Sports
With no indoor rinks within 25 miles of Oakland and no dedicated free outdoor skating spaces, roller skaters in the city are using parking lots, cracked sidewalks and basketball courts for the activity. That could change with a plan by skaters to build a free outdoor roller rink at DeFremery Park in West Oakland. The Panther Skate Plaza Project’s mission is to create an inclusive and accessible space for roller skaters of all identities, ages, and abilities — one that…
A poster of Muhammad Ali watches over the East Oakland Boxing Association’s gym, a visual reminder of the discipline and resilience it takes to be great. The only other posters in the facility are visually minimal, but powerfully messaged. “Live everyday as if it were your last,” reads the quote on the Ali poster, “because someday you’re going to be right.” The message is personal for the EOBA. Former Executive Director Solomon Howard was sentenced to prison in September for…
Oakland police arrested a suspect Friday morning in the “targeted” killing of Laney College athletic director and longtime Oakland football coach John Beam, who was shot on campus Thursday and died at Highland Hospital early Friday. At a news conference Friday, Assistant Police Chief Jim Beere said Alameda County sheriff’s deputies took Cedric Irving Jr., 27, into custody without incident around 3:15 a.m. at the San Leandro BART station. He is awaiting charges. Beere said Irving knew Beam but that…
First came a rally at Oakland City Hall, then a victory parade at Raimondi Park, as hundreds of fans honored the Oakland Ballers on Sunday for becoming Pioneer Baseball League champs last month and giving the city its first baseball championship in 36 years. Resurrecting a cheer used for decades at the Coliseum, fans outside City Hall chanted “Let’s go Oakland,” in appreciation of the Ballers’ 8-1 win against the Idaho Falls Chukars on Sept. 21. A sellout crowd of…
Thousands of Mexico soccer fans gathered Saturday at the Coliseum, donning the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag to celebrate the national team as it played against Japan before a sold-out crowd of more than 45,000 people. The sound of trumpets, wooden rattles, and the ringing bells of paleteros, or street vendors, filled the parking lot as fans tailgated before the game. They grilled meat, shared tacos and displayed the Mexican flag on their cars. Grills were…
To the untrained eye, roller derby seems like pure pandemonium — players falling over like bowling pins, knocking into each other left and right. But hours of weekly training have taught them how to dodge, shove, turn and jump on four wheels to control the chaos and rack up points. For members of the Bay Area Derby league, it’s more than just a sport. Players are there to destress, build relationships with each other, uplift their communities, and work collectively…
The Oakland Coliseum came alive with baseball over the weekend. A month after fans said a teary goodbye to their beloved A’s, some of the team’s legendary players hit the field one more time, giving thousands of fans something to cheer about and enjoy. On Sunday, baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson partnered with Change The Game Sports, a Los Angeles based entertainment firm, to do something special for Oakland A’s fans — a softball game to coincide with the…
Former Warriors players gathered at City Hall last week to honor the head coach who helped them win the Oakland team’s first championship. The event, hosted by the city, honored Al Attles for his innovation and being one of five Black coaches in the NBA. Attles, who spent his entire career as an NBA player with the Warriors in the 1960s before becoming the team’s coach from 1970 to 1983, died in August at age 87. “We had two great…
The Oakland A’s and the Texas Rangers are tied in the bottom of the ninth as rookie Jacob Wilson comes to the plate with a man on second. He rips the ball up the middle and Zach Gelof breaks for home, sliding across the plate just before the ball reaches the catcher’s mitt. The players rush onto the field. The crowd of 30,000 yells and cheers. For one split second, the A’s glory days are back. But this is the…