In true Bay Area style, the Ballers made professional sports history earlier this month with a game managed entirely by AI. For one game only, manager Aaron Miles ceded many of his game-time decision-making duties to a machine, the Athletic reported.
On Sunday, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee thanked the team’s players and fans at the start of the game, and urged the city’s young people to keep believing.
“Champions rise from Oakland,” she said, before opening Game Five with a “Play ball.”
At the end of the game, as players sprayed each other with champagne, Oakland firefighters who had parked their truck across the street to watch the game doused the players and the field with cascades of water.
“It feels like the start of a new chapter for baseball in Oakland. They tried to take baseball out of the town,” Carmel said at a post-game press conference.
But you can never take a Baller out of the Bay.
KQED’s Nina Thorsen contributed to this report.
