SF Giants, Sacramento fans try to make sense of A’s stadium juggle as Manfred lauds ballpark progress

WEST SACRAMENTO — Buster Posey made an unannounced appearance Saturday afternoon on the third stop of the Giants’ FanFest tour, but the catcher-turned-chief baseball officer wasn’t the highest-profile guest to visit the home of their Triple-A affiliate this week.

Taking cover from an unrelenting drizzle under a large outdoor tent in Sutter Health Park’s right field pavilion, the surprise question-and-answer session was as much a celebrity encounter for the fans on hand as it was a peek behind the curtain of a new front office. Hundreds packed the tent, dozens held up their phones, all rapped by each word out of the mouth of the beloved three-time world champion, sporting his new executive uniform — a gray bomber, orange T-shirt and skinny jeans.

Three days earlier, the commissioner of Major League Baseball donned a construction jacket over a suit and tie and surveyed the same plot of land with a more intimate audience. A small group of A’s and Sacramento officials hosted Rob Manfred at the ballpark Wednesday, with the commissioner commending the “great job” they have done “making changes necessary to host major-league games,” in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Starting March 28, one of the major-league A’s and Triple-A River Cats will be playing in the 14,000-seat stadium on 154 of the next 184 days. With two months to go until Opening Day, the teams’ awkward roommate situation is already impossible to ignore. Three years at the ballpark stand between the A’s and their ultimate plan of opening a new $1.75 billion stadium in Las Vegas.

“It’s crazy,” Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos said, staring out from a second-level suite overlooking the field he treaded for parts of two seasons. The grass had been torn up. A John Deere tractor was positioned in left field. The scoreboard, the batter’s eye and parts of the outfield wall were missing.

“I thought it was going to be pretty much (done), but not even close. They’d better be close. The season’s about to start soon.”

As part of the A’s three-year residency in the ballpark the River Cats have called home since 2000, millions of dollars are being poured into renovations to bring the seating, suites, lighting, bullpens, batting cages, dugouts and clubhouses up to MLB standard. In addition to Manfred’s public confidence, sources who weren’t authorized to speak publicly also said all the work was right on schedule.

Ramos was one of four current Giants whisked from station to station, taking photos and signing autographs along with Logan Webb, Grant McCray and Tyler Fitzgerald — all of whom called Sacramento home at one point.

Despite the potential disruption, each was excited about the prospect of MLB coming to the city — and the upgrades coming to the park. (The Giants play the A’s at Sutter Health Park over Independence Day weekend.)

“I think it’s gonna be great,” said McCray, an outfielder, who breathed a sigh of relief when he learned the plans for artificial turf had been ditched for real grass. “I’m just excited to see this place during the season. It’s looking good so far. I want to hopefully get a chance to look inside the locker room.”

“I’ve never seen a park when it’s at this stage, so that’s pretty cool … it’s hard to believe it’s going to be ready,” added Fitzgerald, who complained about the glare off the old batter’s eye in the early innings. “I really enjoyed my time playing here and enjoyed the city. … It’s cool and it’s exciting. It’s great for the city.”

Besides the mounds of dirt and heavy machinery, the only sign of the A’s presence in their temporary home exists in two small sections of merchandise in the official team store. Plucking out a green-and-gray number from a selection of a dozen or so caps, Mary Bammel, of Carmichael, said she hopes the team makes a bigger imprint over the next three years.

“If you drive around the city, we have tons of Kings murals,” she said. “I think the more that they pump it up, I think there will be more excitement for the city. And maybe we can keep them. I know I’m dreaming, but it would be awesome to see more enthusiasm around it.”

With limited capacity, tickets are in high demand. The A’s announced that season packages sold out almost instantly, while limited single-game tickets went on sale Friday with seated tickets starting at $54 for a midweek game ($37 for the lawn).

Will that interest translate into new fans, who might have rooted on the River Cats — and therefore the Giants — but will now switch major-league allegiances to the vagabond A’s? Or maybe they already exist.

“I would assume there’s going to be a lot of A’s fans,” McCray said, “you know, people that are River Cats and A’s fans. It’s all part of the (wider) Bay Area.”

Either way, Ramos said, “you’re bringing a big-league team out here, so they’re going to have fun.”

Bammel, a lifelong A’s fan who married into a Giants family and regularly attends River Cats games, said friends have told her the A’s move has piqued their interest. But while Quinn Carter, of Lodi, was eyeing some A’s merchandise, he left empty-handed.

“It’s up in the air right now,” he said of his fandom. “They’ve been in Oakland for so long and now they’re moving to Sac, so it’s even closer. So, who knows?”