Meet the Fan-ily: Anthony Alejandrez

“I ended up exactly where I’m supposed to be, doing a job that was meant for nobody but me.”

By Joe Horton

Meet Facilities Manager and Head Groundskeeper Anthony Alejandrez. Like seemingly everyone who works for the Ballers, Anthony works hard. Like, really hard. Also required of this bunch of B’s is a deep care for successes large and small and a love for those with whom he shares the long and difficult hours. He’s a thoughtful guy of quiet confidence and zero ego. His work can be unglamorous and overlooked, but his stewardship of Raimondi’s every aspect is beautiful—and central to the Ballers’ magic.

We talked at the ballpark, next to his favorite garden and rocking chairs, one day shy of his two-year anniversary with the team. We discuss why he chose the B’s over the Clippers, his favorite parts of the park, improvements for the new season, saving cell phones, the fiendish fans of Section D, and José the Rally Goose.

Anthony, how are you?

It's hard to say right now. I'm great at the moment. Nothing truly terrible has happened to me yet, but I'm on high alert right now just because we're dangerously close to Opening Day.

We’re talking today at Raimondi Park, one day before your second anniversary with the team. What brought you here to work for the Ballers?

It's a great story—to me anyway. I got my master's degree at Long Beach State, and I was working for the athletic department there doing facilities work for them, but I was ready for the next challenge, ready to go on a new journey. And this job was on my radar, actually, pretty much from the jump. I was always paying attention to the Oakland Ballers’ story. I just remember thinking it's such a unique fit because Oakland's a major league city but it has the soul of minor league sports in that it's very community-driven. When I thought about it that way, it felt like a perfect fit.

When I saw their hype video announcing that they were going to be playing at Raimondi Park, it spoke to me. I watched that video so many times, and I just remember thinking, I want to manage that place.  I grew up going to watch minor league baseball games. I actually didn't see a major league game in person until I was probably 19 years old. I always wanted to work in minor league baseball.

But kind of making sure that I had everything covered for myself, I was interviewing for other stuff, and I ended up getting another job. I had just been hired by the LA Clippers to work at the Intuit Dome, their new arena that they were building. I was still waiting to hear from the Ballers, so I ended up going in for an orientation. I got my Clippers hard hat, and I'm touring the arena and everything. I have a paycheck from the Clippers for like $100 for the day that I worked for them.

After I leave the Clippers that day, I'm getting ready to head into work at Long Beach State, and on my drive there, Laura called me and says, “Hey, go ahead and come out here.”

Why were you so sure that this job was the one?

This spoke to me right away, long before I was here. This always felt like me.

I'm originally from Northern California, and I had been away for seven years when this opportunity came up. I was really eager to get back up to Northern California. I'm 90 minutes away from my family now and it's great being able to see them. They've been to Opening Day both years. My dad is at two games a week at least. My dad, my mom, and my sister were there to watch us win the championship. It just means so much to me for them to be able to see what I'm doing.

Well before the B’s ever started interviewing me, I already had three tickets for Opening Day, and they weren't for me. They were for my family because they were going to be here to see me working and see the team I was working for. I had my first Ballers hat in January of that year and was wearing it to work at Long Beach State, just trying to will this thing into existence that I was hoping would happen. This always felt right for me.

We’re coming out of the offseason. What does your offseason day look like here at the park? 


It's changed a lot this offseason. The first offseason, it was a lot of general upkeep of the place. Wind and rain doesn't treat this place very well, and we're really fortunate that we miss that during the actual Oakland Ballers season. Then we have our small events: Little League Baseball, the movie nights, and little corporate parties that happen here.

But this offseason was a very new challenge because we decided to bring groundskeeping completely in-house. My only qualification for it is that I raised my hand. So my offseason, I feel like, ended in January as soon as I had a John Deere mower dropped off here. Ever since then, I've been really busy just learning new things and making messes on that field that I'm glad nobody ever had to see because of trial and error things that I was left to learn on my own where I was thinking, I'm gonna have to clean this up before anybody gets here and figure out how to do this right next time.

Do you feel a sense of stewardship of it, Raimondi, or responsibility? The expression is always like, it's your baby?

I definitely feel that way. I feel a big sense of responsibility with just the way this place looks all the time and the experience that the fans get to have here. A lot of my time is spent when I'm not here just trying to think of ways I can make the experience even better, especially since we're so limited on space since it is a city park.  

I think fans appreciate the idea of the Ballers being at this city park and also being a big part of the community. You said you have to keep this up for other events too, right?

Yes—it's really trying to get everything back in order after weather and making it look presentable and also making the field playable, especially since we rent the park out so much more for Little League. McClymonds plays their games here on Fridays. They practice on Wednesdays here. Little League is here probably three days a week, and then we have our Lil’ Ballers camps on Saturdays. There's stuff going on here probably five days a week now, I would say.

Now to Ballers’ gamedays. I mean, anybody who's been here sees you doing a thousand different things. What is an average—if there is such a thing—average gameday for you?

I don't know why this popped into my head just now. I'm just thinking about all the running around I do on these game days, and I had a boss years ago, and a piece of advice he gave me was never let them see you run. Basically, his point was if you are running around on a game day, it makes it look like you were unprepared and there are things you didn't get done that you were supposed to get done. So never let them see you run.

And not only have I let people see me sprint end-to-end of this ballpark while there are fans here, but they've also seen me lying down on the ground, on the tables where we do our giveaways, on the field after the games, because of all the sprinting end-to-end that I've done here. 


So yeah, there’s not really a normal flow to the game day for me just because it's so time-oriented: batting practice is at this time and we need the turtle on the field. Other times we need the ground covered. When it was facilities work and managing the event staff that were here, it was very time oriented as well, but it was so many different things that it was just here's my list of all the things I do every game day.

Last year, I would probably get here around 9am on a game day and I would update those standings boards every morning, and then I would go unlock the restroom so that Gus Gonzalez and his guys could clean in there. And then a lot of concourse cleanup.

Then I have what I call sanity tasks, where I make a list of things that I do that will make me feel good and will help me keep my sanity, where I can just have some peace and quiet and do something that'll make me feel good.

And yes, this year, I will still be the person that rescues all the lost phones underneath the stands.

I want to get that whole story. I'm not volunteering you for any more of this, but just so people know how difficult it is and that they shouldn't do it if they can help it. So: somebody loses a phone, what happens?

So right away, one of the first things I did when I started working here was walked around underneath the stands. I thought: this is a magnet for hitting your head. So let me hit my head. Don't let the ushers hit their heads. The kids are gonna hit their heads. Let me do it.

What are strange things that you've been asked to go and get?

It's mostly phones. It's a lot of AirPods. You know, teddy bears, things like that. And we tried to make a rule last year that during games we would only pick up items that felt absolutely essential for you to safely make it home after leaving a Ballers game. So it was phones, keys, wallets, but it's so hard to hold that up because then when a kid's crying that he lost his teddy bear, I'm like, well, I'm not going to be the one to tell the kid he can't have his teddy bear back.

I do draw the line usually at baseballs just because so many kids lose baseballs, but I do try to find them a batting practice baseball so that rather than go underneath the stands, I can just walk into the dugout and grab one real quick and not hit my head again.

On that note, when you go to another stadium or ballpark of any level, what are things that you're looking at that the average person might not be looking at?

When I'm at minor league ballparks, they're not in the exact same situation as us, but it’s similar in that they might be a little limited on space, so they're sometimes lacking in character in some ways. They have to do similar things and be creative to make themselves unique and make it more than just a place to watch baseball. And it was actually a major league park that gave me the idea for having rocking chairs here. In 2024, I went to the MLB All-Star game in Arlington, Texas, and they have a whole section on the top deck that is just rocking chairs. I remember coming back and thinking, it'd be neat if we had green and yellow rocking chairs here with our colors and our logo on them. Hopefully, one day we’ll have a whole deck of rocking chairs here.

What is something or some things that the average fan wouldn't notice about the park that you think are neat or that you put a lot of time and effort into? 


It's hard to think too far beyond the plants and the rocking chairs. It's my favorite thing here. The field itself, I take pride in it looking great, but as a fan, you go to a baseball game and you expect the field to look great. The only time they're really going to notice it is if it doesn't look great, and I don't want that. Out here, I like being able to do something that makes me happy, but I also know that people like to have something to look at in a park, and it's a nice, peaceful, relaxing place where you can hang out and eat your food before you go watch the game. Or during the game, if you're taking a break and you go get some merchandise, you can take a look at the plants and have a seat.

What should fans look forward to that's new at the park this season?

I do think that the premium section is gonna be really cool. I think that any fan who gets to experience a game from right there at field level who hasn't done it before at a baseball game—it changes the way you see the game.

On top of that, it's a different world with our baseball team. I think a lot of times fans see athletes as not approachable people. I think our fans were already very surprised at the difference coming to a Ballers game. Not only are they going to be on the field watching the game, but they're probably going to be interacting with our players who are just great personalities and really nice guys.

Best and worst parts of your job?

When I do hit my head, when I go underneath the stands to collect lost items, that's definitely worst. Full beer cans do not feel good when they hit your head, even when they have the cool designs on the Almanac beer cans; you would think that would land a different way with me where I'm like, eh, at least that's cool…but no, it doesn't feel good and it does always happen on the worst days here. 


Last year, I ran a half-marathon the morning of one of our games, and then I was tired when I came into work, and I remember just feeling kind of spacey. Well before the game even started—fans had not been in the building very long—and I remember thinking, how could somebody have already dropped a phone? A gate just opened. That was the first thing they did when they came here was go walk up to Section D—and it's always section D, Section D is for Drop Zone—and when I went to grab his phone and stand back up I hit my head really hard. And I had to explain to my ushers that I did not have a concussion. I was just really tired, and I was already acting like that.

The best part has been some of the people that I have met since I've been here that are some of the best people I've ever known. 
The kind of people that made me question how I existed without some of them for so long before that. And the kind of people that make me ask the question of where I would be right now if I didn't have them in my life. And it's a question that I by no means want the answer to.

First and foremost, Laura Geist is my best friend in the world. Absolutely top of the list when I refer to people that I just wonder how I existed all these years without them in my life. Laura means the world to me. Don't know what I would do without her.

Another behind-the-scenes hero is Tamia Braggs. She was my staff lead for the first two seasons and really was the person that got rid of some of the headaches, helped me keep my sanity, and took a bunch of things off my plate. It was a huge help having her here the first two years and another lifelong friendship has come out of it. I think the world of her and appreciate everything she did here, and I'm super proud of her and all the things she's done. She is now an assistant coach at Southern Utah University for their women's basketball team and is their director of operations. And every chance I get, I go see them play and I'm proud to see her doing her thing.

And her best friend, Brianna Baker-Bruce, worked here the first couple years as well. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have her around sometimes this season, but she has full-time work now. So we may not see as much of her, but she’s another person that just helped me get through my days, and as much as I love it here, it's not always easy to get through some really long, difficult days.

These three people mean the world to me, I love them to death, and I would do anything for them. I just want to make sure that if I get a chance to talk about anything I do here, I want to make sure that I say my thanks to them for everything that they've done for me.

Last question. Our mascot is Scrappy the Rally Possum, named for the resident possums of the Coliseum.  We've already published articles about the neighborhood cats who are here at Raimondi. Are there any other animal visitors to our fair stadium that you can let us know about?

Did anybody ask you to ask me this question?

No.

Okay, because there's an amazing story for you that I have.

Late in the season, we have a large goose population that shows up. Since we are often an active construction site, there are some dangerous places for geese here. Currently, behind the left field wall, there are some holes in the ground that were meant for fence posts. Well, I went back to turn on the water one day, and I found a goose in there. I could hear him struggling. 
He couldn't get out. It was too deep, and I'm seeing him flapping his wings, so I scooped him out of there, and he’d hurt his wing pretty badly from trying to force his way out. So he wasn't flying for a while, and he was kind of following me around while I was working. I have a picture with him right next to me.

And for a few weeks, we spent some time together. I got emotionally invested in this goose's life. One day, I don't see him. Then I have to go water these trees on Campbell Street, and I see him over there still just walking around. Then later that day, I'm driving home, and I look down 18th Street, and he is standing in the street by Prescott Market. And I go, oh, this is terrible. I parked my car and people are honking at him because he's in the street, like right in the way of the cars, and they're expecting him to be able to fly away and it's not happening. These people have no idea I’m emotionally invested in this. I'm like, “Leave him alone! He can't fly!” And I was going out of town the next day. So I go home and I pack my stuff, and when I'm getting ready to leave, I end up driving by the park, and he's right by the left field gate. Oh my goodness, he made it back. I parked my car, I start kind of guiding him back toward the gate and I get him back in the park. He lived here maybe another week-and-a-half or so, and then he flew away.

Did you give him a name?

Oh, I named him. This is José the Rally Goose.

Check out Anthony’s Instagram, the definitive vibe of the park beyond nine innings.

Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.