Damian Stone: Raised by a Village, Playing for the Town
“Rain or shine, I always wanted to be playing”
By Natalie Villanueva
Falling in Love with the Game
Damian Stone is a Fremont native thrilled to be back home in the East Bay after a standout run with the Ogden Raptors. The outfielder turned heads last season, hitting an impressive .382, driving in 52 runs, and stealing 12 bases while playing in 79 games.
The new Baller is the oldest of seven siblings, and he shares with Dispatches that he’s used to having a lot of eyes looking up to him: “I always believed in myself. It was just a matter of getting in front of the right people, having the right mindset and not really worrying about the things that I can’t control,” says Stone.
Stone’s father, Wayne Stone Jr., had a broken arm when his son was little. One afternoon, with rain falling steadily in the cold–the kind that keeps most inside–Stone had one thing on his mind: baseball.
“My dad put a trashbag over his arm and threw batting practice here in Fremont for over an hour.”
The makeshift cover didn’t make the recovery process for a broken arm any easier, but that didn’t matter. Because there was a nine-year-old hitter bouncing off his feet and waiting for the ball as if the sun were out and shining.
“Having my Dad take me out every day, playing with a bat we made out of a stick from a tree–I’ll never forget it,” says Stone. “That made me fall in love with the game a lot more.”
“You Keep Showing Up”
Coming from a large family, Stone learned to make big moves on the field while carrying the same sense of love and connection he felt growing up.
“From a young age, I was always told I was raised by a village, not just one person,” shares Stone.
He was raised by young parents; he was born shortly after their senior year of high school. Stone’s words were few but his feelings were big when asked about his mother, Dana Luevano.
“She believed in me before any of this was actually real and she never let me take the easy way out. I got a lot from her, especially not quitting–like no matter what’s going on, you keep showing up. You keep working.”
Stone watched his mother move through life with a quiet and unshakeable strength. She balanced bills, professional responsibility, and the weight of young motherhood, never allowing any challenges to get in the way of caring for her family. Stone and his mother have a particularly close relationship because in many ways, they grew up together.
His grandparents on both sides also played a central role in his upbringing, modeling hard work and strong family values.
On his mother’s side, David Torres would wake up at 2 a.m. for work, starting a shift that would stretch for hours. Despite a grueling schedule, he consistently made time to coach and remain present. His wife, Maria Torres, migrated from Jalisco, a cultural heart of Mexico, at the age of 13. Her journey brought long lasting traditions for Stone, like preparing meals together in celebration, and receiving new recipes like heirlooms.
And on his father’s side, coaching wasn’t just a skill; it was a family legacy. Michelle Stone led as a basketball coach and athletic director at Irvington High School while his grandfather, Wayne Stone Sr. paced the sidelines as a track and football coach.
Stone’s childhood was lived through the echoes of whistles and the rhythm of practices. His journey to the Ballers didn’t just come from one place–it came from everywhere.
Oakland Runs Deep
Once junior year at Washington High School came to a close, Stone signed with UC Santa Barbara to play baseball. After his freshman year, he transferred out in the summer to play at Ohlone, a local junior college in Fremont. Then he found himself at UC Davis. Stone graduated from Davis with a Bachelor's in Communications.
During his senior year in college, Stone said that he got “too mixed up in putting up numbers for scouts.”
His performance dropped, and he found himself thinking about what strategic steps to take next in his career.
After receiving a call from the Ogden Raptors, Stone was invited to a spring training camp. Within the first two weeks of the season, he cemented his role as a lead off hitter, playing well against Oakland and finishing top-10 in the league in average as a rookie.
When asked what he learned through these transfers he said, “Playing stress-free…..I learned the hard way,” noting that earlier in his career, “I tried to hit a lot of home runs and just thought about my numbers too much rather than just taking it day by day.”
Despite a road marked by hard lessons, detours, and a summer of self reflection, Stone kept finding a way
back to where it all began. Some of his most lasting memories in sports were from attending Oakland A’s baseball and Oakland Raiders games with his family.
“After the season with the Ogden Raptors ended, I didn’t really know what to do. My whole idea was like, I grew up an A’s fan, a Raiders fan–I’ve been around these sports my whole life. When they left Oakland it was a big effect for me, my family, everyone really in the area. I thought to myself, I need to go back and at least try and play for Oakland.”
From taking BART, staring out the window, seeing lights and neighboring cities flicker past, to arriving at a tailgate, there was a sense of magic that made strangers turn to neighbors.
Coming back to Oakland, “I want to put back into the community what the A’s and Raiders did for me,” says Stone. “It was a big part of my childhood. Seeing kids now at the games, I want to give that to them too.”
Stone recalls hearing the sounds of drums and music, bumping from every direction, along with the smell of grilled food hanging in the air. Now, these environments where he once found his younger self staring in awe are the same grounds where he now plays and enters the field.
“It means a lot. When I was younger, we went to an A’s game, and we sat in the right field bleachers. A lot of those fans who were in those bleachers are our fans here in [West] Oakland now. It brings me back to my childhood.”
What’s Next
Stone shares he looks forward to the new season, and hopes to help bring another championship to Oakland. He prides himself in being fun, quick to laugh, and fully present at any moment.
“The fans mean a lot because a lot of them are former A’s fans from the same area. We share a lot of the same memories watching all of the Oakland teams.I hope to help everyone in some way, whether it’s in baseball or in life.”
Natalie Villanueva is a writer, a journalist and a student at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A reporter for Oakland North, she finds herself actively engaging with the community of Oakland and Richmond. She's covered stories ranging from Oakland Ballers' fans rallying for a historic win to capturing culture, sports and education within the Bay Area. She's self-published 5 young adult novels and is a proud daughter of first generation Mexican immigrants, raised in the Central Valley. Find her on Nataliereports.org
