Enter the Oakland Ballers, a team founded by a pair of Oaklanders who vowed to make something radically different from the succession of clubs that had abandoned the city in recent years.
Residents - fans - came to the rescue. Responding to a public plea for help, dozens of volunteers flocked to an industrial district in West Oakland to spend their weekend hammering and sweeping, practically willing the team and its park over the finish line.
"This was literally built by Oakland," Freedman said, walking through the converted warehouse that now serves as team headquarters across from the field.
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