As any Bay Area baseball fan knows, the Oakland Athletics (now known simply as the A's) are in the process of relocating to Las Vegas. While their permanent Vegas stadium is being built, the team is playing their home games in West Sacramento, from 2025 through 2027. They are borrowing the River Cat's minor league field.

I am not a huge fan of Facebook but without it I would not have found this screaming deal... Tickets, in pretty decent seats, for $8 each. I bought them for the first day game that fit in our schedule. Both boys were in, too.

I was giddy to see a Major League game in a minor league stadium. I had to know more about the difference to be fully impressed with our good fortune.

While the internal diamond rules are exactly the same for both, the fields differ drastically in stadium capacity, outfield dimensions, lighting quality, and overall fan amenities (though I didn't notice this difference at all).

There certainly is a size/capacity difference. Major League fields are massive, multi-tiered structures designed to hold 30,000 to 50,000+ fans. Minor League ballparks are definitely more intimate, often holding between 5,000 and 10,000 spectators, bringing the crowd much closer to the field. Also, here at the A's game there wasn't the strict "stay in your own section" patrolling. We enjoyed wandering.

There was also a sense of relaxed fun. I thoroughly enjoyed this cameraman's shirt, "School is important but baseball is importanter!"

How cute is Stomper, the official mascot of the Athletics? He is a 6-foot-6-inch anthropomorphic elephant who wears jersey number 00. He made his debut in 1997, and remains a fixture of the team.

But why an elephant? Turns out, the team's association with elephants dates back to 1902 when they were based in Philadelphia. New York Giants manager John McGraw insulted the Athletics by calling them a "white elephant". In response, A's manager Connie Mack defiantly adopted the elephant as the team's symbol... And it still is 124 years later.

Okay, this had us all really laughing. The A's Big Head Race (officially the Hall of Famer Big Head Race) is a beloved in-game entertainment tradition where oversized, caricatured versions of Oakland Athletics legends race against each other. Debuting in 2013, it has become a staple of the team's home game.