“The moment I knew I wanted to be a part of the B’s was before they existed”
The VP of Communications and Fan Entertainment on being raised at the Coliseum, Raimondi Park expansion dreams, and preserving and growing Oakland baseball for a new era of fans
By Chris Drue, Ballers Beat Writer
Someone had been trying to reach Casey Pratt for days.
It was the height of the SELL movement to save Oakland baseball, and the two-time Emmy Award–winning Pratt was non-stop. As a sports producer, editor, reporter, and anchor covering not only Oakland baseball but the Bay Area’s entire sports landscape, he was being pulled in a hundred directions at once.
But sitting in the sports department at ABC 7 in downtown San Francisco, building his next show for the evening broadcast, he could no longer dodge the incoming calls and DMs. A coworker finally walked into the room and personally handed him a phone: someone needed to speak with him.
It was future Oakland Ballers co-founder Paul Freedman, and he wanted to meet about an idea taking shape in West Oakland.
Pratt invited Freedman to his offices right off the Embarcadero to hear him out. Days later, sitting across the table in the flagship conference room at ABC, Pratt listened as Freedman pitched his dream: “He laid out his whole vision of the Oakland Ballers, what they’re about and why they’re doing it,” Pratt recalls.
“I was instantly in.”
Their connection was immediate; they bonded over the passion, resilience and scar tissue that true Oakland sports fans share. “If you’re a real Oakland sports fan, we’re going to be immediate friends,” Pratt says. “We expect the twists and turns. It’s not easy.”
Over the next several months, Pratt worked quietly behind the scenes with Freedman and co-founder Bryan Carmel to support the vision of bringing professional baseball to Raimondi Park. “I believed that their mission was good, and I wanted them to succeed as somebody who wanted to see Oakland sports survive,” says Pratt.
“The moment I knew I wanted to be a part of the B’s was before they existed.”
Oakland Baseball Dreams
“I don’t know if I [personally] remember it, but I have pictures of it, going to the Oakland Coliseum as a baby.”
Oakland baseball raised this multi-generational Oaklander. “I grew up there ... there isn’t a nook or cranny or secret passageway in the Coliseum that I don’t know about,” Pratt shares fondly of his youth. “To be a kid in your formative years and to be able to watch the Bash Brothers, Hendu, Eck, Carney … it was just so special. I remember collecting over 100 Jose Canseco baseball cards and getting his autograph.”
His dedication was absolute from an early age: “I actually joined the choir in my elementary school, because in the year prior, they sang on the field at the Coliseum, just to try to also get on the field too. That year, however, we never did it, which really sucked.” Pratt laughs. “I always wanted to be around it and a part of it.”
Pratt would become, of course, a central part of Oakland baseball and more. As the Ballers Vice President of Communications and Fan Entertainment, he has seen and felt the impact that the young club has had on healing its sports community and helping write its next chapter.
He reflected on coming full circle, recalling the scene at Raimondi Park as he gazed into the standing-room-only crowd as the B’s captured the Pioneer League championship. “There were all of these people who were just crying in the crowd. Because we had finally won the last game of the season and brought a championship back to Oakland for the first time in baseball since 1989.”
Not only had Oakland won, but it was a collective moment of catharsis: “After everything that we had been through. It felt like this huge, collective exhale.”
Silly Ideas and Unforgettable Nights
What started with that insistent newsroom phone call has turned into a dynamic and complementary relationship in the B’s front office. Carmel, an award-winning development and production executive, and Pratt, who has over 20 years in TV, dream big together to craft fun and entertaining fan-first experiences. “People see a fun theme and the game, but what they don’t see are the hours and hours of meetings that me and Bryan Carmel spend dreaming up silly ideas … from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed, it’s all Ballers,” Pratt shares.
And he isn’t kidding. Starting with show building at 9:00 a.m., arriving at Raimondi Park at 1:30 p.m. to prepare and print scripts, coordinate production, and meet with staff, and running the show until the game ends around 10:00 p.m., Pratt is pulling a demanding 12-hour-plus shift every single home game. All while being one of the team’s most recognizable faces.
But all of that hard work pays off. For Pratt, it’s the energy and effort put into the game-day experience—especially the theme nights—that he finds most rewarding. He cites Anarchy in the OAK (“It was one of the best days in the ballpark, the block party was amazing”), Baller Mania (“We put in a wrestling ring, had four matches, it was so fun”), and Oakland Blazers Night (“We needed an April Fools joke … and it went viral”) as his three favorites of the 2026 campaign, and his enthusiasm is palpable.
“That’s the stuff I love, themes that are years in the making that come together and actually work," Pratt says. "Those are the nights that I will never forget … I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
“And,” he makes a point to note, “you haven’t seen the last of the Oakland Blazers!”
Plenty of Room to Grow
After months of B’s baseball filling in every nook and cranny of his life, Pratt suddenly finds himself with a rare commodity before he starts building the next season: free time.
But for someone who spent decades in the grind of sports media, turning off the engine takes a little getting used to. “I’m forcing myself not to work around the clock … I think I’m handling it better [than last year],” he admits. “Previously, as a person in sports media covering every team all year round, I’ve never had an offseason. It was always go, go, go—4 p.m. show, 5 p.m. show, 6 p.m. show, 11 p.m. show, every night, no break.”
He’s come to see that those years without an offseason have prepared him for his role with the ballclub: “I love chaos—a live, crazy atmosphere. And that’s kind of what Ballers games are.”
And the ceiling for that energy keeps rising. When asked what the future holds, Pratt made it clear that Raimondi and the fan experience will continue to grow with the team and its fans. “There are a lot of things we’re always dreaming up, and that’s what really makes Raimondi Park so special. It’s set up in a way that it can grow with us," he explains. "We have plenty of room in the footprint.”
What kind of things? Beyond the practical upgrades—like new bathrooms—he’s dreaming big. Like Jeter Ybarra home run-big. “A shipping container monster in left field. Three high and three wide. Fabricated into suites and bars," Pratt envisions. "It would be our Green Monster made out of shipping containers, like our press boxes and dugouts. And more TVs—in the tunnel, by the food area and merch. More fun, weird stuff.”
For eagle-eyed fans, hints about these future plans might already be out there. Pratt, who writes the Ballers Bulletin, is known for sneaky Easter eggs. (Weeks before the team was officially announced, he dropped subtle hints like, “You all are some real ballers” on Twitter.) He suggests that fans should always pay attention to word choices in the bulletin—there’s always something new on the horizon.
Beyond the block parties, shipping container monsters, record-breaking seasons and championship titles, Pratt always comes back to the essential role the team plays in bringing people together. “There are some times when I’ll look out into the crowd—especially down the right field line—and it’s just the most beautiful thing," Pratt reflects. "And it’s fun because it’s different groups of people. Our ethos is bringing diverse communities together for shared joy. That is our mission.”
And ultimately, “If it wasn’t for the Ballers, I wouldn’t watch baseball at all anymore,” Pratt confesses. “I think a lot of people feel that way. So it’s cool to be able to give people an opportunity to preserve their love of baseball.”
In a past life, Pratt was pulled in a hundred directions. Now, he’s channeling all that live-broadcast chaos into a singular direction with the B’s: finding a hundred new ways to build the Raimondi Park experience and help grow Oakland baseball.
“The key is,” Pratt emphasizes, “if more and more fans show up, then we can do all of these things.”
All images and video used with permission from the Oakland Ballers, Casey Pratt and Darrell Lavin.
Chris Drue is an East Bay native who has loved baseball since visiting the Coliseum with his dad as a kid. His favorite combo at Raimondi Park is a Fieldwork Day Money and a veggie dog (in a helmet!). His favorite pitch is the eephus, with a Barry Zito 12-6 curveball (circa 2002) a very close second. Find him on Instagram.
