Bad loss and logistics issues marred A’s Sacramento debut. Will things improve?
The Athletics bringing Major League Baseball to Sutter Health Park with less than a year’s notice presented a lot of logistical challenges this week, a number of which were apparent during the team’s home opener on Monday.
The minor league ballpark, which was built in 2000 and sits just 14,000 fans, initially had a small press box with three or four seats for reporters and other media members. During the opener against the Chicago Cubs, the A’s had roughly 150 credentialed media members, many of whom didn’t have seats and were forced to cover the game standing in the concourse.
While reporters made sure to highlight a number of those issues, they largely don’t impact fans — with one big exception.
If the A’s were to make the playoffs, it’s likely they wouldn’t host postseason games at Sutter Health Park because of the lack of media seating and amenities. That would mean fans who have given the team their hard-earned money and time could have to travel to San Francisco, about a two-hour drive west, to watch their team in the biggest games of the year.
Teams need far more seats than usual for the postseason, and that is not currently possible given the setup at Sutter Health Park. MLB guidelines say teams are required to have 250 additional seats for print media for the League Championship Series round and 400 for the World Series. Additionally, 50 to 100 seats are needed for broadcast media.
There were no media accommodations built into the new clubhouse and team area beyond left field, where the River Cats and A’s could have built a permanent press conference room, media work room or modern press box, which are common in other ballparks.
Compounding the media issues was, of course, the game itself. The A’s lost 18-3, giving up the most runs in any home opener since the St. Louis Browns in 1925, according to the Associated Press.
Here’s a recap of some of Monday’s other home-opener oddities — and which of them might be smoothed out while others remain.
First game brought ‘chaos,’ A’s manager says
The A’s played in Sutter Health Park for the first time Monday without playing an exhibition games in the ballpark. So the protocol for players, coaches, staffers and media was all brand new. And it was clear not everything went to plan, though iterative changes are coming to smooth the process, team officials told The Sacramento Bee.
“I can’t use the words for yesterday,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said before Tuesday’s game. “There was a lot of chaos yesterday. A lot of newness. A lot of figuring out boundaries, and I’m not talking about the playing boundaries. I’m talking about how we function as a group.
“These 26 guys are getting their feet on the ground in a new place, a new building, with a lot of other people that are trying to figure out where they belong in that building.”
The A’s on Monday before the game had press conferences in their temporary structure down the left field line in lieu of not having a media day before the start of the season, including Kotsay’s pregame availability. That structure was almost immediately derided on social media, with detractors likening it to a shed.
On Tuesday, Kotsay had a more traditional scrum with reporters in the home dugout, which will be the normal practice going forward. There are expected to be roughly 15 to 25 media members at each game the rest of the way, depending on the opponent, commensurate with the last few seasons when the team played in Oakland, a team official said.
“Today’s a better day,” Kotsay said Tuesday. “Today’s a little bit more back to normalcy. And it’s just everybody trying to figure out their space and where they need to be, where they’re allowed to be. There’s a certain level of familiarity that we’re going to get as we spend more time here. ... It’s going to be a work in progress, like we knew. And I think it’s already started. So today was a better day.”
Some silver linings, literal and figurative
The A’s home opener wasn’t an unmitigated failure. Lopsided final score and logistical hiccups aside, some key aspects did go to plan.
Fan excitement was palpable in the early innings, before the Cubs put the game out of reach with their scoring barrage. Spectators in the stands predominantly donned green and gold attire and were engaged for the early bright spots. Rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson hit his first Major League home run in the third inning — the first homer by an A’s hitter in their new home digs. Fans roared, and grew louder as new stadium lighting effects as well as fireworks accompanied Wilson’s trip around the bases.
The A’s also honored franchise legend Rickey Henderson, a Hall of Famer widely regarded as the greatest leadoff hitter of all time, who died in December. All A’s players wore Henderson’s uniform No. 24 on Monday to honor him, and his three daughters threw out the evening’s ceremonial first pitch.
The weather also cooperated. Though it rained in the morning and a storm brought a slim possibility of evening thunderstorms to parts of the Sacramento region, things stayed dry in the evening and there were no weather-related delays.
Some quirks are here to stay
Team clubhouses and batting cages for both teams are beyond the outfield wall. All other MLB ballparks have clubhouses and cages underneath grand stands behind the dugouts. Players can access them at any point during a game.
At Sutter Health Park, players have to run down the left field line to get to the home clubhouse via an entrance near the left field foul pole, while the visiting clubhouse is in deep left center field. Cubs designated hitter Seiya Suzuki ran through the outfield between innings Monday evening, which drew laughter from his teammates in the dugout.
Players who might end up pinch hitting late in games will often get their swings in during cages behind their dugouts. That becomes more difficult with the batting cages beyond the outfield at Sutter Health Park.
It’s a wrinkle that, like Major League Baseball in the capital region, will take some getting used to.
This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 7:07 PM.
