OAKLAND — Bip Roberts couldn’t stop smiling.
For nearly eight hours, the 12-year MLB second baseman and Skyline alumni shook hands, greeted old friends and took pictures with young fans at Raimondi Park – home of the Oakland Ballers – where Oakland’s top teams competed in the inaugural Bip Roberts Classic.
Oakland’s best baseball schools such as Bishop O’Dowd, Oakland Tech and Oakland High competed in the showcase along with Berkeley High, St. Mary’s-Berkeley, Mt. Diablo, Moreau Catholic and El Cerrito. Oakland Ballers assistant coach James Harris along with the Oakland Unified School District put on the event to honor Roberts’ legacy as an Oakland baseball player.
“It’s an honor,” Roberts told the Bay Area News Group on Saturday. “When James Harris called me and said they wanted to put my name on it, I was just thrilled, man, because so many other guys have played here in Oakland and gone off to success.
“For him to say, ‘Hey, man, we know you’re in the community and that you will show up,’ I thought that was just something where I could really just say, ‘Hey, you know what? I have made a difference in my community, and people are starting to notice that.’”
Roberts watched each of Saturday’s four games right behind home plate and gave words of encouragement to each team.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” O’Dowd coach Brian Mouton said about the showcase. “’I’m born and raised in Oakland. My son played here in Oakland’s Babe Ruth League and everything like that.
“It’s funny how right at this time, the A’s that would be playing, and people would be excited about the A’s and Major League Baseball, but this is filling that void. And it seems like we haven’t missed a beat.”
Roberts’ significance to the community didn’t go unnoticed by the players on the field – all of whom weren’t even born to watch him play. O’Dowd star and Stanford commit Rashad Hayes said he has peeped Roberts’ highlights more than once on YouTube.
“Growing up playing at Greenman Field, you hear a lot about Bip Roberts and all the legends that came through Oakland,” Hayes said. “I just think it’s a special experience being able to play here at the Ballers Park at an event like this with other great schools. So, I think it’s pretty cool.”
The Oakland Athletic League isn’t the powerhouse it once was when schools like Tech and McClymonds churned out MLB stars such as Rickey Henderson and Frank Robinson. Only four of the six OAL schools are slated to have baseball teams this season, and the ones that are playing, are not at the level as other top programs in the East Bay.
For Roberts, the goal is to make this showcase a fixture for Oakland High Schools and to draw more interest for kids to play baseball in The Town.
“I just want to leave a legacy that Bip Roberts didn’t forget his roots and that he always came back to the community to see how he could help,” he said. “The Bip Roberts Classic was just something that came to fruition from being in the community, being around coaching in high schools and just people knowing that I am a part of this community. We’re going to continue this classic because we want all of our players to go away, but never forget their roots.”
O’DOWD BUILDS EARLY LEAD AND DOESN’T LOOK BACK
In Saturday night’s premier matchup, O’Dowd left no doubt.
The Dragons put up a six spot in the first inning behind back-to-back home runs from Jack Mullen and Sebastian Ultreras. O’Dowd would go on to win 13-6 to notch its fifth win of the season.
Mullen’s three-run shot sailed far past Tech’s left fielder to give the Dragons a 5-0 lead. In the next at-bat, blasted a solo homer in the same exact spot over the left field fence.
“We basically talked about how this was going to be a bigger game than we thought with it being between two Oakland schools,” Mouton said. “We put more incentive into starting off early.”
SHORT-HANDED BERKELEY OVERCOMES EARLY DEFICIT
For a moment, a winless St. Mary’s-Berkeley team looked to be on track to notch its first win of the season, and who better to do it against than a school just miles away from its campus.
The Panthers led by three runs after the top of the third inning as Berkeley High’s offense got off to a cold start.
But the Yellow Jackets prevailed, even with more than half its players missing from its roster.
Berkeley scored four runs in the fourth inning and a run in the fifth to defeat St. Mary’s 6-3.
“We came in really understaffed. It’s our senior prom and we only had 10 guys out here,” Berkeley coach Matt Cords said. “Those guys rallied themselves. I’d love to say that I took credit and got them all together, but they rallied themselves and got their energy right. They just played really, really well as a team, and I think as they mature the better we’re gonna play.”
OAKLAND BASKETBALL STANDOUT MAKES DEBUT ON FIELD
Couraji West is typically known for putting a ball in the basket, but on Saturday, he was just as good at the plate.
The Oakland basketball standout played his first game of the season, starting at second base for the Wildcats. He walked twice, had a three-run RBI double, stole two bases and made plays on defense to lead Oakland to a 12-2 win over Mt. Diablo.
“I’m just shocked that I’m not as rusty,” West said. “I guess it’s just muscle memory.”
MOREAU CATHOLIC NOTCHES KEY WIN
El Cerrito came into Saturday’s showcase as one of the rising teams in the East Bay. The Gauchos were fresh off a three-game winning streak that included wins over Piedmont, Berkeley and Justin-Sienna.
But in a hard-fought battle, Moreau Catholic defeated El Cerrito 3-1 as the Mariners captured their first signature win of the season.
Moreau senior Aiden Perry was excellent on the mound, striking out eight, giving up four hits and allowing just one earned run over six innings to lead the Mariners to a win.
