Oakland Ballers vs. Rocky Mountain Vibes, featuring Jwalt and DJ Toure
Raimondi Park
1689 20th Street, Oakland
July 12, 2025
It was a beautiful day in Scrappy Town. The sun was shining in the blue sky, but the temperature was thirty degrees cooler than West Sacramento.
Fortunately for Oakland Ballers fans, Scrappy Town is in temperate West Oakland. It’s next to the playground behind right field, inside Raimondi Park. It’s also where the Ballers were hosting a block party fan appreciation event before a recent game against the Rocky Mountain Vibes.
Justin Carter Walton, AKA Jwalt, is a part owner of the team, and wrote their anthem, “Ballers Ballad.” The event was also a release party for his new album, “Every Version of Me.” Before performing, the Oakland-raised NYU grad reminisced about going to professional sports events during his childhood.
“It’s special,” he said about performing for Ballers fans. “I’m always down to support people who want to be here in Oakland.”
The day was marketed as a tribute to community heroes: “Oakland Stands Up,” put on in partnership with the Black Panther Alumni Legacy Network and the Bay Area Association of Black Social Workers. Both organizations had informational booths about local resources, the history of the national pastime in Oakland, and the legacy of Black baseball players from the past and present.
The Ballers’ story is simultaneously one of entrepreneurial vision, community collaboration, and protest against a right-wing billionaire. It’s hella Oakland, an organized response to the departure of a championship franchise that left East Oakland for East Yolo County.
A group of local baseball fans rallied to create a brand new team that became part of the professional Pioneer Baseball League’s expansion into California last year. On an incredibly short time-line, a $1.6 million privately-funded revitalization plan transformed what was yet another neglected city park into a professional facility in time for the team’s inaugural season in 2024.
There are eleven ballparks in the Pioneer League, and then there’s historic Raimondi Park. Combined with the brand new Prescott Market across Campbell Street, the former light industrial neighborhood along 880 has been completely transformed.
The Ballers have built their brand on a commitment to actually nurturing its roots in the community, and this block party was just one example. The first 500 fans received a free seat cushion, there were some very nice food and drink discounts, and DJ Toure entertained the crowd with hip-hop classics.
Then Jwalt took the mic.
He performed a couple bangers, but his style is more downtempo soulful grooves with mature lyricism. His beats are irrefutably East Bay, but his words evoke an old school east coast sensibility.
Walton began writing poetry when he was eight years old. He started rapping at eleven. At eighteen, he published a novel, Ahmad’s Song, opened up for Nas and Wu-Tang at the Oakland arena, and SF Gate wondered if he was “Oakland’s next hip hop star.” He has also appeared on “Sway in the Morning,” and his music has been played on ESPN.
He led off his album release set with “Love Myself,” an introspective piece featuring airy piano chords flirtatiously prancing over a funky drum groove.
A lot of heads were nodding. The crowd was multi-generational, as were the people who knew the lyrics to his songs.
Scrappy, the Ballers’ opossum mascot, joined in as Jwalt’s hype man and backup dancer for the last few songs.
Then, Jwalt brought up a young fan in a Raiders jersey named Avery, who closed out the show with her own original song about Scrappy.
The crowd created content and cheered.
Jwalt performed two final songs on the field (including “Ballers Ballad”) before trumpeter David Harris played “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and the “Star-Bangled Banner.”
The team debuted a Black power fist themed jersey as part of the celebration of community heroes, and Black Panther Party trivia was shared throughout the game. The stands were packed, and the late afternoon winds were neighborly.
Playing a scrappy brand of ball that relied on contact hitting and aggressive baserunning, the Ballers won the game 9-3, and maintained first place in the twelve-team Pioneer League.
