I'm writing a book. It's about Oakland. I usually work on it early in the morning, at night, in whatever pockets of time I can squirrel away from my three year old. It's always hard yanking myself out of the draft. Depending how long I'm away, it's even harder re-immersing myself in it. 🧵

Also went digging through some old Oakland Tribune archives. The people in the history room at @oaklibrary.bsky.social are maybe the kindest people on earth.

Logged 2k words today 💪

Hey this is what my book is about

Reeeeeeeeally excited for this

Pros may have left, but the tough and the plucky remain. Side note: Oakland is also home to California’s only dedicated curling ice.

I’m so excited to finally share this: I’m writing a book! It’s about Oakland—its rise as a great American sports town, its fall to the billionaires who abandoned it, and, most of all, the fans and activists and founders who fought to hold onto this aspect of the city’s identity and soul.

Oakland lost every single one of its big league sports teams. So a pair of fans built Oakland an independent pro team of its own. Now the @oaklandballers.bsky.social are competing for the Pioneer League World Series before sell-out crowds. Coolest story in sports.

Apropos of nothing, I wrote about the historic endurance of Browns fans. #DawgPound www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...

For my first story in @espn.com, I profiled the #DawgPound. It’s a story about Cleveland, the Browns, community in the Muni Lot, and what the most loyal fan base in sports is ultimately loyal to. www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/...

God Bless @brianphillips.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2025/08/20/p...

Finished The Pacific Circuit by @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social. So very good. Infuriates, illuminates, & captures Oakland's centrality to other larger infuriating stories all at same time. Elegantly synthesizes a shit ton of research / reporting. Weaves a good yarn. My pages runneth over w/ notes. 👏

New from me at BP: An essay about the ecology of baseball stadiums, which stand as beautiful lifeless monuments to an era of urban command over nature, one that is quickly dying out. On ballparks, parks, and the growing divide between the two:

🤯🤯🤯 WHAT!

I'm one of the casual basketball-watchers @redford.bsky.social refers to here and I thoroughly enjoyed + genuinely appreciated this smart / sharp take on how to watch basketball in a smarter / sharper way. Perfect timing for watching the Warriors slowly disassemble. defector.com/how-to-watch...

Check out this week's SLR featuring @chameauleon.bsky.social, @danmoore.bsky.social, @livaaben.bsky.social, @chafkin.bsky.social, @flopuetz.bsky.social, @skornhaber.bsky.social & many more talented writers mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

Get comfy and read this one. Dan writes about Sacramento with the consideration, depth, and honesty it deserves.

I spent the last few months reporting on the strangest story in sports: the surreal, high-stakes experiment of the "Sacramento" A's. It’s a story about rootedness, compromise, & the competition for big-league status. It's out now in the @theringer.com.web.brid.gy theringer.com/2025/04/22/m...

I look forward to every @hannahrkeyser.bsky.social dispatch and this one is top notch 👌

Bravo @stevengoldman.bsky.social + @baseballprospectus.com

Just a really smart and good blog from @brianphillips.bsky.social www.theringer.com/2025/03/11/s...

Played in my high school’s alumni baseball game yesterday. Got a few ABs and some time on the bump. Gave it my all—had to, in front of the boy. Today I’m icing everything. I regret nothing.

The new Jeff Passan deep-dive on the A's and Ray's stadium dysfunction is excellent as usual but I wish it would have included a challenge to this: the idea that billionaire team owners NEED public funding in order to build what turn out to be purely privately valuable stadiums. They don't.

Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin's reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.

I really enjoyed this. I suspect others will as well.

Blogged about Barkley: his decade-long beef w/ Warriors fans + San Francisco, his big donation to Glide, and what appears to be a change of heart—or at least the end of the bit. cc @bradymccollough.bsky.social + @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/02/17/s...

Hey crazy week huh. If you’re looking for a distraction, I spent a few weeks tailing San Francisco’s most terrifying mountain biker and learning all about the Bay Area’s long and fittingly confounding political battle over mbs in the region. For @sfstandard.com sfstandard.com/2025/01/18/m...

At the final A’s game in Oakland, the most popular jersey in the stands was Rickey Henderson’s. That was not only because Rickey is the greatest Oakland A of all time. It’s because Rickey—who grew up playing ball at Bushrod—represented close to the best of what this place can be. RIP.

Easy decision. @oaklandside.bsky.social reporters are some of the best in the biz. Oakland has no other paper of record. At a time when there's just a mind-spinning amount of shit happening in the city—and no shortage of bad press to unpack/confront—Oaklandside is an actually crucial resource

"San Francisco's entire season has been a rolling feast of gruel and roofing nails." Thank you @rayratto.bsky.social for blessing us with this perfect summation of the 49ers' 2024. defector.com/that-was-jus...

for my first piece at @the-ringer.bsky.social, i wondered why in the hell bill belichick would do this? then i started reading and watching old tape, just like he would've probably. theringer.com/2024/12/12/c...

This is probably fine right

Great great piece by @vinceguerrieri.bsky.social in @defector.bsky.social on the history of the Art Modell law in Ohio. Would have been nice if we had something like this in Oakland! defector.com/how-the-art-...

Oakland in the fall >>

this is fantastic

"Fans have power. We want to show that, together, we are a force to be reckoned with"—@jorgeleon17.bsky.social "More fans need to rise up against these billionaire owners"—@lastdivebar.bsky.social From my story on fan activism in @theringer.com.web.brid.gy www.theringer.com/mlb/2024/4/1...

This is a direct product of A's fans—and an example of how @oakland68sofficial.bsky.social + @lastdivebar.bsky.social l hoped the Sell movement would transcend Oakland.

One of the best pieces I’ve read about #SJSharks’ Macklin Celebrini 👏

😤😤😤

I wrote about Saquon Barkley and his strikingly successful escape from the Giants Institutional Suck Vortex. defector.com/everything-i...

Wrote about Macklin Celebrini, the demands of superstardom, & the future of Bay Area sports for the @sfstandard.com. Turns out, the future’s already here. Featuring convo's w Draymond Green, @brodiebrazil.bsky.social, Randy Hahn, Ryan Warsofsky, & Macklin himself. sfstandard.com/2024/11/25/t...

Wrote about Macklin Celebrini, the demands of superstardom, & the future of Bay Area sports for the @sfstandard.com. Turns out, the future’s already here. Featuring convo's w Draymond Green, @brodiebrazil.bsky.social, Randy Hahn, Ryan Warsofsky, & Macklin himself. sfstandard.com/2024/11/25/t...

Horrible news for the deadline I was on

Nice read from @kevinvnguyen.bsky.social in @sfstandard.com on everyone's favorite evil billionaire who's trying, with admittedly incredible gumption, to extract additional resources from a region he just subjected to the equivalent of a decades' long dental procedure. sfstandard.com/2024/11/20/j...

Patrick is such a damn good writer.

Looking real nice out there, Oakland

My dog fucking loves this toy.

Hi Blue Sky, I've wandered over from Twitter, lost and confused. Where are my sports people at? I write about the relationship between sports and place. Working on a book! Looking for community in a non-toxic setting! Hi! Here's my latest: www.theringer.com/mlb/2024/8/1...

You may have heard Oakland has a new pro baseball team. I spent the last few months following the guys behind it. Here’s the story of how the @OaklandBallers came to be—along w/ what exactly they hope to achieve for Oakland, and how. For @Oaklandside oaklandside.org/2023/11/29/o...

This is back on the @ringer home page this morning. It tells the story of what actually happened in Oakland to the A’s