Oakland Ballers

34

If you follow Major League Baseball then you almost certainly know that the Oakland Athletics have made the decision leave Oakland, headed first to Sacramento and eventually to Las Vegas. This will leave Oakland, once the home of four major league teams, with no major league teams at all. I could be wrong, but I think that will make it the only city to have that happen. Furthermore, once the A's move this team will be the only Oakland team in any of the sports it used to have major league teams in (it does also have two professional, minor-league soccer teams, one men's and one women's).

As you can probably guess from the name and the logo, this team was very much intended to fill the gap left by the A's' departure. The Ballers name is graphic in a way similar to Athletics, and I can't help but think it was a very deliberate decision that since the departing team's name began with the first letter of the alphabet, this team's name would begin with the second. The logo is basically as close to the A's logo as it can be without getting them sued: both logos feature the initial of the team name in a fraktur font with a smaller ^'s to the upper right, with the full team name above and below the initial in a circular font. The Ballers are even using the same green-and-gold color scheme as the Athletics. Everything about this team looks like something you'd expect if the Athletics were staying in town and decided to have a minor league affiliate in town. But the Athletics are leaving, and this team has nothing to do with the Athletics franchise.

I don't feel like I can imagine what the baseball fans in Oakland are going through. I've lived in a couple of cities that have major league teams, but neither of them lost any of those teams while I lived there. But that said, trying to cling on to the A's' identity seems odd to me. It seems to me like it would make more sense for the new team to try to carve its own identity out. I especially feel that way since the departing team is going to keep the Athletics name when it moves. The approach the Ballers are taking makes comparisons to the A's seem inevitable, and I don't see how a minor league team wins in a comparison to a departed major league team. But, again, I don't know what the fans in Oakland are going through. Maybe this is what they want. I shouldn't judge.

Final Score: 34 points.
Penalties: Letter, 24 pts; Name, 10 pts.
Bonuses: None.