Louis Cardinals, taking his case to the Supreme Court and paving the path for free agency. Burke battled drug addiction and died of AIDS in Rickey Henderson Field in North Oakland became home for the Oakland Technical High School baseball team in when a visionary coach and dedicated parents wanted better for their kids. Fifteen years after its opening, the baseball diamond on 45th and Telegraph Avenue hosts Little League, middle school, high school, and adult league games.
After his pitching arm gave out while playing in college, McClarty embarked on his coaching journey, first at Greenman Field, and culminating in his taking the helm of the Tech program before the season.
Haas Jr. Economic barriers to playing baseball have made basketball and football more enticing to inner-city athletes. Scouts who once hopped between Oakland Athletic League fields can now see more prospects at pay-for-play travel tournaments at large complexes in rural areas. Oakland Babe Ruthβwhich today serves primarily Black and brown children in East Oaklandβhas seen participation plummet to where McClarty fears for the future of the sport in many Oakland neighborhoods.
We had dreams growing up at Greenman and seeing the Coliseum lights. The opportunity to reconnect is now gone. Before Proposition 13 passed in , stripping state recreation departments and public schools of much of their property tax funding, Oakland sports historian Paul Brekke-Miesner likened city baseball fields to an MLB feeder system. Louis before Pinson was called up in It was the perfect storm to produce great athletes. They had an advantage coming out of Oakland.
The 70 professional baseball players with roots in the downtown, West, and North Oakland corridor rival the talent produced by any other United States region of its size, believes Brekke-Miesner, who began researching Oakland sports history when he was given access to The Oakland Tribune archives while serving as a high school sports reporter.
