A winning team spirit in Oakland

Abandoned by the Raiders, Warriors and A’s, the city finds redemption in a minor league upstart that brought home a title

- BY JAMES RAINEY

ALEX ESPINOZA Oakland Ballers OAKLAND BALLERS celebrate after winning three straight to claim the Pioneer League title in only their second year of existence.

First, the Raiders bailed, bound for Las Vegas. Then the Warriors sold out for plusher digs, across the bay in San Francisco. When the A's left town a year ago, it seemed as though this city of grit and big aspirations could not win for losing.

But Oakland regained at least a measure of its athletic glory this year with a scrappy, winning professional baseball team, one owned by the community in every sense of the word. Putting a cherry on top, the Oakland Ballers won the championship of the unaffiliated, underappreciated Pioneer League on Sunday night.

SCOTT STRAZZANTE San Francisco Chronicle MASCOT SCRAPPY greets fans during the team's opening night in May.

The team triumphed in dramatic fashion, taking three straight games over the weekend at intimate, rocking Raimondi Park, a resuscitated gem on the city’s occasionally sketchy west side. With an 8-1 victory over the Idaho Falls Chukars, the Ballers claimed the title of a league centered in the American West, in only its second year of existence.