added North, who spent more than three decades as a financial planner near his Kirkland, Washington home. “I loved The Town … and there’s a whole bunch of people that could have done better with Oakland. I was a baseball player there and I saw times you could have looked at Oakland as an opportunity.

“To me, it’s just another example of a lack of caring for those in marginalized situations.”

There figures to be a number of lively sports conversations as a number of other former East Bay greats will be on hand at the former go-to place for Raiders fans, which had a soft re-opening in May ahead of its official restart coinciding with the beginning of the NFL season this week.

Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner who led the A’s to their last World Series championship in 1989, headlines a list of former players scheduled to attend. The list includes ex-baseball players Mike Norris and Bip Roberts, ex-Raiders Raymond Chester, Art Thoms and Mike Dotterer, former NFL players Sherman White and Jerry Robinson, as well as ex-Harlem Globetrotters legend Nate Branch.

Award-winning sports columnist/author Dave Newhouse and author Arif Khatib, the founder of the East Bay-based Multi-ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, will be part of a panel with North that discusses sports in Oakland, past and present, and more. Newhouse, a former longtime writer for this organization, and former A’s executive Andy Dolich authored “Goodbye, Oakland,” a look at how the city landed on the verge of losing the Raiders, Warriors and the A’s. Khatib will also have updates on his sports hall of fame’s next class as well as the presentation of the first annual Curt Flood Platinum Award ceremony on Feb. 24, 2024. The award, in honor of Oakland’s Flood, one of baseball’s greatest pioneers, will be presented to the top performers from football, baseball, hockey and basketball.

For a charitable, tax-deductible donation, guests are welcome to attend the ceremonies at Rickey’s, located at 15028 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro. For $50, attendees will receive autographs and photo opportunities with the athletes in attendance along with a chance to win A’s and Giants tickets through a raffle. For $100, guests will also receive autographed copies of Newhouse and Dolich’s book as well as Khatib’s book, “Remember the Sacrifice,” a series of vignettes on unheralded athletes of color, some of which come from the Bay Area.

For more information as well as tickets for Wednesday night’s festivities, go to www.multiethnicsportshof.com, or call 510-629-3895.

“It’s possible that a relocation vote could happen as early as June,” Manfred said at Milwaukee’s American Family Field before the Brewers’ game against the Giants. “It’s really now a question of getting a finalized financing package that would allow them to build on that site. It’s very difficult to have a timeline for Oakland until there’s actually a deal to be considered.”

The owners will meet from June 13-15 in New York, and while there remain steps to be taken, Manfred said he was “optimistic” about the A’s finalizing a public-financing deal with Nevada lawmakers that would pave the way for the move. On Wednesday, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced a tentative agreement with the club, however it must still be approved by state legislators, whose session ends June 5 and won’t reconvene until 2025.

Getting MLB owners to vote on relocation in three weeks marks a significant change in timeline in the A’s potential path out of Oakland. A month ago, A’s team president David Kaval told LVSportsBiz.com he hoped to apply to MLB as early as August, but that was at least two stadium plans ago. The A’s need approval from 75 percent of the league, or 23 yes votes.

The A’s have come to agreements on multiple potential sites for a new stadium in the past month, first on a 49-acre parcel north of the Raiders’ new home and, this week, one on the strip, on the Tropicana Las Vegas property. Per Casey Pratt of ABC7, team officials toured a third site even after announcing the binding agreement with Bally’s Corporation, the owner of the Tropicana.

Manfred said the A’s were “pretty settled” on the Tropicana site, but the relocation vote was still contingent on the approval of the public financing and the A’s completing the required steps in MLB’s internal relocation process, which includes studies on fan interest, possible corporate sponsorships and more, which the commissioner said A’s owner John Fisher “(has) not even started.”

Under the latest collective bargaining agreement, if the A’s don’t have “a binding deal” for a ballpark in place by January 15, 2024, they will no longer be eligible for revenue-sharing funds. They are receiving $20 million this season.

The other MLB owners would eventually get a vote in the A’s relocation; the last team to move, the Montreal Expos received the approval of all but one owner, the Orioles’ Peter Angelos, who would become neighbors with the now-Washington Nationals.

Manfred said he was in Milwaukee “as part of an ongoing process to meet with players” and that he met with representatives from the Giants and Brewers (though in the words of one San Francisco player who has spoken with him in the past but didn’t participate Wednesday, “nothing productive ever comes of it”).

Ostensibly, however, Manfred’s presence regarded the nearly half-a-billion dollars in maintenance costs the league said this week is required of American Family Field, which has been home to the Brewers since it opened in 2001. While addressing the resistance to pouring more public money into the 22-year-old facility, the commissioner struck a notably different tone than with the A’s.

Manfred said “there is not a scenario in my mind at the current moment” that the Brewers could leave Milwaukee while calling the situation here “the antithesis of what has happened in Oakland, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure it stays that way.”

Of the Coliseum, which was built in 1966 and has been the A’s home since 1968, Manfred said, “unfortunately, it’s a facility that was never as good as this one when it started. They made some unfortunate decisions not to maintain the ballpark in the way that it needed to be maintained. It resulted in a decline in the attendance, which had an impact on the quality of product the team could afford to put on the field.”

As for the A’s future in the East Bay?

“Well,” Manfred said, “I think you’d have to ask the mayor of Oakland (Sheng Thao) … You know, I don’t have a crystal ball as to where anything’s going. There’s not a definitive deal done in Las Vegas, and we’ll have to see how that plays out.”

Thao told reporters the city and the team had been “in mid-negotiations — the closest we’ve ever been to landing a deal,” when Kaval called last month to tell her the A’s had an agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas.

Thao announced that negotiations for the waterfront development were dead a day later, but also told NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai she’d listen if the A’s wanted to resume talks to keep the team in the East Bay.

“I really hope that they have a change of heart and really, truly feel that they do,” Thao told Mathai. “If they would call me, I would pick up because it’s not about me, it’s not about (owner) John Fisher, it’s really about the bigger, more complex issues around the fan base, what it means to drive the economy here in the city of Oakland.

“And what means to really be rooted here in Oakland. And so I really hope we can set aside our differences and work something out, but at the same time, if it doesn’t work out, I’m excited for all the opportunities that could be at Howard Terminal.”

Davis seemed as incensed as A’s fans and Oakland city officials were to find out the baseball team signed an agreement to purchase land to build a proposed $2.1 billion, 30-to-35,000-seat stadium just one mile north of the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium near the Vegas Strip.

In a profanity-laced interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Davis made it clear he won’t be a welcoming neighbor should the A’s ballpark deal come to fruition in Southern Nevada.

“I won’t forget what they did to us in Oakland. They squatted on a lease for 10 years and made it impossible for us to build on that stadium,” Davis said Thursday, in reference to the A’s 10-year Coliseum lease extension that expires in 2024. “They were looking for a stadium. We were looking for a stadium. They didn’t want to build a stadium, and then went ahead and signed a 10-year lease with the city of Oakland and said, ‘We’re the base team.’ ”

Davis then mocked the A’s marketing campaign while throwing much of the blame for the Raiders’ departure on the lap of A’s owner John Fisher and his team president, Dave Kaval.

“They marketed the team as ‘Rooted in Oakland.’ That’s been their mantra through the whole thing,” Davis told the Review-Journal. “The slogans they’ve been using have been a slap to the face of the Raiders, and they were trying to win over that type of mentality in the Bay Area. Well, all they did was (screw) the Bay Area.”

Perhaps this is an appropriate time to remind Davis without the A’s maybe he wouldn’t have the world’s second-most expensive stadium – the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium – without the generous assistance from Nevada lawmakers and businessmen.

In actuality, the relationship between the Raiders and A’s had long been an acrimonious one — pretty much since the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995 and “refurbished” the Coliseum. The A’s weren’t pleased with the Coliseum expansion project that bore “Mount Davis,” a monstrosity that still stands as a reminder of the damage to the stadium’s aesthetics.

Now, if the A’s get their wish to move down the street from the Raiders, Davis said that would be the ultimate betrayal of Oakland. (Yes, now he’s choosing to think about how Oakland fans feel about losing another major pro sports team).

“For them to leave Oakland without anything is pretty (screwed) up,” Davis said. “Because that site that the stadium was on was a good site. We ended up in Las Vegas, which is absolutely fantastic and couldn’t be better. But the A’s never gave us a real good chance to stay up in Oakland.”

Davis assured if the A’s join the Raiders in Vegas there won’t be any joyous reunions between the former Coliseum cohabitates, even though he was once a huge fan of the team.

“I have nothing against the players. I was an A’s fan, way back in the day, Reggie Jackson and all those guys. Reggie’s a good friend,” Davis said. “But not this management group, no.

“I just have, again, a lot of personal animosity toward the front office. But with a new management group? Absolutely.”

Team president Dave Kaval said Wednesday night the team finalized a deal last week to buy the 49-acre site where the A’s plan to build the stadium close to the Las Vegas Strip with a seating capacity of 30,000 to 35,000.

The A’s will work with Nevada and Clark County on a public-private partnership to fund the stadium. Kaval said the A’s hope to break ground by next year and would hope to be move to their new home by 2027.

“It’s obviously a very big milestone for us,” Kaval said. “We spent almost two years working in Las Vegas to try to determine a location that works for a long-term home. To identify a site and have a purchase agreement is a big step.”

The A’s had been looking for a new home for years to replace the outdated and run-down Oakland Coliseum, where the team has played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season. They had sought to build a stadium in Fremont and San Jose before shifting their attention to the Oakland waterfront.

Las Vegas would be the fourth home for a franchise that started as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-54.

“We’re turning our full attention to Las Vegas,” Kaval said. “We were on parallel paths before. But we’re focused really on Las Vegas as our path to find a future home for the A’s.”

Commissioner Rob Manfred said in December the A’s would not have to pay a relocation fee if the team moved to Las Vegas.

“We’re past any reasonable timeline for the situation in Oakland to be resolved,” Manfred said then.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement that she was disappointed the A’s didn’t negotiate with the city as a “true partner.”

“The city has gone above and beyond in our attempts to arrive at mutually beneficial terms to keep the A’s in Oakland,” she said. “In the last three months, we’ve made significant strides to close the deal. Yet, it is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas. I am not interested in continuing to play that game — the fans and our residents deserve better.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished as a City, including securing a fully entitled site and over $375 million in new infrastructure investment that will benefit Oakland and its Port for generations to come. In a time of budget deficits, I refuse to compromise the safety and well-being of our residents. Given these realities, we are ceasing negotiations and moving forward on alternatives for the redevelopment of Howard Terminal.”

The A’s would be only the second MLB team to change cities in more than a half-century. Since the Washington Senators became the Texas Rangers for 1972, the only team to relocate was the Montreal Expos, who became the Washington Nationals in 2005.

The A’s lease at the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season. The A’s has struggled to draw fans to the Coliseum in recent years as owner John Fisher has slashed payroll and many of the team’s most recognizable stars have been traded away.

Oakland had the lowest opening day payroll in baseball at at $58 million — less than the combined salaries of Mets pitchers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, who tied for the major league high of $43.3 million.

The team is 3-16 this season and has been outscored by 86 runs — the worst mark through 19 games since 1899. The average attendance through 12 home games this season is 11,027 for the lowest mark in the majors and less than half of the league average of about 27,800. The A’s haven’t drawn 2 million fans at home since 2014 — their only year reaching the mark since 2005.

If the A’s leave Oakland, the city with a rich sports tradition would have no major pro sports teams with the NFL’s Raiders having moved to Las Vegas in 2020 and the NBA’s Warriors moving across the bay to San Francisco in 2019.

“We know it’s a difficult message for our folks in Oakland,” Kaval said. “Obviously we’re grateful for all the hard work that went into the waterfront. But we have been unable to achieve success or make enough progress.”

Las Vegas is quickly become a sports mecca after years of being considered a pariah because of ties to the gambling industry. With gambling legalized in much of the country, the city now could have a baseball team to join the NHL’s Golden Knights, who began as an expansion team in 2017 and the Raiders.

The powerful and poignant images recorded our losses – from wildfires and shootings to COVID and abortion rights – and our gains, in sports arenas, playing fields and parades. There were deaths and funerals and festivals that documented the sorrow of the year and also the elation.

The astonishing and the sublime also were captured – sometimes in the same frame. Such was the retirement of a 100-year-old park ranger.

The Bay Area’s beauty is on full display – the sunsets, the salt ponds, the fog and snow. A stunning supermoon, the last of the year, rose behind the Golden Gate Bridge.

We present 2022, through the eyes of Bay Area News Group photographers.

Highs and Lows

Gabe Abatecola, of San Jose, watches the final minutes of the United States men’s national team World Cup match against Iran in San Jose on Nov. 29. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Family members embrace as law enforcement officers escort the body of Alameda County Sheriff Deputy Aubrey Phillips through the grounds of Oakmont Memorial Park & Mortuary in Lafayette on Feb. 15. Phillips died after suffering a medical emergency while carrying out a traffic stop Saturday morning in the city of Dublin. (Aric Crabb/Staff Photographer)

Golden State Warriors’ Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry (30) celebrate the final moments of their fourth-quarter comeback victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 2 of their NBA Western Conference Finals playoffs at Chase Center in San Francisco on May 20. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

St. Francis’ Erin Curtis (6) hugs St. Francis’ Whitney Wallace (5) as they celebrate their NorCal Open Division Girls Volleyball Championship 3-1 win against Archbishop Mitty at St. Francis High School in Mountain View on Nov. 15. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Natalia (no last name given) and her son Stefan, 8, listen to speakers during a protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside in Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco on Feb. 24. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Fr. Petro Dyachok becomes emotional during an interview in St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Catholic Center in Santa Clara on March 10. His wife, Natalya, is currently staying in the city of Chortkiv in western Ukraine to help their daughter and her family. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Tina McWright holds up the helmet of her son Camdan McWright during a moment of tribute for the San Jose State football player who was killed in a traffic accident last week, before the Spartan’s game against Nevada in San Jose on Oct. 29. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe comforts Bianca Palomera as she becomes emotional while speaking at City Hall in Antioch on Dec. 13. Palomera, 19, an employee at The Habit in Antioch, defended an autistic child who was being bullied, and lost her right eye after being punched. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

A moment of silence is held during a community meeting in Montague on Sept. 4 as the sheriff of Siskiyou County confirms two people died in the Mill Fire. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

Stacey Silva of Gilroy with a blanket made in memory of her parents at her home in Gilroy on May 10. Her father, Gary Young, died of COVID-19 in 2020. Her mother, Melody Young, died of cancer in 2019. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Split-Second Action

Coco Gauff returns the ball against Naomi Osaka in the second set during the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic tennis tournament at San José State University on Aug. 4. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

The California High cheerleaders perform a halftime routine during the Grizzlies football game against Pittsburg High in San Ramon on Sept. 9. (Doug Duran/Staff Photographer)

Li Yu-Jhun serves during the Women’s Doubles final for the World Table Tennis Feeder Series Fremont 2022 at Table Tennis America in Fremont on May 8. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Sharks’ Rudolfs Balcers fights for the puck against Florida Panthers’ Jonathan Huberdeau at the SAP Center on March 15. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Warriors’ Klay Thompson uses control of the ball as he’s double teamed by Celtics’ Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at the Chase Center on June 13. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

49ers’ Samson Ebukam strips away the ball from Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford at Levi’s Stadium on Oct. 3. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

Warriors’ Jordan Poole goes up for a basket against Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) during Game 3 of a second-round NBA basketball playoff series at Chase Center on May 7. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Los Angeles Angels’ Andrew Velazquez leaps to catch a fly ball hit by Oakland Athletics’ Tony Kemp in the first inning of their MLB game at the Coliseum on May 14. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Where we live

A “Starlight Ball” featuring a limo ride and a red carpet walk brought Adam Shariff and Ally Brady together on the dance floor at the Blue Oaks Church-sponsored event at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton on April 29. (Doug Duran/Staff Photographer)

Lashanna Hornage, program manager for Santa Clara County Office of LGBTQ Affairs, smiles under her rainbow umbrella during Silicon Valley Pride Parade in San Jose on Aug. 28. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Members of Lisa Performing Arts take the stage for a performance during a Lunar New Year celebration at Santana Row in San Jose on Feb. 4. (Anda Chu/Staff Photographer)

Noah Pelchin, center left, of San Francisco, and Alex Morris, of San Francisco, lay in their derby car, Bathtime, during SFMOMA’s Soapbox Derby in San Francisco on April 10. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Homeless artist Daniel McClenon sleeps on a sidewalk outside a Walgreens in San Francisco on May 13 with a portrait of Jimmy Hendrix he’s been painting with pens on cardboard. His artwork was stolen a few days later. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Betty Reid Soskin, the nation’s oldest active park ranger at 100 years old, celebrates her retirement from the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park on April 16, in Richmond. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

The obituary of Stephen Elliott, who died of COVID-19 on Jan. 5, is held by his son, Ryan Elliott of Palo Alto, on May 4 in Palo Alto. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Elise Joshi, a U.C. Berkeley student, climate and labor organizer on campus Nov. 17. Joshi evolved a TikTok For Biden account shared by a group of creators into Gen-Z for Change, a 12-employee nonprofit she executive directs, which leverages social media to promote civil discourse and political action among her peers. (Aric Crabb/Staff Photographer)

Luke and James cool off with some water at the homeless encampment near the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport at West Hedding Street in San Jose on Sept. 6. They declined to give their last names. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Peter and Tina Nguyen of San Jose pose for a picture at Duc Vien Buddhist Temple in San Jose on Feb. 1, at the start of the Lunar New Year. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Natalie Vanessa, of San Leandro, works out at Marina Park in San Leandro on Feb. 7. Warm temperatures are expected to continue through the week according to the National Weather Service. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

Dre Hernandez, of San Jose, poses in his 1979 Chevy Malibu while San Jose car clubs celebrated the city’s decades old ban on cruising being lifted at San Jose City Hall in San Jose on Aug. 31. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Members of the Black Men of Labor Social Aid and Pleasure Club carry the casket of Ray “Big Chief Hatchet” Blazio during a jazz funeral in New Orleans on July 14. Blazio, 82, the city’s oldest-living Mardi Gras Indian chief, died on June 17. He lived in Oakland for 13 years after being displaced by Hurricane Katrina. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

San Jose Taiko performs during the Obon Festival at the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuinin San Jose on July 9. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Ava Solda, left, and Riley Velasco play on the bleachers at Cory Field at San Jose American Little League in San Jose on April 7. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Franz Robert performs on the Grace-Liberty Theater pipe organ during a service at Grace Baptist Church on March 6 in San Jose. The church celebrated the 100th anniversary of the theater’s pipe organ during the Sunday service, and planned 13 months of centennial programs. (Aric Crabb/Staff Photographer)

Los Gatos-Campbell Longhorns players watch as assistant coach Jeff Whipple hugs head coach Saul Kennedy during a team meeting after practice at Los Gatos High School in Los Gatos on Nov. 29. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

California School for the Deaf’s Devan Vierra (6) signs to his team in the locker room before their game against Trinity Christian at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont on Sept. 1. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Campolindo’s Sean Spillane quietly prays in the end zone as his team warms up before their game against Las Lomas at Campolindo High School in Moraga on Oct. 28. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Sea to Sky

The Colorado Fire burns toward the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur on Jan. 22. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

The bright crimson waters of the Cargill Salt ponds flow beside a railroad in Newark on Jan. 27. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

The Transamerica Pyramid reflects sunlight as it pokes through the thick fog blanketing San Francisco early Jan. 20. San Francisco’s iconic pointy-headed skyscraper turned 50 this year. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

A visitor walks at sunset at Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 25 in Fremont. The refuge marked its 50th anniversary this year. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Skiers and snowboarders ride down the slopes from the KT-22 summit during the grand opening of Palisades Tahoe gondola line in Olympic Valley on Dec. 16. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Steve Bruemmer, who was bitten by a great white shark while swimming on June 22, near the site of the attack at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove on Oct. 5. (Doug Duran/Staff Photographer)

A deer flees the Oak Fire burning near Yosemite Park on Triangle Road in Mariposa on July 22. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

Houseboats are docked in Shasta Lake as California’s largest reservoir falls to only 36% of capacity during the ongoing drought on Aug. 5. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

A firefighter battles a vegetation fire near Pacheco Boulevard in Martinez on Aug. 4. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

The Sturgeon super moon rises behind the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline as seen from Sausalito on August 11. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Community Conflict

Robert Hernandez lifts a tarp while exiting his trailer at a homeless encampment on the baseball fields off of Irene Street in San Jose on Sept. 19. (Shae Hammond/Staff Photographer)

Piles of belongings and debris, canopies, RVs, tents and vehicles making up part of Oakland’s Wood Street homeless encampment linger on July 14, three days after a massive fire there displaced about one dozen residents. CalTrans started clearing the city’s largest encampment in September after Oakland won a $4.7 million state grant to shelter its occupants. (Jane Tyska/Staff Photographer)

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside San Francisco City Hall after the Supreme Court overturned the abortion rights case Roe v. Wade on June 24. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Protesters Elisa Smith and Stormy Adams react as workers cut down trees in People’s Park in Berkeley on Aug. 3.  UC Berkeley plans to begin constructing housing at the site for 1,100 university students and 125 homeless residents.  (Aric Crabb/Staff Photographer)

Emerald Johnson, aunt of Sophia Mason, an 8-year-old girl from Hayward whose mother and mother’s boyfriend stand accused of murdering her, with a photo of Mason, her drawings and school work at Johnson’s home in Hayward on June 7. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

On the eighth day of his hunger strike, Westlake Middle School teacher Maurice André San-Chez, is comforted after answering a reporter’s questions on Feb. 8. San-Chez and another Westlake teacher struck to stop the Oakland Unified School District’s plan to close or merge 16 schools. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Crime and Consequences

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, center, and her family leave the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse after the jury found her guilty in San Jose on Jan. 3. (Dai Sugano/Staff Photographer)

Antoinette Walker cries on the shoulder of Frank Turner as Penelope Scott speaks to the media in Sacramento on April 4. Walker is the older sister of De’Vazia Turner who was shot and killed during a mass shooting a day earlier. Six people died and 12 others were injured in the April 3 shooting. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Law enforcement officers from different agencies respond after multiple people were shot in a complex of schools on Fountain Street in Oakland on Sept. 28. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Kathy Teng Dwyer, from Oakland, places a candle during a vigil near where Lili Xu, 60, was killed during an attempted robbery in Oakland on Aug. 22. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Jenni Kumimoto carries her son Ben, 6, to their car after picking him up from kindergarten at Los Alamitos Elementary School in San Jose on May 25. Jenni Kumimoto, 36, a kindergarten teacher at Graystone Elementary School, spoke with her 6-year-old son Ben about the Uvalde school shooting in Texas. (Aric Crabb/Staff Photographer)

Family and friends release balloons on the one-year anniversary of the deaths of 7-year-old Sela Mataele and her mother’s partner Ramiro Castro, who were killed by a drunk driver in Pittsburg, at the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Antioch on April 12. (Nhat V. Meyer/Staff Photographer)

Beauty, Beholden

A dog runs through a field of wildflowers during a warm early morning at Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek on March 23. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

Members of the Huaxing Arts Group wait on their float, “The Beauties of the Tang,” for the start of the Chinese New Years Parade in San Francisco on Feb. 19. (Karl Mondon/Staff Photographer)

Editor’s Note: This frame was composed in-camera by combining two exposures captured moments apart. Giants pitcher Yunior Marte pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers in the eighth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park on July 15. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Staff Photographer)

People gather during the Holiday Tree lighting ceremony at Jack London Square in Oakland on Dec. 3. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

The full moon rises behind the Oakland hills and the Mormon Temple on Dec. 6. (Ray Chavez/Staff Photographer)

Elise MacGregor Ferrell, of Santa Cruz, plays the bagpipes during a memorial service for Fran the whale at Moss Landing State Beach in Moss Landing on Oct. 3. Fran, the most photographed whale in California and well known by tourists and whale enthusiasts in Monterey Bay, washed ashore on a beach in Half Moon Bay in August, a victim of a ship strike. (Doug Duran/Staff Photographer)

Photographers

Anda Chu – @anda_chuAric Crabb – @AricCrabbDai Sugano – @daisuganoDoug Duran – @duran_dougJane Tyska – @tyskagramJose Fajardo – @fuzyjoeKarl Mondon – @karlmondonNhat V. Meyer – @nhatgnatRay Chavez – @rayinactionShae Hammond – @shae_hammond

Photo/Video Editors

Anda ChuDoug DuranDylan Bouscher – @DylanBouscherLaura Oda – @lodafoto

Managing Editor: Visuals

Sarah Dussault

A long and winding road through high school ball in Aptos, college at Old Dominion, Central Arizona and CSU Monterey Bay and various independent league teams from 2017 through 2018 will culminate in a lifelong dream Wednesday for the Athletics on the road against the Atlanta Braves.

“Jared Koenig was talked to yesterday,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said Sunday before closing out a 10-game homestand Sunday against the Boston Red Sox. “He’ll be making his major league debut Wednesday.”

Koenig, 28, is 4-2 with a 2.21 earned run average for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. He’s 6-foot-5, 235 pounds and has 63 strikeouts in 53 innings, but gets by more on pitching know-how rather than velocity and stuff.

A late-round draft pick of the Chicago White Sox who the club elected not to sign, Koenig, after being involved with three college programs, played for the following teams for two years in various indy ball leagues: the Birmingham-Boomfield Beavers, the Monterey Amberjacks, the Salina Stockade, the San Rafael Pacifics, the Lake Erie Crushers and finally the Aukland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League.

Spotted by an A’s international scout after a recommendation, Koenig signed his first contract with a major league team in 2020. His ascension was delayed by the pandemic, but Koenig played for Double-A Midland last season and was 7-5 with a 3.26 earned run average.

Koenig will become the second player from the Monterey Amberjacks of the independent Pecos League to make it to the majors. Pitcher Logan Gillaspie, who was a part of the team with Koenig in 2017, made his major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles last month.

“I just want to say, you do a freaking awesome job!” he yells, as he’s corralled by ballpark security. “Keep up the good work!”

Was Ramon Laureano cleaning his cleats nearby? Not quite. The enthusiastic spectator’s attention is directed at 250 drones arranged in a grid on the pavement. In lieu of traditional fireworks after tonight’s game, the machines will ascend into the sky and reproduce icons from the “Star Wars” universe – Vader, the Death Star, that adorable green grub, Baby Yoda.

This late-April game is one of several Oakland A’s events to feature a drone show (the next will be Aug. 27). “We are always looking for new experiences we can bring to the ballpark, and the drone light shows are a great addition to our lineup,” says A’s spokesperson Erica George. “Fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Managing tonight’s show is Rick Boss of Fort Worth-based Sky Elements with a team of FAA-licensed drone pilots.

Boss has 15 years of pyrotechnics experience under his belt but started moving into the drone sphere 18 months ago.

“The truth is the fireworks business is very similar to this. You got to bring gear and fireworks and set it all up,” he says. “Parts of it are easier – fireworks are heavier, dirtier. But what’s harder is, this technology is very young. There’s only 50 (companies) of any decent size in the world doing it, and only about four of us in the U.S. that do these size shows.”

There have been 350 significant drone shows in the United States, Boss estimates, but each month that number shoots up. His people now travel the country in multiple fleets to produce events.

“The demand is just through the roof. Right now every drone company is sold out for the Fourth,” he says. “It’s pretty much people who have ridiculous money or big stadiums or events. We’re in Miami flying for Formula 1 parties. The majority of events are corporate in nature. We’ve got a couple weddings coming up, but they’re very high-end weddings. One of them wanted to do fireworks but there’s a fire danger, so …”

Ah, yes – fire. Fireworks were responsible for igniting some 19,500 blazes across the United States in 2018 alone, according to the National Fire Protection Association. That danger is pronounced in the drought-parched West, where anything warmer than a toasted bagel can trigger a devastating conflagration. Last year’s Caldor Fire – which burned some 220,000 acres over two months in Northern California – is thought to have been started by two guys shooting guns in the woods.

That particular wildfire is one of the reasons municipalities in northern Lake Tahoe are switching to drones this Fourth of July.

“Throwing lit objects into the sky in the height of the fire season might not be the best thing to do,” says Andy Chapman, president and CEO of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau. “We talked with our fire chief, who was like, ‘I don’t even know if I can permit a fireworks show.’ Given the low snow year we’ve had, everything is drying out pretty quickly.”

“Based off the threat of fires coming back this fire season, we started looking at not only the risk of fireworks but also just the impacts to the environment,” says Katie Biggers, executive director of the Tahoe City Downtown Association. “We’re obviously trying to be very cognizant of the clarity of the lake. There’s also noise pollution that comes along with fireworks that our animals are affected by, as well as our veterans. There’s a lot of folks up here who might suffer from PTSD.”

Drones might actually end up cheaper than Tahoe’s traditional Independence Day celebrations, which have additional, unexpected expenses. “You need divers to go down and get any debris,” Biggers says.

Two Colorado towns have replaced Fourth of July fireworks with drones due to wildfire concerns. In Texas, Galveston will be launching drones on America’s birthday to reduce fireworks debris on beaches. And Southern California’s Big Bear Lake is getting in early with a Memorial Day drone show.

“We have a baby eagle near Big Bear Lake that has not yet fledged, so the drone-lights show should be less of a possible disturbance,” explains Michael Perry, CEO of Visit Big Bear.

Drones have shortcomings, of course. Their battery life typically lasts about 15 minutes, before they need to be landed, recharged, then sent back up. And fireworks provide a visceral impact that humming, LED-lit machines lack.

“A traditional fireworks show is really about the multisensory experience. You see the pyrotechnics rise into the air, hear them break open and burst. You see the colors, and sometimes we get to smell the smoke,” says Julie Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association in Bethesda, Maryland. “Drones are pretty, but they’re boring. I think they’re maybe a nice accompaniment to a fireworks show.”

As that Oakland A’s game comes to a close, families pour onto the field with blankets. Hundreds of drones spell out the “Star Wars” logo, then rearrange into a TIE Fighter and a lightsaber that extends incrementally. You can hardly hear the “pew pew!” particle-weapon sounds piped in due to the cheering.

The show ends without a hitch, though not all do. Drones have vulnerabilities that fireworks don’t. In the parking lot, Boss shares war stories with spectators Gabriel Serrato and his young son, Sawyer, attending the game from Alameda.

“My dad was flying (our drone), and a seagull thought it was food,” says Sawyer.

“We were doing a show for NASCAR,” Boss says, when “something hit the drone, and took it out. I think we got attacked by a bat.”

Wearing a Matt Chapman jersey with the name and number covered by black tape, Grandrath glanced at Kaval from afar and issued a faint plea: “Keep your promises, dude.”

Grandrath and many other fans are fed up with the A’s latest tear-down. This week the team traded Chapman and two other 2021 All-Stars, Matt Olson and Chris Bassitt, in a cost-savings sweep that likely hasn’t seen its end.

Life as an A’s fan was in plain view last Saturday. A fan fest organized by the fans rather than by the team was crashed by the trade of Bassitt. The news struck minutes after a raffle in which a hat and ball autographed by Bassitt was awarded. Even the presence of special guests – Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf and A’s mascot Stomper were among the crowd of 200 – couldn’t blunt the pain of that irony.

Alex Espinosa, proprietor of “The Rickey Henderson of Blogs” website, captured some fan sentiment in the aftermath of the trade. One commenter summed up the situation perfectly: “I’m sad but I’m not surprised. I’ve been an A’s fan for a long time, so I’m used to it.”

Oakland A's fans were in the middle of a Fan Fest organized by @Oakland68s and @AsHotDog when Chris Bassitt got traded yesterday pic.twitter.com/LUt4X8qgah

— The Rickey Henderson of Blogs (@RickeyBlog) March 13, 2022

Every A’s era has ended with a painful teardown. Only the names have changed. It started with Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson and the “Mustache Gang” of the 1970s. Then came Rickey Henderson, followed by Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Dennis Eckersley and Dave Stewart, Followed by Jason Giambi, Miguel Tejada, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito. On and on it goes. Sonny Gray, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson and so many others leading up to Chapman, Olson and Bassitt.

“At this point, I think fans are pretty numb to it,” Espinosa said. “This is how it’s been for the past two decades. But it still stings.”

Team ownership, led by John Fisher, hasn’t done anything to soften the latest blow. Fans are facing a massive increase in ticket prices. In a thread of Tweets this week, one fan wrote that his view-level tickets had gone from $399 per seat in 2019 to $888 this season. Another wrote that his two seats in Section 225 had gone from $2,950 in 2019 to $6,500 this season. A third wrote that their Section 119 seat jumped from $711 to $1,587.

The kicker at the end of most tweets? Most fans said they didn’t renew for 2022.

“If they kept the band together, it’d be one thing, like, ‘Oh sweet, we have a chance to win this year,’” Espinosa said. “But the fact that they’re tearing down the roster at the same time they’re increasing ticket prices just doesn’t make much sense to them — it doesn’t make much sense to me.”

The trades have even stung the most vocal of A’s supporters: former pitcher and A’s broadcaster Dallas Braden. The popular left-hander posted a video after Olson was traded, interrupting his defense of the trade by screaming curse words.

Braden indicated at the end of the rant that he will be sticking with the team. But fans at Friday’s game were less certain of their plans.

Patrick Guyer came down from Sacramento for his 11-year-old son’s baseball tournament and wanted to catch his favorite team’s spring opener with his three children. He grew up an A’s fan, starting during the Giambi-Tejada years, and has been raising his kids to be fans, too — even when their favorite players get traded away.

“It can be disappointing, at times,” Guyer said.“Part of it is, you want to be attached, but then you don’t, because you’re going to lose the players.”

His eldest son’s favorite player is Olson, who he’ll now support in Atlanta. While they make it to around four or five games in Oakland a season, Guyer said these moves make him question his fandom.

“It’s kind of frustrating,” he said. “Like, why can’t we keep the players and pay them? We have an owner who has a lot of money. Why can’t we keep the players and pay for them and try to get a World Series?”

Grandrath shares the same frustration. She first became an A’s fan in the 1970s, enjoying the teams who won three World Series crowns in a row even though she was living in Chicago. She moved to Oakland in 1986 and followed the team from up close ever since, including becoming a full season ticket holder in 2010.

Grandrath already has her season tickets for 2022, but she isn’t even sure if she’ll stick around past this year because of the ticket price hike and the removal of the A’s Access benefits program season ticket holders used to get.

“I might not after this,” Grandrath said. “This might be the last straw.”

One thing is certain: many fans won’t follow the team to Las Vegas, the location Kaval and the A’s have targeted as a potential new home if the Howard Terminal stadium proposal falls through in Oakland.

“I would just enjoy baseball, and not be following the Las Vegas A’s,” Guyer said.

“I love the A’s, I love Oakland, but if they don’t stay in Oakland…” Grandrath said, completing her thought with a waving goodbye motion.