But how well do you know Sutter Health Park, home to both the Vegas A's and the Sacramento River Cats?
Ten Fun Facts about Sutter Health Park...
1. The stadium opened in 2000, at 400 Ballpark Drive.
2. Between 2000 and 2019, it was called Raley Field, after a regional supermarket chain.
3. After it opened, Sacramento led the minor leagues in attendance for 9 straight seasons.
4. It has a seating capacity of 14,014, including portable lawn chairs.
5. Last year, the A's drew an average of 9,487 - lowest in MLB history.
6. This year, they are averaging 10,696 at home.
7. It is the lowest MLB home attendance figure, below Pittsburgh (17,915) Tampa (16,958) and Miami (12,556.)
8. The only former River Cats player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is Mike Piazza.
9. The River Cats - San Francisco's affiliate in the Pacific Coast League - use the stadium when the A's are not in town.
10. The Vegas A's are owned by John Fisher, heir to the Gap retail chain. The PCL River Cats are owned by the Sacramento Kings.
Next year, the A's will move to a $2 billion, 33,000-seat park on the Vegas Strip.
The Yankees need a sweep.
I don’t know if baseball is going to takeoff off in Las Vegas. Where do they move to then?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but clearly they do have to move if they want to pull ahead of the Rochester/Cincinnati/Kansas City(-Omaha)/Sacramento Kings/Royals for most relocations in the Big Four.
DeleteAlso, keep winning.
ReplyDeleteI think the lower attendance here lately might be technically related. Over the last few days, I couldn't comment on my so- called smart devices unless I scroll to the very bottom and hit the " Web version" link. Previously, that was not a requirement. No problem commenting on my PC. Anyone else experiencing this?
ReplyDeleteOn my phone, yes - sometimes. Would be prompted to login & allow cookies (which I opted not to do). Not having any issues on my tablet.
DeleteYes, on phone but on tablet
DeleteA few more fun facts about Raley Field...
ReplyDelete1) I still call it Raley Field not Sutter Health Park. While it's not quite a Tappan Zee Bridge level renaming, old habits die hard.
2) Because the River Cats play there as well, there is a baseball game at Raley Field uh... Sutter Health Park pretty much every single day of the baseball season. (Admit it, Raley Field sounds a lot better)
3) As to the sparse attendance numbers ...
Sacramento is a Giants town.
Their AAA team plays here but more than that, the Giants have been good this century. The A's, not so much. The Giants won the World Series in 2010, 2012, 2014. Those were the formative years for a lot of Sacramento fans.
4) There are A's fans of course, but just not that many. That's why they don't draw despite being a great place to get up close to the game for less the price of a seat in the upper deck at Yankee Stadium.
Generally a typical A's crowd has a lot of transplants from cities like NY and Boston.
5) The food is not good. Really standard stuff. The airport here has better offerings.
6) All of that said, after a hot day, catching a game while drinking a local IPA as the delta breeze comes in and cools the whole city off is pretty damn good.
Hopefully there will be another couple of HOF former River Cats . Even if they were only River Cats while rehabbing. They wore the uniform.
ReplyDeleteGerrit Cole was a Hudson Valley Renegade for a few innings this year. Maybe he kept the cap.
First...what exactly is a "river cat"?
ReplyDeleteSecond...Pocono Steve, 999: as it is prophesied in the Bible, the A's having completed their exodus to the West Coast, are now returning from whence they came. When the Great Sand Storm covers their dome in Las Vegas, they will continue to the east, possibly to Kansas City again, possibly to Terre Haute (theologians are divided on this).
ReplyDeleteUltimately, many are convinced that they will end up in Brooklyn, thereby making the borough whole again, after the departure of the Dodgers.
So it is written, so it shall be.
Back here in New York, meanwhile, the Mets are inducting Lee Mazzilli and Bobby Valentine into their team Hall of Game. That's just so...Mets.
ReplyDeletePimento.
ReplyDeleteBeen having trouble posting for awhiles now. Sometimes it works; sometimes it don't; sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don't. Keep gettin' failed to publish - try again later.
ReplyDeleteSo they swept the K.C. Royals, who look like they're lost in the wilderness and then won one freakin' game against the Homeless A's. Big effin' deal. Now they'll probably lose the rest of the series.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't put too much stock in Gerrit Cole pitching shutout ball since coming back. He's only a Tampa game away from total implosion. "Self destruct sequence activated: T-minus 120; T-minus 119; T-minus 118...."
ReplyDeleteMets broadcaster are lauding Bobby Valentine for doing so much after 9/11. Yeah, he did a lot...and he also made it into all about himself, by blasting the Yankees for not doing what he felt was enough. So Bobby V.
ReplyDeletePutting him and Mazzilli into the team HOF is like us putting in Boone and Brett Gardner. Which will probably happen some day.
We need a statue of Zim somewhere out there, maybe where he and Pedro had that dustup. And maybe make it out of cement and put warning lights on it so as to avoid accidents. And let's put an artificial stream out there and stock it with fish. All of that space in the outfield is wasted.
DeleteStatue of Zim in the army helmet.
DeleteMaybe an animatronic version to be Boone's bench coach.
ReplyDelete